Hawaii Aulani for first trip?

["Cinder" Ella's Mom]

Looks like everyone has the same opinion. If this is your first visit to Hawaii, Aulani is not the place you want to stay for your home base. Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful resort. I have booked and cancelled there several times!! However for the price you would pay I always end up back at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (Ali'i tower). As someone else has said....Honolulu is not Waikiki. Honolulu is a big city with lots of high rise buildings and office buildings. Waikiki is a stretch of beach with lots of hotels and restaurants. Many of the hotels are high rise as well. Trading in timeshare weeks can be difficult in Hawaii since it is such a popular destination. If you take your Aulani budget and do a bit of research you should be able to find a very nice beach front hotel room in Waikiki. One thing that is so appealing about staying in Waikiki is the walkability to great restaurants, beaches, entertainment,etc. You will not have that at Aulani. You will need to drive to do any shopping or visit restaurants outside of the resort.

We stayed in the Ali'i tower at Hilton Hawaiaan Village for our honeymoon 16 years ago. It was an amazing resort!!

 

[gumbypee]

Ok so one night is really a thousand bucks?!?!?! Please tell me that is a joke. I am doing a cruise down there ( unfortunately not dis) and ill have a day afterwards. I really wanted to see this resort. Can you go and do activities if not staying there?

 

[amym2]

Ok so one night is really a thousand bucks?!?!?! Please tell me that is a joke. I am doing a cruise down there ( unfortunately not dis) and ill have a day afterwards. I really wanted to see this resort. Can you go and do activities if not staying there?

You can get a regular hotel room or studio for under $500, but a two-bedroom villa will run you $1000. That's why we joined the DVC. You can eat at the restaurants, shop, and use the beach (all beaches in Hawaii are public), but to use the pool you must be staying at Aulani. Anyone can also use spa services. Not sure about the activities. I know only guests can use the kids club.

 

[Fuhnuh]

We've been to Aulani three times and have reservations for trips in June and November. Depending on the length of our trips, we have stayed anywhere from 2-5 nights and enjoyed them all. We have spent the remainder of our time staying in Waikiki and have done all of our touring while staying in Waikiki. Two nights and three days at Aulani seems to be the sweet spot for us. We stayed 5 nights our first time which while enjoyable interfered a bit with our plans to visit other parts of the island. Most of the island is pretty accessible from Waikiki if you are not traveling with traffic patterns. We found it easy to get to the North Shore and Windward sides of the island from there. Maui is beautiful, but there is a lot of sightseeing to do on Oahu. Enough that I never feel trapped when on an Oahu only trip.

 

[MissMet]

We are planning a trip in August. Trying to decide if we want to stay 4 nights@ Aulani then fly to Maui for 4 or 5 nights. OR Do the NCL PRide of America cruise and then stay at Aulani for 3 nights after the cruise. ANy thoughts......

My parents & I, years ago, did 4 days on Oahu & then the Pride of America & loved it.

Now my husband & I are leaving Friday visiting Hawaii (his first time) & we'll be spending 8 nights on Oahu (5 nights Aulani, 3 nights Waikiki) & a week on POA. It's the best way to get a taste of everything Hawaii has to offer without moving from hotel to hotel or dealing with a lot of wasted travel time.

I highly recommend POA, just know that's it's not the "typical" cruise experience & more a "floating hotel".