Big Island Hilton Options

Hilton Ocean Tower - we stayed here 2 nights early in our visit.  This was planned.  Ocean Tower is the farthest lodging option accessible by a tram of art hallway walk.  This is a bit of a pain moving in/out with luggage.  But you still get full access to the resort amenities at a more reasonable cost.  The rooms are so-so, though with our Hilton Gold status we did get access to free laundry facilities and a late checkout time.  If you like hanging out by the pool or salt-water lagoon, stay here.  Otherwise, skip it.  

view from our room.  

bathroom vanity.

closet

bathroom

mini-fridge.  No microwave.

King bed and front door

king bed and couch view

Hilo DoubleTree by Hilton. -  We booked here last minute after our 3rd AirBNB fiasco.  Our status got us preferred room location (specifically a 10th floor ocean view).  Our room had both mini-fridge/freezer and a microwave.  The shower even had a mirrored glass wall so you could see the ocean FROM the shower.  We easily walked from our hotel along Banyon Tree Drive and over to Coconut Island.  I'd stay here again, though it was expensive.  Kee was apparently 'over it' and took exactly - pictures OF our room.  

ours was the third floor from the top, 5th window from the right.

View from our room.

Coconut Island

Statue and view of the ocean from our hotel lobby.

Kings Land by Hilton -  We didn't mean to book here.  It was a last minute booking error, but alas.  Kings Land is the Hilton properties that are technically part of Waikoloa Village (where Oceans Tower is located at the end), but Kings Land are about a half mile to a mile away and are nearer a golf course.  King's Land are condos (mostly vacation rentals).  The space we stayed in at Kings Land was lovely, however, the staff couldn't care less if we are frequent Hilton guests.  They were not having a late checkout beyond 11 am.  Also, check-in time is 4:00 and pretty strict.  In most hotels, if you arrive early, we've round they'll put you in some room a bit early within reason.  Not so much here.  We literally killed almost 2 hours waiting for our unit to be ready.  Each unit has an in-unit washer/dryer.  We're guessing they get a-lot of Japanese visitors.  Ours also had toilets like we're used to seeing in Japan.   GREAT space.  Poor(ish) location and services.  The hospitality suite (see separate post) was a nice perk, however the annoyance of an outdoor airport almost made it moot. 

Front door - Hilton clean

Full Kitchen (dining room table barely visible too)

vanity

shower and fancy toilet

living room and balcony

bedroom

Don's Chinese Kitchen - Manapua

One of the 'must-try' foods in Hawaii is Manapua.  Google told us we could get this from Don's Chinese Kitchen in Waimea.  When we found it, it was a food court Chinese joint, but they did list Manapua on the menu so we ordered two and crossed our fingers.

Manapua is a pork stuffed bun.  And per Kee .... it is AMAZING.  At least the version from Don's was. 

Oh look, people in masks ... turns out its not that hard to comply with the law! 

See the second item under appetizer!

The filling was a bit sweet, but porkey.  

Later we visited another, Hilo, restaurant called Lees Chopped Suey which *apparently* also has good Manapua.  It was *fine* ... but Kee prefers Don's Chinese Kitchen.  

Waikoloa Petroglyph Field

Nestled among the hotels, condos, golf courses, and pools of Waikoloa Village is and ancient foot trial and the Waikoloa Petroglyph Field.  We walked a section of this trial and viewed the Petroglyph field Monday morning as we visited Starbucks for a quick pick-me-up. If you're visiting Waikoloa Village and will not make it down to Volcanos National Park etc; I highly recommend this as a semi-authentic taste of the Big Island OFF the resort.  

Petroglphs.

That said, our walk was hot and sunny and miserable.  Get up early, stay up late, and siesta during the heat of the day if you're staying by the coast.  

Hospitality Suite

During our stay at Ocean Tower, the wonderful front desk worker mentioned they offered a locker room where you could shower etc for a late flight after an early check out of your room.  When we checked into Kings Land we inquired about similar amenities.  (at that time we still thought they were next door to each other).  Apparently Kings Land offers Hospitality suites that serve this same purpose and we were able to reserve one for 7:30 pm before our 11:45 pm flight home.  

The suite far exceeded our expectations.  It was two rooms.  One with a tv, small table, chairs and couch.  Oh, and AC.

A door on the far end of this sitting room led to the bathroom.

One side was a large shower and opposite a small vanity with the necessities provided. 

We prepared here for our long flight(s) back home and were able to start the upcoming 14-16 hours of travel fresh and clean.  Admittedly that was difficult to maintain while waiting on our first flight at the outdoor Kona airport ... but alas.  

 

Mauna Kea Lu'au

On our last full night in Hawaii we went to a Luau!  The one we 'chose' was at the Mauna Kea hotel and resort.  We 'chose' it because it was on the day we had available and had tickets available.  Apparently you should book your luau early.  We had purchased tickets to another luau about a week previously, but it was subsequently canceled due to high winds.  Our disastrous 3rd AirBNB and the relocation that came from that allowed us another go. 

The setting was beautiful and thanks to COVID, we enjoyed a private table and no buffet!  

The remainder of this post is all food.  Kee left the event overstuffed and feeling ill.  Hubby managed more wisely.  

After dinner there was a show with music and dancing.  It was fine.  There was also a fire dancer.  Apparently they're uptight about you taking pictures or videos of their hula or fire dancing.   

 

Goats

 We saw wild goats on the side of the road just north of Waikoloa Village.  We stopped and took some pictures.  Enjoy.