International Market Place Waikiki: Shops, Food and the Banyan

The center lists 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Sunday (International Market Place, March 2026). Restaurants and bars keep their own hours and several run late; they are in the food table below. Our things to do in Waikiki guide and the Waikiki map place the center on the strip; the free things to do list has more that cost nothing.

The land. William Lunalilo, Hawaiʻi’s first elected king, used the grounds as a summer retreat and died of tuberculosis in 1874. Queen Emma inherited them and kept them until her death in 1885 (Honolulu Magazine, 2013). The Queen Emma Land Company is the nonprofit that manages the lands she left to The Queen’s Hospital in 1885 (GoHawaii). In 2013 it said the redeveloped center’s revenue “will directly fund Queen’s operations” (press release).

The first market. It opened in 1957, designed by architect Pete Wimberly and Donn Beach, who “launched America’s tiki craze with his 1934 Don the Beachcomber restaurant.” The layout had villages for Japan, Korea, China and the South Seas around a central bazaar. Don Ho had a regular gig there before he moved to the Hilton Hawaiian Village (Honolulu Magazine).

The rebuild. The market closed at the end of 2013 after 56 years; the new plans kept the name and a few trees, including the banyan (Honolulu Magazine). The new center opened on August 25, 2016. Hawaiʻi Public Radio reported a $500 million project of nearly 350,000 square feet on three levels, with 75 stores and 10 restaurants at opening, only half the shops open that day (HPR).

The tree is an Indian banyan, planted “sometime in the mid-19th century” by New Zealand entrepreneur Harry Macfarlane and his wife (Honolulu Magazine). When the center was rebuilt, general manager Michael Fenley said the team felt it extremely important to protect the tree and not merely keep it, with staff watching it “literally every day,” and the new steel structure winds around it (Hawaii Magazine, 2015).

The treehouse in its branches carries a Don the Beachcomber sign and was turned into “a miniature museum” (HPR). Walk the paths around it for the roots and canopy, or take a table on ShoreFyre’s third-floor lanai, which looks down on the tree (ShoreFyre).

The big tenant is Target, on Levels 1 and 2 in the space Saks Fifth Avenue once held. It had its grand opening on October 27, 2024, has an in-store Starbucks; purchases of $25 or more validate parking (Honolulu Magazine, Oct 25, 2024). Other names include Burberry and the beauty brand Mālie, which lists a boutique here. The center keeps a full store directory online.

For children, the draws are Fantasy Claw Arcade and Cat Café MOFF, both in the hours table above. The shops are the least distinctive part of the visit; the tree, the show and the dining level are the reasons to come.

The restaurants sit on the third floor, which the center calls the Grand Lānai. These five list the Waikīkī location on their own sites as of October 14. Older guides still list Moani Waikiki, which held its final service on June 12 and 13, 2026 (Hoodline). Tenants change, so check the restaurant’s page before a special trip.

STRIPSTEAK is the splurge, ShoreFyre the all-day option, Skybox the kitchen still cooking at midnight. Our Oahu food tour guide covers the rest of the island by area; the walking tour below stays in Waikīkī.

The O Na Lani Sunset Stories hula show is free. The center says it honors the center’s history and sense of place through Hawaiian and Polynesian song and dance. It begins at sunset with the lighting of the Lamaku Torch Tower on Kalākaua Avenue, then moves to the Level 1 Queen’s Court stage, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 p.m. through December 31, 2026 (International Market Place). Our Waikiki sunset guide has sunset spots if you want the sky first. The Royal Hawaiian Center has free hula programming of its own; our free hula shows guide, coming in November, covers it.

For live music, ShoreFyre lists daily performers and a calendar, and the center lists Eating House 1849 on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Wednesday to Saturday from 10 p.m., ShoreFyre becomes a DJ club, Fyre By Night, with free entry on its guest list (ShoreFyre, 2025).

Friday plan: the hula show at 6 p.m., dinner upstairs, then the Friday fireworks off Hilton Hawaiian Village at 7:45 p.m. For December, Honolulu City Lights and the holidays in Waikiki covers the season; the center had not posted 2026 tree or Santa dates on any page we could load, so check its events page in November.

The garage entrance is on Kūhiō Avenue. The $25 validation minimum started September 1, 2023, and any shop or restaurant in the center gives one free hour of validated self-parking, according to Honolulu Magazine, updated May 7, 2025; its Target story repeats the $25 figure in October 2024. Rates after the first hour change, so read the sign at the entrance. For the other lots in Waikīkī, compare them in our Waikiki parking guide.

Kamaʻāina: Cat Café MOFF takes 10% off for military and kamaʻāina. The same Honolulu Magazine guide says STRIPSTEAK and Eating House 1849 give kamaʻāina four hours of validated parking with an entrée; neither lists it on its own page, so ask when you order.

The center is worth an hour for the tree, the show and a meal, and not worth a special trip for the shops alone.

On a wet day, our rainy day Oahu guide sorts indoor options by time of day.