Hawaiida, Daebudo: Tiki Bar at the Edge of the West Sea

Somewhere between Ansan and the open sea, Korea puts on a grass skirt and means it.

The name says it all — 하와이다, which in Korean doubles as a sentence: it’s Hawaii. Whether that’s a statement or a promise depends on how seriously you take a three-story building clad floor to ceiling in thatched palm fronds, sitting directly on the sand at Bangameori Beach on Daebudo Island. Seriously enough, it turns out.

The Building

From the beach approach, Hawaiida reads as an act of total commitment. The exterior is layered with palm thatch across all three levels — overhang after overhang of dried frond, catching light and texture in ways that actual thatch doesn’t in Korea. A turquoise HAWAII sign crowns the roofline. Staircases rise on the exterior in rust-painted steel; a blue OPEN sign stands planted in shadow at the base. Palm trees — a squat date palm, a few taller specimens — push up from the sandy ground beside white-painted stone walls. Whatever this is, it isn’t halfway.

Inside: The Pool Floor

The ground floor is the one that stops people. A shallow indoor pool, lined entirely in cobalt blue mosaic tile, runs the full length of the sea-facing wall. It isn’t a swimming pool — it’s a seating pool, a concept without a clean Western analogue. The edge of the pool becomes a counter, ringed with rattan placemats; the blue pedestal tables are set directly into or beside the water. Frangipani blossoms float on the surface. Submerged lights glow beneath. The floor surrounding the pool runs in a black-and-white chevron tile pattern that somehow holds its own against the blue.

Opposite the pool, a tiki bar anchors the interior — a bamboo-clad structure with its own thatched miniature roof, hung with lei garlands and a nautical life ring, bracketed by cacti, palms, and artificial tropical flowers in primary colors. Repeating HAWAII lettering lines the back wall. A circular mirror is mounted into the bamboo facade. It’s a set within a set, tropical artifice stacked on tropical artifice, and it works precisely because nothing about it pretends to be subtle.

The floor-to-ceiling windows open the sea-facing wall entirely. When the panels are pulled back, the pool ledge extends visually into the beach beyond — blue tile, sand, sea, a distant wind turbine turning slowly on the far shore. The horizon sits low and flat. The blue is continuous.

Upper Floors

The second floor shifts register. Warm wood furniture, terracotta floor tile, rattan pendant lamps of varying silhouettes hang from the raw concrete ceiling. Woven baskets and sunburst mirrors crowd a gallery wall — Balinese market meets island resort lobby. The floor-to-ceiling windows here face the same beach, giving the room an early-evening softness even in bright midday light; the sea changes color depending on cloud cover, ranging from slate to the kind of turquoise that looks edited.

A third floor operates as a no-kids zone — quieter, with the same view and the same thatched overhang casting fringe shadows across the glass. The entrance level reads differently again: sandy-textured pebble flooring, a curved bamboo-wrap counter, tropical plants clustered around a full-length wood-framed mirror. Each layer of the building functions as its own micro-environment.

The Drinks

The signature is the Hawaii Blue Schöpfner — a layered iced drink served in a scalloped goblet of clear glass — the silhouette and scale-like texture suggesting a mermaid’s tail, the liquid inside a deep aquamarine that deepens the illusion — topped with two broad green leaves. It tastes tropical and photographs even more so. Against the blue pool surface and the sea beyond, the color correspondence is deliberate and complete. The Mango Sunrise and Pistachio Cream Latte round out the top three, all priced at ₩8,800. The menu runs toward the tropical: fruit-forward ades and lattes that lean sweet, with occasional seasonal variations.

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Hawaiida is located at 1487-1 Daebuhwanggeumro, Danwon-gu, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do, at Bangameori Beach on Daebudo Island — roughly an hour from central Seoul by car.

Hours are weekdays 10am–8pm and weekends and public holidays 9:30am–8:30pm, open year-round.

Free public parking is available nearby.

The third floor operates as a no-kids zone; the lower floors are family-friendly.

Follow on Instagram at @cafe_hawaiida.

The West Sea, for an afternoon, becomes the Pacific.