Sans Souci, without care in French, is the other name for Kaimana Beach, the quieter, more intimate stretch of Honolulu shoreline at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki where you are now, a spot that has attracted a notably literary and artistic crowd for well over a century. Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish author of 'Treasure Island' and 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,' came to Hawaii in 1889 seeking a climate that might ease the tuberculosis that was slowly killing him. He found the Hawaiian air and people deeply congenial, and he spent months near this beach, befriending Queen Kapi'olani and her court and writing prolifically.
He called this spot Sans Souci and was so charmed by it that he considered staying permanently. A small hotel here bore the name and for a time claimed Mark Twain — who visited Hawaii in 1866 as a correspondent for the Sacramento Union — as a past guest. The natural reef that shelters the water here creates a calm, clear pool that is particularly good for swimming and snorkeling.
This beach was also a traditional landing place for outrigger canoes, and the stone walls of an ancient Hawaiian fishpond are visible at low tide offshore, a reminder that this idyllic spot was a working landscape long before the first literary tourist arrived.