Airbnb or Hotel: Which do you prefer?

Let’s compare

Where is a good place to compare Airbnb and Hotels? I know ….

… in Hawaii

We flew direct, non-stop from Toronto to Honolulu. We spent a fabulous week with longtime friends, Rob and Glenda, who have a house in Kailua, a beach community a half hour from Honolulu.

When Rob and Glenda are not in Hawaii, they rent their house on airbnb. The house is called Villa Frangipani.

You can click on the link and see where we stayed:
https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/25866927?guests=1&adults=1

For our final night in Oahu, we stayed at the Moana Surfrider, a historic hotel in the heart of Waikiki, steps from the beach.

Which is better, a hotel or Airbnb Villa Franigipani?

First, this is not a fair comparison … we did not pay to stay at Villa Frangipani.

Villa Frangipani has four bedrooms and four bathrooms. It can easily accommodate four couples. Splitting the cost of Villa Frangipani four ways, it is half the price of the Moana Surfrider.

This is the living room at Villa Frangipani

You know you are in Hawaii when you are in Villa Frangipani. The colours are bright, vivid and fun, just like Hawaii. You instantly feel like you are on vacation when you step inside.

We kept the door open all the time. I was amazed that there are no bugs. If we left our door open in Toronto, the raccoons would move in.

One of the great advantages of staying at Villa Frangipani instead of in a hotel is that we had big dinners in the dining room. There were six of us so we shared the shopping, cooking and cleaning. We went out for dinner a couple of nights but we had the most fun when we stayed home and made our own meals and opened our own bottles of wine. We laughed a lot.

There was one traditional Hawaiian dish that I would not try: Poke (pronounced Poké). It is diced raw marinaded fish, typically tuna. We bought the poke at the grocery store. It is always fresh because it is so popular in Hawaii. When we bought it, I assumed that we would flash fry it when we got home. No. Glenda put it straight into a bowl and on the table. When Rob and Glenda explained that poke is eaten raw, I scooped out a serving and flash fried it. It was delicious.

Have you tried poke?

This is the new pool at Villa Frangipani

You will notice that the palms are growing in sand that surrounds the pool. I assumed that Rob and Glenda trucked in sand for their landscaping. No. The whole lot is sand. The week after we left, they planned to landscape with grass. This will keep the sand out of the pool and out of the house.

Hibiscus bushes are everywhere in Hawaii

I enjoyed spending time with Glenda, talking about what flowers she will add to the landscaping around the pool.

If you prefer the beach to the pool, you can go …. it is 95 steps from Villa Frangipani to the beach.

Villa Frangipani is 95 steps to the beach

Kailua Beach is rated as one of the top beaches in Hawaii. It is two and a half miles of perfect sand and turquoise waters. I spend many hours strolling the beach and taking hundreds of photos.

I did not try any of the traditional sporting activities on Kailua Beach: surfing, sailing, snorkeling.

There are no hotels on Kailua Beach. Just houses. It is a perfect beach community.

Kiteboarding is an extreme sport … too extreme for me

There is always a breeze at Kailua Beach so kiteboarding is very popular. The kiteboarders zoomed across the water at breakneck speeds. Some were excellent but some looked like they were on the edge of control.

You can try surfing along the shore

You don’t need to paddle far out into the ocean to go surfing. Beach surfing is more my speed (but I didn’t try it … next time)

You can go fishing on Kailua Beach

You can go snorkeling on Kailua Beach

There a few places with black lava, good for snorkeling.

Rob helped a crab find his way back to the water

You can just sit and watch the waves on Kailua Beach

We could hear the surf from our bedroom at Villa Frangipani. The air temperature was perfect all the time so we did not need air conditioning. There is nothing more restful than listening to surf as you drift off to sleep after a day in paradise.

We had an excellent time at Villa Frangipani, Rob and Glenda’s fabulous airbnb.

Now it is time to compare our airbnb experience with our hotel experience…

The Moana Surfrider Hotel in Waikiki is in the heart of the action

The Moana Surfrider is in the foreground. The pink hotel in the background is another landmark hotel on Waikiki Beach.

Waikiki Beach is beautiful but you have to share the space. Hotels and restaurants line the beach.

The Moana Surfer is popular for Japanese weddings

I love this bride’s dress. She is beautiful.

The International Market Place is just across the street from the Moana Surfrider

Go out the back door of the lobby of the Moana Surfrider and you on on the beach. Go out the front door for bars, restaurants and shopping.

There is a large banyan tree in the middle of the International Market Place. Don Ho is under the tree.

Don Ho was Hawaii’s Ambassador of Aloha.

Don Ho’s entertainment career spanned almost 50 years.

Don Ho’s hand is stretched out, inviting me to sing with him.

Don and I are singing Tiny Bubbles

Duke wants me to surf with him

Duke is the father of modern surfing.

We had dinner at Duke’s Waikiki. Fresh fish, of course

These are dancers in the Aloha Hawaiian Spring Festival

We were lucky to be in Waikiki for the final night of the Aloha Hawaiian Spring Festival. The parade went right by the front door of the Moana Surfrider.

The parade lasted for 3 hours.

We saw many beautiful people in traditional outfits in the parade

A fire-breathing dragon is the grand finale of the parade

The Aloha Spring Festival closed with a fireworks show on Waikiki Beach

We watched the fireworks as we wined and dined at Duke’s Waikiki.

We spent one afternoon and one night on Waikiki Beach. We did a lot in a short time.

I loved our airbnb experience at Villa Frangipani and I loved our hotel experience on Waikiki.

Please share your airbnb experiences by posting a comment.

Next week, we are off to The Big Island in Hawaii