The Hilton Hawaiian Village on Oahu is the biggest resort I've ever stayed at, encompassing 3000 rooms, 3 pools, a lagoon, beach front property, and a complete shopping center with everything for a Louis Vutton store to an ABC Store (Oahu natives will know what that is, an island version of Wal Mart with higher prices). The pros, it's located just a bit down Wakiki, which does mean more walking, but it also allows you easy access to Ala Moana Shopping center and close access to H1 which will take you all over the island. Being so big, you could concievably never leave the resort for food, shopping and the like, but lets be honest, it's Hawaii, who wants to be cooped up in their resort the whole time. The rooms are large with decent amenties, they are in the middle of a remodel like most Hiltons with upgrades to flat screen TVs and heavenly showers. The Mandara Spa at the hotel is a very nice bright spot. Friendly and well trained staff, good amenties. It's not too overpriced for a hotel spa and definitely worth it. I don't usually notice housekeeping services unless they don't do a good job, but this staff was quick to turn around rooms and always had the rooms spic and span. Now the cons in no particular order. Don't be fooled by "Ocean View" offers, I am a Diamond member with Hilton and I was upgraded to an ocean view room which was really a view of a bay. Which is fine, but don't tell me it's an ocean view room. This hotel is a haven for families because it's so big so there's kids everywhere, at the pool, at the restaurants, and at the beach. Which when you're there as a couple can be taxing after the fifth game of "Marco Polo" breaks out . The prices at the hotel restaurants/shops are very high. You can't get a burger, fries and beer for under $24 with tip. Which I think is a bit high, even for Hawaii. The hotel is a bit under staffed, twice I called the front desk to have the phone ring for over 2 minutes while finally giving up and the valet takes forever and they don't have call down service so you have to come down and wait. Overall, I had an average stay, a little on the expensive side, but the property is very well maintained, location is good, and the rooms were clean and nice sized.

Let me preface by saying we came here after spending six fantastic nights at the Westin Maui for our honeymoon, and we found the two resorts to be very different. First, the good: The hotel and the grounds are beautiful and well maintained. The grounds were clean, lots of animals, tons of shops (you can pretty much buy anything you may have forgotten right there on the resort), Lappert's Ice Cream is awesome, too! Our room also had a fantastic view of Diamond Head and the ocean. You can also walk into Waikiki, but since the Hilton is on the end of the beach, some people may think the walk is too long (it's about a 15 minute walk onto the main street, Kalakaua Ave). We didn't mind the walk, but if you don't like walking long distances to shop or get something to eat, you may want to take this into consideration and stay somewhere that's located on Kalakaua like the Moana Surfrider. You can organize any and all activities right there on the resort, too. The concierge and the American Express office can book anything, so that was convenient. They will also recommend activities. We went to Pearl Harbor (a must), walked to the Waikiki Aquarium, and did the Oahu Ghost Tour (cheesy). We also went to Paradise Cove for the luau which was ok--a bit corny in the beginning, but the dancing and singing was great! I can't really comment on the restaurants, since the only one we tried was Tropics right on the beach for lunch. It was ok, nothing special, so don't expect too much. Ok, now the bad: When we arrived on Sunday afternoon, we were irritated to find there was a huge line in the lobby for check in, and not enough people working to move guests along quickly. We waited for about 20-30 minutes in line. When we finally got to the front, we asked an employee if this line was normal. She said there were two conventions at the hotel that week and the resort was completely full. This made me think, "Well, you obviously knew these conventions were booked, so why weren't more people scheduled to work at the front desk today?" It was especially annoying because we had just come from a frustrating and stressful situation at the Maui airport (we almost missed our flight), and all we wanted to do was check in and relax. So much for that. There are also kids everywhere. We assumed this would be the case, given it is the summer, but we hoped the HHV would have some sort of adult pool/area like the Westin did. Nope. We hardly spent any time in the pool because we didn't like constantly being splashed by kids doing cannonballs, and the main pool is also astoundingly small for such a huge resort. We had to put our towels on the grass (?!?!?!) because there were no chairs left. If you don't get down to the pool by 9:00 a.m., forget about getting a chair. Same thing with beach umbrellas. So much for sleeping in! There are a couple other pools, but one pool (in the A'ali tower) is only for guests staying in that particular tower. Our room was very nice...except for the bathroom. The bathroom was extremely pinchy, the showerhead was set way too low (we're both tall) so that we had to crouch in the shower. I also noticed mold in the tile and the sink was rusty. Of course, the state of a hotel's bathroom is not going to ruin our honeymoon. I just thought it was odd that such a nice hotel room had such a crappy bathroom. One more thing you may want to do: buy or bring inflatable pool toys. I looked into renting a simple inner tube to float around in for the day, but it was $10!! I was not about to spend $10 to float around on a stupid inner tube for an hour or so that I could have just bought at the dollar store. So while the HHV is a nice resort, I would recommend it more for families, and definitely not for honeymooners! We should have stayed at the Moana Surfrider (Westin) or the W. If you're thinking about staying here for your honeymoon, don't. Find someplace that's smaller, more intimate, with less children and/or an adults-only area or pool.

This is third time I have stayed at the HHV. I was there the third full week in May. I don't know if it was that specific week, but the property was really quiet. I was in the Rainbow tower on the 22nd floor facing the marina- beautiful view. At first I was disappointed that I wasn't on the beach view side, but I ended up thinking I probably had the better view and the quieter side. The room was pretty basic. There was a small balcony, a small rather dated bathroom, and a table and chair. The odd thing was that there was not even a leisurely, comfy chair to sit in. I was there for work, so that actually mattered to me when I had to read through files at night. The positive- steps from the sand. This is crazy, but another reviewer is right when she pointed out that they do not put top sheets on the beds. Very odd. I requested a top sheet from housekeeping and it was on the bed the next day. As always the staff was very friendly, but there were definately some quirks this trip. First- the sheet thing. Amenities were hit or miss. They gave me my free breakfast certificates, and told me I could use them at Tropics and the Tapa Cafe- standard. The the Tapa Cafe hostess told me they weren't offering the free buffet because they were slow and that I could only use the vouchers at Tropics (which is very limited and opened later than I needed to leave most days). A snippy server at Tropics confirmed that I could only use the vouchers there. About halfway through the week, I found out from a colleague that the vouchers were being honored at the Rainbow Lanai, right in my building, and which has a terrific buffet. This was very disappointing to me because either the staff is not communicating at all or I was intentionally misled. Also, the towel guy at the beach was really rude. But I may be cranky too if I was a towel guy, so what the heck. Now that I've vented over the oddities of this trip, there were some very positive aspects. The Rainbow tower is actually very convenient to the parking garage. The front desk staff was fabulous. The folks at the American Express stations who help set up excursions were wonderful. A gentleman there managed to get me a plane ticket and great tour of the Island of Hawaii with only one day's notice. As one traveler noted, this is a hotel that can substitue for seeing the real Hawaii if you want to stay in a sheltered, uncomplicated environment. But you can certainly access the rest of Hawaii if you so choose. There are tours around the island, tours of the National monuments, rental cars available so you can do your own exploring, trips to swim with sharks, trips to other islands, transportation to Luau's. You can walk to the International Marketplace, the Zoo, the Aquarium, boutique shopping and great restaurants. The bus and various trolleys stop at the property. So I really don't know what the complaint about this being "fake Hawaii" is all about. Additionally, if you just want to chill on the property, you can shop, eat at great restaurants, order huge ice cream concoctions, enjoy the best section of the Waikiki Beach, snorkel, Kayak in the lagoon, take a mini submarine ride, ejoy great pools, great bars and great music, hit the spa, etc. There really is somethng here for everyone. The lines at registration can be long, but that is because busses and shuttles arrive with a bazillion guests who need to check in all at once. Try the zip check in if you made your reservations on line and are already familiar with the property. There is also a separate line for Hilton HHonors members. Or you could splurge on a taxi from the airport and not arrive with the bazillion other people. If you do get a taxi from the Hilton, be assured they use the best, cleanest taxis in the city. On my return trip to the airport, the attendant hailed me a stretch limo for the same fare as a regular taxi. Yes- that was fate or karma or serendipity, but it can happen. Also, for most airlines, you can check in and print your ticket at a kiosk in the main lobby.

A huge resort on Waikiki Beach that has failed to update its facilities to accommodate the # of people. Also, problems with customer service. Using a +/- scale, here's how it adds up: We stayed 3 nights. 1. Check in -- 40 minute wait in line (-2) 2. Reservations -- Reservations had wrong # of people in our party, eventhough confirmed twice. Wanted to charge us an extra $50/Night for the 3rd person. The mgr was requested to resolve the issue. (-1) 3. Telephone Svc -- Accidently called security, mistaking the #'s on the Hilton Map as telephone extensions. Security guard rude on the phone and not willing to help us get the correct # (-1) 4. Pools -- Only two pools for the thousands of people there (-2) 5. Cleanliness of room & customer service of housekeeper (+2) 6. Elevator/Stairwells -- Waited 10 minutes on the 15th floor waiting for an elevator that wasn't overly full. Decided to walk down stairs only to find alarmed doors at the bottom. Went to a phone and called security, (same rude security person) who told us to go on out and he would re-set alarm. (-2) 7. Condo pitch - Professional and low pressure. Received $100 Hilton bucks. (+3) 8. Bell Captain -- Requested that a call be made to our transportation company back to the airport. The individual at the transportation desk where all of the shuttles came in, sighed, had to interrupt his crossword puzzle and seemed put off by the request. (-1) Total: minus 4

We just got back from a week's stay the the Hilton. What a lovely place to stay! I had read a lot of reviews before booking this hotel. I agree with most of them. The Hilton is huge, but that's okay! The grounds were just beautiful. We liked seeing the penguins and other types of wildlife. We had an oceanfront/Diamond Head view room in the Rainbow Tower. For us, that was the only way to go. We enjoyed looking at the ocean and enjoying a cup of coffee on the balcony in the mornings. We stayed in room 2013. It was large, with a king size bed and two bathrooms! Our original room was a standard-sized room with two double beds. (I don't understand why hotels are going to double beds - too small!). This room was not what we paid for and was moved immediately. Our new room (2013) was quite lovely. I agree with all that has been written about the restaurants on the property. Way too expensive and not very good. A short walk will take you to PF Chaings, Cheesecake Factory, YardHouse, etc. The pools are really my only complaint. Some guests "reserve" chairs by the pool really early in the morning by placing towels on the chairs. By 9:00, you're out of luck trying to find a chair by the pool! The resort needs to put a stop to that practice. Another complaint that doesn't have anything to do with the Hilton, but you should be aware of, is was when we walked into town to eat each day, we were accosted by people handing out fliers to restaurants and shows. That was really annoying. You couldn't enjoy a pleasant walk or window shopping without a flier being shoved in your hands. The Hilton is right next door to the military hotel, the Hale Koa. It has a lovey, lush park ( Fort DeRussy ) that is great to walk through when you're walking downtown to eat. Very pretty. Enjoy your stay!