Hawaii Vacation Specialist-Chris

I have recently stayed in a few hotels here on Oahu and on Maui and wanted to share some things about these hotels that I found to be great and some not so great and maybe a few tips when booking at these properties.  This review is designed to help anyone considering any of these properties and maybe answer a few questions you may have had about them.  I will be staying again at the hilton and then at the hyatt regency resort and spa waikiki soon and will post more about that during my stay to try to give first hand experience of these properties to people planning a hawaiian vacation.

Westin Maui

The Westin Maui was a beautiful property.  Great pool with water slide.  Room amenities were great.  They are home to the heavenly products.  Everything from bed, to shower, to robes, to towels were all heavenly products.  When booking this hotel and view is important to you becareful of what room category you choose.  There are garden, mountain, oceanview, and oceanfront rooms at this property.  I had the gardenview while there and I would definately pay more money to get an oceanview or oceanfront at this property.  There are many rooms that overlook the parking lot, but of course are not advertised as parking lot view.  Our view was fine and the waterfall is nice which is pretty much what our view was.  The only thing is the waterfall while big and beautiful creates a lot of noise.  If that kind of thing bothers you don’t get a garden view room as you can still hear it quite a bit with the door closed.   There is a daily resort fee of $18.50 a day, which includes parking, internet service, replenished water daily, in room coffee and some other little amenities.  In my opinion that resort fee is well worth it especially if you will be taking advantage of their in room internet service and parking.  If not then it really isn’t worth it, but is a mandatory charge per room per day.  The pool is very expertly planned out in my opinion. It is spread out so that it doesn’t feel real crowded even when there are a lot of guests using it and lounge chairs were not hard to find while we were there and no you don’t have to pay to use a lounge chair.  They provide towels for use for their guests only out by the beach but be sure to return them as they take your room number and if not returned they do charge you for them.  The balconies are small here.  No more than 2 people really can stand on the balcony at once.

Their restuarants are good and the service was wonderful.  Our server really went out of his way for my son and it was a really nice touch.  Beware of their mai tais.  Our waiter warned me a little too late and after one it was straight to the room.  I had a few problems but they were sure to fix them promptly.  The rooms are a little small so if having a couple and children just know that it may get a little cramped, but all in all it was a nice experience for me.  If it is a honeymoon though note that there are a lot of families that do stay here and lots and lots of kids, so if you are looking for something a little quieter maybe try something in the wailea area.

Maui Prince Hotel

The Maui Prince in Makena is my favorite place to stay in Maui.  It is the only resort in Makena, closest to molokini island which you can actually board a catamaran straight from their beach to go snorkeling out in molokini.  They have a luau called the maui sunset luau held right on their property.  While not a huge resort type property with the big pools and waterslides, it is on a very big peice of oceanfront land.  Their prices I think are reasonable and come in a lot lower then some of the other resorts in maui.  There is no resort fee, free parking , self and valet and the staff is exceptional every single time we go there.  I enjoy their buffet breakfast in the morning next to their beautiful koi pond.  You can purchase food for the fish for fifty cents a bag and the bags are a nice size.  The kids and adults alike love to feed the koi fish as they come right up to the rocks to get the food.  They do have a little coffee stand with ice cream and snacks, and a sundry shop on property as well as a bunch of restaurants.  This is a very quiet property and great for people looking to get away and relax and I love putting honeymoon and anniversary couples here.  Not a lot of kids here although there are some.  My son loves this hotel and the staff is always playing with him and he remembers them whenever we go back.  There pool is a little small, but they do have a golf course on property for those golf lovers.

The rooms are big.  Bathrooms have a shower and tub with a big sink area to accomodate everyone’s toiletries.  Separate closed off area where the toilet is, coffee in room and little snacks are complimentary on your arrival with your coffee.  Their balconies are what I love here.  They are very private.  I know I hate sitting on my balcony and the people next to me go out on theirs and it seems we are sitting there pretty much together.  That is not the case here.  There is a table and chairs on their balconies where you can have a nice dinner outdoors without being cramped and they have flower planters before the edge of the balcony, but the wall extends out all the way so it makes it private.  No one can see you and you can’t see anyone else.  I have had all categories of room here.  Oceanfront, oceanview prime and partial oceanview by the golf course.  Because this property is so quiet you can leave your balcony doors open especially at night and you can hear the beautiful sound of the ocean from any room.

Hilton Hawaiian Village (Oahu)

I have stayed at the hilton here on Oahu a few times.  There are a lot of pros and cons about this hotel.  It is a great place for families.  It is like a city initself.  You can find any kind of restaurant, shop or lounge right on property.  There are many different towers and rates usually depend on the tower you are in and the view you have.  I have had a chance to see the kalia tower which is the newest tower and it is beautiful.  I have also stayed in the Tapa Tower and the Alii Tower.  The Alii (which means royalty) Tower usually runs more.  They have their own desk in the tower with employees who are for the alii tower only and a doorman to open the door for you.  The beds at the hilton are great.  I have to say I enjoyed them even more than the heavenly beds at the westin.  They do have a free show every friday night here which is great.  It is music and dancing and fireworks.  They do have chairs to sit in to watch the show which I believe they charge for, but you can stand around the pool area and see it just fine and is open to anyone, not just hotel guests so go early to get a good spot as it gets full.

Self parking here is $16.00 a day and valet services are $19.00 a day.  We used the valet service and I would pay less to just self park my car the next time.  It’s nice to have your car brought to you and dropped off in the lobby area, but being that this hotel is very big and has a lot of guests all the time, everytime we have used the service you have to wait quite a while to get your car.  I think we waited about 25 minutes for our car the last time and then it wasn’t brought to us, but parked down the hill which we then had to carry our own bags to the car, which I don’t mind, but when paying $19.00 a day for it, I would expect a little better service especially for my customers.  Food is very pricey here so needless to say I never ordered room service from this hotel.  There are some nice restaurants located right in walking distance to the hotel such as wailana coffee house, Kobe steak house, and Todai’s which is a seafood buffet restaurant.

They do have the easy fly service at the hilton which is independantly operated.  There is a fee, but you can print your boarding passes and have your bags delivered to your airline for you.  When using this service be sure to follow the directions carefully and don’t just leave your bags with the bellman and give him the money or your bags won’t follow you home.

Outrigger Luana (Oahu condo)

Staying at the Outrigger Luana was a nice experience for me.  It is pretty simple, but the rooms are nice.  We had a studio partial oceanview and actually got quite a good view of the ocean.  Some studios here have kitchenettes and some don’t so be careful when booking that you get what you want.  The kitchenettes will have pretty much everything you need besides a stove and oven to cook with.  We had one without a kitchenette, but still had a fridge, dishes and sink with a big countertop just like a kitchen coutnertop which is sufficient enough if you just want to do sandwiches for lunch to save a little money or some breakfast items and just go out for dinner.  There is nothing to heat food up with in the studis without kitchenette units so bringing food back that needs to be microwaved isnt an option.  They don’t have any restaurants on property and only a small store in the lobby with mostly souvenier items and maybe some camera film and dispossable cameras.  There pool is small and quiet.

The staff was great and very friendly.  They do have parking on site, but not much and is open to the public so once that fills up you can park across the street in the niketown parking lot and they will give you a pass to go in and out of there without paying every time.  Parking fee here is $15.00 a day.  If you get that pass on the day you leave you have to drive back to the property and give them back their card once exiting the parking lot.  There is a gas station with a conveinence store in it located right next to the property.  The rooms have been renovated quite recently and are really nice.  No carpet in the rooms though if that is important to you, but they are nice sized rooms and all in all I enjoyed this property.