Our family had an awesome time on the outrigger canoe. We took our 7 and 9 year old daughters and they were so wonderful and patient. Our 7 year old decided not to go and stay with her grandma, and after a few rides, they happily went back to get her to try it again. It was so much fun, exciting, relaxing and we would do it again! Thanks to Patrick for a great ride! read more

We're still giving 5 stars for our experience here, but found something to be very different on this visit. We always reserve our lovely private beach umbrella and comfy lounges in advance of our trip, and arrived at the Royal Hawaiian beach with excited anticipation to find that things were not the same! Instead of having the color-coordinated umbrellas grouped neatly together on the sand directly out front of the hotel pool, there was one umbrella here, and one there, and one way over there..."What's happened here?" We asked the ever-polite gal at the beach services desk. With a shy smile she apologized for any inconvenience, then offered a vague mention about some new Hawaii State rules just imposed in the past few days. She assured us we would have our setup as before, and one of the beachboys would find us a good spot. A guy standing nearby overheard our conversation with the desk person and spoke to us over by the pool: "I know about it. These beach services are each independently owned and operated. One of them...not this one...has been using more than their allotted beach space for a long time. There were complaints from the public who wanted their fair share of the beach. The local land use commission, whatever it's called, started up some hearings and all the interested parties were involved. Months later, like right now, the state made a very severe final ruling that all the beach services have to move their service supplies; surfboards, etc...behind property lines or face strict daily fines. The rule had to encompass everyone, to make it fair." I thought, 'Wow, someone who reads the paper when they're on vacation!' We thanked the man for being so informative. However, the new rule, although it made things look different to us, probably won't even be noticeable to first-time visitors or casual observers. As our friendly beachboy walked us down to the beach to set up our umbrella, he answered our question about how we could still have our umbrella and enjoy it too. Apparently the criteria which still allows us to park our beach umbrella wherever there's space open for it refers to the fact that when we book and pay for the umbrella, it becomes "ours" and we "own it" for our rental period. Therefore, we have the same rights as any member of the public on a public beach. Brilliant! Well, I learned something new on this trip, and we assured the beachboys at the Royal that their service was outstanding as always, in spite of having to adjust to these new rules, which were probably very labor-intensive to adapt to on short notice. Now, can I write a scathing review of the Hawaii state commission who caused a lot of upheaval? read more

We went to the out to it and it was so fun. Patrick our guider was AWESOME. He was so nice, it was great I had so much much fun

Yikes! While it's nice to have such a rental place, we booked our beach chairs online before we left on our trip, to make sure we were close to the water. Looking at the map online, we booked what looked like beach front, 2 chaise lounges and an umbrella. When you get there, you find that a part of the map has been eliminated online, and you aren't all that close. This set up was $40 per day. When we got there, and expressed our disappointment, we were told that for an extra $10 a day, we could be in the section closer to the beach. This was the afternoon we arrived, and our rental was starting the next day. We thought, because of all the rental chairs, that this was a private beach. Wrong. There is a strip at the back of the sand that belongs to the Royal Hawaiian, but everything in front of that is public beach. They send workers out in the wee hours of the morning to claim these spaces of public beach, and then rent the chairs???? In front of these rented chairs is public beach. On our first day, we had the good fortune of having a too scantily clad for her age, physic and her cart set up right in front of us for business. She didn't have any business, but did succeed in blocking our view of Diamond Head. I'm all for public beaches, but then don't charge up the wazoo for cheap, uncomfortable chairs, with an umbrella that is stuck in the sand, and can't be moved to block the changing sun throughout the day. Not their fault, but the last time I was at Waikiki Beach, I didn't remember there being such vicious rock formations in the water. The water is so shallow, for so far out, that you can't get out far enough, without a surfboard, or paddleboard, to avoid them. After the first day, we went in search of reef shoes. There were 2 fairly unrocky places along the beach, but 2 different commercial catamarans were constantly in and out, loading and unloading tourists. This action also made the water murky, making the often sharp rock formations difficult to impossible to see as you try to navigate out into the warm waters read more

I have been living in Hawaii for 7 years now and decided to buy my sister a surfing lesson for her birthday. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong company, Waikiki Beach Services, Halekulani location. Our instructor's name was Dane; he was rude and did not provide any instruction after we left the beach. I have 2 major complaints about our lesson. 1) He did not pay attention to his students. My sister got hurt (which I do not blame on him), but he didn't notice. I sat up on my surf board and waved my arms and he never looked around or noticed anything was wrong. It was the photographer that finally noticed that the two of us were heading back towards the beach instead of out to catch another wave. 2) He did not provide any instruction or tips in the water. He pushed us into the waves, but that was it. In fact, another surf instructor giving a private lesson actually provided more suggestions about how to improve our surfing than our instructor. I was looking forward to sharing this experience with my sister. Instead, she ended up with a headache and we learned nothing. Neither of us has any desire to surf again after the terrible instruction we received. read more