Hale Koa Hotel — Hotel in Honolulu

Families with children, please beware. We live on Oahu and come to the Hale Koa once a year for a fun family getaway. The food is delicious and restaurant staff are so nice. The housekeepers are also so kind and hardworking! Unfortunately, our latest stay was very stressful thanks to the overbearing pool staff who seemed to go out of their way to target children and families, while turning blind eyes to the adults and their overflowing alcoholic beverages. ||I have no problem with staff strictly enforcing rules for the safety of guests, but this should be done consistently for ALL guests and ALL rules. Apparently they are under new management (overheard from other guests also remarking about their policies), and now the “family-friendly” main pool allows not only resort-purchased alcohol at the pools’ edges, but also COOLERS full of alcohol brought from home. On our first day, the hot tub was like a frat party with literally every adult drinking. Another day, a man rolled up with his cooler and speaker playing music and commented that the lifeguards are “chill” about it and said that although he’s supposed to use earbuds, they wouldn’t say anything if he kept it on the down low. Meanwhile, the staff are completely intolerant and exercise zero discretion when it comes to children and families. We didn’t realize we needed every child listed on the reservation to access the pool, and they refused to even let my son join my husband in the pool area until we rectified it at the front desk. They aggressively blow their whistle and yell at children for every little infraction, as if they were intentional. They also make kids get our the pool for 15 min at the top of every hour to rest. All this in the name of “safety,” yet they consciously choose to let adults make the space a playground for themselves. The hot tub rules specifically say that users should not be under the influence of alcohol and that food/drinks are not allowed in the hot tub, yet every day that we were there, there were numerous adults drinking and having their beverages and coolers right at the tub’s edge. ||This is MADDENING for us families who are simply trying to enjoy a nice getaway. My children were so stressed out about being yelled at, “watched,” and targeted while they observed adults allowed to behave like they were college kids on spring break. There is already an adults-only pool AND and elevated adults-only area at the main pool—please keep the rest of the pools safe and welcoming for families. We truly felt targeted as a family with young kids. Or maybe they particularly had their eyes on us because we are kama`aina (locals) rather than tourists. My kids are strong swimmers who simply wanted to enjoy the slides and pools. It’s wrong that they could not enjoy that, especially since it was not at all crowded. Hale Koa, please do better for your...

Beautiful room and thank you, Emily!||We have stayed at Hale Koa many times over the years - usually in an Ocean View (OV) room. Since the expansion of eligibility to VA & PH patrons, it is a bit busier and booked up further in advance. On this trip, the best room available was a POV. These are usually the same as OV, but located further away from the beach. We were assigned to our room, but unfortunately the view was not only a “glimpse”, but you had to walk around the corner of your balcony to see it. I appreciate that they originally assigned us a corner room with a wrap-around balcony, but my wife really wanted to be able to see the ocean while she read. We were going to be there for 21 nights, so I went to the front desk to see if a change was possible.||Then I met Emily. She was delightful and competent. I explained the situation and she worked with her manager. Collectively, they moved reservations around and gave us another room. The room was outstanding. We were the second room closest to the water on the 14th floor of Ilima tower. Awesome views, quiet, glimpses of the luau entertainment, and shaded 3/4 of the day. Thanks, Emily for making our stay awesome.||Regarding Hale Koa. Yes, it is showing its age. Built in the 1970s it is a little outdated. But the maintenance and continuous updating keep the grounds and common areas pristine. Speaking of grounds, Hale Koa offers a larger piece of land than Hilton Hawaiian next door. The Hilton has several thousand rooms, while Hale Koa has about 800. 2 pools (1 is kind of a water park for kids), several places to eat and the barefoot bar.||Tips: Happy’s Fast and Fresh is a great value for dinner. Their specials change each night and include things like Kalua pork with cabbage, salmon with honey nut sauce, spaghetti, lasagne, pot roast, etc. The secret is 1 meal is plenty for a couple of seniors, especially if you add a cup of pineapple or watermelon. You can take the food to the barefoot bar and have it with a couple of reasonable priced Mai Tais and live music.||Koko’s at Kalia is also a great onsite pick for buffet breakfast. Look up their daily menu - All of them are great, but our favorites are Tuesday and Wednesday (macadamia pancakes, Portuguese sausage, steak eggs Benedict).||Bibas is fine, but happy hour food portions are pretty small. Drink prices are the same as barefoot bar.||A great resource is the on-site PX, where you can get a good selection of wine, premixed OTR cocktails, Maui Onion chips, Tori Richard’s shirts, and even a few healthy food items:-)||Gym is excellent but not huge.||Overall, if you qualify, this is a great choice for Waikiki. Rates run from about $189 to $395 including all fees and taxes.||Note: if you have friends who qualify to stay here they can “sponser” up to 2 additional rooms during the their stay.||Love...

Bear with me on this one. A lot of ground to cover.

First off, if you're reading this review, you probably already know it's a military and DoD hotel. General public can't stay here. If that's you, look elsewhere.

For military and DoD, consider the Hale Koa to be the Navy Lodge of Waikiki and you won't be disappointed. Feels like a military retirement home. I was asked a half dozen times what my service and platform was. I'm retired. I don't want to talk about the military anymore.

The hotel itself is dated. Rooms are dated. Building looks like something from the 1970s. Layout was weird, did a lot of wandering to find things. There's an exchange, nail salon, couple restaurants and plenty of bars. Food at the buffet was okay, but again, felt like eating at a base galley. I'm sure that's by design.

PLEASE....update the mattresses, bedding and pillows. One of the most uncomfortable beds I've ever slept on, and that includes time in Iraq. Also, I walked into the bathroom door twice in the dark, you'll see why. Lights in the shower/toilet area are motion activated, so be ready for that. Water pressure was awesome!

The pool.....hours are 10 to 5. That includes the spa. 5pm?!? First time I've ever heard of a "resort" pool closing two hours before sunset. There's an "adult only" pool closer to the hotel, with a larger pool closer to the ocean. The gen-pop pool also has an 18-and-up infinity pool with a nice view. Enjoyed that. Nice kids area with water slides and features.

Beach was great. There's a limited number of beach chairs and umbrellas, beware that the hotel doesn't supply beach towels (exchange sells them). You can also rent water equipment like kayaks and stand up paddle boards.

Snorkeling right offshore wasn't great, too much churn and plenty of small breaking waves. Water was cloudy, not much to see. Save the snorkeling for other locations around the island.

Parking is $22 a day. Three-story parking structure is across the street. Plan to do lots of walking, wear comfortable shoes.

Pro-tip: drive up to the third floor, park near the elevator. Plenty of open spots up top. For some reason, people loved driving in circles and blocking traffic on the first floor.

Last, during our trip mid-October 2024, there's a labor protest out front of the Hilton next door. Drums, noisemakers, and bullhorns from 6am to 10pm. VERY loud. If you have PTSD, ever did time as a POW, or went to SERE school, this may trigger you.

Andrew at the check in desk was awesome. Great dude.

Overall, I get the allure of a military-only resort and saving a few bucks was nice. But, I probably won't...