| Grand Naniloa Hotel | |
|---|---|
 
The Grand Naniloa Hotel;
| |
  Location within Hawaii | |
| General information | |
| Address | 93Banyan Drive, Hilo, Hawaii |
| Coordinates | 19°43′46″N 155°03′54″W / 19.7295°N 155.0649°W / 19.7295; -155.0649 |
The Grand Naniloa Hotel is a hotelinHilo, Hawaii, on the eastern side of the Big Island. It is the largest hotel in the state of Hawaii's second largest city, and has the longest history as a hotel on Hawaii Island.
1km
0.6miles
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1
Lyman House Memorial Museum2
Haili Church3
Kalākaua Park / East Hawaii Cultural Center4
Pacific Tsunami Museum5
Moʻoheau County Park (Hele-On Bus Terminal) / S. Hata Building / Mokupāpapa Discovery Center6
Russell Carroll Soccer Fields7
Aupuni Center / County of Hawaiʻi offices8
Hilo Bayfront Beach Park9
Wailoa River State Recreation Area / Waiākea Pond10
Coconut Island / Moku Ola11
Queen Liliʻuokalani Park and Gardens / Banyan Drive12
Grand Naniloa Hotel / Naniloa Golf Course13
Reed's Bay Beach Park14
Hoʻolulu Complex (Merrie Monarch Festival site): Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium · Aunty Sally Kaleohano's Luʻau Hale · Edith Kanakaʻole Stadium · 'Sparky' Kawamoto Swim Stadium · Walter Victor Baseball Complex · Francis Wong Stadium15
Hilo Harbor16
Hilo International AirportThe Grand Naniloa Hotel opened in 1939, on Waiakea Peninsula, a small peninsula that protrudes into Hilo Bay. It is located on Banyan Drive which was developed in the early 1930s and which is lined with large Hawaiian banyan trees. Liliuokalani Park and Gardens are within a walking distance.
In 1946, Hilo was devastated by the tsunami associated with the 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake and others, but the town and hotel recovered.
The hotel currently consists of three towers, named after the Big Island's volcanos: Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Kilauea.[1]
The management and ownership of the hotel have changed several times. It was originally owned by a local company. In 2013, Aqua-Aston Hotels and ResortsofHonolulu started its management, while Tower Development became the owner.[2]
In 2016, the Hilton Hotels & Resorts completed a three-year renovation of the hotel, and it now operates as a Hilton DoubleTree hotel.[3] It was a $30 million renovation.[4]
The hotel has an association with hula dancing.[5] It is a host of Hilo's annual Merrie Monarch Festival, which began in 1963, and is now a week-long event with three days of hula competition. The Hula Halau Ke 'Olu Makani 'O Mauna Loa, a hālau hula, regularly practices on the hotel's grounds.
Frommer's summarizes that the hotel "has declared itself 'the home of hula.' Renowned photographer Kim Taylor Reese’s images of hula dancers hang on virtually every wall, high-definition video of the Merrie Monarch hula competition plays in the new, open-air lobby, with a central bar. Hula Hulas poolside restaurant offers locally sourced dishes, live music, and hula."[6]
The hotel has a nine-hole golf course, the only one in Hilo. The hotel has a small swimming pool and stands directly on Hilo Bay, but the guests have to drive one or two miles from Banyan Drive to Kalanianaole Avenue to find sand beaches.
Like other businesses on the bay, the Grand Naniloa Hotel does not own the land on which the hotel is situated, nor its golf course, but rather leases from the Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources.[7] The lease was assumed in the 2013 purchase of the property when the lease had 58 years remaining and required payments of $500,000 per year. [8]
