On the Honolulu end of Waikiki, the Hilton is Waikiki’s largest resort hotel – practically a self-sufficient tourist fortress with 22 acres of towers, restaurants, bars, five pools and myriad franchise shops. It’s geared almost entirely to families and package tourists, with 3,386 hotel rooms of varying quality, swimming pools and a lagoon, and tons of kid-centric activities by the beach.
Every Friday at 7:45pm the resort stages a spectacular 10-minute fireworks display over Kahanamoku Beach. The hotel's iconic Rainbow Tower opened in 1968 and has the world's largest ceramic-tile mosaic – the famous 286-foot-tall rainbow. In 1961 Elvis Presley filmed Blue Hawaii at the resort.