Two hotels or Aulani alone?

[Iamaplanner]

Hi from Canada! I am planning our first trip to Hawaii (yay!).
Air is booked. The first week will be in Oahu and the second week in Maui.
While in Oahu, should we split our stay between Aulani and another nice resort (thinking Turtle Bay Resort) and just stay at Aulani for the whole week? Too much hassle to change hotels mid-week, or would it be worth it to have two different experiences??
Your opinions are appreciated!

 

[Princess KP]

Greetings from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada!
If you are just going for the one week, I would just stay at Aulani. It's not worth the hassle. You will love Aulani!

We did Maui and Oahu last August and Big Island and Oahu August 2014. Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[Iamaplanner]

Greetings from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada!
If you are just going for the one week, I would just stay at Aulani. It's not worth the hassle. You will love Aulani!

We did Maui and Oahu last August and Big Island and Oahu August 2014. Let me know if you have any questions!

Thank you! I do have one question.
We land at 10pm. Do you think we should just get a room near Honolulu airport and sleep, wake up fresh and head down to Aulani. Or make our way down at that time of night??

 

[nkereina]

We considered doing the same - 4 nights at Aulani and 3 nights at Turtle Bay. We ended up just staying the whole time at Aulani and I'm very glad we did. We got enough time to both enjoy the resort as well as see the sights of Oahu, and didn't feel rushed at any point. We had traveled around quite a bit the week prior to our Aulani stay, so it was nice to just unpack and relax in one place.

As for your arrival night, if it were me, I'd just go straight to Aulani. For one, you'll have no traffic getting there so it's a pretty easy 25 minute drive. For two, you'll be checking in when it's not busy and your room will be ready, so you can head straight to your room and unpack. You'll then be able to get up at your leisure the next day and just enjoy, rather than taking care of all that business that morning. Also, by checking in the next day, there's a good chance your room won't be ready until later in the day.

 

[Princess KP]

If budget isn't an issue, I would go straight to Aulani.

When we went the first time, we arrived late as well and we had to ask for leis at check in whereas arriving during the day, there were cast members at the front greeting you.

 

[OKW Lover]

Thank you! I do have one question.
We land at 10pm. Do you think we should just get a room near Honolulu airport and sleep, wake up fresh and head down to Aulani. Or make our way down at that time of night??

I'd stay at a cheaper hotel near the airport if getting in that late at night. Especially if there is a significant time change during your travels, like coming from the east coast.

 

[flinkerfrosch]

Hi from Canada! I am planning our first trip to Hawaii (yay!).
Air is booked. The first week will be in Oahu and the second week in Maui.
While in Oahu, should we split our stay between Aulani and another nice resort (thinking Turtle Bay Resort) and just stay at Aulani for the whole week? Too much hassle to change hotels mid-week, or would it be worth it to have two different experiences??
Your opinions are appreciated!

Hi from Canada too! We're just about 45 mins North/East of Toronto in a small town called Brooklin (just on the outskirts of Whitby)
We are also going to Hawaii for the first time as well, yay! And...we are also going to Aulani & Maui.
Where are you staying in Maui?
When are you going? We're going in Nov of this year.
Anyhow, I haven't booked flights yet, but I'm eyeing up one that lands in Honolulu at 2:15pm (Hawaii time) or 4pm (Hawaii time)
Initially, I was also looking at the flights that left later in the day and arrived around 10pm. That being said, I was still going to head straight to Aulani so we were there when we woke up!
I did consider staying in a hotel close to the airport, but I thought it would be more of a pain having to unpack a few things we would need to then only repack again the next day.
Also, another poster mentioned not being able to get into your room till possibly 4pm. Even though you could use the facilities etc...it's just so much easier already being there, unpacked and starting your vacation!
Me personally, if we arrived late at night, I would want my first morning view to be of Aulani vs some airport hotel. That's just me lol
Have an amazing trip!!!!!

 

[blondietink]

We are going to Aulani for the 3rd time in September. Usually we split between Waikiki for 3 nights then head to Aulani. This time we are just at Aulani, but to save quite a few points, we are now staying at an airport hotel since we arrive late before moving to Aulani the next day. With the 6 hour time difference, we will be exhausted when we arrive. We were going to go to Pearl Harbor that next morning, but since we have been there twice, we decided to just hang out at the hotel in the am, then go to Ewa beach as we have never been there before, stop by Leonard's for a supply of Malasadas and then head to Aulani.

 

[alohamom]

Just dont book something in Waikiki for a "quick" overnight because it is still a bit of a ride into Waikiki so you might as well go straight to Aulani.

There are two hotels in the immediate HNL area (Honolulu Airport hotel and Best Western The Plaza Hotel) that are close enough to the airport and would make it worthwhile to stay

 

[blondietink]

Just dont book something in Waikiki for a "quick" overnight because it is still a bit of a ride into Waikiki so you might as well go straight to Aulani.

There are two hotels in the immediate HNL area (Honolulu Airport hotel and Best Western The Plaza Hotel) that are close enough to the airport and would make it worthwhile to stay

Yes, we are staying at the Best Western airport hotel for our first night.

 

[Kgroo]

we have done split stay vacations before and it is a time suck to keep packing and unpacking. I would go straight to Aulani and only stay there while on Oahu.

 

[Elima2015]

I would head straight to Aulani and stay there for the week. Not sure how many are traveling in your group - if it were just DH and me we could be much more flexible - but we travel with 3 small children so packing up and moving hotels consumes HOURS. In fact, I would feel like I lost of day of relaxation. Part of this will be that your check-out time at the first hotel would be in the am and check-in time at Aulani later in the afternoon meaning more challenging access to your things (swim suits).

Also, even if landing at 10:00 pm, I would much prefer to just drive the 25 minutes to Aulani, get to our room for the week and know that we truly arrived at our destination. If we had a second burst of energy, I'd unpack the suitcases otherwise I'd tackle that in the morning and then be set to relax and have fun for the week.

Whatever you decide to do - have a great time!

 

[rachelsmom97]

We just got home last night. We split our week between Aulani and Turtle Bay Resort. I will say that we enjoyed staying at the two resorts. We did not have small children, just my husband, daughter (age 19) and I. We were happy splitting it up between the two resorts. We did Aulani first and Turtle Bay second.

For Aulani, you need to be up early, and saving your seats, especially by the pool. For Turtle Bay, it was a much more relaxed situation with the pools. We were there over Mother's day weekend, and even on Sunday we headed down to the pool around 11 am and got 3 loungers. The beach was the same way - although Turtle Bay has a lot less beach chairs and umbrellas than Aulani. Obviously, Turtle Bay does not have the amazing pools that Aulani has, but there were several beaches you could walk to for a private beach experience.

At Aulani, we mainly did the beach and the adult pool, along with some time in the lazy river. We all did spa treatments, and the spa was the best experiences we have ever had. When we were at Turtle Bay, we did the kayak tour which was great, and explored Haleiwa, and the amazing food trucks by Shark's Cove. We ended up upgrading to the Beach Cottages at Turtle Bay for our last two nights and they were incredible. You are literally steps from the ocean, and have a private patio where we hung out a bit. It felt almost like we did two different islands as the experiences were so different. We would do this again if we were only going to be on one Island.

 

[bamagirl@hrt]

I'd stay at Aulanii for the week. When we went, we had 9 nights on Oahu. We stayed 7 at Aulani, and then moved to the Embassy Suites Waikiki for the last two nights to be close to Diamond Head and Waikiki. The Embassy Suites was very nice - we were even upgraded to a two bedroom suite- but it felt like vacation was over when we left Aulani. While it was nice being closer to Diamond Head, Honolulu felt pretty much like any other big city we've visited. Same high end stores and junky t-shirt shops. Same chain restaurants (We don't necessarily go for fine dining establishments on vacation, but love good local places). Just on a beach.

 

[Iamaplanner]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. Will do the full week at Aulani. We will stay at Honua Kai for the week in Maui. Now that we have both the air and hotels arranged, t's time to plan the smaller details!