Since we were staying at the Kings Land Waikoloa (also a Hilton Resort), we got to use the Pools and Amenities at the Hilton Waikoloa for free as well. You will need to get wristbands and towels to use the pool areas.
I have to say, other than the Lagoon area, we by far preferred the pools at Kings Land. Hands down they were better and nicer. It is a much newer resort though.
I will write a separate post about the Lagoon – because we enjoyed it so much! It was amazing and we loved swimming with turtles every day! We spent the majority of our time at the Hilton in the Lagoon.
We spent most of our “pool time” at the Hilton at the Kohala River pool. Mainly because it had small water slides that the smaller kids could go on (The big kids had big waterslides at Kings Land they could use easier). This pool area is set up like a lazy river. It is in need of repair. The larger waterslide was not working and looked like it had not been working for a long time. There was a waterfall, that we are pretty sure used to also be a waterslide at one point as well.
The large Kona pool at the Hilton Waikoloa was probably the largest pool I’ve ever seen. It is HUGE. I thought some of the pools at DisneyWorld were big (I’m looking at you Animal Kingdom Lodge), but this pool was just gigantic. You couldn’t see one end of the pool from the other. There was also a sandy bottom/shallow kids area. It was actually sand here, unlike Kings Land. There was a bridge over the pool. There was one large water slide at this pool as well. We only went to this pool twice – the little ones couldn’t go down the waterslide and the big kids weren’t that interested in the slide, since we had so many at Kings Land. So we mainly stuck to the Lagoon and the Kohala River pool.
The Hilton is a VERY large resort. You can take a Tram or a Boat to get around. We rode the Tram often (the kids thought it was fun), but the boat only ran in the evenings, so we went over there one evening just to ride the boat. We rode it all the way around the resort. It was a fun little boat ride.
The beach at the Hilton is covered in White Coral. We picked up a whole bunch to bring home! Free souvenirs!
There are lots of statues and beautiful walkways all over the resort.
There is a place called Dolphin Quest at the resort. You can swim with Dolphins (we did not pay for it), but you can also stand and watch them feed and train the Dolphins
The Hilton Waikoloa is a HUGE resort. The Lagoon is AMAZING – I will write about it in my next post. The pools could use some TLC, but they are nice and big – and they were not busy at all when we were there. However, if nice pools are what you are looking for, Kings Land has much better pools!
