Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort 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.

Affordable used Military discount.
Right next to beach.

This hotel met all my expectations of a 4* resort. Made up of various different hotel blocks, and joined by a series of pools, restaurants, coffee shops and over 90 shops, the resort is like a village in itself.

However, some of the corridors and passages are a little grimy and some of the smaller pools weren't as cared for as the most popular ones, meaning that the nicest swims would be in the already busy pools.

This said, the amenities are still excellent, even having a large man-made lagoon which is stunning. The gardens are also beautiful, and location excellent, on the beach and a close walking distance to shops and restaurants.

I spent one night here in May 2009, however I have been here many times for dinners, charity events and weddings. (I live in Honolulu). The Hilton Hawaiian Village is a large hotel, shopping and dining complex on the west end of Waikiki beach. They attempt to spread everything out to help reduce pedestrian congestion. It doesn't work because the hotel is a little too big. There are always a lot of people everywhere you go. Do not even attempt to eat dinner there without a reservation.

The rooms are okay, nothing over the top. My room also had a living room with sofa, tv and chairs. The furniture looks like hotel furniture. No personality, rather generic. The same hold true for the entire decorating scheme. The bathroom is ultra small. Barely any room in there. I was in the Diamond Head tower, on the 14th floor. That floor has the largest balconies.

On Friday evenings, the Hilton puts on a fireworks show. They also have a luau on Sunday thru Thursday nights. Friday night is a dance show by the pool. Tickets are required for the dance show.

This hotel is good for families with children or for those tourists who are want the convenience of having everything at their doorstep. If you get a good price for a room, you won't go wrong. But if you're looking for a once in a lifetime, luxury or peaceful experience, look elsewhere.

As a resident of Hawaii, I got a special rate of $130/night for the room. The regular rate was $180/night, which is at a discount because of the slump in tourism.

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!