If your dream Waikiki holiday revolves around your hotel and the entertainment it provides for you then I can tell you now, you will be miserable at the Waikiki Parc hotel.
If ~ on the other hand ~ you enjoy a tranquil atmosphere and peace and quiet, this one might just be the find of the century.

I had been wanting to go to Hawaii for ... well ... forever, and as I sign up to any travel newsletter I can find, I am always receiving 'special deal ' e-mails. I was determined we were going to be visiting Hawaii this year and when I got the e-mail for the Waikiki Parc package I decided to book it.

The deal we got was a 5 night package ( with 6th night free as it turned out ), free breakfast, parking and return flights to New Zealand with Air New Zealand, all for the reasonable asking price of (NZ)$1649 ~ halve that for US currency.

I hopped on the net and did a few searches and was disappointed to find that not much had been written about this particular hotel, a few reviews I read mentioned that the rooms were small and that was all I could find out.
The hotel website looked good though but then ... don't they always.
The over-riding theme was that The Waikiki Parc was a small, deluxe, boutique hotel for the discerning traveller. Hey I can be discerning from time to time ... sounded great.

ARRIVAL

Our old banger of a taxi pulled up at the doors of the hotel around midnight on a quiet Sunday night. The two valets attending the front of the hotel helped us get our bags out of the taxi and offered to take our luggage, as we only had two suitcases and they both had wheels, we turned down their offer.

We realised as we entered through the automatic doors that we probably should have tipped them ... never mind, it was too late now.

LOBBY

We walked down the wide corridor which had hotel merchandise displayed in lit glass display cases on the wall, I didn't find any need to buy coffee cups or clothing with the Waikiki Parc Hotel Logo all over it but I guess there must be a market for it or they wouldn't display it.

We rounded the corner and came to the huge reservation counter where we were welcomed to the hotel by a softly spoken gentleman. I left Mr H to deal with the paperwork while I headed to the sitting area to rest my weary feet ... damn boots were feeling tight in the Honolulu heat.

The seated area could have fit a whole tour bus full of people quite comfortably and over our time at the hotel I did see quite a lot of people arrive together and the lobby never appeared overcrowded at all.

We were given our room keys and ironed out the fact that we had our room for 6 nights and not the 5 that we thought, we headed off to the elevators around the corner.

As it turns out the 6th night was perfect as we had a mid-night flight and had been assuming we would have to use the hotels Hospitality Room on the last day.

The three elevators were all empty so it was straight on and we were whisked up to the 15th floor in a flash.

OUR ROOM

We opened the door to room 1506 and were enveloped in the cool air-conditioning which was very refreshing. The room was lit by an overhead light in the small entranceway, a large lamp on a coffee table in the corner and two bedside lamps ~ lovely.

I would have loved a cup of tea or coffee but there was no coffee pot or kettle or anything for that matter, room service closed at 10:30 pm so that was out.

I read the hotel blurb and found that I could get ice on my floor but if I wanted water or soda, I had to go down to the 14th floor or up to the 16th, it seems that every alternate floor had either ice or a drinks machine.

I did a quick orientation of the fire exits before shutting the door and falling asleep.

I slept well that first night in the comfy and exceedingly large king size bed. It was the best sleep I had the whole 5 nights as on the subsequent nights I kept being woken by the loud humming of the air conditioners of the surrounding hotels. If it wasn't the air conditioners waking me it was the sirens of the Honolulu Police Department who seemed to incessantly chase cars and pushbikes up and down Kalakaua Avenue, the main drag of waikiki.

Our room was fine for the 5 day stay, it was small but not too small. Just your typical hotel room with the bed and writing desk along one wall, a sitting area and huge armoire and luggage rack along the other.

The armoire hid the TV and small fridge behind doors as well as having 6 decent sized drawers, I unpacked our bags and had more than enough room in the drawers and roomy wardrobe.

There was a safe in the wardrobe that we could use for a daily charge of $3:95, we didn't bother though and just locked our laptop, cash and the like in one of the suitcases whenever we left the room.

A hairdryer and torch , iron and ironing board were also in the closet. The doors of the wardrobe doubled as the full length mirror and across the way was the bathroom.

The bathroom was reasonably roomy with a bath and shower combo.The hot water never ran out and it was great to relax my weary bones in the bathtub after a hard day's sight-seeing.

The loo had an annoying rail around it which took a bit of getting used to, there was also a second phone in the bathroom. There wasn't overly much room around the handbasin so we kept our toiletries together in the toilet bags rather then spread around the bathroom.

The freebies were minimal ... moisturizer, shampoo, conditioner, shower cap and tissues.
The bath soap was great quality though, two large cakes ... one bath soap, the other hand soap which lasted the whole time.
I should have popped them in my bag when we left as I know they would throw them out and the soap really was lovely but I forgot.

There was a list of things that 'if required ' were available from housekeeping. There was no mention of a charge but the the list contained such things as coffee pot, bath robes, slippers, bottle warmer, hot pot (?) and heaps more.

I think that just about covers the room ... no, wait on.

The view was pretty damn dull.

The lovely white shutters folded back to reveal a small balcony, when we opened the ranch sliders and went out it was just big enough for two to stand on. If you leaned forward and looked left you got a small view of the sea, looking right was the top of the Sheraton Waikiki's rooftop car park, another hotels pool and lots of tall buildings and straight ahead were the roomy balconies of the Imperial Hotel.
We used to look over jealously at the people lounging on their balconies, and we could see that they had one bedroom suites to live in for their holiday. No doubt they paid for the luxury.

The room had the usual bits and bobs... phone, clock / radio, interactive keyboard that I never did work out how to use ... where's a teenager when you need one.
Never mind, I got by without having to rent a movie or play games while we were there and, as there was a regular remote that I did know how to use, I got by very well.

RESTAURANT

We headed down to breakfast in the Parc Cafe restaurant every morning, back to the lobby in the elevators and straight ahead, past the toilets and the entrance to the KACHO japanese restaurant and there it is.

We were greeted and shown to a table by the same woman every morning, the waiter was always different though.
As soon as we got to our table the waiter appeared and offered coffee or tea.
The breakfast was buffet style and covered just about everything.
Cereals, oatmeal porridge, fruit and yogurt, toast ( you had to make the toast) and preserves, croissants and other pastries, fresh fruit juices and even tortilla's, salsa and sour cream.
The hot food was alternated between bacon, sausage, french toast, hash browns, scrambled eggs and bacon, some mushy meat looking thing, scrambled egg, pancakes and chunky cut fried potatoes.

I always made a point of filling up at breakfast being the cheapskate that I am.

We didn't eat at the restaurant any other time, the one time I would have liked to was the HAWAIIAN BUFFET on the Wednesday night but we were not the least bit hungry after having a plate lunch at Aloha Stadium that day.

REST OF THE LOBBY

Heading out of the restaurant and across the way was the BUSINESS CENTRE area which consisted of a small conference room and a computer room. There were two computers for the guests to use but I don't know how much they charged as we used our laptop in our room for a charge of 75c local call to access the internet.

From here it was straight outside to the Kalia Road entrance of the hotel. This was the entrance used for heading to the beach or the car park and by customers to the restaurant.

GUEST FACILITIES

We had a quick look around at the pool, fitness room and roof top deck but didn't use any of them. The 8th floor was the car park roof top floor and the extra space was utillized well.
The pool was on the sunny side of the roof and was well supplied with lounge chairs. A cabana area had pool towels and beach towels available for the guests and a cold drink machine.
The doors to the pool were locked at 8pm which was a bit annoying, no late swims at this hotel.

The fitness room was accessible with your room key, we went for a play in here one day when the maid was doing our room, the machines were all foreign to me as we don't have a gym on the farm, I jumped on the treadmill and worked out the touch controls and then onto the bike thing. Hubby tried the weights and just about did himself an injury.
The room was small and would only take a couple of people at a time, there were towels and a water cooler at the door as well as a stereo for playing your workout CD's.
The fitness room's huge darkened windows looked directly over the pool.

The shady side of the roof top (our rooms side) was a nice lounge area. Three were potted palms, loungers and shaded loungers for the sunny part. I don't know if this was locked at night like the pool though.

If you didn't fancy using the hotels laundry service there was a Guest Laundry on the 9th floor. Two coin operated washers and driers were available for the guests use, you could get washing powder and coins from the machines on the wall.



LOCATION.

I found the location to be just about perfect, the beach was about a 30 second stroll away and Kalakaua Avenue about 3 minutes, less if you cut through the Sheratons carpark which took you straight out to the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Centre.

If you went the long way round and didn't take the shortcut you found yourself on Lewers Street.
You could get just about everything you needed here so didn't really need to venture too much further if you didn't feel like it.
ABC stores, pharmacies, a jazz bar (Lewers St Lanai and Bar) that was a great place for a beer at the end of the night and a great bar /restaurant... The Waikiki Broiler and Longboard Bar. A good place to have dinner with good value and tasty meals along with music.

There was a Denny's on the corner and a McDonald's a few shops down Kalia if the kids start complaining or if you feel like a burger ... do enjoy the free pineapple treat they give you with your Big Mac, mmmm mmm.


PARKING
We hired a car for three days and enjoyed the complimentary car parking, we did incur a $2 fee when we had to use the valet because the lot was full. The self parking starts on the 5th floor and runs to the 7th so we were surprised to see the LOT FULL sign. I assume it was folks using the lot while visiting either the beach or the restaurant.
Access from the lot is via an elevator that takes you to the outside of the hotel so you have a short way to walk to the Kalia Rd entrance.

We had no problems working the one-way road system to and from the hotel, it was just a matter of working in squares everytime you wanted to go somewhere.


SERVICE

The staff at the Waikiki Parc were delightful. They were always very polite and friendly and would attend to any needs or enquiries in a friendly manner. You felt like a guest rather than a pest.
We used the concierge services to book a tour and they were very helpful, telling us all we needed to know about the different companies and tours available.
The maid that tended to our room was also delightful, she always had a cheery smile and even though we left a tip, she never took it.
We ended up having to leave some cash behind when we checked out of the room.

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If you do require more of a resort feel to your holiday hotel, the Waikiki Parc's sister hotel is the upmarket Halekulani, straight across the road. The Parc's guests have room signing privileges at the Halekulani and are welcome to use the restaurants and bars there anytime.

I really enjoyed my stay at this hotel but now that I have got my bearings of Waikiki, I will probably go for a cheaper package deal next time, if only to save a few hundred dollars.

If I was staying just a couple of nights though I would definitely go for Waikiki Parc experience. If money is no object to you, try the Waikiki Parc out, at least once.

Facts and figures

Waikiki Parc Hotel
2233 Helumoa Road
Honolulu, Hawaii 96815-1962

PH (808) 921-7272 * FAX (808) 923-1336

Toll Free. (800) 422-0450 USA & Canada

www.waikikiparc.com

Packages are available which include discounted rooms and complimentary rental car, check out the website.
















Recommended: Yes