Garden buffs holidaying in Hawaii can take themselves on a self-guided tour of one of the Honolulu's most spectacular gardens for free - beachside right in the heart of Waikiki.

Red Ti Leaf bush with wild ginger and ferns in a corner of the gardens.

The colourful enclave is the 5ha (12 acre) grounds of The Royal Hawaiian Hotel, which has produced a Self-Guided Garden Walking Tour booklet for visitors who want to enjoy and know more about Hawaii's spectacular flora... and they don't have to be guests of the Hotel to do so.

The gardens were originally laid-out in 1926 by American architect R.T. Stevens who was commissioned to wrap the hotel within "a tropical paradise." He planted 40 species of local and imported plants and tree ferns, and today this has grown to over 50 varieties of trees, plants and flowers.

The Self-Guided tour begins appropriately enough with a selection of hibiscus, whose yellow form is the official Hawaii State flower. There are also Bleeding Hearts flowers that were imported from West Africa, and red and green Ti Leaf plants that in Hawaii are considered a sign of divine power and good luck and which are used for making hula skirts, for wrapping food that's cooked in underground ovens, and for thatching houses.

Other plants range from colourful tropical orchids and frangipani to the popular cream- and white-flowered Plumeria, and towering coconut palms that recall the days when the grounds on which the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was built was a coconut plantation owned by the-once Hawaiian Royal Family.

Garden lovers can get a free copy of the Self-Guided Garden Walking Tour at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel's Concierge Desk; the distinctive pink-coloured Moroccan-style hotel (dubbed The Pink Palace of the Pacific,) is located at 2259 Kalakaua Avenue, alongside Waikiki Beach.

For information about other holidaying ideas in Hawaii contact the Hawaii Visitor & Convention Bureau's Australian office on (02) 9955 2619, write to Box 425 Milsons Point 1565, or visit