Honiara Hotels with Swimming Pools

Stayed for two weeks in May-June 2023. Positive: -- extremely central location, walking distance to almost everything (Honiara is not very big) -- super friendly and helpful staff -- the bento box in the Japanese restaurant is surprisingly good -- powerful air conditioning, which you will appreciate after a day in Honiara -- has a generator for when the power goes off (which happens) Neutral: -- has all the basics: refrigerator, aircon, TV all worked fine -- no issues with cleanliness, maid service every day -- no issues with water pressure or heat -- swimming pool is small but clean, I did laps there most nights with no problems -- laundry service is pricey but otoh is lightning fast: my laundry came back ironed in well under 24 hours -- make sure your door is firmly closed or you'll get mosquitos Negative: -- wi-fi is bad: slow, sometimes drops, and charges you extra for use beyond 100 MB /day. If you can, get a local SIM card and hotspot off that. It's cheaper and faster. -- breakfast is not free and is pretty miserable. It's 100 SBD (about US $13) for corn flakes, stale bread, coffee, and fruit. The fruit is fresh and local but that's about all I can say for it. After a few days I just started going next door to the Breakwater Cafe, which gives a much nicer array of breakfast offerings for about the same price. -- there's a club next door, which can be loud on weekends. It didn't bother me but if you're sensitive to that sort of thing, be aware. -- there's a small beach right behind the hotel... which is covered with trash. You probably wouldn't want to swim there anyway (the Mendana is in the middle of town and very near the port) but it's nasty to look out your window at a garbage-strewn beach. Surely this could be fixed? -- no exercise room Basically this is the medium-price hotel in Honiara. The Heritage and Coral Sea are nicer but more expensive (usually -- prices in Honiara can fluctuate a lot). I found the Mendana perfectly okay. The only major negative was the wifi. Fix that and I'd give back half a star.

This place is genuinely really good. I booked it because one it was super cheap, perhaps cheapest in Honiara and second it was in a central location. A supermarket, telekom and restaurants are all within walking distance. The staff were super helpful especially the ladies who checked me in, Turkena and her colleague. They helped me with my sim card. I had misplaced my keys and my dates of stay had changed and they were super empathetic about it all and helped me out. I'd easily stay here, I mean come on 90 bucks a night in a central location is a bargain!