The Pagoda Hotel doesn't show up in many guidebooks, but holds a nostalgic place in my mind because that's where my family stayed on our first trip to Hawaii, 35 years ago. This review, however, is based on a stay this year!

The hotel is in Honolulu proper, a few blocks from the Ala Moana Shopping Center, but is not next to Waikiki -- one reason it seldom gets mentioned. For frequent visitors who don't need the full resort experience, though, it is more than adequate. The price, at least when booked through their web site, is excellent, and parking is plentiful (there's a charge, but a lot less than most other properties).

There are two separate buildings -- the tower and the terrace. The terrace is actually across the street from the tower, which is connected to the check-in desk and the restaurant. I stayed in the tower, and found my room to be more than adequately large. I was impressed that there was a sink separate from the bathroom, which also had a sink, facilitating matters for those sharing the room with others. There were also a refrigerator, a microwave oven, and a safe -- all handy to have! Incidentally, each building has its own swimming pool, so no inconvenience there.

Desk staff were friendly and efficient, as was the woman tending the shopette. I can't say that I had any interaction with other hotel staff.

Shopette prices, by the way, are more than reasonable, quite a difference from even the mid-range properties in the US.

The restaurant is renowned for its koi pond, for good reason. The pond surrounds the entire restaurant, and there are lots of tables at the windows and on a small lanai that allow views of the fish (or you can see them from the walkways outside). Feeding is scheduled for several times daily.

For the daily breakfast buffet, the food is good but not spectacular. For the price, though, I'm not complaining. Sunday brunch (served after breakfast) and nightly dinner are also buffets, but I didn't partake this time. Hint: be sure to have reservations for dinner; I didn't eat dinner there because I didn't have a reservation and didn't want to wait 2 hours!

I had a couple minor quibbles with the room. First, the plumbing in the tub could have been secured a bit better. I tried to adjust the shower head, and the cap hiding the hole in the wall slid all the way down the pipe.

More important -- to me, anyway -- was the inefficiency of the air conditioning in the room. I realize I'm visiting the tropics, but when A/C is provided I do like it to work. It was provided by a window-mounted unit, which had a huge gap between the unit and the wall beneath it. Fortunately, I didn't notice any critters coming in, but there was a lot of gunk in there that should have been cleaned out. Also, the unit wasn't large enough to do its job. The temperature in the room was actually quite comfortable, but I was trying to lower the humidity a bit. I ran the air conditioning on high cool, full cold temperature for 48 hours and it was finally starting to make a difference when I checked out.

The only other advice I would provide is that while the hotel's address is on Rycroft Street, and the main entrance (a breezeway, not a door) is indeed there, the parking is behind the property on Kanunu Street. There is a small parking lot, while validated parking is available in the Ross Dress for Less garage across the street (levels 4 through 7 for hotel guests). Since two school buses were taking up the entire space in front of the hotel entrance, I ended up feeding a meter and walking back to the hotel because there was no advance indication of where to park.

To sum up, I recommend this hotel for those who don't need a resort experience, don't need to be right on the beach, and don't need a lot of fancy amenities. If you just want to be pampered, you're better off elsewhere, but for those of us with more pedestrian tastes the Pagoda is quite suitable.