Best Hotels near American War Memorial, Honiara

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!

When we checked in, we paid cash in SBD (local currency) for our room, although our Booking.com invoice quoted USD and AUD. It was only when I got to the room that I realized they overcharged me. I had booked prior on Booking.com, had cancelled and later rebooked at a lower rate. They had charged me the prior booking amount and there was a difference of about $490 SBD. I went to the front desk to get it sorted out and it took almost an hour to get it resolved, then when we had it worked out, they said they did not have access to the cash drawer any more, that I would need to come back the next day. I had them give me a receipt for the refund amount due. The next morning I had to come to the front desk three different times and it all had to be figured out again, even though the amount of overpayment had already been resolved the night before. A waste of almost two hours of my vacation due to their error. The room itself was clean, although the bed was quite small, seemed even smaller than a standard full size mattress. The restaurant was surprisingly expensive, close to what we would pay in Seattle for similar food items. Located on the west side of town so you have to walk to get to anything located more in the center of Honiara (restaurants, museum, shopping, etc.).

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.

Beautiful hotel, friendly and helpful staff. The rooms were clean and well kept. Good location, ocean facing. Pool looked welcoming but being near the Splash bar meant you were sometimes swimming with people around. Beautiful green gardens all around. Food at the restaurant was okay, preferred to go to other places to eat, and the gym felt quite ”enclosed”. But all in all I would recommend for their cleanliness, hospitality and being well-maintained.