Waikiki hotel help

[eeyoresmom]

I have a first visit thread started but thought it best to ask this separately. We have 3 nights Waikiki and 6 nights Aulani split ( end of Jan into Feb). I am torn between staying in the center of the action on the beach in Waikiki or staying a bit further away. The hotels are running around $300 per night plus another $100 in parking and resort fees. We plan on doing the major tourist attractions those days and not sure if over $1200 for essentially 2 days is wise. It is myself, DH and 2 adult DD's. We probably will want to visit Waikiki beach for a few hours and will shop and eat after our daytime activities. Im looking at staying within a mile or so if not on the beach. If we choose a hotel not walkable to the center how much of a pain is it to drive and park for beach and nightlife? What would you do?

 

[pjacobi]

From my one trip, I suggest staying within walking distance of the beach and save the rental car and parking fees.


-Paul

 

[Mufasa2018]

Painful, stay in Waikiki. Finding parking is horrible and your adult kids will want to go out at night and it will be easier if you are in Waikiki. Although you could uber but I wouldn't because I like to walk to the fun.

 

[kyton]

Waikiki is small - you can walk from one end (I think of the Ilikai as the starting point) to the other (again in my mind the Zoo) at a leisurely pace well under 1hr.

Don't just look at Beach front hotels - all the hotels are a quick walk to a section of beach. We stay at Trump and whilst it’s not beachfront, we cross 1 street and walk 5mins to our favourite patch of sand.

 

[2Gma]

We booked at Waikiki Shores for March through VRBO. It has a full kitchen and right on the beach. We liked the ability to cook and not eat out every meal which we planned to do while at Aulani.

 

[tgropp]

We are staying three nights and have a two bedroom unit at the Wyndham Wakiki Beach. It is a block to the beach and we are paying $400 a night. Rented it from a private owner through VRBO

 

[jillt2ph]

Have you checked the Courtyard Marriott Waikiki Beach? I stayed there in 2017 before my Aulani stay and thought the location was great. And there is no resort fee. The rate I booked included full breakfast. The main depot for the Waikiki Trolley is across the street. We used that to do our sightseeing.

This year we stayed right across the street from the Courtyard at the Ohana Waikiki Malia by Outrigger. We did the Aulani stay first, so after we dropped our luggage at the hotel we returned the rental. Once again we bought multi-day tickets for the Waikiki Trolley and used that for sightseeing. It was cheaper to get roundtrip airport transfers into Waikiki than it was to keep the car and pay for that and the parking. Plus, so many of the rental places are offsite and I didn't want to have to heft our luggage around multiple times.

I find that general location to be pretty convenient to everything in Waikiki Beach, and much less expensive than being on the beach itself.

 

[nkereina]

We stayed at the Marriott Waikiki Beach. We found it to be middle of the road in terms of pricing and a good location for an easy walk along the strip. Also right near a trolley stop. It had an ABC Store right at the ground level of the hotel, and there was a separate tour lobby which was a central meeting place for any bus tours, which we found convenient as that's how we did Diamond Head and Pearl Harbor. Every room also had a balcony so we enjoyed that, as it was our first stop in Hawaii.

In the future, we would consider staying at the Moana Surfrider. It's probably more central and its a beautiful, unique property. Right on the beach. A little more expensive than the Marriott.

I would not stay at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The hotel is fine but its a resort complex. And since you'll be exploring Waikiki with little time a the hotel (and resort time at Aulani), a huge resort complex is not really necessary IMO. We also found that it was way at the far end of the strip, making for long walks up to the other end of the strip, so the location was not ideal.

 

[eeyoresmom]

Thanks everyone. Right now it is much cheaper for us to pick up our rental car at the airport on our arrival than it is to rent in the city after our Waikiki stay. Also, we need the car to get to PH if we get lucky and get the free tickets from the NPS.

 

[jillt2ph]

Thanks everyone. Right now it is much cheaper for us to pick up our rental car at the airport on our arrival than it is to rent in the city after our Waikiki stay. Also, we need the car to get to PH if we get lucky and get the free tickets from the NPS.

Think about maybe having one person Uber to the airport rental location from the city and then come back and get everyone. I always price everything out. It was painful seeing the parking charge the first time we stayed in Waikiki and kept the car.

We took the Waikiki Trolley to Pearl Harbor first thing Saturday morning and just got our tix there. I have gone in May 3 different years and never got tix in advance. They hold a certain amount for walk up guests. But better to go earlier. The bus stops near PH also so that is how we got back to Waikiki since we had just missed a trolley.

 

[ksromack]

We are only spending one night in Waikiki but two days after a stay at Aulani. I asked the same question as you and after investigating my choices we opted to spend the one night at Moana Surfsider. It looks beautiful, is only the two of us, and is only for one night so the elevated price didn't hurt as much as it would for you given you have 3 nights. I'm pretty sure we are keeping our car, though. I want it for Aulani (no parking fee since we're DVC and staying on our points).....not sure when we'll do our PH visit but we'll need to get to Aulani from the airport and then back to the airport from Waikiki...and I'm not planning on eating every meal at Aulani given the prices and better options outside of the resort. Good luck with your choice. I'd love to go in Jan/Feb to get away from the cold in the midwest! We are going at the end of May.

 

[mep57]

Hala Koa if your military active or retired

 

[nkereina]

we need the car to get to PH if we get lucky and get the free tickets from the NPS.

If you are doing Pearl Harbor during your Waikiki stay, I would highly recommend using a tour company. We did ours through Discover Hawaii tours and they picked us up right at our hotel in a small bus. We made 1-2 other stops, and they got us to Pearl Harbor around 7:30am. They facilitated getting our tour tickets for 9:15am, so we didn't have to worry about that at all. We had about 90 minutes to explore the free museum areas which we thought was enough time, and then did the tour to the Arizona. We were done around 11-11:30 as I recall. The tour we booked took us to the Swap Meet afterward, but half our group had booked a tour of the Missouri for the afternoon. I think they offer tours that don't include either as well. But we found it nice to not have to worry about getting our tickets, parking, driving there, etc. Worked out well.

 

[longboard55]

We are only spending one night in Waikiki but two days after a stay at Aulani. I asked the same question as you and after investigating my choices we opted to spend the one night at Moana Surfsider. It looks beautiful, is only the two of us, and is only for one night so the elevated price didn't hurt as much as it would for you given you have 3 nights. I'm pretty sure we are keeping our car, though. I want it for Aulani (no parking fee since we're DVC and staying on our points).....not sure when we'll do our PH visit but we'll need to get to Aulani from the airport and then back to the airport from Waikiki...and I'm not planning on eating every meal at Aulani given the prices and better options outside of the resort. Good luck with your choice. I'd love to go in Jan/Feb to get away from the cold in the midwest! We are going at the end of May.

Moana Surfrider under the Banyan tree is the best spot in Hawaii to enjoy coffee or a Mai Tai

 

[jsmith]

100 percent Agree with the Poster above-if you are active or retired military or National Guard or reserves or someone in your party is you will save a chunk of change and have a great stay at the Hale Koa.