I had a great stay at the “Mountain Retreat.” The location is away from the center of Waikiki so it’s not as busy and noisy. If you are driving, getting in and out of Waikiki is a lot easier on this side of Waikiki. The beach is just a couple of blocks away, easily walkable. The center of Waikiki is a quick 5-10 min walk towards the other side of Waikiki. You can pretty muck walk Waikiki from end to end in about 20 min.
The building is older but it seem a lot of improvements have been made over the last few years. Work seems to be on going but wasn’t too disruptive. Sounded like one of the units upstairs is being remodeled. So there was a lot of construction noises but that only occurred during the day for two days. It’s just like regular life. Parking is included with in and out privileges. Parking space is not assigned but I didn’t have any problems finding a space close to the entry points between the parking and the towers. Just had to keep going up. One night I got back really late and had to drive up to the fifth floor, the top parking floor, and there was plenty of empty spaces left. Don’t know how occupied the buildings were but it didn’t seem too crowded.
Check-in was extremely easy, just park car. Go to the condo, open key box to get in and get extra keys. Return to car with parking pass and move in. Elevators were fast, except when everyone wanted to use them. That can be a bit annoying but it is what it is. I would say about a quarter if the time the elevator made excessive stops. Most of the time only one or two stops or none. Again now sure how fully occupied the building was. The sixth floor recreation area is a bit more rundown. Looks completely functional but I didn’t use it so I can’t say too much about it.
The condo itself is pretty much as pictured. Very clean and nicely equipped. Water pressure was a bit low in the bathroom and once every so often would suddenly dip even lower like as if someone flushed a toilet. Kitchen water was fine. Plenty of hot water, never had an issue with that in the bathroom or kitchen. Water did taste a bit odd. Don’t know what it was not unsafe odd just odd. Ended up buying drinking water. I have a relative that lives two blocks away and she buys drinking water too. There was plenty of clean towels and bedding. My mom slept on the bed so I don’t know comfort but she had no complaints other than the bed was a bit too tall for her so had to basically climb into the bed. The couch is a pull out bed but I just slept on it as a couch and that was comfortable for me. I do have to say sitting on it was not that comfortable. Most couch/bed combo usually aren’t. The air conditioner works great cooled the entire condo within a few minutes. Kitchen is nicely equipped with everything I needed. Microwave is over the stove and is a microwave/convection oven.
My only complaints are… as the couch is not that comfortable, the only other place to sit inside is the dining chairs, which are great for eating and doing things at a table. Not so much for lounging. The AC works really well but it creates a lot of condensation and a drip pan was placed under it to collect the water. I guess prior to my arrival, it overflowed and flooded the area around the ac unit. So I had to scoop out the water from the pan once or twice a day. I ran the AC overnight and it would fill the pan about halfway. Other reviews for the building warned that occasionally there would be a false fire alarm activation to evacuate the building. I wasn’t there for it but my mom was and she said the voice over the speaker was very difficult to understand. She actually missed he cancellation and walked down 15 flights of stairs before she realized it was a false alarm.
Overall the condo is very nice. I would definitely stay again and highly recommend it. Communication with Mike and Nicky was quick. Other than the AC condensation issue, It was an event free stay.
Thank you Mike and Nicky for your hospitality and sharing your condo.