Surfjack Hotel & Swim Club - Honolulu, Hawaii

When most of my friends and family have all been to Hawaii, it was my first time visiting. What I know about Hawaii has always been from what TV, old postcards and old calendars. So, I imagined it to be never ending beaches with white fine sand and water so clear that you can see the bottom and fish would be swimming around you even at the most shallow area. And of course, that is not what Hawaii is about. I went to Honolulu and it really just reminds me of Las Vegas. A Vegas that has beaches.

I went in July...high season and I booked the hotel really late. So, many of the hotels we liked were out of rooms and for other hotels that we also liked were way out of our budget. Plane tickets and hotel for 4 nights turned out to be about US$1000.

We flew on Air Canada...a big mistake! I will never fly on Air Canada again if there are other options. Our flight was supposed to take off at around 5pm, but it kept on delaying and was at the verge of cancelling. Worst part was that they never gave us a notice so I went to the airport around 2:30pm....waiting until 11:30pm to board! They gave us $20 food voucher to use at the YVR airport, but by the time I got the voucher, ALL the food outlets were closed! A very crappy airline...

By the time we arrived in Honolulu, it was already 2am!!!

So, we basically lost a day of holiday! We ubered to our hotel Surfjack. It was about US$23 instead of US$45 on taxi.

Surfjack isn't one of those big brand luxury hotel. It is a a newly renovated hotel about a year ago. People say that it used to be a dump. However, after they renovated the place, it totally turned into an IG friendly boutique hotel!

Every corner of the hotel looks like a place you would find on an insta-famous star's profile.

The lobby area is cute.

They make sure the little things in the hotel are cute as well. Sun screen provided!

The hotel has bikes to rent. Not sure about the fee.

The hotel is really close to the city center with about 5 minutes walk or less. Right next to the hotel is an ABC Store. I find it very weird that there is an ABC Store everywhere but can rarely see a 7-11.

Since it's call Surfjack, I guess there are surf boards everywhere as decor?

Looking at the hallways of the rooms, you can definitely tell it was an old motel/inn before.

However, inside the room, they do try to decorate it to give it a hipster feel.

It can't compare other 5 stars hotel, but it's still comfortable.

I like how our room's balcony look down to the hotel pool. Wish you were here!

The sofa can turn into queen bed. They call this a suite though.....sigh....the small suite I've ever seen...

They gave us some complementary cookies and dried mango. It was around 3am already and we haven't really eaten anything. Was starving, but Cho ate all the cookies at once without leaving any for me >__<