Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - First trip to Hawaii

One thing to know about Volcano Village area is that it can be colder and wetter than Hilo.

For lodgings in Hilo, inexpensive is Dolphin Bay Hotel (book direct and you can chose your own room). They all are large with a Japanese style tub/shower, fans instead of A/C which was okay in December, don't know about May but I think the trade winds are pretty constant. The rooms have louvered windows. Noisy frogs. I loved it!

I am not a fan of the "back by canal" hotel locations in Waikiki although can't comment specifically on Vive. There are many so-called renovated (aka lipstick on a pig) hotels with tiny rooms. If you go that rouge try to get at least a mountain view over the canal as opposed to staring at some else's apartment.

I would keep on checking for specials closer to your travel dates and see if something with at la partial ocean or Diamond Head view pops up.

E.g. next month I have a booking at the Aston Waikiki Circle (across the road from the ocean) partial ocean view under $200 a night all in, excluding parking. They have no pool hence a lower resort fee. I think there were some recent price drops because of the strike activity and folks cancelled their trips so I grabbed that on refundable hold.

If you go direct to the hotel website you often can find third night free, waived or reduced "resort" or "amenity" fees, free or reduce parking, etc.. closer to your dates.

You can use Uber in Honolulu but personally I would rather have a car. Driving is not difficult other than listening to Google Maps to be sure you don't turn the wrong way down a one-way street. And traffic, always traffic. Another reason to not stay in the middle of Waikiki but rather one end or the other!!