I'm back! This time for fun! Went out on
United to Honolulu. Like before I did have to layover on another island. This time my inbound flight had a layover in
Lihue Airport. Too bad I wasn't able to direct flight into Kauai on the last trip. I'm doomed to always have a layover....
After spending a quick hour on ground in Kauai and having passable chicken katsu from the airport restaurant inside, I was able to get to Waikiki and checked into the
Hokulani Waikiki HGVC. I opted to stay at this location because I had some friends who were staying at the Sheraton Waikiki and this was the nearest HGVC. There are pros and cons to staying in the middle of Waikiki. The pros is the proximity to all the eateries and the cons are the number of tourists.
The rooms are not as large as the Hilton Hawaiian Village but the décor was consistent and the amenities were nice enough. The one bedroom configuration does not include a full kitchen but a small galley with an electric two burner range and small fridge. I suppose it would be unlikely that I would cook significantly on this trip so it was doable. The rooftop bar/pool area is nice to hang out but do not plan on swimming.
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| Hokulani One Bedroom Double Beds Living Room |
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| Hokulani One Bedroom Double Beds Bedroom |
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| Hokulani One Bedroom Double Beds Bathroom |
After checking into the hotel, grabbed a late night drink and snack at the
Maui Brewing Company restaurant. The pork belly bao and the house fries were really good.
The next day, grabbed a quick breakfast at
Kona Coffee Purveyors/B. Patisserie. The girl did not get my coffee order correctly and I ended up with a nitro cold brew affogato instead of just the cold brew. I like ice cream and it was fine. It was a few dollars more and not a bad price at that point. Also cruised by
Musubi Café Iyasume. I noticed in my visit that the café sold gift certificates. The only downside is that it is cash only purchase but you do get a $10 bonus certificate. Unfortunately, I wasn't carrying around that kind of cash.
In the afternoon, I had a car rental with
Slingshot. The company has a display vehicle next door to Kona Coffee Purveyors and I convinced my friends to get a rental with me to drive around the island. We took off for Kailua Beach driving around the east side of the island. After snacking on the musubis at the beach, it was a quick drive along the coast and through the mountain range returning to Waikiki. There are several scenic points along the drive and I've seen most of the major ones. It was fun driving a three wheel car/motorcycle and making pit stops at McDonald's for haupia pies and
Waiola Shave Ice.
Capped off the night with a dinner at
Alan Wong's. On this trip, I felt that Alan Wong's menu was limited in variety. Since I wasn't hungry, shared a few appetizers of seafood dumplings, ahi and avocado stack, and ahi spring roll. Dessert consisted of the Waialua Crunch Bars and Hawaiian Crown Sweet Gold Pineapple "Shave Ice." Both were delicious.
The next day, spent most of the day at the pool at both the Hokulani and Sheraton. The
Sheraton Waikiki is very big but the pools were not very big. Even with a slide, the pool area was normal sized to me. Comparing to the Hilton Hawaiian, the Sheraton pools were nice but on the small side. Compared to the Royal Hawaiian and the Westin Moana Surfrider, it is huge. I did discover that there is a
Baskin Robbins inside the Sheraton.
Had lunch at
Marukame Udon and had a basic udon soup with tempura. I've always seen this restaurant with long lines and it was not on my radar to eat at. My friends are udon fans and liked the hand made udon noodle concept. In the afternoon, enjoyed some afternoon drinks at the Hokulani Rooftop Bar and hanging out in the hot tub. For dinner, wandered over to
Hula Dog to get some Hawaiian hot dogs and
MoDo for mochi doughnuts. The mochi doughnuts were interesting but I don't know if I would go look for them again inside the Mitsuwa store.
The next day, moved to the
Royal Hawaiian Hotel. I had wanted to only stay at the timeshare but the last night was not available to me. The Royal Hawaiian shares the same entrance area as the Sheraton making it convenient. This is my first time at this hotel and I enjoyed my time. I liked it more than the Westin. As Platinum, I opted for the breakfast and paid the upgrade fee to the buffet. The breakfast buffet at Azure included one entrée and I chose the pink palace pancakes which were delicious. I dig that the breakfast buffet comes with signature dishes. You choose one and get to eat as much of the side breakfast items you want.
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| Azure Restaurant Pink Palace pancakes |
I was also upgraded to a garden suite room and the setup was huge. The suite consisted of a large living room separated by a foyer to the bedroom and bathroom. There was a half bath in the foyer area as well. Very spacious and ideal for the local friends who visited me in the afternoon while hanging out at Waikiki Beach.
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| Royal Hawaiian Qn Kapiolani Suite Foyer |
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| Royal Hawaiian Qn Kapiolani Suite Bedroom |
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Royal Hawaiian Qn Kapiolani Suite Living Room
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For lunch, I opted to rent a
Zipcar to get lunch at the
Alley Restaurant & Bar. The Zipcar is not close but at the end of the Waikiki strip inside the
Alohilani Resort Hotel parking garage. The Alohilani public areas looks really nice and the Morimoto Asia restaurant is inside.
An Uber or taxi to Aiea was going to be more money than renting the Zipcar. So off I went to Aiea Bowl/Alley restaurant to get some of my tasty chicken and oxtail soup.
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| Alley Restaurant & Bar |
On my last day, I went out to the Sheraton to hop into the pools. Guests of the Royal Hawaiian can use the Sheraton pool. I ordered my last lava flow from the pool bar/restaurant and headed to the airport afterwards. Of interest, I did see that the stores inside the airport are now selling Big Island Candies cookies. I always wondered why they didn't have a presence outside of their factory and I find it ironic that the
Daniel K. Inouye Airport has Big Island Candies but the
Hilo Airport does not. I did grab an assortment box because I saw lemon shortbread (neighbor fave) and toffee nut shortbread. I hadn't seen a toffee nut before at the factory.
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