A view to the west just before sunset as taken from the grounds of the Hilton Waikoloa Resort on Hawaii’s Big Island.
We spent the first week of our vacation at this hotel and, although the facilities are wonderful and the staff extremely friendly and helpful, we probably wouldn’t choose it again. The location is very much geared up for people who want to remain within the resort for their whole stay but we were really just interested in a base from which to launch day trips and the 20 minute trek to get from the room to the main reception area and parking lot was a bit much (they have tram and boat services running around the complex if you don’t want to walk but they don’t materially improve the time taken to get around).
Prior to staying here, I assumed that ”exclusive” meant that the resort would be extremely luxurious (which it is) but, on reflection, I now realise that this is actually the opposite of ”inclusive” – you pay for everything in the resort and, frankly, the prices are pretty exorbitant even by inflated Hawaiian standards ($7.95 for a latte?).