Oahu

Hawaiian Islands

Lodging

Hawaii • Honeymoon • Wedding • Activities • Getting Around • Good Books

When staying on Oahu (in Honolulu), most tourists opt for the Waikiki beach area. Specifically, the primary road along Waikiki (which includes a plethora of shops, as well as a beautiful beach) is Kalakua Ave. When shopping around, we recommend that you ask about the hotel's proximity to Kalakua Ave. While some hotels may attempt to oversell their relative location on Kalakua, our opinion is that Kalakua is relatively short and all locations along the street are fine.

We found the best deals by shopping around online and checking out package deals. Often, online Hawaii travel sites had better rates for hotels than the hotels themselves could offer.

We had a couple of favorites:

The Marriott Waikiki is located right on Kalakua Ave and offers well-equipped guest rooms. The standard outdoor pool offers a nice restaurant/bar nearby with live performances nightly. Note that the Marriott will charge you an additional fee for parking.

The Aston Waikiki is also well located on Kalakua Ave. Again, the view from the top floors can be spectacular and the included breakfast is quite satisfactory. Although the hotel has been recently renovated, though, some guests were not impressed with the quality of the room. A step below the Marriott Waikiki (above), the Aston ranks above budget hotels like the Park Shore (discussed below).

We do NOT recommend the Park Shore Waikiki. In our latest trip, we found that the discounted room rate was accompanied by a sub-par room that was tiny and not particularly clean. We regularly got misinformation from friendly staff at the front desk and the complementary "beach towels" were shoddy and smaller than a regular sized bath towel. That said, it was quite inexpensive to stay there and, if all goes well, you won't be spending much time in the hotel anyway.

Another option is to stay in a hawaiian timeshare!

If you found this content useful, please !

We are not affiliated with any of the establishments listed on this site. The advice on this site is for entertainment purposes only and implies no guarantee. Disagree or have something to add? Email us!