Halekulani Review

Service

The people who work here are the reason I'd come back, and I think it's the best service in Waikiki. They're warm without being showy and they never rush you. Pool and room service do slow down when the hotel is full, so bring a little patience in a busy week.

It's the small things I like most. Housekeeping visits twice a day, there's a different little gift at turndown each night, and if your flight lands early or leaves late, there's a hospitality suite with showers so you're not stuck in yesterday's clothes. You also get free entry to several Honolulu museums, which is a lovely touch for a beach hotel.

Rooms

The rooms are fresh and restful, but what you see from them depends on what you pay. The hotel calls the look seven shades of white, and I find it very calming after a day in the sun. Everything was redone during the 2020 and 2021 closure, and every room has a lanai and a deep soaking tub.

The entry-level Garden Courtyard rooms are small for the money with no ocean view at all, and I wouldn't book one hoping for an upgrade. Ask for a Diamond Head Oceanfront room on a high floor, because that's the view you've seen in the photographs.

Food and drink

This is where Halekulani pulls ahead of most beach hotels, and my favourite thing is the simplest. A Mai Tai at House Without A Key at sunset, under an old kiawe tree with live Hawaiian music and hula every evening, is the one thing I'd make sure you do. It gets busy with people who aren't staying, so book ahead.

La Mer, the grand French restaurant upstairs, is a real occasion with a price to match, at around $325 a person for the tasting menu. It's open Tuesday to Saturday only, and the dress code means a collared shirt, long trousers and proper shoes.

Orchids, down by the water, does breakfast and lunch, and its Sunday brunch is worth planning your weekend around. After dinner I'd go up to Lewers Lounge for a cocktail and the live jazz.

Setting

I think of Halekulani as a pool-and-sunset hotel, because the beach in front of it has mostly washed away. Depending on the tide there's a small patch of sand or none, and the hotel doesn't set out beach chairs. You can still swim from there, and the wide sandy part of Waikiki is a few minutes' walk along the shore.

What you get instead is a quiet five-acre garden in a very busy neighbourhood. The pool has a huge orchid picked out in glass mosaic on the bottom and a view straight across the water to Diamond Head, but it's a single pool and it fills up.

Value

Not at the entry rate, which gets you one of the small courtyard rooms. Rooms start at around $700 a night in the quieter months, and the ocean-facing ones I'd book are usually well over $1,000. There's no resort fee, which is rare in Waikiki and a real saving over a week, and the hotel often runs a fourth-night-free offer. Parking is $68 a night, though, so I'd skip the hire car unless you really need it.

If you want a wide beach for that money, look at the Four Seasons at Ko Olina or the Kahala. For an ocean-facing room and that Mai Tai at sunset, though, it's a splurge I think is worth making.