The Royal Hawaiian, A Luxury Collection Resort

The hotel is amazing. The surf unbelievable. The mai tai bar is such a cool quaint way to end the day. Darrell S is amazing. Try the Mule and the Cauliflower wings at sunset. Cheers. We met so many friendly people. The atmosphere is not snobby. We really enjoyed our stay.

If you want sleek and shiny - don’t stay here. This is an historic hotel, lots of uniqueness and extremely well run. We stayed under the American Express platinum/centurion fine hotels and resorts program. This is our 2nd trip to this particular property. We had a lovely oceanfront lofted suite, clean nice large bathrooms, very nice. Don’t go cheap on the rooms and we recommend that you do a package that includes breakfast daily. Otherwise it will cost you $100/couple for breakfast. The staff is exemplary- from bellmen to check in to housekeeping - the pool/beach staff - everyone is just so helpful and accommodating. They just seem to take pride in what they do - which is 5 star service in a Great historic hotel. Note: beach chair reservations - make them early - or they fill up. It does cost to reserve chairs and it’s worth it. Enjoy!

The Royal Hawaiian Hotel is historic, holds prime majestic position on a world famous beach and is five star hotel. Many hotels around the world can claim similar attributes, but this hotel has something that very few others can claim - the Spirit of Aloha. I am a return guest of this very special hotel, and each visit reminds me without reservation, that the people that work there are the reason this property is a standout in the competitive luxury hotel market. Every associate interaction is greeted with warmth and excellent genuine service that not only makes me feel so very welcome but also appreciated. My room was in the historic wing of the hotel which was built in 1927 (a complete refurbishment of the hotel was completed in 2009). My room had beautiful uninterrupted view of Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head. The high ceilings and classic interior of the room took me back to a more glamours time. It was spacious, very well appointed with a super comfortable bed. The bathroom had an operable window with a beach view also - a real treat whilst showering. All public areas of the hotel are airy and regal, you feel you are somewhere special. You can almost not believe the noise and vibrant activity of Kalakaua Ave, which is just a stone throw away from The Royal Hawaiian, disappears as soon as you cross the threshold onto the hotel property. It is a serene oasis with lush tranquil gardens. The gentle trade winds bring the coconut palms to life and almost seem to whisper to you the proud knowledge they hold of the legendary guests and royalty that have walked these grounds before you. The Mai Tai Bar is a must, to not only enjoy the famous cocktail they are named after, but to witness what I call "Mai Tai Magic". The team behind the bar are masters of their craft, but also great story tellers. It is a great spot to witness sunset each evening. Even a solo visitor will feel part of this family. Azure Restaurant has never disappointed me. It is a premium offer and you will pay for the experience, but it is well worth it. If travelling solo I highly recommend sitting at the Azure bar to eat. The bar staff will take you on a culinary journey with wines to match that you will never forget. The Royal Hawaiian is the only hotel (that I know of) that offers food and beverage service on the beach. I strongly advise booking your beach chairs and umbrella in advance of your visit as they do sell out quickly. The Waikiki Beach Boys are at hand to set you up with ample towels and advice on surfing and swimming. If you enjoy history, I highly recommend taking the Historic Tour of the hotel. Its free and offers wonderful insight into a bygone era. Overall, this hotel is well worth a visit whilst on Oahu. Shopping, restaurants, cafes and many other things are within walking distance. The location on Waikiki Beach is the best of any of the other hotels and the people that work there will captivate you with The Spirit of Aloha and you will be coming back again and again like me.

We stayed for 3 nights in a Mailani Tower Loft Suite. I wasn't able to find any reviews about this particular suite before I booked, so I thought I'd come back and share. When we arrived and went to the check in desk, we were told that the Mailani Tower had its own desk. We were lucky someone was there to check us in, as we noticed during our stay that the desk was not staffed all that often. We were given our room, and ventured down the hall with the bellman. When we entered the room, we found that while it had 2 beds downstairs and a king upstairs (as described on the website), there was no bathroom downstairs. This was a huge problem for us, as 82 year old Grandma can't be going up and down steep stairs in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I had called the Royal Hawaiian before booking this room to make CERTAIN that the room would have 2 toilets (I was aware that the only shower would be upstairs). I went back to the desk, and the person working seemed surprised that there was no bathroom downstairs. She had to call someone to find out which of the suites had the extra half bath. The good news is that she found one for us, so we switched rooms. As we got familiar with the suite, we realized how incredibly poorly designed they are. We had 4 people sharing the suite (my husband & I upstairs, Grandma and my son downstairs). There were no drawers downstairs at all. This made it impossible for the downstairs guests to ever unpack and get settled. There was also nowhere to sit, other than on the beds themselves. Not a single chair or sofa in the entire suite, upstairs or downstairs. There was narrow floating shelf under the TV downstairs, and a beat up dresser upstairs...but there were barely any flat surfaces to put stuff on. What little furniture there was was old and worn. Other than over the sink, there was no mirror in the room; what "luxury" hotel has no full length mirror? There was no door separating the bathroom from the upstairs bedroom (just a door to where the toilet was). The was an overly complicated Toto toilet upstairs; I'm sure some like it, but I found it to be uncomfortable and weird. The toilet paper holder was coming out of the wall (needed repair). The shower head attachment leaked and sprayed everywhere; we tried tightening it, but were unsuccessful. The shower itself was gigantic, but there was no clothes line to dry wet swim stuff; seems like a poor use of space. All of the plugs upstairs were next to one side of the bed; if you were sleeping on the other side, you could forget plugging in any of your devices. We had A/C problems because it would be freezing downstairs and hot upstairs. This made it difficult to sleep. As others have mentioned, the pool is very small...but you do have access to the Sheraton next door if you are so inclined. I was shocked to find that we weren't allowed to use the beach chairs and umbrellas, though. We were paying a big resort fee -- for that, we got lots of bottled water...but I'm not sure what else. We stayed at Aulani after The Royal Hawaiian...no resort fee at Aulani, and all of the beach chairs, umbrellas, boogie boards, etc. were at no charge. The beds were comfortable. The breakfast in the morning was not great the first day, but was better on subsequent days. We liked the twice daily housekeeping. The location on Waikiki beach was great. Overall, the property itself was nothing terrible...but not "luxury" by any means. The design of the suite, however, was ridiculously poor...there was simply no way to get comfortable in that room, and I would not book it again.

Come to to Royal Hawaiian to see the beautiful architecture! As one of the oldest hotels on Oahu it doesn't disappoint. The main entry, lobby and hallways are all stunning. We had two rooms in the historic tower and were pleasantly surprised with the tasteful renovations. The beds were great, the colors of the decor complementary, and the bathrooms (although very small) were very functional. The garden room we had was larger than the ocean room, with a nice sitting area off to the back. Both rooms had enormous closets, and I would suggest that a future renovation reduce the size of the closets and give some space to the bathrooms. The air conditioning worked well for an old hotel. This hotel is on the beach, but I wouldn't really consider it a beach hotel, as the beach is very shallow and very short. We also had an ocean view, but it was more of a "roof view" in my opinion, with a small window that was chained to barely open. Also, if you are looking for a pool head elsewhere...the pool is a 20 foot round pool and very crowded. Waikiki Beach is fantastic though, and we enjoyed watching the surfers and checking out the shops. The location of the hotel is within walking distance to hundreds of top notch eateries and high end shops. If you are coming for the experience of classic Waikiki you will not be disappointed.