The Waikoloa Hilton Great for kids!

The Waikoloa Hilton
   Walt Disney meets Hawaii in this property now owned by Hilton.  There are monorails, boats, waterfalls and waterslides.  Small kids will love to ride the boats and the monorail.  Only the larger waterslide requires hotel identification.  There's a pretty good art gallery and a variety of Asian art and anthropological artifacts in the walkways.   And some amusing Asian statuary on the spacious grounds.

Amusing Asian Art at the Resort

    The snorkeling beach is odd, being man made.  Cross the monumental bridge and follow the trail to the right under the waterfall, pass the pitiable, incarcerated dolphins and find the fine sand beach where you can grab a lounger under an umbrella.  The water in the lagoon is colder than the sea, but is perfectly flat and might make a good place to familiarize yourself with your equipment
    The draw of the “lagoon” from my perspective, is that the management swears that all the fish in the lagoon have been washed in over the dike at the far end.  You may swim under the bridge and venture as far as this dike where there are a myriad of baby fish.  It is cloudy out there with chunks of rip rap and cement left over from construction and I don’t recommend it unless the urge is unquenchable.   I go out there every time.  Go figure. Tooling around the lagoon you may see some pretty amazing stuff.  We have seen a variety of eels, Great Barracuda, bonefish and Helmeted Gurnard.  One year we saw an immature Threadfin Jack!  How cool is that? 
     Are these fish wild?  Do you put them on your list with an annotation?  I think it is fun to see them swimming with me in the water.  And if its just too rough to get in anywhere else and you really want to go snorkeling, its probably worth putting up with a pond full of rubber nosed geeks.

A Helmeted Gurnard in the lagoon!

    Parking used to be free, now there is a trick.  Drive up the valet road and drop off the wife and kids at the entrance where they can harass the staff.  Motor back down the ramp to the main road. At the stop sign, on the other side is a lot designated for beach access parking.  Park there and retrace your steps afoot up the ramp.  Bingo.
    At the King’s Shops there is an inferior gallery and other options to fritter away your hard earned sheckels.  Ditto with the Queen’s Shops.  Anyway, the King and Queen lived in Kailua.
    One final word.  If you think that incarcerating God’s dolphins is a good idea, the Great God Ku will visit you in your dreams and do unmentionable things.  Don’t mess with Ku!
                                                        
                                                                                         ©  Jeffrey Hill  2011