Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort (HHV) - Exceptional Property at a great price

100   Recommended
Room 517 Rain... , King Ocean View
December 16, 2021 by

 Map | 2 Reviews | 100% Recommended
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Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort
 Map | 2 Reviews | 100% Recommended

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Room 517 Rain...

King Ocean View

Liked:
Location
Service
Food
Amenities
Room
Stats
Room
King Ocean View

I have stayed at hundreds of hiltons and this one is tops for me.  YMMV but friends of mine have the same opinion about the place. I give it 5 stars though it is a 4 star hotel when compared with say the ritz.  Other thank check in time, which I really didn't mind, everything at this hotel is top notch.  

Over all my wife and I hit the bars a few times and charged restaurant meals to the room and only spend $280 over 5 days.  I did ask for a late checkout and received it at no charge for 1pm on the last day.  

We did the submarine tour that disembarks right from the HHV.  This is really cool if you haven't been on a sub,  You go out about a mile and get on a sub that takes you down 100 feet under water where you see some sunken ships, reefs, and airplanes along with tons of colorful fish, sea turtles, and sharks.  We also saw dolphin pods on the way out on the boat.

pic: Beach view of the resort from the water
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Check In

We arrived into HNL on Thursday 12/9/21 and rented a car from National after waiting a long time for luggage.  The luggage system at HNL has issues and seems to be on "Hawaiin Time".   I had reserved a Jeep Wrangler, but of course they had given it away to someone else, but they gave me a 4WD Jeep SUV, so I was happy with that.  We drove from the airpor  to the HHV at around 4pm.    This is a time of heavy traffic, but it still only took about 30 minutes to get there.  Returning to the aiport only took 20 minutes when we departed on a Monday afternoon at around 230pm.  Outbound traffic was much lighter than inbound.

Pic of check in lines.  Diamond is to the left, general to the right.
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We self parked in the deck as valet is not availble.  Parking runs $49 a day if you don't have it included with your room rate.  I booked with points and avoided any resort fees.  We waited in the Diamond check in line about 20 minutes.  The general line looked to be about twice as long, making their wait approximately 30-40 minutes if I had to guess.  This was the only major drawback, but I chatted with a friendly group from Chicago behind me while my wife was parking the car.  We ended up seeing them throughout our stay and some other friends we made around town and at the hotel.  Even if you check in digitally, you have to go to the desk to get a wristband for proof of covid vaccine, otherwise you'll have to show your vaccine card or safe travels bar code at each and every food place in the resort...The wristband is a great convenience,

Room

Pic of the room
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At the desk the lady thanked me for being a diamond member and asked me to be patient while she searched for an upgrade.  I didn't even heve to ask.  She found me a round in the rainbow tower with an ocean view.  The room was very spacious with a King bed, office desk/table,  Large screen tv about 50" that we mostly didn't watch.  The room also had a safe, refrigerator, ironing board and iron.  Standard coffee maker non kcup type.  
The room was very clean and up to date.  

Service

We dropped off our bags with the bell desk pior to check in and got a ticket.  When I arrived up in my room  I called the bell desk and they brought it up.  The guy who brought it up was very friendly like everyone else I encountered and actually gave me a tour of my room and pointed out all the features and some other helpful hints.  I called the bell service for laundry and they came and picked up my laundry and delivered it the next day.  I used the lost key desk twice and got my key card replaced.  The hotel issues you towel cards.   You can take th towel cards down to the pool and exchange it for a towel.  Then, when you turn the towel back in, you get the card back.  Lost cards are supposed to cost $20.  I thought I lost my towel card and the key card desk lady offered to give me another one, not mentioning any charges.  However, I found my towel card. 
 

Dining


We ate at the blue water shrimp restaurant after check in for dinner.  You can get a  lobster dinner there for $28.  I thought the prices were very resonable for a resort restaurant.  
Another place we ate at quite a few times was the poke bowl & tea place.  Prices here also very reasonable, you could get a Thai Tea with topping and a poke bowl with rice and sald for under $20.  I highly recommend either of these restaurants.
We also ate lunch at the tropic which has outside seating on the beach.  The burger there was amazing.  My wife had the nachos which were also very delicious.   We had drinks at the Tapa bar and Tropic.  Despite any baller tips, drinks were made strictly with 1 oz of alcohol and I didn't ask for stronger, though I am used to getting better drinks with tips, I just got an extra shot.  
For breakfast I found a New York deli place that had a great Triple play that includes a loco moco and pancakes with fresh fruit...Very delicious, a bit expensive for breakfast, but hey its a resort.  I think I paid around $20-30 for that.
There are so many dining options you really don't have to leave the resort and we ate at least half our meals here.

Overall

First let me say I had read many criticisms of this hotel on Flyertalk and elsewhere.  Some are true like the fact that you will likely have to wait to check in.  Some facilities are still closed or limited hours.  However, the positives vastly outweight the few minor negatives by a mile.

The pools were all open except one when we got there.  The next day, all the pools that I could see were open.  The water wasn't the warmest, but decent.  I didn't see any hot tubs anywhere, there might be one hidden somewhere.  
 

Location

The hotel is located maybe 1 mile from downtown Honolulu.  There are taxis lined up at all hours to take you quickly anywhere you want to go.  We took taxis and lyfts to a few places we didn't feel like driving and the prices were quite reasonable.  $15 to downtown honolulu.  $35 to Helena's an authentic Hawaiin food place about 20 minutes away.  Taxi to Moku Surf shop was about $15 as well.  
We drove to the North shore in about 30-45 minutes on a saturday morning.  I was surprised at how quick we got there.  You could probably skip the car rental and use lyft/taxi for the entire island.
 

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