Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa - Reviews - Honolulu

The Hilton Hawaiian Village is made of several highrise towers located right on the beach between Waikiki and Honolulu. It's location on the west side of Waikiki means that you don't have as far and as much traffic to deal with when getting to the hotel from the airport as you would in Waikiki Beach proper. That also means that the beach is much less crowded, and in fact the beach is much wider and longer than the main part of Waikiki Beach. The complex is large and sprawling with many restaurants and shops. If you were the type to just go to one place to relax and you don't care about seeing anything else, you could easily stay put the entire time in this self-sufficient complex. Of course, I would never recommend that as there are many beautiful places to see even if you are only staying on O'ahu.

I had yet another business trip in March 2006 to Hawaii and brought Jenny along. This time when the Hale Koa Military Resort Hotel was full, we stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village for the same price as the Hale Koa. I had stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village before in October 1999, but this was a much better trip. Not only was Jenny able to join me for the trip, but the weather was much better and I actually got to see a sunset during the week we were there unlike 1999.

The Hitlton Hawaiian Village is a massive complex and they just completed adding a new tower to replace the most expensive mini-golf in the world with the new tower and a huge waterfall with Hawaiian sculptures.

Hilton Hawaiian Village has our favorite sushi place in Hawaii, especially when we get our favorite waiter from Okinawa! The complex has a pool and a brand new wedding chappel, along with an entire mall's worth of shops and restaurants. The funny thing is when Japanese tourists stay here, they never leave the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort Complex unless they are taking a trolley bus to do more shopping.

The bars and restaurants are excellent, and all the famous visitors to Hawaii stay here, including Michael Jackson. Jenny enjoys the shopping here and they supposedly have the best Mai Tai's in Hawaii here, as long as you can avoid the bird droppings along the tree-lined sidewalk adjacent to the public beach where you are constantly harrassed by people wanting to take your "cheesy Hawaii vacation" picture for $20.

Overall, the Hilton Hawaiian Village is great if you can get the military price for the room and then shuffle on over to the Hale Koa if you are military and want to buy or eat anything for half the price.
The views and service at the Hilton Hawaiian Village would be worth the price for any tourist, military or not! You just have to be prepared to pay for it!