Embassy Suites Hotel - Waikiki Beach Walk Rating: 3.5 Pearls

Waikiki, Honolulu, Oahu

Shops at Waikiki Beach Walk

Throngs of families and fun-seeking couples return again and again to this Waikiki hotel, which houses 369 suites, all one- and two-bedroom units with thoughtful features like full-size pullout couches, multiple flat-screen TVs, and both minibars and microwaves.

Guests may be drawn here by the extra large suites -- a two-bedroom fits six, which makes the place great for families -- but it may be the free food that keeps them coming back. The hotel offers a free daily breakfast (which features both hot and cold items, and the omelet station always has a long line) as well as the evening cocktail reception with pupus (that's Hawaiian for appetizers or snacks), plus the booze is even the good stuff. Though the fitness center and business center aren't much to write home about, a great pool deck and stellar location -- just a block from Waikiki beach, on the quieter western end of the main drag, and amid the shops and restaurants of the newly developed Waikiki Beach Walk, the double-decker outdoor shopping strip -- make this midpriced property stand out.

No one seems to mind that the hotel exudes a modern and bland business utilitarian aesthetic (the lobby has an odd feeling of being in an indoor parking lot), or that staffers hand out welcome drinks with little verve. The Embassy Suites is still a great value -- on par with the Outrigger Reef on the Beach across the street.

The hotel offers room service, valet parking, even a welcome drink at check-in and turndown service with a chocolate, but these perks are often presented by staffers who seem to be simply checking a task off the corporate to-do list. Still, the level service is a notch above many other midpriced properties in Waikiki.

• Pineapple mimosa or nonalcoholic welcome beverage
• Nightly turndown service with a chocolate and orchid flower
• Valet parking is $25 a day.
• Concierge and activities desk makes dinner reservations, arranges for activities and excursions.
• 24-hour front desk
• Laundry and dry-cleaning service available
• Hospitality rooms for guests to wash up and change post-checkout
• Room service available from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

One-Bedroom Partial Ocean View Suite

All guests get to live the suite life at this hotel. Decorated with tropical and palm tree prints, the one- and two-bedroom suites are generic and utilitarian, but also modern, with flat-screen TVs in both the bedroom and living room, plenty of electrical outlets for the gear guests bring, and a free wired Internet connection.

• Rooms are either one or two-bedroom suites.
• Available with either two queen or one king-size bed
• Two-bedroom suite can sleep six (if all are adults, the hotel tacks $60 on the bill for the two who aren't sleeping in a bed).
• Kitchen area includes a mini-fridge, microwave, coffeemaker.
• 27-inch LCD flat-screen TV in both bedroom and living room includes HBO and pay-per-view movies.
• Alarm clock radio connects to MP3 player.
• Most suites have balconies.
• In-room safe is free.
• Full bathtub and shower with Bloom bath products
• Pullout sofas in all living rooms, though guests with bad backs will do better with a bed
• Free hard-wired Internet
• Both the one and two bedroom suites are available with ocean view, partial ocean view, and city views. You'll pay about $60 more (depending on the season) to upgrade from one category to the next.

Manager's reception on the Grand Lanai

The Embassy Suites certainly delivers when it comes to notable features, even though much of what's offered has a generic feel. With a great pool patio, a more than sufficient fitness center and business center, a free breakfast and evening reception every day, and free wired Internet in every room, guests get a lot of bang for the buck.

• 750-square-foot heated pool (large by Waikiki standards) is popular with both kids and adults.
• Pool deck includes a kids' pool and Jacuzzi.
• Grand Lanai patio is great for lounging and sunning.
• Well-equipped fitness center, though small, is open 24 hours a day.
• Do-it-yourself business center
• Free breakfast served daily on the Grand Lanai from 6:30 to 10 a.m.; includes sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, pancakes, fresh melon, yogurt, juice, and the ever-popular omelets station.
• Free manager's reception each evening on the Grand Lanai from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.; wide selection of traditional Hawaiian cocktails, beers, and wine; pupus (appetizers) and live entertainment
• Free wired Internet in all rooms
• All local phone calls in Oahu and the first 30 minutes of calls to the U.S. mainland and Canada are free.
• On-site Laundromat
• Valet parking is $25 a day.
• More than 40 shops and restaurants steps away at Waikiki Beach Walk

View on a Larger Map

The Embassy Suites is part of Waikiki Beach Walk, a swank dining, shopping and lodging complex covering several downtown blocks.

One long block away, Kalakaua Avenue, a touristy, milelong stretch of shops, restaurants, and high-rise hotels that runs along Waikiki Beach on Oahu's southeast coast, offers a curious blend of mainland creature comforts and local flavor. On the sidewalks, Japanese tourists intermingle with tanned locals, surfboards under their arms, on their way to the beach to catch a few waves after work. On both sides of the street, high-end retailers -- Tiffany, Cartier, and yes, even an Apple store -- are interspersed with indoor malls and street-side vendors hawking cheap seashell jewelry and T-shirts. Seemingly every midmarket chain restaurant can be found here -- Cheesecake Factory, California Pizza Kitchen, Tony Roma's -- along with more than a handful of Starbucks and fast-food joints. And towering above it all: 40-story, thousand-room hotels dotting the landscape like pins in a cushion.

• Wide variety of shopping, dining, and drinking -- all within walking distance
• Kapiolani Park, an oasis of (relative) calm for people-watching and local flavor, is about 15 minutes by foot.
• Next to Fort DeRussy Park and the Ft. DeRussy Military Reservation, home to the city's Army Museum
• The International Marketplace and Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, two central Waikiki shopping destinations, are less than a 10-minute walk.
• Honolulu Zoo is 20 minutes by foot.
• Cheap and easy to get around Waikiki via "The Bus" ($2.25 a person to go any distance)
• Honolulu International Airport is a 15-minute, $35 cab ride.

Loosely speaking, the entire 1.5-mile stretch of sand alongside Kalakaua Avenue is known as Waikiki Beach. In reality, it's more like three separate beaches, the borders of which vary depending on whom you ask. The Embassy Suites is located a block from the Fort DeRussy section, which is far less crowded than its more famous neighbor to the southeast, Queen's Beach. The water is shallow, warm, and calm, making Fort DeRussy a decent place to swim, especially for kids.

• Public beach
• Ocean bottom is rocky, unlike neighboring Queen's Beach.
• Lifeguards monitor the beach throughout the day.
• Free towels available on the pool deck at the hotel
• Umbrellas and lounge chairs must be rented from one of the many Star Beach Boys stands; chairs are $5 an hour, $20 a day; for two chairs and an umbrella, it's $10 an hour, $50 a day.
• Water-sports equipment like surfboards and boogie boards available for rental at the Star Beach Boys stands

Kids love the pool.

With a free all-you-can-eat breakfast, a great pool deck, and spacious one- and two-bedroom suites that allow kids to go to sleep early while parents stay up (or vice versa), it's little surprise that this hotel is popular with families.

• One- and two-bedroom suites include a kitchen area with mini-fridge and microwave.
• Pullout sofas in all suites
• No rollaway beds
• Cribs are free.
• Two-bedroom suite can sleep six; one-bedroom sleeps four.
• Pay-per video games and movies on-demand in all rooms
• Kids' pool and regular pool popular with kids
• Free daily hot and cold breakfast
• A block from the beach
• No on-site activities (like kids' club, or Hawaiian cultural events)

This well-trafficked hotel doesn't have any wear and tear. Neat freaks should be plenty pleased.

Yard House in the Waikiki Beachwalk

Food is plentiful at the Embassy Suites. Guests flock to the freebies: a full breakfast and evening cocktails and snacks, both served on the Grand Lanai, a nice, all-purpose deck that serves as the hotel's center of activity. A great meal is within arm's reach, since the newly opened double-decker Waikiki Beach Walk mall (the complex covering a few city blocks that Embassy Suites is part of) has more than 10 restaurants. From a tower of onion rings and a cold local brew at the Yard House to fine Hawaiian fusion fare at Roy's and American eats at Cheeseburger Beachwalk, guests have plenty of low- and moderately priced choices at mealtime.

• Extensive free breakfast served on the Grand Lanai from 6:30 to 10 a.m.; includes sausage, bacon, eggs, pancakes, fresh melon, yogurt, juice, and the ever-popular omelet station
• Free manager's reception each evening on the Grand Lanai from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.; wide selection of traditional Hawaiian cocktails, beers, and wine; pupus (appetizers) include chili nachos and crudités
• Restaurants at Waikiki's Beach Walk include Roy's Hawaiian Fusion, Ruth Chris Steakhouse, Yard House, Cheeseburger Beachwalk, and Kaiwa Waikiki
• Room service available from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.