I recently returned to Boston from a 7 day trip to Maui, Hawaii. Some of the first questions people like to ask me are: "Why did you pick Maui?" and "Isn't that a very long flight?". To start this off, let me answer those two questions.
- I didn't really choose Maui, Maui chose me. Last fall, I attended a timeshare presentation in the Berkshires. Before I get a lecture from anyone, I did not purchase a timeshare. I was only there to pick up some free gifts and see how "free" they actually were. The first of the free gifts was the cruise to the Bahamas I took earlier this year. The second gift was 4 hotel nights on an exotic island... blah blah blah (I will write about my timeshare experience at some point). In the end, I was booked for 4 nights at the Aston Maui Lu in Kihei, Maui. I ended up adding an additional night there at my expense and one night on the east side of the island in Hana.
- Yes, it was a long flight, and an expensive one! I booked my flight through USAir several months ago at $1300 round trip. Between then and the week before the trip, the flight dropped in price by $320. Fortunately (or unfortunately, I don't know), USAir will reimburse the difference after they first take a $150 change fee. So, I ended up paying $1130. There were cheaper options, but those included a million layovers and a total flight time of something like 24 hours. I had one layover in Phoenix for about an hour. My total travel time was approximately 12-13 hours (A little shorter coming home and flying with the wind).
Day 1: Arrival
I arrived at Kahului airport on Sunday at 5pm. I slept some on the plane and I was excited for the vacation to begin, so I wasn't too tired. The rental car reservation was through Thrifty. Fun fact, Dollar recently bought out Thrifty, so they are now in the same booth. The weekly rate for a Mustang Convertible was approximately $400 after taxes. This reservation was also made a long time ago. More recently, I saw prices closer to $500. Next stop was the
Aston Maui Lu in Kihei.
When I was doing my pre-trip research, I came across a LOT of negative reviews of the Aston Maui Lu. It was to the point that I was not sure if I would actually stay there. Upon arrival, the woman at the front desk was extremely friendly and offered us an ocean view upgrade for an additional $20/night. She suggested that I walk around the property and view both rooms before making a decision. The garden view room was really large and seemed nice. Not at all like the reviews I read, but who can beat an ocean view loft when it's overlooking such a beautiful sight? Needless to say, I upgraded. It was already pretty late (and felt even later), so that night only included a stop to the grocery store before hitting the hay.
The next few days were jam packed with activities and included a lot of driving. At nearly $5/gallon, I'm not sure if the Mustang was the best idea. It was nice to have the top down though. If you'd like to read the detailed itinerary from this trip, please look at the "International" page of my blog. The next few paragraphs will just be an overview of the different activities I participated in while on Maui.
Day 2: Haleakala and Upcountry Exploring
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| View into the crater |
Because of the time difference, I was up pretty early the next day. Around 6 AM, I left the Maui Lu and made my way to Haleaka Highway and up Maui's 10,000 foot volcano to
Haleakala National Park. Many years ago, Maui was actually two different islands. Each island had an active volcano. Because of plate tectonics (or arguments amongst the Hawaiian Gods), these islands came together to form a valley between two very high mountains. The other volcano is no longer active and makes up the West Maui mountains. Haleakala is not dormant, it just hasn't erupted in a long time. Learning that tid bit of information at the visitor's center was disturbing. There are a couple of different stops where you can get a nice view of Maui. If you get there at sunrise, you can get some gorgeous pictures, but you also have to wake up at 3 AM and drive through some really windy roads in the dark. I'm not sure how good of an idea that is. There is an entrance fee of $10 per car and it is good for 3 days, though I only went once.
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| Alli Kula Lavender Farm |
On the way back down from Haleakala, I stopped at the
Kula Lodge for breakfast. It was a quaint lodge with a nice view, but the food was just mediocre. At this point in the post, I want to mention that I always write in depth reviews on Yelp.com. If you are interested in specifics, check out my site here:
vie-de-tina.yelp.com The upcountry is the area leading up to Haleakala. There are a lot of farms here as the weather is not too hot. I passed a lot of cow, sheep, and goat pastures during my drive. One of my many stops was to
Alli Kula Lavender Farm. There is an entrance fee just to get in. I'm not convinced that is warranted and after reading some reviews, it seems like the fee occasionally gets waived. In addition, if you want to take a formal tour, you have to pay an extra fee. I did not do the formal tour and opted to wander around on my own. The grounds are very beautiful and there are many different varieties of lavender grown here. The lavender tea was delicious, but at $18 for a box of tea bags, is expensive! I'm not sure kids would appreciate this stop very much.
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| Fresh Goat Cheese Flight |
The next stop was
Tedeschi Vineyards - the only pineapple wine found in the US. The good news here is that the tasting is free. You can opt for a tropical tasting or a traditional tasting. The tropical tasting includes 3 pineapples wines, and 1 framboise dessert wine. This winery actually gets their pineapples from the Maui Gold pineapple farm down the road. I love how they try and keep everything local on this island! As expected, most of the wines were really sweet. The Maui Blanc was a lot drier, and very delicious. I brought two of those bottles home with me. Overall, this stop only took about 20 minutes and did not wow me, but I always make time for wine!
The last upcountry stop was to the
Surfing Goat Dairy. The baby goats are adorable and you can buy a bag of hay for $1 to feed them, but their cheese (the actual reason for the stop) was just OK. I didn't like their aged cheese at all. I ended up with a standard flight of their fresh cheese, but was disappointed in the flavors. I'm not a big fan of serving Ritz crackers either. They have too strong of a taste when you are supposed to be tasting cheese. I think if I could do it again, I probably would want to take a tour here. There are lots of things I don't know about goats and it might be worth it just to pretend I'm a farmer for the day.
Overall, Day 2 was a lot of fun, but it was exhausting. By the time we were done at the Surfing Goat dairy, all I wanted to do was relax. That afternoon, we ended up at Big Beach on the southern part of Maui near Makena State Park. The waves were really rough already, so there wasn't much swimming. In fact, at one point, the lifeguards made an announcement that they were going home and everyone should get out of the water. Yikes!
Day 3: Surf Lessons and Luau
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| Up on a Wave with Maui Wave Riders |
After a busy day 2, day 3 needed a little more time to relax. I was scheduled for a 9:00 AM surf lesson on the beach in Kihei, only about 5 minutes from the hotel. Since I involuntarily woke up at 6 AM again, I got some breakfast at Kihei Caffe prior to the lesson. I went to that Cafe 3 different times that week, it was great! The food was hot and plentiful and it's super convenient to everything. The instructors at
Maui Wave Riders were great, but the admins and general lesson process was a bit chaotic. Everyone seemed to be wandering around before any order happened. The on land portion of the lesson only lasted about 30 minutes. After that, we all waded out in the water and hung on to our boards for dear life. To be fair, I do believe everyone got up on their surfboard at least once. A quick disclaimer though, the beach with the lessons has an extremely rocky bottom. If you jump off your board, purposely of course - not a wipe out, you may bang a body part against a rock. They provide you with ocean shoes, but if you have some thicker ones of your own, bring them! They take some great pictures as well (see the photo insert), but that is done by a separate company and you have to pay cash. The good news is they will take a LOT of pictures if you ask for them and they burn you a CD so you have the raw files. It's a pretty good deal compared to other touristy photo traps.
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| Old Lahaina Luau |
After the lessons, I stopped for some fish tacos at a
Coconuts Fish Cafe. They were really good, and not too expensive. The rest of the afternoon consisted of lounging by the beach before getting ready for the luau. The
Old Lahaina Luau was the highlight of my trip! Book this way far in advance because they do sell out and the order you book determines how good of a seat you get. I chose traditional seating, which was a lot of fun! If you have any back problems, you probably want tables though. The luau grounds were gorgeous and the food was mouth watering! There were at least 10 different hula dances during dinner and they were in sync with a beautiful story being narrated on the history of Hawaii. This is a
must when visiting Maui! Plus, I got a fresh plumeria lei here. :) I was looking forward to that the most!
Day 4: Snorkel Trip to Molokini
Day 4 was back to the water for a half day snorkeling trip aboard the
Frogman II in Maaleaa Harbor. I contemplated a couple different trips before settling on this one. One of the reasons I picked it was because it lasted only a half day. Most of the snorkel trips were all day affairs. In the event that I were to get sea sick and start puking all over the place, I didn't want it to ruin my whole day. Fortunately, there were no pukers on the boat! It took about an hour to get out to Molokini. There were a lot of boats here, keep that in mind when you a booking a trip. They all go to the same place. The only thing you should be paying an upcharge for is whatever food is provided. As a whole, Molokini was a little disappointing. There weren't many different species of fish, and most of them were black. We stayed there for an hour or so before making our way to turtle town. Turtle town is off the coast of Wailea, further south on Maui. I only saw 1 turtle, but another snorkeler on our ship saw a sand shark! How cool is that? I recommend this trip for anyone who wants a day on the water. It was pretty cheap in comparison to the other boats and the food was plentiful!
That afternoon, I spent some more time walking around Lahaina. Dinner was at
Betty's Beach Cafe. The restaurant actually overlooks the Feast at Lele, another Luau option. If you plan it right (around 7pm), you can watch a hula show and each a relatively inexpensive dinner at Betty's all at once. Wednesday nights there is a $15 lobster dinner special. Yum! P.S. The Feast at Lele didn't look to be as good as Old Lahaina Luau, but that's just my opinion.
Day 5: Pineapples and Helicopters
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| Maui Gold Pineapple Tour |
Our last day on the west side of Maui began with a
Maui Gold Pineapple Tour. I was most hesitant about this when planning. It was really expensive and I wasn't sure how many pineapples we would really get to eat, or want to eat, during the 3 hour tour. Fortunately, our tour guide was incredible and we got to see some really neat things including the processing plant and people out in the field planting pineapples. I'm pretty sure I ate at least one whole pineapple during the tour - tasting it at various stages of ripeness. In addition, the tour including lunch at the nearby
Haliimaile General Store. Yum! This tour is a 5 star recommendation, but they probably would get more visitors if it was a little cheaper. I would have loved to go back to the general store to try dinner, I bet it's delicious!
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| Cliffs of Molokai from Air Maui Tour |
Before our helicopter tour at the Kahului Heliport, we stopped in Paia to look around at the artsy crafty stores. This is an adorable little town with a great local vibe. There are a couple restaurants that can pack you a picnic lunch for a day trip to Hana as well. The reason for all this additional time to spend in Paia was because the tour I was scheduled on for 30 minutes over the West Maui mountains was cancelled. To my surprise, I was upgraded to a 45 minute tour of Molokai and the West Maui mountains. Of course, I agreed to this upgrade! I really wanted to see Molokai, and I wasn't able to fit it into my itinerary. This was a nice way to see it from above!
Air Maui was much better organized than most companies on Maui, and our pilot ensured a smooth trip even through some rough wind. Maybe it was the dramamine, but I didn't feel much of anything. If you've never been on a helicopter, Maui is the place to do it. I saw some HUGE waterfalls on the Molokai cliffs. They were breathtaking!
Day 6 and 7: Hana
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| Three Bears Water on the Road to Hana |
The last two days of my trip included a roadtrip out to Hana. Hana takes anywhere from 1.5 hours (no stops) to 8 hours driving from Kahului. Depending on whether, and how many stops you make, it can be a long day. Fortunately, I stayed overnight in the
Hana Kai Hotel and was able to divide up some of the stops past Hana for the next day. I need to make a very strong recommendation if you are going to Hana.
Please bring bug spray! Within 1 full day, I got approximately 30 mosquito bites hiking through the jungle. There are some beautiful waterfalls to be found, but they come at a price. Also, pick up a Hana audio tour CD if you can. It will really help you out and shouldn't cost more than $15. I was able to stop at a lot more places than I had originally planned out in my itinerary.
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| Sunrise in Hana |
Try not to plan to go out to eat in Hana. Most of the hotels include full kitchens because there are not many dining options. The few restaurants are extremely overpriced and you will be better off buying some groceries and cooking at home. Relax on one of the black sand beaches in the state park, or at the calm waters in Hana Bay and enjoy the simpler way of life. You'll hear over and over again on the CD that the road to Hana is not about the destination, but the journey... I'm pretty sure they keep saying this because there isn't much to do once you reach your destination! :)
I will be updating this post in the near future with pictures and better references, including links where appropriate. If you're interested, I will also post my full itinerary on the "International" page of my blog. Hawaii isn't really international, but it's over international waters, so it counts in my book!
Travel Tip: I saved some serious cash by booking my snorkel and helicopter tour through Ohanafun.net. To be completely honest, I took a chance with this company. I couldn't find many reviews online about them, but everything worked out fine. After booking my activities, I did call each company directly and confirm that they had my reservation. Some people feel comfortable using third party companies, and some don't. That is completely up to you!
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