Hotels with balcony in Onna

I come to Okinawa almost every winter for vacation and have stayed at many ocean-view hotels here. Halekulani Okinawa stands out for both its significant strengths and weaknesses. **Pros:** (1) As a newly built hotel, the facilities are much newer than other hotels. The rooms even have smart tablets to conveniently book restaurants and check out various amenities. (2) Although the restaurant prices are noticeably higher than other hotels, the quality of both the buffet and à la carte restaurants, and even room service, is excellent and worth the price. (3) The service is very good. If you're taking public transportation when checking out, they'll even provide a car to take you to the station. (4) If you skip breakfast, you can change it to lunch, which is convenient for those who like to sleep in. **Cons:** This seems to be a common issue with Western hotel brands. Halekulani Okinawa, along with two other Hilton hotels here, shares the following problems. I believe this might stem from differences in Western brands' operational philosophies. However, for a hotel like Halekulani, which costs more than double other ocean-view hotels, these shortcomings are quite unacceptable. (1) The hotel lacks a well-stocked convenience store and souvenir shop. Other Japanese-owned ocean-view resort hotels usually have one or two such stores with a wide variety of items. Here, there's only one shop selling some Halekulani branded merchandise and a very limited selection of ”eco-friendly, natural” snacks, with hardly any beverages. If you want something to eat, you have to walk a few hundred meters outside the hotel to a chain convenience store. (2) The mini-bar drinks in the room are chargeable, and the prices are 4-5 times higher than at outside convenience stores. Considering this hotel is 2-3 times more expensive than others, and many other hotels often offer free mini-bars, this difference is quite significant. The main issue is the lack of an internal convenience store, forcing guests to frequently go out to a convenience store a few hundred meters away for a wider selection of drinks and snacks. Not to mention, it's truly unpleasant to go out when it's rainy or windy. For someone like me who enjoys staying at a comfortable and convenient hotel for several days or even a week, it's hard to stay long if a resort can't meet all my needs in one place. (3) The price for the self-service laundry and dryer (700/800 JPY) is also about three times higher than at other local ocean-view hotels (200/300 JPY). While the hotel's price is more than double that of others, the convenience and comfort aren't significantly higher (aside from newer facilities). Coupled with a mini-bar and self-service laundry that are several times more expensive, and the need to go outside to buy necessities due to the lack of an on-site convenience store, it feels like they're trying too hard to squeeze every penny. It's more suitable for a short, 'check-the-box' experience rather than a prolonged, relaxing stay. The quality of the seawater is also just average compared to hotels in Onna Village and Cape Zanpa.

The check in was very easy, as was finding the location along of the villa on the beach. The condo/villa is absolutely stunning with a view of the ocean that cannot be beat. We appreciated the gorgeous sunsets, the pool and soaking tub on the 2nd floor balcony, and the outstanding views of the beach and island (Yojima) in the distance. The beds were some of the most comfortable we slept in while in Japan. We deeply appreciated the amenities - breakfast and food delivery (sausages, veggies, fresh bread, eggs and drinks) upon arrival, and found the layout of the house was fantastic for our family of 5. With two sleeping areas downstairs (kids), and an upstairs master bedroom (parents), we had MORE than enough space. One thing we would have liked about the location description online is an understanding that there is VERY little near by in terms of restaurants, convenience stores, etc. Depending on the weather, not much is walkable within 15-20 minutes. We ate at the Taco Rice restaurant, and walked 30 minutes to a local supermarket, and we drove the other places we needed to go. Also, the general impression we got from the website was that you can access the beach directly from the villa - sort of a, ”walk out to the sand” idea. You cannot. There is a 6-foot wall that separates the bottom floor of the villa with the actual beach area (needed for water level rising during storms, we get that :))... but there is no way down without jumping, nor a path to the beach (from our #3/C Villa, at least). We ended up jumping down the retaining wall using their small gate, walking around to a local business area that had a clear path, and accessing the beach that way. This was fine, don't get me wrong. Also, while the view is spectacular (and it really is), there is a TON of rebar from a former construction project (unfinished, we asked around) that sticks up out of the ocean at low, or extremely low tide (both of which we experienced while visiting - the extremely low tide happens each new/full moon, we were told). When this occurs, the beach stretches for 550 yards. We were able to ”walk and explore” (careful of course of the coral!), but for 1.5 days, we had a view of tons and tons of rebar sticking straight out of the sand, that stretched for 100s of yards in each direction. Again, this did not ruin anything, but it would be nice to know when booking a pricey room. I think the views are outstanding, given the timing you take the photo :) Overall, we would likely not stay again for the price, but it was a relaxing and splurge-y way to get that Okinawa sunset in at the end of long trip (5 weeks) in Japan. We are grateful for this adventure and my shared experience in this review is simply to help families understand more about the property. We traveled in mid-July. Thank you!

We had spent 4 nights at the hotel during the Golden Week which might have influenced the perception of service, but not dramatically. Among the advantages of the hotel are: nice spacious rooms (ours had a stunning sea view); generally good location with beautiful nature and access to the beaches where you could actually swim (not a given on the island) - at least until the tide goes too low; reasonably good food across the restaurants with rather friendly prices; stylish bar with quality drinks. Among the disadvantages are: very non-Japanese service (generally not very helpful, with low penetration of English among the staff) and lack of attention to detail that could make the resort actually very nice - again, not very typical case for Japan. A few pieces of advice to the management: 1. Bring the option of in-room breakfast. If a guest is sick and can’t go down, it’s impossible to order in-room breakfast on the day, while rooms service opens at 11:30. Same frustration goes to the coffee stall downstairs that doesn’t serve coffee during earlier breakfast hours 2. Consider equipping rooms with coffee machines and contemporary electronics - low costs to take, yet massive disadvantage for the 5* status for not having them 3. Pay more attention to room service: we spent 48h without shampoo and shower gel. Our glasses were washed occasionally. New bottles of drinking water arrived only once. 4. Fix the beach! The amenities there look like a poor community beach area, especially those shameful umbrellas. You have reasonable amenities at the pool - why not spreading them to the beach areas to make them feel more like a resort rather than public beaches that no one gave any care? 5. Gym and SPA amenities could use a bit of refreshment. I won’t mention SPA service itself which might be a result of poor luck with the specific technician 6. Empty mini bar equals lost revenue. You could easily cover the modifications above through adding more options for people to enjoy drinks at their balconies. What makes staying in Japan truly special - genuine care and attention to every detail - was completely missing over our stay at this Hyatt. In fact, we consistently had that feeling “this could actually be really nice” and then something would go terribly wrong with the awkward service. The hotel that looks like 5* on pictures leaves a 3* aftertaste at max. I am only writing this because I felt it didn’t have to - those are easy aspects to fix.

Totally enjoyed the stay. View from balcony and outdoor jaccuzzi was perfect. The many bath salts offered also added dimension to the jaccuzzi. Evening drinks coupled with live wind instruments was fun and relaxing too. Close enough walk to many restaurants nearby, a leisurely 10-20mins walk. They were also able to help make a dining reservation at a nearby restauant.

Fantastic hotel! The room was huge and incredibly clean! All the rooms in this hotel are sea-view with very large balconies. The weather during my stay was absolutely perfect, so I spent both days and nights lounging on the sofa on the balcony, enjoying the sea breeze and the ocean view! Personally, I felt this hotel perfectly met my needs! If any of the following points are a big deal for you, then definitely consider them; otherwise, just book it without a second thought: 1. To get to the nearest beach, you have to cross a road yourself, and there are no rentable sun loungers or parasols on the beach. 2. The hotel pool water was a bit cold. 3. The breakfast can't compare to what you'd find in China, though there is one with a nice sea view.

Just as you'd expect from a Hoshino Resort property. The place was spotless, and the amenities were excellent. Beyond the in-house cafe, the food trucks parked outside offered a great variety of dining options, giving guests more freedom of choice. My only slight surprise was finding a small insect in the room, but given the natural surroundings, it's probably unavoidable.

It was the perfect environment for a hotel getaway. Since we had young children, the hotel's pool and activities were excellent and very helpful. We used the buffet restaurant all day, and the availability of sofa seating was a great help! I highly recommend adding Club Savvy benefits. The food and drinks in the lounge and the concierge service were simply fantastic. The exceptional hospitality made me want to return.

Everything was perfect, staff was kind and helpfull, food was very good for both breakfast and dinner, the location is amazing and we were often completly alone on their private beach (as it might've been too cold for the locals). Lots of nice and cozy restaurants arpund the hotel as well, you can get there by ”airport bus limousine”, when you're not acustomedto.how it works it looks a little scary but just go to the counter when you arrive to the airport and they'll help you out! Just know that you're in zone B Onna Village, make sure to vheck the time of departure online beforehand as you might need to sleep a noght in Naha if you arrive too late. Theres also a lot of activities nearby, I greatly recommend the snorkling/scooba diving.

The service was excellent, and the hotel environment was fantastic! The breakfast and dinner were standard buffet style, with above-average quality. However, the staff at the small shops might need more training, as they were unhelpful and seemed clueless, which is not the standard of service expected from a top-tier hotel.

There were plenty of parking spaces. Check-in was self-service, and the people ahead of us usually took about ten minutes to check in. We waited for half an hour before it was our turn. The terrace didn't have flooring, which was a bit shabby. The room was fairly clean.