Ok, here we go with my what will be my on-going Hawaii Trip Report series. It might take awhile to get it done. Today (Memorial Day Monday) my business partner forwarded about 18 work-related e-mails of stuff I need to get going on this week... so it'll be a big splash back into the "real world" for me this coming week and the forseeable future.
As mentioned, I think I am just going to break things down by subject area instead of doing a sequential account of our trip... you'll still get my stories... but hopefully for those planning a Hawaii trip this all might prove to be useful/informative. So this entry is all about... hotels.
We really lucked out on hotels.... it was tough to make a choice among all the possibilities on Oahu and Maui... but we were very pleased with what we ended up with.
For our extended weekend on Waikiki/Honolulu/Oahu, we stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The picture to the left is where we stayed, the Rainbow Tower with that wonderful view of Diamond Head, that you can see here). The Hilton is at the very west end of Waikiki Beach, though technically it is not the Waikiki Beach (several beaches make up the Waikiki "area"). It is a huge piece of real estate and it is enormous... 5 hotel towers, 4 pools, 20+ restaurants and lounges and 50+ shops on the property. We almost felt like we were at a Vegas strip hotel. So with that comes a lot of people as well... at the cultural entertainment and fireworks show on Friday night, we guessed we probably were amongst a group of people larger than all the people we saw in one week's time during last year's trip to French Polynesia! That said, one of the employees of the hotel told us this wasn't even their busiest time (probably in just few more weeks during the traditional summer vacation season).
Needless to say, prices at a resort are up there. For you city folk, some of these prices aren't worthy of a sneeze... but for us, here in Phoenix we can get a pretty big and nice dinner for two at a casual restaurant for about $25 total. Pretty much everything we did food/drink-wise did not stay under $40... mahi-mahi sandwich, burger and two beers (no fries!)... two rounds of Blue Hawaiians, etc. Heck, even not food! While I have no problems laying on a beach for an hour or so, doing it for a whole day is a bit much for my old bones... so you even had to rent a beach chair ($12.50/day) and an umbrella ($25/day).
But the was plenty of good. The hotel had by far the widest beach in the area. You pretty much had your own space (well at least we did) and you can stretch out your arms and not hit another person which was not the case further down the beach (more on that in a future "Beach" report)... and there was all you could possibly need right there. It was also much more quiet (though quiet doesn't really exist in Honolulu) down at this end... and you only needed to walk a mile or so to get to the real hubub of shops and restaurants in the more bustling tourist areas.
In Maui on Kaanapali Beach we stayed at that Embassy Vacation Resort... as noted in the last post, the hotel is dropping the Embassy name... so I not sure if that link will work in the future or what the future name of the hotel is (they noted it around the grounds, but I didn't commit it to memory).
As expected, this was a lot more relaxed than Honolulu... while it was a sizeable hotel you didn't feel the throngs of tourists that you did on Waikiki. This is an all-suite hotel... so the accomodations were spacious... kitchen/dining/living room combo, separate bedroom and huge bathroom. We scored one of the ocean-front corner suites that you see in the picture to the right... so we had three sliding glass doors (1 living room, 2 bedroom) that led to a wrap-around balcony (or lanai as the call it here!).
The hotel had two really great perks... free breakfast buffet each morning and complimentary happy hour in the afternoons.
The buffet was not a "big" Vegas-like spread... but definitely not skimpy... fruits, eggs, potatoes, bacon or sausage, waffles or pancakes, toast, pastries, juices and hot beverages... so needless to say this is something we did every morning before heading out (and it was enough to not worry about finding/eating lunch). So this saved lots of money and time...
... and from 4-6pm each night was the cocktail reception... a selection of tropical drinks (mai tais, margaritas, rum punch), wine or beer, or well drinks... for free!!. Granted the serving size was a small plastic cup, but you can go back as often as you'd like and they were more than happy to serve up as many drink per trip as you'd like. So needless to say you can get a good buzz on a daily basis ( I think we only missed one night). I even got so plastered the last night that I had to force Todd to hold off a couple of hours on dinner until I sobered up a bit! Again, a big money saver as you certainly had your fill of booze that you didn't have to get much (or any!) more $8-10+ umbrella drinks with dinner!
So two thumbs up for the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki and the Embassy on the west coast of Maui!
