Spleen & Suebee..Help!! Best Western Plaza?

[postalgrrl]

Please........I need your help. I have booked a room at the Best Western Plaza Hotel on the day that we return to Honolulu from our POAL cruise. I was looking on tripadvisor and the hotel got some very bad reviews. Do you know anything about this hotel?? Would you stay there?? Or should I book a different hotel, maybe the Holiday Inn??? Is the BW in a bad area?? I booked the room so we would have a place to store our luggage and maybe shower before our red eye flight home. Or should I store our luggage at the pier?? We were thinking of doing things near the pier that day anyway. Maybe the Maritime Museum, Foster Botanical Gardens and Chinatown.

And speaking of Chinatown...how is the parking in Chinatown?? My plan is to arrive in Honolulu and get the rental minivan and go to Chinatown to buy leis for everybody. Any suggeston of what lei shop I should go to?? Are the public parking lots safe?? We will have luggage in the minivan since we will be coming from the airport. Thanks for all the help.....all the info you give is great:) !!!

[Suebee]

Phew lots of questions.

Are you talking about the BW at the airport? I have stayed at the HI at the airport and just said to my husband today that I never wanted to see the inside of that hotel again. My theory on those hotels is if you have to stay there more than a few hours, dont. If youre just showering, you'll be fine. I wouldnt sleep at HI again. The hotels downtown are so much nicer at a comperable price.

The area is industrial.....there is nothing for a tourist to do....so again, if that is why you want the hotel, switch.

 

 

Chinatown parking is notoriously hard. There is a florest on the way to chinatown from the airport called Watanabe Florest and it is a very large shop and has parking so may just do the trick for you....even mroe expensive leis would off set the parking cost.

 

Hope that helps some...I am sure Spleen will chime in too.

[postalgrrl]

Suebee,

Yes, I know it's alot of questions..but, you & Spleen are such a great help. Thanks for everything. The Holiday Inn is on Ala Moana Blvd. I'm thinking I will cancel the room at the BW and maybe use the Easy Fly Program from NLC or just check the luggage at the pier for the day. Thanks again:D

[NeoJava]

The Best Western and Holiday Inn by the airport REALLY SUCK. Reviews on these two hotels don't lie, they are pretty bad. If you want a decent, cheap hotel in town, try the Pagoda Hotel. Not the nicest place in the world but it's clean and cheap and near Ala Moana Shopping Center.

 

Chinatown has some street parking and garages but it's not really thrilling to see if you don't enjoy dead ducks hanging in windows. There are some good florists on Maunakea Street near Chinatown if you do go down there. It's beena while since I've been there so I can't give you any names and I'm pretty sure they will NOT be on the internet. OR you can just go to Costco for leis, or Walmart. Not the greatest selection but it's an option.

 

Sounds like you're looking for mild places to visit on the minivan day. Since you will have transportation, I would suggest going to the Pali Lookout (viewing the windward coast) or Tantalus (Round Top Drive) to view Honolulu. There's also a good view from the National Memorial Cemetary on Punchbowl if you take a left turn when you get into the cemetary. I don't know how thrilled you'd be with the Maritime Museum and Foster Gardens.

 

ENJOY!

Glenn

[Treven]

I stayed at the Alana Doubletree on Ala Moana Blvd. It's walking distance to the Waikiki area & Coldstone creamery in one direction and Red Lobster & Outback steakhouse and a good walk to the Ala Moana shopping center. You are only about a 10 minute cab ride to the Aloha Tower (pier) complex.

[spleen93]

I like Cindy's Lei Shop in Chinatown for leis (located on Maunakea). For that matter, Maunakea Florists are not bad either. Watanabe is also a good option for people that are driving between the airport and downtown though I think they're more expensive than the Chinatown florists.

 

Spleen

[postalgrrl]

Spleen....glad to see you are feeling better....hope you had a good time in Alaska.

 

Thanks to everyone for the help:D ...we leave for Hawaii in 3 weeks!!!!!!!

[xpcdoojk]

I like Cindy's Lei Shop in Chinatown for leis (located on Maunakea). For that matter, Maunakea Florists are not bad either. Watanabe is also a good option for people that are driving between the airport and downtown though I think they're more expensive than the Chinatown florists.

 

Spleen

 

Hey Spleen! Hope Alaska was everything you hoped it would be. If you have done a review, I would love to see a link to read it!

 

jc

[spleen93]

Review not done yet - I'm still working on cleaning up my pictures! :)

 

Spleen