Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort
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About
Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort is located on 22 acres on the widest stretch of Waikiki Beach. Five swimming pools including the 10,000 square foot Super Pool. The resort offers a variety of restaurants and shops. Daily cultural activities include lei making and hula lessons. Morning exercise includes yoga and aerobics. The full-service Mandara Spa is open daily, access to the fitness center is complimentary.
Water activities include on-site surfing lessons, snorkeling, stand-up paddle board, kayaking and catamaran sailing from our Port Hilton.
Five towers on the tropical landscaped grounds feature a variety of guest rooms and suites offering stunning resort or oceanfront views. The Ali'i has its own private pool terrace and fitness center. The resort offers 150,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space, a U.S. Post Office and business center.
Hilton Hawaiian Village is a non-smoking resort.
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The resort has everything you need, shopping, restaurants, decent beach, beach rentals and lots and lots of people.
The lagoon and sheltered beach are good for kids and those who can't or don't want to really swim or snorkel. No surf to speak of. If you want paddle board or use other equipment you can rent it and use it in the lagoon, but if you want to get out in the actual ocean you need to rent from the hotel next door, for about half the price.
Nothing at Hilton Village is cheap. All food and drinks are $15 each and up from there. Lounge chairs and Umbrellas at $35 each, but use your Hilton Honors and guest discount to get 10-15% off because the chairs and umbrella greatly increase beach enjoyment.
Tropics restaurant became our starting point for most days as we had a large group on vacation and that was our staging area. They have good food, good service and some of the staff have been there for many years.
This is not a budget location, so as long as you know that going in, enjoy yourself, the Hilton does take care its customers.
We did have one enormous ugh. We were checking out of the Grand Islander and it is a timeshare, check out is at 10 by the way. We got to the elevator at 945 thinking we had time. We were on the 18th floor. We waited with two other couples for an elevator with enough room for us, for over an hour! For reals. After an hour of countless full to the very edge elevators stopping and continuing we decided to jump on the next one going up, so after an hour and a half, we got on an elevator that was going up. We rode up to the 33rd floor, collecting additional equally frustrated riders. On the way back down the elevator stopped at nearly every floor, to expose our stuffed elevator to each floor, it was almost comical, as the door opened and those waiting had to say.. uh nope!
So the lesson is, check out earlier! Especially if you are in the timeshare area and all 3 or 400 hundred people are trying to leave at the same time... That was seriously our only problem. The rest of the stay went very well.
On the good side of things, there are many delicious & reasonably priced restaurants on the property & within walking distance (1-2 blocks) from the property. The beach & lagoon are gorgeous with white sand & crystal clear blue water, however if you want the use of a lounger chair on the beach, be prepared to spend $16 USD PP. Lots of lounges & bars on site for some nightly adult relaxation & entertainment & several pools in the courtyard for all to enjoy all day long.
Overall, we were disappointed in the room & cost of everything & having stayed at many Hilton brand hotels throughout our business & pleasure globe trotting I expected more from the Hilton. This personal impression may have been amplified on our part as we normally do not spend much time in our rooms & would be spending it sightseeing or relaxing on the beach or by the pool, however it was unusually raining in Honolulu for over half of our stay, so we would up spending more time in the room then what we normally would.
Best wishes!
This Hilton is well located right on a very large stretch of Waikiki beach. Lots of activities are accessible from the beach and hotel... all at a cost.
We didn’t spend New Year’s Eve at the hotel as it seemed to cater more towards families with young children.
There were many food options including an ABC Store on-site to grab cheap breakfast or Poke. We enjoyed sunset drinks every evening at restaurant by the beach.
The only annoyance is the resort fee of $50 daily which you get virtually nothing for.
Despite the age and history of the hotel it is well maintained and overall it met our expectations for a Hilton and exceeded our expectations in service!
During the pandemic, housekeeping is optional and they won’t come unless you call a day in advance. I get that and I agree with that decision. However when you call them, nobody answered the phone and the line was always busy. It’s very frustrating.
And another major issue was the pool. The water was freezing and it’s not enjoyable! The super pool which is their biggest pool was always empty. Most guests would rather swim at the beach where the water was actually warmer than the pool.
Taking elevator was a nightmare. Usually there was a long line for the elevator. Somehow they use this stupid system where you have to enter your floor outside before you go in to the elevator. And the stupid system will assign which elevator to take. It’s a total chaos and wouldn’t work during the pandemic because each of these tiny elevators can only fits 1 family.
We also very disappointed at the hotel room. We stayed at the rainbow tower oceanfront. Yes the view was very nice, however everything else was not! The room was outdated, the wallpapers started to peel off, and the bathroom has mold. It’s definitely time to renovate the room.
Overall I’m not happy with this hotel at all. When a hotel charges $50/day resort fee on top of already a very expensive room, I would expect some kind of good service. I most likely won’t stay at this hotel in the future.
Then the negatives:
* the check in process takes forever! Yes it is peak holiday season, but even so, waiting 45 minutes to check in is way too long. Also, there were so many opportunities to make that wait more pleasant. Why not have a Hawaiian band playing music, offer guests a cocktail to sip whilst they are waiting, have some cultural demonstrations etc? Anything would be more pleasant than 100 jet-lagged people waiting in the slowest queue in the world with nothing to do except watch the seconds tick by and feel resentment towards Hilton!
* the rooms are dated, small and lack all except the most basic amenities. Similar in look and feel to what you’d expect at an average motel, or maybe worse. Adjust your expectations accordingly!
* the lagoon is a big disappointment. The ‘sand’ feels like crushed cement, and umbrellas, lounge chairs and all water equipment is for hire only. Umbrellas were around $35/day and lounge chairs approx. $16. So by the time you’ve hired chairs and an umbrella, and maybe tried out a paddle board or kayak you’ve spent well over $100.
And of course everything within the village complex is expensive, but so is the rest of Waikiki and it’s no use complaining about prices in the middle of a tourist area. Just accept that is going to be the case and plan accordingly.
So, great location and a good selection of quality (but expensive) restaurants, bars and shops. Just don’t expect anything special of your room, do expect a long and frustrating check in process, and expect to be bled dry at every turn!
Arrival went ok, didn’t have to wait long, if you check in online you get to use the diamond member line which moves pretty fast. We picked out a room online which was great since they let us pick a room on a higher floor but that didn’t turn out well as that particular room had a king instead of two beds we had reserved and which the online app didn’t warn us about, which for a party of five wasn’t great.
I went back to the front desk to figure things out, I had to stand in the middle line which is for honor members, not Diamond. That took 20 minutes. Mostly because folks in the non diamond lines saw how fast the diamond line was moving and moved over there as that line was served first, which I have to wonder why the staff never really seemed to pick up on that. I would have had to wait longer if it hadn’t been for someone in the diamond line ( who had been two spots behind me in the silver line previously) let me go ahead of them. Staff was helpful, offered to move us to another room or bring in some beds for the kids which we eventually chose to do. The beds arrived right when I got back to the room which was helpful.
Our room in the Tapa tower was gorgeous and looked to have been recently renovated. Could not have been happier.
Staff elsewhere were super helpful and on the ball. I’ve seen comments about non guests sneaking in to use the pools, on our stay I saw folks sneak in and get caught pretty fast and removed in a very professional manner. Given the pools for the size of the hotel seem to be somewhat undersized making sure only guests of the hotel are using them seemed like a good strategy.
The hotel was well situated, we were in close walking distance to the main tourist areas but far enough away as well. The beach in front of the hotel was not as crowded as beaches are closer to Waikiki which was nice.
On our last day our reservation for breakfast was running late and I was worried about making it back for checkout in time, I was able to arrange for a small extension on our checkout time via text which greatly reduced our stress level which was awesome.
Generally speaking this trip far exceeded our expectations, every minor annoyance and problem was dealt with by staff adequately which for hotel this size is pretty impressive, and generally felt the staff was trying to make our stay enjoyable which they succeeded.
Pros: lots of pools, easy access to the beach and restaurants, lots of activities, great for families, friendly staff, housekeeping was available, checking in went smoothly, loved the village shops, Rocky Teppanyaki is a must eat, and the grounds all around the resort were gorgeous.
Cons: pools were always super crowded, pool slides were only open one at a time, room bathrooms were a bit tired, water heater in shower didn’t work sometimes, lines for everything (45 minute line for Starbucks at 6:00 in the morning!).
Overall, I would recommend this resort if you are prepared to wait in lines and are ok with there being people everywhere. We used Hilton honors points to book our stay so it was well worth it (only 60k a night!), but for rates of $350 per night plus resort fee and $50 parking, this resort just isn’t worth it. Limiting the amount of people at the resort, getting more lifeguards, and renovating the rooms and or bathrooms would make this resort one of the best in Honolulu. (Note: we stayed in the Diamond Head Tower).
Tips: A-joining rooms were given to us free of charge, the rainbow tower and lagoon tower seemed to have the best location, paradise pool has water slides but they always have a line, there are long waits at restaurants so make reservations if you can.
If you do go, enjoy!!!!
Negatives: service overall was meh. From the front desk, to the restaurants, to the towel/pool attendants and concierge. One of the concierges at Tapa Tower could not be bothered (Akihi or something like that). He was visibly annoyed with my questions and was trying to sell me something I did not want. Once I made clear that I didn't want to buy anything and I just had some questions, he literally lowered his head and started typing in his computer, as if I was not there. The most friendly people at the entire hotel was the cleaning staff! We had a lovely, super friendly cleaning lady. The rooms are OUTDATED!!! Carpet is ripping, wallpaper is pealing off the walls. The shower took forever to warm up! The beds were old, the mattresses were uncomfortable. Let's not even mention the sofa bed mattress. Even my 4 year old complained of how bad it was. There's a daily resort charge which is supposed to cover the WiFi. Well, the WiFi is awful! It was much faster to run on data then on their WiFi. It's also limited to 4 connections per room. The rooms have no microwave and the fridge is smaller than a standard hotel fridge. The elevators are outdated as well. Bathrooms by the pool/beach area are hard to find (better signs are needed). I will NEVER stay there again.
There is quite a bit to do at the resort, but it all comes at a price. The resort fee gets you a DVD card, for your tower only, and discounts to many of the amenities. For a family with kids, the resort fee is probably a good deaI. I thought many of the sit down restaurants were pricey, even for Honolulu, but the food was good. The breakfast buffet at the rainbow tower was, in my opinion, way over priced for the food served. Places that we did enjoy eating at a more reasonable price included Wiki Wiki Market, Lanikai Juice for smoothies and breakfast, and Lappert's Hawaii for ice cream. The Tropics was a nice place to have an early dinner and watch the sunset. Most of the shopping was upscale, consistent with the Waikiki area.
The resort provides very easy access to the beach and the lagoon was fun to paddle board in. Friday nights are fireworks which are easily viewed from the beach. The most disappointing aspect of the resort is that there are no adult only whirlpools or pools open past 8pm. There are also no laundry facilities for resort guests. There is live entertainment every night, although the music is pretty loud and can easily be hard inside the rooms.
All of the staff we interacted with were very helpful and friendly. Check in and Check out were long waits and one employee told us it was because they were trying to cut costs and not have as many people working. It did appear that at least one tower was having beds and furniture replaced while we were there. Overall though, we enjoyed our stay.
"Parking is $75 a night if you have a car. There is a resort fee of $50 a day. It's a walkable area for malls, shops, and restaurants if you don't mind 15-20 min walks."Read full review
"The Bali Restaurant is closed until December. The Firework's views are from the hotel every Friday after the Luau."Read full review
"The rooms are out dated. I honestly would look elsewhere. We went when the strike was going on which made everything awful. "Read full review
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