The hotel experience is leaving more lasting memories thanks to the convenience and cost-effectiveness of a daycation with flexible booking hotels.

I was 10 years old, on my first family vacation to Hawaii. We had been to Baja California before, but the accommodations were only memorable for the giant scorpion I encountered in a roadside motel off the highway. This time, we were staying at the Hilton, which carried an air of glamor.  There is so much to do and see in Hawaii, it’s the perfect place for a daycation.

The bigness of it all made me feel like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone 2, expecting to spot Donald Trump hanging out in the lobby. I didn’t spot Trump, but I did get glimpses of talking macaws,  and chilling iguanas. Squads of bedecked dancers handed out leis to a group of overwhelmed tourists.

Unlike other hotel lobbies, which insulate travelers from the world outside, this Hilton lobby was high-ceilinged with tall arches framing the picturesque beaches for entrances. The open-air design was perfect to let the hot, humid climate breeze through. At the time I didn’t know that all hotel lobbies weren’t like that, and I was always disappointed by the cloistered feel of other hotel lobbies that didn’t live up to my first childhood experience of a hotel.

Beyond the lobby adventure awaits!

Navigating through the lobby to the plaza beyond, the Hilton was a backdrop for the volcanic mountains behind and the crystal blue-green waters in front. The hotel pools beckoned, but the beaches beyond seemed more authentic.

“Why?,” I asked myself, would anyone come to Hawaii just to swim in a chlorinated pool with the Pacific Ocean just a stone’s throw away? First, as a kid, the pool was “safe” and the beach was “dangerous,” even though they both had lifeguards. Second, the beach was crowded, packed with umbrellas, deck chairs and bodies on towels soaking up the sun. I wasn’t agoraphobic, but grabbing some real estate and keeping it on the beach was a challenge for the whole family, but we rose to the occasion, staking our claim and jealously defending against the encroachments of other beach-goers.

Back in the hotel, I discovered the magic of room service for the first time. Wait a minute, you can order food to your room? I was shocked. We enjoyed a big family dinner on the small tables you get in a standard room, but the novelty of the experience was worth a few cramped entrees. Room service in Oahu still stands out as one the best family dinners of my childhood, excepting a few Thanksgivings at Grandma’s table.

After dinner, we went to a traditional luau on the beach outside our hotel. The sun was setting but the fire dancers kept the lights on over the darkening skies before a backdrop of massive violet clouds resting on the horizon.

We were fortunate enough to get a connected room, one for my parents and the other for my sister and I. We were even more fortunate to get an ocean view. The gentle waves rocked me to sleep on my first night.

From the top of a caldera to the depths of the deep blue sea.

The highpoint of our trip to Hawaii was climbing Kilauea, the volcano at the center of Oahu. From the caldera, our hotel looked like a postage stamp. The tour guide regaled us with tales of the mountain spirits living in the lava. I thought about chucking something into the inferno, but there were plenty of signs explicitly telling us not to. Plus my parents were keeping a close eye us to make sure we didn’t fall down into the fire.

The next day, after a rest at the Hilton, we went on a flat-bottom boat tour of the coral reefs of the coasts of Oahu. We spotted coral reefs, millions of schools of tropical fish, and even a few sharks.

Honestly, it was more frightening than going to the edge of an active volcano. I thought the whole time the glass would break and we’d sink into the abyss, our flesh becoming food for sharks and our bones added to the coral reef. I was glad to be safely back on terra firma at the end of the day.

We visited Honokohau Falls, the most famous waterfall on Oahu. You might have seen it already: it’s the one featured in Jurassic Park. The hike was surprisingly easy, just a few hours’ jaunt through the jungle and into a (relatively) private paradise. We swam for hours in the green pool under the waterfall, and then we ate lunch under a banyan tree before starting the trek back to the Hilton.

We took a helicopter tour of the island, and after so much time spent in the city, I finally started to realize just how wild and isolated most of Oahu really is. Apart from the main highway circling the island and dirt roads into the center, much of the Big Island remains wild jungle, almost untouched by human settlement. I felt bad for disturbing the natural beauty but also blessed to witness it. When we landed, at last, I felt grateful, not just for seeing Oahu from the sky, but also for not having crashed.

Meeting friends both finned and feathered

After a restful night at the Hilton, we woke up early and went swimming with dolphins. If I felt bad about interrupting Hawaii’s natural beauty, I quickly forgot it all. The dolphins seemed pretty okay about giving me ride, so I went along with it.

Later that day, we walked through Kipuka Puaulu, home to more species of macaws, parrots and other exotic birds than you can shake a cracker at. I had a conversation with a 100-year-old parrot: it was pretty one-sided, but the old bird always had a witty comeback for me.

And as always, at the end of our exhausting daily excursions, we had the luxury and comfort of the Hilton to go back to. At the time, flexible booking hotels in Hawaii were a wave of the future. While we had a blast on our last day, it was short lived because we had to check out of the hotel many hours before our flight. With the flexibility of a daycation hotel, we could have a whole other day soaking up the island vibe.