Hawaii
Went to Hawaii for a week on a combination leisure and work travel. Hopped onto United to get into Oahu. This trip was a bit ambitious as I was going to be on three different islands. I had made plans with friends in Hawaii to meet up in Big Island before heading out to Kauai. I opted to based myself out of Oahu for work and did a few interisland itineraries on Hawaiian Airlines.
Due to timing and airline pricing, I came in a night earlier than planned and stayed overnight at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani. I came in early enough to dip my toes on Waikiki Beach. Afterwards, headed back to the hotel to get a free appetizer from Splash Bar. After ordering a few drinks with chicken wings and onion straws. Service was a tad slow but the best thing on the menu is the chicken wings. Afterwards, walked over to the Starbucks Reserve and ordered a honey rose latte. I was not expecting such fancy coffee shops and discovered a new higher end Waikiki than the last time I visited. I went by Kona Purveyors / B. Patisserrie to order some kouign amann nature andp chocolate chip cookie with my coffee from Starbucks.
The next day, I had the breakfast buffet at the Pikake Terrace. It was the typical buffet spread as usual and I had some rice with portuguese sausage. Went out to the airport to catch my flight to Kona International Airport. After getting an upgrade deal on Alamo to a minivan, headed out to HGVC King's Land.
While in Kona, visited a few places to introduce the newbies to Big Island. Visited coffee farms - Greenwell Farms and Kona Joe Coffee. Caught the free coffee tour at Greenwell and was able to reacquaint myself with coffee farming techniques. At Kona Joe, the barista was new and didn't know how to make coffee. With the weather getting cloudy, the wait for the coffee became a little annoying. A new addition to Kona Joe is 808 Cheesecake. I enjoyed the kona coffee and salted caramel. I was also surprised to see that it is also based in Illinois when I checked their website. Irony since I was just in Chicago. Not that I would have seen them in their Illinois location.
Went by Donkeyball Store to get some chocolate. The store is under new management and it shows. The pastries are gone and the number of chocolate products have been reduced. They still sell coffee.
For food, visited Broke Da Mouth and Hawaiian Style Café. Enjoyed my favorite foods again.
For leisure, we spent most of our time inside the Hilton facilities between the timeshare side and the hotel side. On the timeshare side, I spent time in the pool facilities and saw more of the amenities since we had kids in the group. I saw the activity center and was impressed with the indoor game room equipped with foosball, air hockey, pool tables and playstations stations. The pool slides, volleyball pool, and basketball pool was popular. On the hotel side, spent time on the waterfall/slide area for the kids. Overall, it was fun to see parts of the timeshare and hotel side that I normally don't spend time in. It just shows that even with all these visits, I can still learn something new.
Flew out to Lihue Airport on Hawaiian Airlines through Honolulu. Checked into the Hilton Garden Inn Kauai. I originally had an Avis rental in Kona but moved it to Kauai. Unfortunately, the reservation didn’t go as smoothly online but the agent gave me a local rate for the troubles and tried to honor my original reservation as much as possible. The HGI was formerly an Aston hotel so the layout was not your typical HGI. It isn’t a resort but I found the hotel serviceable and the rate was cheaper than my conference hotel. The pool is not big and the beach park attracted a lot of driftwood. If you are interested in more active activities in Kauai, this is a good launching site to do hikes, kayaking, tours, etc. The Marriott Kauai is definitely a resort with big pools and beach access to a calm bay. The food was actually decent and ok prices for a hotel.
For meals, I visited Puka Dog, Gaylord, and Paniolo Santa Maria BBQ. The hot dogs are just as tasty as I remember. Gaylord was new for me, I tried the pork tenderloin. It was good but I wouldn’t reorder. I do think they had the best lava flow in Hawaii. The desserts were good too. Paniolo was also new to me and I think the BBQ is likely the best on the island but I have my favorites in Santa Maria.
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| Sheraton Princess Kaiulani King Room |
Due to timing and airline pricing, I came in a night earlier than planned and stayed overnight at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani. I came in early enough to dip my toes on Waikiki Beach. Afterwards, headed back to the hotel to get a free appetizer from Splash Bar. After ordering a few drinks with chicken wings and onion straws. Service was a tad slow but the best thing on the menu is the chicken wings. Afterwards, walked over to the Starbucks Reserve and ordered a honey rose latte. I was not expecting such fancy coffee shops and discovered a new higher end Waikiki than the last time I visited. I went by Kona Purveyors / B. Patisserrie to order some kouign amann nature andp chocolate chip cookie with my coffee from Starbucks.
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| Add caption |
The next day, I had the breakfast buffet at the Pikake Terrace. It was the typical buffet spread as usual and I had some rice with portuguese sausage. Went out to the airport to catch my flight to Kona International Airport. After getting an upgrade deal on Alamo to a minivan, headed out to HGVC King's Land.
While in Kona, visited a few places to introduce the newbies to Big Island. Visited coffee farms - Greenwell Farms and Kona Joe Coffee. Caught the free coffee tour at Greenwell and was able to reacquaint myself with coffee farming techniques. At Kona Joe, the barista was new and didn't know how to make coffee. With the weather getting cloudy, the wait for the coffee became a little annoying. A new addition to Kona Joe is 808 Cheesecake. I enjoyed the kona coffee and salted caramel. I was also surprised to see that it is also based in Illinois when I checked their website. Irony since I was just in Chicago. Not that I would have seen them in their Illinois location.
Went by Donkeyball Store to get some chocolate. The store is under new management and it shows. The pastries are gone and the number of chocolate products have been reduced. They still sell coffee.
For food, visited Broke Da Mouth and Hawaiian Style Café. Enjoyed my favorite foods again.
For leisure, we spent most of our time inside the Hilton facilities between the timeshare side and the hotel side. On the timeshare side, I spent time in the pool facilities and saw more of the amenities since we had kids in the group. I saw the activity center and was impressed with the indoor game room equipped with foosball, air hockey, pool tables and playstations stations. The pool slides, volleyball pool, and basketball pool was popular. On the hotel side, spent time on the waterfall/slide area for the kids. Overall, it was fun to see parts of the timeshare and hotel side that I normally don't spend time in. It just shows that even with all these visits, I can still learn something new.
Flew out to Lihue Airport on Hawaiian Airlines through Honolulu. Checked into the Hilton Garden Inn Kauai. I originally had an Avis rental in Kona but moved it to Kauai. Unfortunately, the reservation didn’t go as smoothly online but the agent gave me a local rate for the troubles and tried to honor my original reservation as much as possible. The HGI was formerly an Aston hotel so the layout was not your typical HGI. It isn’t a resort but I found the hotel serviceable and the rate was cheaper than my conference hotel. The pool is not big and the beach park attracted a lot of driftwood. If you are interested in more active activities in Kauai, this is a good launching site to do hikes, kayaking, tours, etc. The Marriott Kauai is definitely a resort with big pools and beach access to a calm bay. The food was actually decent and ok prices for a hotel.
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| Marriott Kauai view from king room |
For meals, I visited Puka Dog, Gaylord, and Paniolo Santa Maria BBQ. The hot dogs are just as tasty as I remember. Gaylord was new for me, I tried the pork tenderloin. It was good but I wouldn’t reorder. I do think they had the best lava flow in Hawaii. The desserts were good too. Paniolo was also new to me and I think the BBQ is likely the best on the island but I have my favorites in Santa Maria.
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