Soaking up Waikiki, surfing to sunsets, for a song

One of the first surf movies ever made - shot, in 1906, by none other than a Thomas Edison camera man - takes place on Waikiki Beach, the famed beachfront neighborhood in Honolulu.

Amazingly enough, what the black-and-white footage captures - surfers gliding across smooth, rolling waves, beachgoers frolicking in sun-warmed waters, the occasional outrigger canoe cruising up to the sand - isn't much different from what you'd see today.

This is all to say that the essential, seductive pleasures of Hawaii are still available to you for a song. Yes, the two-mile stretch of Waikiki's beachfront is now lined with hotels, and the main promenade, Kalakaua Avenue, is largely reminiscent of an outdoor mall.