We decided to take a well-deserved vacation in November to Hilton Waikoloa Village on Hawaii Island. My other half, Lyle had just started his new hobby of golf and had never stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa. 

Great, now time to make a plan. If you’re anything like me then you like to do extensive research on a new place. But first things, first. We need to find out the basics – how will we get there?

We booked our flight through Hawaiian Airlines during one of their neighbor island sales for $89 a person for a roundtrip. At the time of my research in October 2022, the cheapest rent-a-car I could find was about $600 for a seven-day vacation. I checked Expedia, Costco, and even Turo. But looking at the self-parking rate of $39 a night at the Hilton parking lot, everything started to quickly add up.

So we decided to not rent a car and we would call a Taxi, Lyft, or Uber.

To make the most out of our stay, we developed an itinerary for our trip. By doing this, we were able to plan when and where we would need to call for a cab or car share.

We checked in at the Hilton and while there were a lot of changes, a lot of things stayed the same. Let me explain. The entryway, pools, and decor stayed pretty much the same. It was almost like we had jumped into a time machine and we were instantly transported to 2002.

However, we stayed at the recently renovated Ocean Tower. ICYMI a few years ago, the Hilton Waikoloa hotel was bought out by Hilton Grand Vacations, a timeshare company. Upon acquisition, the HGV decided to renovate the Ocean Tower. Now, about 60% of the tower is renovated and is dedicated timeshares to people from around the world. While the remaining rooms are left untouched and treated as hotel rooms for guests who agree to listen to a timeshare presentation. How do I know that? We listened to the presentation.

At the hotel

There are so many things to do at the Hilton Waikoloa Village Hotel!

During our stay, we had a couples massage at the Kohala Spa located in the Makai Tower. We stumbled upon it while we were exploring the property. We swam in every pool and lagoon which by the way I highly recommend! The ocean tower featured a water slide and poolside bars, the main lagoon featured water activities like snorkeling or stand-up paddleboarding, and the final pool featured a lazy river and at night DJs. We even went to the luau!

Restaurants

Remember how we took Uber and Lyft around? We got some great restaurant recommendations from our drivers. Here are the two that I recommend:

My husband loves golf so we made it a point to visit a few courses while we were there.

Kings’ Nine and Lakes Nine

This golf course is located near the Hilton. We opted for the Kings’ Nine and Lakes Nine which presented its own challenges. I’ll be fully transparent here, I don’t play golf at all. The only difference I saw was the scenery. The Kings Nine was mostly lava fields and rocks whereas the Lakes Nine had a few “lakes” in the middle of the course.

Makalei Golf Course

This golf course is located in Kailua-Kona. From our hotel it took nearly an hour to get there. So it was truly a whole day experience.

The Makalei golf course was in the middle of nowhere. Filled with lots of hills, green and peacocks. If you’re scared of peacocks or birds, you may want to reconsider going to this place. They are everywhere!

Makani Golf Course

The Makani golf course was a completely different experience from the other two courses. I actually enjoyed this course a lot.

Located on Hawaii Island, Makani Golf Course challenges your resistance with its curvy green course. Surrounded by Hawaii’s state bird, the nene goose, you may hear them honking at you if your golf ball goes into the water.