Tsaiberspace

We are staying at the Ala Moana Hotel for a few days for a conference. Many things we read about this place were rather negative, but the hotel is undergoing renovation, so perhaps they completed the renovations just in time for our stay. Our room and the grounds are great: new and clean. The whole hotel is non-smoking; there are little signs in the rooms that say there will be a $200 room-cleaning charge for smoking.

The rooms are all very modernly-furnished and laid out, with lots of right-angled furniture and artwork everywhere. Each unit has a private lanai (we can see the ocean if we lean out over the railing), a dorm-room refrigerator, and free cabled internet access (WiFi is handled by BlueSocket and costs $10/day):

There are two perks to this hotel’s location:

• It is a five-minute walk to Ala Moana Park.
• It is a two-minute walk to the Ala Moana Shopping Center. For the hardened traveler, the benefit is not so much in the shopping (although there is a Foodland grocery store there) as it is in the large food court for quick meals.