Starting with the positives: the beach and back property is GORGEOUS! We snorkeled out there and were able to see titles every morning as they entered the water after sleeping on the beach at night. At first entry, the condo is very clean and dare I say spacious for a place in Hawaii (homes are usually not large as on the mainland). It is only 10 minutes from the Polynesian Cultural Center (a must do)!
The things to consider before staying: the place gets HOT. Very hot. We were unlucky on our first night to have a flat ocean out the back door which meant no breeze to cool the condo down. Being on the first floor, we weren’t comfortable leaving the doors and windows open at night, so it must’ve been 80 that night. Following nights were a bit better when we were able to air it out for a few hours before bed (still sat around 75 degrees). On the second night, we came home to find a cockroach scurrying across the floor. No ordinary cockroach…a tropics cockroach (about 3.5 inches in length)! Obviously put off, we went and bought some natural killer spray and glue traps. We found another live one at the front door, and two additional dead ones under the fridge. YUCK! We had our 1 year old grandson with us and were very worried about the diseases cockroaches can carry and were worried about them getting into our suitcases. I will say our host was responsive and set up the unit to be treated after we left, and after spraying and setting traps on our own we didn’t see anymore the rest of the time. That is, until the morning we were set to leave. We folded up the pull out couch and found yet another roach! Honestly we couldn’t wait to leave which is sad because we thought this was going to be the place we loved most during our island hopping trip. Another issue was parking. This isn’t the host’s fault obviously, but trying to park after 7pm is an absolute nightmare. All of the spots are completely full because half the lot is overtaken by construction. One evening we had to pull up into the grass to park. Again, not the host’s fault, but something to consider. The last thing to note about this place is that it is FAR from a lot of things. About an hour to Honolulu, Waikiki, and Pearl Harbor. 30 or so minutes to the North Shore or Kailua. We knew this booking and didn’t care, but we are people that like to go and do things on vacation so it became a major pain in the backside to go and do anything knowing it was such a trek to go anywhere.