From the 23rd floor, the view at the edge of the balcony of an ocean front can quicken the heart. The first night after arriving, I could hardly stand at the balcony railing. Twenty-four hours later? Not only could I walk up to the railing, I could look down to the street below. Nice ocean view and North along Kalakaua Ave.
While technically not on the beach, the Marriott Waikiki Beach Resort & Spa is close enough. In fact, the beach is just across the street - Kalakaua Avenue.
At dawn, the beach is relatively quiet. By the afternoon, pandemonium as all us tourists get out and get going. Kalakaua and the beach stay busy late into the evening.
A survey of hotel reviews on the Internet led us to believe that the Marriott would be very noisy. In general, the higher you are in a hotel, the quieter it is. We were on the 23rd floor. Probably true in this case as the hotel was not as noisy as we expected. Generally things quieted down around 10pm. I recommend this hotel. We received the best service of any Hawaiian Marriott we've stayed at (out of 5 total).
The Marriott is located between Kalakaua and Kuhio Avenues. Buses are constantly coming and going along Kuhio. The Bus can take you where ever you want to go easily and conveniently.
Our ocean front room had an ample balcony providing pleasing views of the ocean, beaches, and Waikiki. The hotel has two towers. We stayed in the shorter Kealohilani Tower which provides better views than the taller Paoakalani Tower. The room was clean. No sand in the carpet. The king size bed was one of the new Marriott beds. Very comfortable. We used the small refrigerator to keep water, milk, and yogurt cool. We spent a number of evenings and mornings sitting in the over-stuffed chairs just hanging out.
We took advantage of the hotel's Kuhio Beach Grill restaurant. Two nights we got the early bird special providing all-you-can eat prime rib. The service and the food were the best hotel restaurant experience we've had in Hawaii. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Kuhio Beach Grill as well. The service wasn't as good as the previous night but the food was still good.
Best advice - you really don't need a car. Our hotel would have charged us $19 per day to park a car. Seems a bit steep on top of $75-$100 daily car rental costs. Bus is $2 per ride. Transfers are good for 2+ hours. ABC stores on every corner have Bus Route Maps and city bus guide books. We bought two that were helpful "The Bus Map and Guide Book" and "The Bus Guide." The Bus Guide is better and cheaper than the other one.
The Marriott Waikiki Beach Resort & Spa make a good base for siteseeing. We will stay here again.