Hawaii-Oahu, Kuai advice PLEASE!!
 

Party of 6-Grandma, Grandpa, Son& wife and 2 childern (13 and 9) wanting to go to Oahu and/or Kuai. Will entertain going only to one destination, or into Oahu with a 2day excursion to Kuai. Need a decent pool on property, excursions close distances (will rent a van, no longer than an hour or so) and a walking-distance beach is a big plus. Have stayed at Outrigger on Big Island and like condo setting with close market to walk to, etc. NO HIGH RISES.
Going around Mar 20-28th, we are late in booking this, PLEASE SEND ADVICE!
Thank you a million times over!

Steph

On Kauai, I would recommend Kiahuna Planation. two-story buildings (Condos are one-story, either upper or lower) on gorgeous grounds and a great beach. Acros the street from a small shopping center with good restaurants, a few miles though from grocery stores.

Would you consider renting a house -- if so, I would look at Kailua Beach on Oahu. Magnificent beach and nice town, not too far from Diamond Head and Waikiki.

Thank you so much...I will check these out now. Have you stayed here?? Any other suggestions are MORE than welcome...we are a bit scrambled and need to book within the week! Thanks so much!

We stayed at Kiahuna when our kids were little (they're in their 20s now), but we stayed at the Marriott Waiohai a couple of summers ago, and walked through Kiahuna and to the beach, etc. Still lovely. In fact, the Marriott Waiohai is really nice too -- very upscale 2-bdr apartments with full kitchen. The grounds are beautiful, but very different from Kiahuna. The Marriott is set up in a narrow horseshoe shape, Kiahuna is also horseshoe shape but the lawns are broader. The pictures of both on tripadvisor (user's pix) are very accurate.

We didn't rent at Kailua. We were staying west of Pearl Harbor (at Ko Olina) but went to Kailua to go kayaking. It was a spectacular day, the kayaking was great, the beaches (Kailua and Lanikai) are gorgeous, and it's much less developed -- just a regular town that happens to have fantastic beaches. In tripadvisor, search for "Kailua Beach Park" and then look at the users' pix.

You're going to have a very difficult time finding a non-high-rise hotel in Waikiki/Honolulu on Oahu. You'll need to look to other parts of the island (which will be less convenient) if that's a deal-breaker for you.

Kuai-Checking out the Kiahuna Plantations...will check the Marriot also.
Oahu-will check Ko Olina...think Grandparents want to go to Pearl Harbor...thank SO much for advice...I am googling it all!

Suze, any recommendations on Oahu??

col4ever, note that although I really liked the Marriott Ko Olina Beach Resort itself, I really didn't like the Ko Olina location --- too out of the way, and the area around the resort itself (which encompasses the Marriott timeshare, JW Marriott Hotel, a private condo development, golf course, private homes) is not tropical/attractive. The closest town is like any suburb at home, with all the same fast food, big box stores, coffee chains, etc. You have to drive from there to get anywhere. The biggest problem there is that there will be nothing that your kids can do on their own, but given their ages, maybe that's true everywhere. That said, the Marriott Ko Olina Beach Resort itself is a very nice resort.

The old part of the Royal Hawaiian hotel is only about 3 stories. I think Ko Olina is highrise.

Ko Olina is definitely not low-rise, but because of the way the property is laid out, it actually feels low-rise-ish.

gigib, thanks for the assistance...looked at photos, not really what I am looking for, being surrounded by high rises...am looking for more garden-style accommodations..maybe I need to look at other areas of Oahu, yes? Thanks

Steph- My personally experience with hotels on Oahu are all budget choices and all within central Waikiki (Sand Villa, Hawaiian King, The Breakers, Royal Grove, (the recently closed) Hawaiiana Hotel.

I'm thinking you want a nicer place, than where I usually stay for your family trip?

(to clarify) YES if you don't want to see high-rises around you, or even in the distance, you will need to look elsewhere on Oahu, not Honolulu/Waikiki. Which is tricky because most of what typical tourists and visitors want to see & do is in fact in the Honolulu area.

If you're only going to one island, then for the type of accommodations you're looking for, I'd still focus on Kauai, not Oahu. Are you interested in actual sightseeing? We don't do much sightseeing when we're in Hawaii, as the purpose of every trip there is rest and relaxation -- so in 10 trips, we've been to Diamond Head once, Pearl Harbor twice, Hana Road once, Halekala once, Waimea Canyon twice, Kalalau Trail once, and NEVER to the Polynesian Cultural Center, the Doris Duke estate, the Dole Pineapple thing...I'm sure you get the picture. Most days, it's hard to get me up from my chaise and book to take a walk!

So, I'd say the first thing is to decide what you want from this trip.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the pool at Kiahuna is across the street (away from the ocean) at the tennis club. That puts some people off, so I thought you should know.

I agree with sf7307, I think you will be more likely to find the kind of hotel and situation you seem to be looking for on Kauai, instead of Oahu.

ding, ding, ding...you are correct! We chose to focus on Kauai. Thanks for all of your above entries. We will look into options on Kauai...any advice is great! Have friends staying at the Marriot in Poipu then in Princeville for 4 nights(each about 45 min from the airport in different directions, right?). Is Lihue really busy? Waimea canyon? Coffee plantation tours? Spouting horn? Hanalei? Thanks for taking the time to send your advice...appreciated. We are going to try redweek to book a condo...good?

col4ever, I don't know what redweek is. However, please read my review (same screen name) on tripadvisor about the Marriott Waiohai. There is a "priority" to how they assign units - owners first, then exchangers, then renters, then people on promos. Although we own a Marriott timeshare elsewhere, in this case we were on a promo and the unit they gave us was not acceptable to me. Really, it shouldn't be acceptable to anyone -- I just do not know what they were thinking when they designed it this way. Basically, there are a couple of buildings that are actually oceanfront. Then everything else with even a glimpse of the ocean, however far away, is "ocean view". Beyond that, the rest are called "garden view". Well, the balcony in our "garden view" condo overlooked the parking lot -- the only "garden" we could see was if we looked out and over the parking lot). We gave them a lot of grief about it and they moved us into what was probably the next worst building/unit (i.e. farthest from the beach), but at least from the balcony our view was of the grounds in the interior of the horseshoe, which are spectacularly beautiful. I'm not at all trying to dissuade you from the Marriott Waiohai -- we loved it -- just want you to understand the hierarchy so you can deal with it!

sf7307,
Thanks for the warning...we are just looking into ideas of where to stay and my friend mentioned the Marriot...we really like the concept of the Outrigger condo we stayed in on The Big Island...right on the golf course (we r not golfers) but it was relaxing and pretty...that "garden view" I can deal with...any suggestions on where else to stay?? We heard that Lihue is WAY busy and Poipu is a good location as well as Princeville...any thoughts??? Thanks again.

col4ever, we've never stayed on the north or east sides of Kauai -- only Poipu. I think (don't quote me on this!) that most accommodations on the north shore are not ON the beach (very lush, fantastic views, but we like to be able to walk outside and be on the sand!). I've heard that the Marriott in Lihue (of course it's busier, but it's also central, which makes it easier to get both south and north) has a fantastic pool but not-so-great beach. However, I also read on here recently that there's construction going on right now, so it would depend when you're going.

sf7307...where did you stay in Poipu? Would you recommend it or not? Any suggestions on places to stay OR NOT to stay in Poipu? Did you do some siteseeing?? Where? Thanks for letting me ask all these questions of you. :)