Initially I was going to make a property review, then it grew into more of a trip report. I hope some of this is helpful information for folks looking at the Big Island and or Ocean Tower.
Day One:
We arrived at the Kona airport on an Alaska Airlines flight with a hard, side loaded, landing. The cross wind was not bad, but the pilot put no wing down on the windward side, nor crab, to counter the cross wind. I’m guessing the pilot flying has never spent a summer flying a float plane in Alaska. Alaska Airlines HR is slipping, they are allowing guys who don’t smell of avgas and salmon behind the controls on their planes now. There was a time that you had to learn how to land well, or you ended up with a story about how you had to hacksaw part of your prop off and file it smooth to counter the chunk that was taken out by that big rock on the sand bar you were landing on. The pilot landing the 737 in Kona that day was never gifted that particular experience. After calming the nervous mother seated next to me, and her excited son, by saying “we can walk away from it, so not that bad”, we left the plane and entered paradise.
A twenty minute Uber ride from the airport was spent with a salty driver explaining the difference between types of lava, which fish to eat (the ones with lips vs sharp stuff on their nose), and black goats that blend into the asphalt road at night. We saw the black goats blending into the black lava.
Arriving at the Hilton property, we were directed to the tram that lazily wisked us to the Ocean Tower. Exiting the tram inside the circle of the Ocean Tower, it takes a minute to figure out exactly where you check in. There is a small ramp to the right so that you are not climbing the steps with heavy luggage clunking on the steps. Inside, prior to the front desk, we were greeted by a nice lady with a clipboard. After finding our name on her clipboard highlighted in red, I was curtly told where to go… to check in. The benefit of a resale purchase, not being hassled for an “owner update” (cough, sales presentation while on vacation). The front desk told us about the owners lounge, and charged $70 something for the Hawaii tax plus $100 per day hold on the credit card for “incidental charges”. I booked a “2 Bed Penthouse Premier, Ocean View”, and received a second floor shrub front with a view of the ocean to the side, also known as room 2066. It is a very nice room, recently remodeled. I say recently remodeled because we passed non-remodeled units on the way to this one. I would advocate for avoiding an unremodeled unit if possible. I think these are being used for folks who book a cheap HGVC sales presentation vacation.
We were tired, and without a car, so decided to just run over to the on-property restaurant. An Italian place aptly named “Nui Italian” with 4.3 stars (and 1350 reviews) on Open Table. The TLDR here is that 1300 of these reviews have been done by Hilton staff as the only thing going for this place is the location. The longer version is after waiting ten minutes for a table, we were seated in a covered outdoor area. It is a pretty location, and you can feel the Hawaiian breeze. No, that was a waitress buzzing by frantically, yelling between customers and other staff. I think she said something about coming back… which she did ten minutes later. She apologized, saying it’s a busy night. We got a couple of noodle dishes and meatballs for the kids, and the fried calamari for my wife and me. We had questions about items on the menu, which our waitress answered during fly bys. My wife ordered a chicken parm, I ordered the carbonara with a grilled chicken breast added on. Shortly after placing our main order, the kids food and our calamari appetizer arrived. The kids took one bite and decided they were not happy. In a fit of inspiration, our 11 year old son took a bite of our six year old daughter’s food and exclaimed it was the best he had ever had. She told him he could have it, put her head on the table and went to sleep. Looking at my daughter sleeping peacefully after the agonizingly long flights, in a place of noise and confusion (by our waitress), I was envious. My wife looked at our son, and said that it looked like he could have the rest of our daughter’s food he enjoyed so much. And, he literally said, “no… (dramatic pause) … it’s horrible”. I dove in to our calamari. Looking forward to a wonderfully flash fried $34 squid. What I found was a piece of rubber which had been rolled in cornmeal and sautéed in grease. Throughly underwhelmed, but hungry, I ate it. My wife’s and my supper arrived a few minutes later. The carbonara sans chicken. I caught our waitress mid run for another table, asked about the chicken, and the dish was promptly removed back to the kitchen. Upon return, frozen, now thawed, chicken pieces had been added. My wife, who had so politely waited to start on hers had her first bite. I asked how it was. My wife is polite, possibly too polite. We work, as a couple, in part because her positive politeness offsets my cynical sarcasm. Her smile in response to my question said everything I needed to know from our years of wedded bliss. While too polite to say it out loud, her smile said “this is a frozen chicken patty with crappy ragu sauce and cheese melted on top… no, wait, that is unfair to the ragu.” My response, “may I have a bite?” Not missing a beat, my lovely bride passed a fork full across the table. She was right, it was insulting to the ragu. I twirled some pasta on my fork and stabbed a piece of thawed chicken. The sauce was assuredly out of a jar… it tasted of soap. I was tired, and hungry, I ate it. My wife asked how it was. All I could say is that we are never, ever, returning to this place. I paid the bill, $197.77, and we left.
Day Two:
We arose from a delightful slumber to rainbows and… no, those are my kids yelling at eachother about something. I feel like a freight train has hit me. This is how it feels to be old and taken flights across the contiguous US and then a chunk of the Pacific Ocean on a hard coach seat. When I was younger, this was not a problem. They are yelling, they are hungry. Well, if they had eaten their $30 soapy kids meal the night before… no, I can’t fault them for that, they were right to pass on that meal. Ok, let’s find the breakfast buffet.
We made it down to the boat dock in time to see a lady pulling a boat around. We climbed on board and asked if she would be doing the boat ride all day. She said, they do it once per day, but might do a couple of runs because the tram is broken. I was excited to ride on the boat. I mean, fun… to ride a boat to a different part of the property. My kiddos were excited as well, hanging precariously over the side looking for fish. I’m sure this sounds dangerous, and possibly neglectful parenting… but the boat was barely moving, turning gasoline in to sound more than forward movement. I have read some complaints about how slow the tram is here on TUG. Let me be the first to tell you the tram is downright fast compared to the boat. If there were a race between the boat and my six year old daughter chasing a butterfly in circles, the butterfly would win. Like no contest. Money on the butterfly to win, every … single … time. We did see some neat fish though.
Dutifully looking at the Waters Edge Breakfast Buffet on Google maps, I thought we had left the boat at the incorrect stop. Maybe my wife had become board watching the fish swim faster than the boat, and decided to just walk. I said the boat was not that bad, we could have waited for the correct stop. She said we did wait for the correct stop, we took it. I disagreed citing Google maps. She asked why there was a big blue sign that said Waters Edge off to the right. I said that’s the wrong place, it is to the left, again citing Google maps. Long story short, my wife was correct… again.
I have to marvel at the thought someone put in to the breakfast buffet. The tables are narrower than a normal table. This means you need smaller plates because a normal size plate will not work. Smaller plates tends to equal smaller portions, which increases profit margins. It also means you can cram more tables into a given space, which also helps the profit margins. The chairs are not comfortable, so you don’t want to sit and graze for a long period. The air conditioning is nearly non existent, it was not just me sweating while looking for something decent to eat at the buffet. This all leads to faster table turn over, which again leads to better profit margins. It all feels like Hilton is at war with their customers. A capitalistic war where Hilton is doing whatever they can to nickel and dime… or $5/$10… their customers to the point I have to question why anyone would bother going back to any restaurant on site at this property. The fact is, there is zero competition, they have a captive audience, and no motivation to perform better than the absolute minimum. That minimum is lower than you think it is. What was that, I forgot to mention the food at the breakfast buffet? That’s because the food was not worth mentioning. The one upside, if you can call it that, kids under 12 eat free.
We hung out at the pools a bit. The one closest to Ocean Tower has fewer people than the one closest to the hotel tower on the other side of the property. The hotel pool was probably over capacity. Folks arguing over chairs, towels, etc. Not our thing. Moving over to the lagoon things became more relaxed. My 11 year old son found a floating tricycle. I asked him if he put the rental cost on the room. He said it was free. I told him nothing here is free, and asked who he talked to prior to taking it. He said that he had indeed asked one of the guys with a hotel shirt. So, we paddled around the lagoon for a while looking at fish, a sea turtle (with a trio of kids chasing after it, but not touching it), and an eagle ray. When we returned the lagoon toy, another group of teenagers grabbed it in front of the hotel staff. I walked over to the rental shed and saw it is $50/hour for the float tricycle. I asked the guy manning the rental shed about paying with a room charge, and he seemed like it would be more trouble than it was worth. In other words, the hotel was not paying him enough to bother doing his job. I’m not going to argue with hotel staff giving this away when they nickel and dime for everything else.
We did get a Turo rental car. The hotel is currently charging $48/ night to park in some distant lot or $55/ night for valet. Parking is not included with HGVC at Ocean Tower.
There is a shuttle to the King and Queen shops. It is $5 per person.
They got one tram running. The round trip time for one operational tram is 20 minutes. There is no schedule at all, so it’s a big guess when it will, or will not, show up. We never saw the boat run for the rest of our stay. The second tram being operational was intermittent.
Day ? Brain Switched to Island Time:
Laupahoehoe Train Museum - small outside area with some indoor stuff that we did not see because they are closed on Sunday.
Akaka Falls - Awesome waterfall, limited parking, a mile round trip hike with some elevation change. They charge a small amount for parking and to see the falls.
Rainbow Falls - Interesting waterfall. The parking was full when we arrived, there is some more parking if you continue up the road on the left. There is a small grove of massive banyan trees on the waterfall side with kids and adults climbing the trees (possibly adults climbing to get kids out of the trees). It’s free.
Greenwell Farms - Free coffee farm tour in Kona. While there is certainly an educational component, the tour is 25% sales presentation. Or maybe I have attended one too many “owner updates”, which makes me particularly attuned to the sales tactics. They don’t want to talk about types of coffee bean processing that they do not use, and gave some misinformation about dairy creamer in coffee causing diabetes and cancer. Kids were board out of their minds until the part about chocolate. Unlike the owner updates, I bought something here.
Hawaii Volcanoes Park - Interesting. The caldera was smoking / steaming. Volcanologists on site because they think it will erupt in the next week. I had a good discussion with my son about volcano types, silica vs basalt content’s effect on oozing lava vs explosive lava, geology, etc. that made me happy to have had a geology 101 college class by a volcanologist. Unfortunately, that class was more than two decades ago… so I really had to remember some stuff. My six year old daughter was beyond bored with the caldera, but interested in the lava tube… a short walk from a congested parking area with an elevation change. There is food at the Volcano House; two different restaurants that are not easily identified inside. Put your name on both lists, take which ever comes up first. Decent food, great view.
Punalu’u Black Sand Beach - The surf was rough, the life guards yelling for people to be careful, a few local kids on body boards playing in the waves right at the beach. A trio of sea turtles also playing in the surf… or more likely trying to get out of it and having a really rough time of it. The sea turtles were the attraction for us, in addition to the black sand. We would catch a flipper, a head, a turtle butt, and then see them rolling in a wave. The kiddos were highly entertained, as were the adults.
Atlantis Submarine in Kona - Cool, but a bit spendy. They were running a “buy an adult ticket, get a kiddo free” sale… so check their site prior to booking. Had it been full freight for the whole family, I would have left the kids on the dock. Just kidding… maybe. You take a tender boat out to the sub, and climb on. If you get motion sick, this and the return on the surface are the worst part. Once the sub dives, everything smooths out. There is some motion, and the curvature of the viewing port is a bit weird. You see a lot of fish, a couple of wrecks, dive to 107’ below sea level… it’s pretty neat. Even my kids were interested, which is saying something. It gave us a chance to talk about different ecosystems, critters in the ocean, the pressure in a column of water, and the bends if free diving and ascending too quickly.
On property:
There is yoga paddle board in the lagoon every morning. It is free, shocking I know, but limited to ten people, so get there early. My wife did it, I would have just fallen in to the lagoon. She said it was really neat because you are trying to do some pose, and trying to maintain balance so you don’t get wet, and then a sea turtle, eagle ray, or vibrant blue fish passes under you and you forget that you are balancing on a paddle board in some weird pose, and just think “that’s neat!”
They release the dolphins into the lagoon a couple of mornings per week. It’s analogous to me taking my dog to the park… the dolphins zip around fast, jump, play, and are happy to get out a bit.
Fish feeding for the kiddos every morning at 8AM at the hotel tower farthest from Ocean Tower. The Hawaiian cultural education folks will give each kiddo a small cup of fish food and a paper with the types of fish in the channel. It’s a fun activity. Alternatively, if you have to cut the crust off the bread for sandwiches, save the crust up and take it down to the dock area inside of Ocean Tower, and the fish will happily devour whatever you toss in.
A bit about the unit:
Ocean Tower, 2 Bed Penthouse Premier - Ocean View, Unit 2066. It’s on the ground floor… kind of. The building is built on a slope, so where you get off the tram is basically the second floor of the tower ring closest to the ocean. The room has for the most part been nicely renovated. There are a few things that are a hard miss. The thermostat turns off if it does not sense anyone in the unit, which makes for a warm unit on return after a day out. It also never cools below 72, even if set to a cooler point. The dishwasher is garbage, semi broken (Ie, the racks inside are missing the rollers and it does not actually remove all food debris), yet still functioning. The coffee maker failed in a way where it dumped coffee from the reservoir while we were out. We called maintenance at 7pm when we got back to the unit and found the mess. The woman who showed up said these coffee makers are constantly failing, and brought us a dusty/dirty drip machine as a replacement. She said someone would be by in the morning with a true replacement. That never happened. This is my first HGVC experience, so my reference point is years of Hyatt Residence Club stays. The cooking pots/pans and utensils in the unit were limited, and missing basic items like salt and pepper. It did have a rice cooker. There is a six place setting of dishes, bowels, cups, eating utensils, etc. Where a Hyatt would have had a more extensive set of cooking and dining items. Also, when we have had maintenance issues in a Hyatt, they were addressed immediately, and replaced with a like item not a stop gap (ex, the coffee maker). My wife did not like the counter top, saying “even when it’s clean, it looks dirty”. The bathrooms were on par with Hyatt’s. That may be because these are more recently renovated. The master bath potty has a toilet seat bidet thing that feels like it is catering to the Asian market. The shower is great, as is the over sized tub. Unfortunately, the tub was under utilized by us, relegated to holding wet items from a day at the pool or lagoon. The space under the bed was designed to hold luggage. A fantastic idea for a timeshare in a location where people are dragging all kinds of luggage. This is where the unit feels smaller than a Hyatt, so having a more thoughtful use of space is a good thing. For example, a Hyatt would have more of a dining area, where Hilton dropped a table between the kitchen and living room. If someone is sitting at the table on the kitchen side, then you are not using the kitchen as there is not room to use both spaces at the same time. Space in the second bedroom is limited with two beds shoehorned in there. Speaking of the second bedroom, it’s missing a window. Something odd to me, but with the incessant chirping of the birds outside, maybe a bit of unintentional good luck. I’m not sure if this is a HGVC thing, or simply an architect working with the preexisting space for the remodel. There are automatic blinds on the windows, both black out and sheer, which was a nice touch. The patio… I mean lanai (we are in Hawaii after all) was a fraction of the size of the lanai at the Hyatt Maui property. The view is great. I joked about a view of shrubs above, but it really is a pretty location.
The three (four?) items I am not thrilled about:
First, the distance of Ocean Tower from everything, but primarily the valet/parking. This creates a situation where you need to account for thirty minutes to get from the unit to the car, then thirty minutes from the car back to the unit… and God forbid you get to the car when departing for a day packed with activities and find out one of your kids forgot a stuffed animal in the room they cannot live without… add an hour. This ties in to my frustration with the tram. Yes, it is slow, however, there is zero schedule, so you can’t plan for it. You can’t even count on both (or any) trams running on any given day.
Second, if you don’t have a car, nor food to cook in the room, then you are beholden to the horrid on property restaurants. Get an Uber, or walk / $5 shuttle to the king/queen shops. I’d strongly advise not eating on property, which is a huge shame. Hilton has an opportunity to do good things here, and are totally messing it up because they simply don’t care.
Last, the parking cost. While I’m fine with the hotel charging for valet, self parking should be free… particularly for the owners. It’s not free because it’s an easy buck (or $48/$55) for Hilton to extract (extort?) from their customers. So, they do it because they can.
To sum this up… for the two of you still reading, thank you. It was a fantastic stay. For a first HGVC experience, we were very happy. I have a couple of other things booked for this year, and am now borrowing from 2027 (in 2025) to book stays in 2026! I’d like to try a few more properties prior to buying more HGVC (resale, of course). Will we return to the HGVC on the Big Island? Absolutely! Return to Ocean Tower? No, next up on the Big Island will be Kings’ Land!
Day One:
We arrived at the Kona airport on an Alaska Airlines flight with a hard, side loaded, landing. The cross wind was not bad, but the pilot put no wing down on the windward side, nor crab, to counter the cross wind. I’m guessing the pilot flying has never spent a summer flying a float plane in Alaska. Alaska Airlines HR is slipping, they are allowing guys who don’t smell of avgas and salmon behind the controls on their planes now. There was a time that you had to learn how to land well, or you ended up with a story about how you had to hacksaw part of your prop off and file it smooth to counter the chunk that was taken out by that big rock on the sand bar you were landing on. The pilot landing the 737 in Kona that day was never gifted that particular experience. After calming the nervous mother seated next to me, and her excited son, by saying “we can walk away from it, so not that bad”, we left the plane and entered paradise.
A twenty minute Uber ride from the airport was spent with a salty driver explaining the difference between types of lava, which fish to eat (the ones with lips vs sharp stuff on their nose), and black goats that blend into the asphalt road at night. We saw the black goats blending into the black lava.
Arriving at the Hilton property, we were directed to the tram that lazily wisked us to the Ocean Tower. Exiting the tram inside the circle of the Ocean Tower, it takes a minute to figure out exactly where you check in. There is a small ramp to the right so that you are not climbing the steps with heavy luggage clunking on the steps. Inside, prior to the front desk, we were greeted by a nice lady with a clipboard. After finding our name on her clipboard highlighted in red, I was curtly told where to go… to check in. The benefit of a resale purchase, not being hassled for an “owner update” (cough, sales presentation while on vacation). The front desk told us about the owners lounge, and charged $70 something for the Hawaii tax plus $100 per day hold on the credit card for “incidental charges”. I booked a “2 Bed Penthouse Premier, Ocean View”, and received a second floor shrub front with a view of the ocean to the side, also known as room 2066. It is a very nice room, recently remodeled. I say recently remodeled because we passed non-remodeled units on the way to this one. I would advocate for avoiding an unremodeled unit if possible. I think these are being used for folks who book a cheap HGVC sales presentation vacation.
We were tired, and without a car, so decided to just run over to the on-property restaurant. An Italian place aptly named “Nui Italian” with 4.3 stars (and 1350 reviews) on Open Table. The TLDR here is that 1300 of these reviews have been done by Hilton staff as the only thing going for this place is the location. The longer version is after waiting ten minutes for a table, we were seated in a covered outdoor area. It is a pretty location, and you can feel the Hawaiian breeze. No, that was a waitress buzzing by frantically, yelling between customers and other staff. I think she said something about coming back… which she did ten minutes later. She apologized, saying it’s a busy night. We got a couple of noodle dishes and meatballs for the kids, and the fried calamari for my wife and me. We had questions about items on the menu, which our waitress answered during fly bys. My wife ordered a chicken parm, I ordered the carbonara with a grilled chicken breast added on. Shortly after placing our main order, the kids food and our calamari appetizer arrived. The kids took one bite and decided they were not happy. In a fit of inspiration, our 11 year old son took a bite of our six year old daughter’s food and exclaimed it was the best he had ever had. She told him he could have it, put her head on the table and went to sleep. Looking at my daughter sleeping peacefully after the agonizingly long flights, in a place of noise and confusion (by our waitress), I was envious. My wife looked at our son, and said that it looked like he could have the rest of our daughter’s food he enjoyed so much. And, he literally said, “no… (dramatic pause) … it’s horrible”. I dove in to our calamari. Looking forward to a wonderfully flash fried $34 squid. What I found was a piece of rubber which had been rolled in cornmeal and sautéed in grease. Throughly underwhelmed, but hungry, I ate it. My wife’s and my supper arrived a few minutes later. The carbonara sans chicken. I caught our waitress mid run for another table, asked about the chicken, and the dish was promptly removed back to the kitchen. Upon return, frozen, now thawed, chicken pieces had been added. My wife, who had so politely waited to start on hers had her first bite. I asked how it was. My wife is polite, possibly too polite. We work, as a couple, in part because her positive politeness offsets my cynical sarcasm. Her smile in response to my question said everything I needed to know from our years of wedded bliss. While too polite to say it out loud, her smile said “this is a frozen chicken patty with crappy ragu sauce and cheese melted on top… no, wait, that is unfair to the ragu.” My response, “may I have a bite?” Not missing a beat, my lovely bride passed a fork full across the table. She was right, it was insulting to the ragu. I twirled some pasta on my fork and stabbed a piece of thawed chicken. The sauce was assuredly out of a jar… it tasted of soap. I was tired, and hungry, I ate it. My wife asked how it was. All I could say is that we are never, ever, returning to this place. I paid the bill, $197.77, and we left.
Day Two:
We arose from a delightful slumber to rainbows and… no, those are my kids yelling at eachother about something. I feel like a freight train has hit me. This is how it feels to be old and taken flights across the contiguous US and then a chunk of the Pacific Ocean on a hard coach seat. When I was younger, this was not a problem. They are yelling, they are hungry. Well, if they had eaten their $30 soapy kids meal the night before… no, I can’t fault them for that, they were right to pass on that meal. Ok, let’s find the breakfast buffet.
We made it down to the boat dock in time to see a lady pulling a boat around. We climbed on board and asked if she would be doing the boat ride all day. She said, they do it once per day, but might do a couple of runs because the tram is broken. I was excited to ride on the boat. I mean, fun… to ride a boat to a different part of the property. My kiddos were excited as well, hanging precariously over the side looking for fish. I’m sure this sounds dangerous, and possibly neglectful parenting… but the boat was barely moving, turning gasoline in to sound more than forward movement. I have read some complaints about how slow the tram is here on TUG. Let me be the first to tell you the tram is downright fast compared to the boat. If there were a race between the boat and my six year old daughter chasing a butterfly in circles, the butterfly would win. Like no contest. Money on the butterfly to win, every … single … time. We did see some neat fish though.
Dutifully looking at the Waters Edge Breakfast Buffet on Google maps, I thought we had left the boat at the incorrect stop. Maybe my wife had become board watching the fish swim faster than the boat, and decided to just walk. I said the boat was not that bad, we could have waited for the correct stop. She said we did wait for the correct stop, we took it. I disagreed citing Google maps. She asked why there was a big blue sign that said Waters Edge off to the right. I said that’s the wrong place, it is to the left, again citing Google maps. Long story short, my wife was correct… again.
I have to marvel at the thought someone put in to the breakfast buffet. The tables are narrower than a normal table. This means you need smaller plates because a normal size plate will not work. Smaller plates tends to equal smaller portions, which increases profit margins. It also means you can cram more tables into a given space, which also helps the profit margins. The chairs are not comfortable, so you don’t want to sit and graze for a long period. The air conditioning is nearly non existent, it was not just me sweating while looking for something decent to eat at the buffet. This all leads to faster table turn over, which again leads to better profit margins. It all feels like Hilton is at war with their customers. A capitalistic war where Hilton is doing whatever they can to nickel and dime… or $5/$10… their customers to the point I have to question why anyone would bother going back to any restaurant on site at this property. The fact is, there is zero competition, they have a captive audience, and no motivation to perform better than the absolute minimum. That minimum is lower than you think it is. What was that, I forgot to mention the food at the breakfast buffet? That’s because the food was not worth mentioning. The one upside, if you can call it that, kids under 12 eat free.
We hung out at the pools a bit. The one closest to Ocean Tower has fewer people than the one closest to the hotel tower on the other side of the property. The hotel pool was probably over capacity. Folks arguing over chairs, towels, etc. Not our thing. Moving over to the lagoon things became more relaxed. My 11 year old son found a floating tricycle. I asked him if he put the rental cost on the room. He said it was free. I told him nothing here is free, and asked who he talked to prior to taking it. He said that he had indeed asked one of the guys with a hotel shirt. So, we paddled around the lagoon for a while looking at fish, a sea turtle (with a trio of kids chasing after it, but not touching it), and an eagle ray. When we returned the lagoon toy, another group of teenagers grabbed it in front of the hotel staff. I walked over to the rental shed and saw it is $50/hour for the float tricycle. I asked the guy manning the rental shed about paying with a room charge, and he seemed like it would be more trouble than it was worth. In other words, the hotel was not paying him enough to bother doing his job. I’m not going to argue with hotel staff giving this away when they nickel and dime for everything else.
We did get a Turo rental car. The hotel is currently charging $48/ night to park in some distant lot or $55/ night for valet. Parking is not included with HGVC at Ocean Tower.
There is a shuttle to the King and Queen shops. It is $5 per person.
They got one tram running. The round trip time for one operational tram is 20 minutes. There is no schedule at all, so it’s a big guess when it will, or will not, show up. We never saw the boat run for the rest of our stay. The second tram being operational was intermittent.
Day ? Brain Switched to Island Time:
Laupahoehoe Train Museum - small outside area with some indoor stuff that we did not see because they are closed on Sunday.
Akaka Falls - Awesome waterfall, limited parking, a mile round trip hike with some elevation change. They charge a small amount for parking and to see the falls.
Rainbow Falls - Interesting waterfall. The parking was full when we arrived, there is some more parking if you continue up the road on the left. There is a small grove of massive banyan trees on the waterfall side with kids and adults climbing the trees (possibly adults climbing to get kids out of the trees). It’s free.
Greenwell Farms - Free coffee farm tour in Kona. While there is certainly an educational component, the tour is 25% sales presentation. Or maybe I have attended one too many “owner updates”, which makes me particularly attuned to the sales tactics. They don’t want to talk about types of coffee bean processing that they do not use, and gave some misinformation about dairy creamer in coffee causing diabetes and cancer. Kids were board out of their minds until the part about chocolate. Unlike the owner updates, I bought something here.
Hawaii Volcanoes Park - Interesting. The caldera was smoking / steaming. Volcanologists on site because they think it will erupt in the next week. I had a good discussion with my son about volcano types, silica vs basalt content’s effect on oozing lava vs explosive lava, geology, etc. that made me happy to have had a geology 101 college class by a volcanologist. Unfortunately, that class was more than two decades ago… so I really had to remember some stuff. My six year old daughter was beyond bored with the caldera, but interested in the lava tube… a short walk from a congested parking area with an elevation change. There is food at the Volcano House; two different restaurants that are not easily identified inside. Put your name on both lists, take which ever comes up first. Decent food, great view.
Punalu’u Black Sand Beach - The surf was rough, the life guards yelling for people to be careful, a few local kids on body boards playing in the waves right at the beach. A trio of sea turtles also playing in the surf… or more likely trying to get out of it and having a really rough time of it. The sea turtles were the attraction for us, in addition to the black sand. We would catch a flipper, a head, a turtle butt, and then see them rolling in a wave. The kiddos were highly entertained, as were the adults.
Atlantis Submarine in Kona - Cool, but a bit spendy. They were running a “buy an adult ticket, get a kiddo free” sale… so check their site prior to booking. Had it been full freight for the whole family, I would have left the kids on the dock. Just kidding… maybe. You take a tender boat out to the sub, and climb on. If you get motion sick, this and the return on the surface are the worst part. Once the sub dives, everything smooths out. There is some motion, and the curvature of the viewing port is a bit weird. You see a lot of fish, a couple of wrecks, dive to 107’ below sea level… it’s pretty neat. Even my kids were interested, which is saying something. It gave us a chance to talk about different ecosystems, critters in the ocean, the pressure in a column of water, and the bends if free diving and ascending too quickly.
On property:
There is yoga paddle board in the lagoon every morning. It is free, shocking I know, but limited to ten people, so get there early. My wife did it, I would have just fallen in to the lagoon. She said it was really neat because you are trying to do some pose, and trying to maintain balance so you don’t get wet, and then a sea turtle, eagle ray, or vibrant blue fish passes under you and you forget that you are balancing on a paddle board in some weird pose, and just think “that’s neat!”
They release the dolphins into the lagoon a couple of mornings per week. It’s analogous to me taking my dog to the park… the dolphins zip around fast, jump, play, and are happy to get out a bit.
Fish feeding for the kiddos every morning at 8AM at the hotel tower farthest from Ocean Tower. The Hawaiian cultural education folks will give each kiddo a small cup of fish food and a paper with the types of fish in the channel. It’s a fun activity. Alternatively, if you have to cut the crust off the bread for sandwiches, save the crust up and take it down to the dock area inside of Ocean Tower, and the fish will happily devour whatever you toss in.
A bit about the unit:
Ocean Tower, 2 Bed Penthouse Premier - Ocean View, Unit 2066. It’s on the ground floor… kind of. The building is built on a slope, so where you get off the tram is basically the second floor of the tower ring closest to the ocean. The room has for the most part been nicely renovated. There are a few things that are a hard miss. The thermostat turns off if it does not sense anyone in the unit, which makes for a warm unit on return after a day out. It also never cools below 72, even if set to a cooler point. The dishwasher is garbage, semi broken (Ie, the racks inside are missing the rollers and it does not actually remove all food debris), yet still functioning. The coffee maker failed in a way where it dumped coffee from the reservoir while we were out. We called maintenance at 7pm when we got back to the unit and found the mess. The woman who showed up said these coffee makers are constantly failing, and brought us a dusty/dirty drip machine as a replacement. She said someone would be by in the morning with a true replacement. That never happened. This is my first HGVC experience, so my reference point is years of Hyatt Residence Club stays. The cooking pots/pans and utensils in the unit were limited, and missing basic items like salt and pepper. It did have a rice cooker. There is a six place setting of dishes, bowels, cups, eating utensils, etc. Where a Hyatt would have had a more extensive set of cooking and dining items. Also, when we have had maintenance issues in a Hyatt, they were addressed immediately, and replaced with a like item not a stop gap (ex, the coffee maker). My wife did not like the counter top, saying “even when it’s clean, it looks dirty”. The bathrooms were on par with Hyatt’s. That may be because these are more recently renovated. The master bath potty has a toilet seat bidet thing that feels like it is catering to the Asian market. The shower is great, as is the over sized tub. Unfortunately, the tub was under utilized by us, relegated to holding wet items from a day at the pool or lagoon. The space under the bed was designed to hold luggage. A fantastic idea for a timeshare in a location where people are dragging all kinds of luggage. This is where the unit feels smaller than a Hyatt, so having a more thoughtful use of space is a good thing. For example, a Hyatt would have more of a dining area, where Hilton dropped a table between the kitchen and living room. If someone is sitting at the table on the kitchen side, then you are not using the kitchen as there is not room to use both spaces at the same time. Space in the second bedroom is limited with two beds shoehorned in there. Speaking of the second bedroom, it’s missing a window. Something odd to me, but with the incessant chirping of the birds outside, maybe a bit of unintentional good luck. I’m not sure if this is a HGVC thing, or simply an architect working with the preexisting space for the remodel. There are automatic blinds on the windows, both black out and sheer, which was a nice touch. The patio… I mean lanai (we are in Hawaii after all) was a fraction of the size of the lanai at the Hyatt Maui property. The view is great. I joked about a view of shrubs above, but it really is a pretty location.
The three (four?) items I am not thrilled about:
First, the distance of Ocean Tower from everything, but primarily the valet/parking. This creates a situation where you need to account for thirty minutes to get from the unit to the car, then thirty minutes from the car back to the unit… and God forbid you get to the car when departing for a day packed with activities and find out one of your kids forgot a stuffed animal in the room they cannot live without… add an hour. This ties in to my frustration with the tram. Yes, it is slow, however, there is zero schedule, so you can’t plan for it. You can’t even count on both (or any) trams running on any given day.
Second, if you don’t have a car, nor food to cook in the room, then you are beholden to the horrid on property restaurants. Get an Uber, or walk / $5 shuttle to the king/queen shops. I’d strongly advise not eating on property, which is a huge shame. Hilton has an opportunity to do good things here, and are totally messing it up because they simply don’t care.
Last, the parking cost. While I’m fine with the hotel charging for valet, self parking should be free… particularly for the owners. It’s not free because it’s an easy buck (or $48/$55) for Hilton to extract (extort?) from their customers. So, they do it because they can.
To sum this up… for the two of you still reading, thank you. It was a fantastic stay. For a first HGVC experience, we were very happy. I have a couple of other things booked for this year, and am now borrowing from 2027 (in 2025) to book stays in 2026! I’d like to try a few more properties prior to buying more HGVC (resale, of course). Will we return to the HGVC on the Big Island? Absolutely! Return to Ocean Tower? No, next up on the Big Island will be Kings’ Land!
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