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Hawaii Hiltons?
I tried going back a few pages but didn't see anything related to this topic so I'm sorry if this is a question that has been asked before.
Due to the nature of my career, I've racked up some major hotel points and airline miles that are currently just sitting there waiting to be used. I thought a trip to Hawaii would be a nice getaway and am just in the preliminary thinking stages of whether it is even possible.
The Hiltons that I could use hotel points at are:
- Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort
- Hilton Waikiki Beach
- Hilton Waikoloa Village
- DoubleTree by Hilton Alana Waikiki Hotel
Has anyone ever stayed at one of these hotels? Good? Bad? I've read reviews on TripAdvisor and Yelp but I was hoping someone on here had personal experiences as well. DH will really want to go to Pearl Harbour, U.S.S Arizona, and U.S.S Missouri so that is why my initial thought was staying on Oahu but I'm flexible if one of the other Hiltons on another island is better.
Thanks!
It's a dog's life!
Re: Hawaii Hiltons?
I have stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It's a pretty large resort, with many restaurants and shops on the property. The thing I like about the Hawaiian Village is that it's not directly in downtown Waikiki, which is congested and somwhat noisy. I don't know if they'll allow you to book this with points, but aim for the Ali'i Tower. It's the private tower with a doorman, it's own pool, and a happy hour.
Not sure if you are stuck on Hawaii, but Hilton has two amazing properties in Tahiti!
Our wedding on Wilson Island!
I think those are all on Oahu. We have looked into using points in Hawaii before, but none of the Hiltons struck my fancy.
I found the Hilton properties in the Maldives to be an insanely good use of points for a tropical vacation. We booked the first night in an overwater bungalow using cash, then the rest on points. They didn't bother transferring us, so we got the overwater bungalow for the whole stay. It was amazing.
Either Moorea or Bora Bora are on our list to use points as well.
So Tasty, So Yummy
Did you find the Hawaiian Village to be ridiculously crowded? Most of the reviews that I have seen are that it isn't worth staying there because of all the crowds and being overpriced (which I would somewhat normal from my experiences at a resort). I just wasn't sure how bad it really was.
I think right now we're really considering Hawaii over other places like Tahiti or Bora Bora due to DH's vacation schedule. I also have family in Hawaii and DH's company has one of its locations on Oahu so he would probably want to see some of his friends who have been out there.
It's a dog's life!
I've stayed at the Hawaiian Village Waikiki and Waikoloa on the big island. Hawaiian Village is very nice, very large and yes, sometimes very crowded. It has a nice stretch of beach. It's in a good location for walking. And there is a lot to do on Oahu.
Waikoloa is huge, beautiful resort. The pool areas are fantastic.It was a really fun place to take our son because there are boats and trains that take you around the property. However, it's in an isolated location with not much to do. There is no beach there. There are, I think 6-7 restaurants on the property and the prices are crazy. I live on Oahu so I'm used to high prices, but this was even more than I expected. If you go to the big island, you'll definitely want a car.
Our wedding on Wilson Island!
For what you are wanting I would recommend staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
In regards to it being crowded...It depends on what the reviews are referring to.
Are the pools crowded? Yes.
But the beach is a few steps away and its not as crowded IMO depending on where you go. The lagoon is not crowded at all and great for just laying out and tanning.
Hopefully you will enjoy the property but I think you will be out and about more than you will be there.
Waikiki over all is a busy resort town on ONE mile of congested beach so yeah...there are going to be crowds.
I think its a great property and location.
We've stayed there and we've had about 3-4 friends stay there over the past year.
They have a fireworks show every Friday night at 7:45 that we love!
MH and I just stayed at the Hilton Hawaiin Village and it was good. MH used his Hilton Honors points for our stay. You can get a shuttle to take you to Pearl Harbor and it was $10 or $13 per adult, it picks up and drops off right at the resort. We also liked that you can rent a car right at the resort and pick up and drop off the car at the hotel parking lot. The best thing about this place is it's has lots of conveniences like this.
If you're interested, MH got 30,000 Hilton Honors points for both of us sitting through a sales presentation for Hiltons Vacation timeshare thing. It was about 60 to 90 minutes, and you still get the points even if you have no intention of buying anything.
eta: Forgot to mention that their concierge service was excellent, she booked dinner reservations, told us very helpful info, and helped us put a full itinerary together for our stay. The one thing was that she was also there to sign you up for that sales presentation I mentioned above. The concierge wasn't a hard sell at all and it was worth it for all of the help and tips. The sales presentation wasn't bad, we just rushed through it and when the closer came in at the end, we said no.
Blog: Call Me Imelda
I'd go with Waikaola since it's on the BI. You could always do a stopover in Honolulu to see all the pearl harbor sites.
While I've never stayed at any, I used to live next door to Hilton Village. Walking through the resort was usually my quickest way back from Waikiki. Ugh, I kind of hated it. Too many people, lots of screaming kids. I don't particularly care for the beach right there, either. It's that weird silty imported sand, although that will probably be all of Waikiki now with the restoration project. The lagoon was nice for a swim, though.
That said, it's the only beachfront Hilton Waikiki property, so if that's important to you, it's your only choice on Oahu of the hotels you mentioned. If you want to be central in Waikiki, you need to stay at the Beach. It's only a 2 block walk to the beach.
We stayed at the Waikoloa last April. The hotel is gorgeous, but the size of it got really old after a few days. It sucked if you forgot something in the room or in the car because it was like 20 to 30 minutes to get over and back since we were in the towers farthest from the front.
We bought a discount card they sold for $20 on the first day. It gave you a $10 food credit and 10% off all food and beverages, so it paid for itself pretty quickly. We did regret, however, choosing a hotel that didn't have direct beach access.