Holiday Island was one of the first 'simlike' game i played. In comparison to "Sim City 2000" it had the better graphics and the more appeling theme - who doesn't like holidays? Even today most games don't touch this scenario. But when i played it, it wasn't a flawless experience.
Besides the nice graphics and the typical 'sim-complexity' the interface is some kind of cumbersome and it's sometimes a little bit difficult to process your tasks fast and efficient. But for its time, it was quite good. HI had lots of options, you could even sabotage your enemies and there were funny 'tv news', p.e. you were able to steal the big stone faces from the Easter Islands and they would make a broadcast about it.
Today I would recommend the Tropico-series and not "Holiday Island", because you will feel that its over ten years old. But for some break-playing in between two 'serious' games, it's definitiy worth trying. And for all sim-fans who have played all those other games over and over it may be a welcome alternative.

Great game, really fun to play!!!

One of the best sim games. Much better than simcity or other games of the genre, in my opinion.

I like the fact that you can sabotage your rivals ;-)

Enjoy!