We went to Maui in late January and spent about a week there (Friday - Friday). My wife has become the queen of finding work conferences like this to help offset the cost of these trips. We did Kauai 2 years ago and had been trying to get back to Hawaii since then. Maui fit the bill because we're also trying to visit all the National Parks. We were able to check of Haleakala NP with this trip (number 21 for us).
We flew in late to Maui from Vegas and the only thing we did was get groceries, unload at the AirBNB, go get dinner, and go back to the AirBNB to get some sleep. The conference was in Wailea and we found a Condo (much more affordable than the resort) 5 minutes away in Kihei. Dinner was at Pizza Madness Maui. We did figure out that pizza is probably the most affordable food to get if you're eating out. I'm not going to turn this into a food review (because I'm a terrible food critic), but I will say most all the places we ate we enjoyed. Some were better than others, but overall we were pleased with the places we ate at. Interesting tidbit is that it's legal for minors to sit at the bar in restaurants on Maui, which we learned our first night there.
Day 1
From the time we started researching Maui, we knew going to the top of Haleakala for sunrise was priority #1. You have to get a reservation due to parking limitations. I think they open up about 2 months in advance. It's only $1 to get the ticket, and you sign up through recreation.gov. Everything we read said to try and go the first full day you are there because of the time change coming from the mainland. It's about 2 hours from where we were staying, we were up around 330am to get there by 6 and we got there just in time. Make note that if you want to do this, it's gonna be cold and could be windy. It was in the low 40s with probably 50+ mph winds! Despite all that, it was totally worth it. After the sunrise, it was back down the mountain to a nature trail that was quite interesting. Apparently, explorers came to the island and planted a bunch of random tree species that have essentially become pretty invasive so there are ongoing efforts to remove these. China, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, and a few other places I can't remember.
After leaving the NP, we headed over to Baby Beach near the Maui airport. Very much looked to be a less touristy beach. Watched quite a few kite surfers while we were there, which was fun. Neither my wife or I are huge beach and ocean people (but our daughter definitely is) so not much to say other than it was a beach. One neat feature is you can watch the planes come in and land from this one.
Lunch was at a food truck park near the Costco on Maui. I will say the food truck scene on Maui is pretty fantastic. Numerous food truck parks around the island, all with a wide variety of food types to choose from. We got food here from Pele's gyro king and Thai Fusion, both were really good. Again, my food critic skills are about on par with Andy from the Office.
Since we'd been up since 330am, we went back to the condo, ordered dinner from Penny's Pizza, watched a movie and crashed.
Day 2: The Road to Hana
Originally, this was not on our itinerary. We'd read mixed reviews about making this drive, but we really wanted to go to the Kipahulu District of the NP to hike the Pipiwei Trail and see Waimoku Falls. In order to beat traffic, we left early (about 5am if I remember correctly). We figured we could make good time that way (as good as you can expect on this road), and take a more leisurely pace back to the condo at the end of the day. Definitely the right call leaving really early. Traffic was essentially non-existent almost the whole way there. The locals drive like psychos along that road and it's pretty easy to spot them coming. We'd just move over when possible and let them pass, no big deal. Anyway, got to the trailhead around 9am, and the parking lot had maybe 10 other cars there. Overall, I'd say it's a moderately strenuous trail. Mostly going up in elevation on the way to the falls, which we definitely prefer. There's a bamboo forest about 1 mile into the trail which is so cool to see. There are signs restricting you from going close to the falls due to falling rocks. We spent some time there wading around the various pools and to eat lunch as well.
Once back to the car, we made our way back along the road to Hana, stopping at different places for ice cream, shopping, etc. There is the Hana Gold chocolate plantation along the way and I will say their chocolate is quite tasty. Be prepared, because like everything else there, it's expensive (like $10 for a pretty small bar). Last stop on the way back was Wai'anapanap State Park and their black sand beach. We lucked out because we somehow got a same day reservation, which is apparently very rare. I will say it's not exactly sand, more like black rocks and small pebbles. It was cool though to spend some time there. Made it back to Kihei in time for a later dinner at Stewz Burgers. This place was good enough to go to twice in the week we were there.
Day 3: Beach Day
Not much to say about this day. I had my conference in the morning and my wife and daughter spent time at the beach near the Condo. Afternoon was spent at the Condo's pool, then we went to another beach for dinner. Got shaved ice at Da Kine Shaved ice in Kihei and went to Charley Young Beach for dinner and sunset. There's a food truck in Kihei named the Kinaole Grill which serves a few different fish plates and this place was really good. Like Stewz Burgers, we went there twice for dinner while we were there.
Day 4: Beach Day
Similar to the previous day with conference in the morning and the family at the beach. In the evening we went to an outdoor mall in Wailea for a free Polynesian Show, which was definitely entertaining. Our daughter loved it. Dinner this night was I believe take out from Black Rock Pizza in Kihei. Definitely would say Black Rock and Pizza Madness were better than Penny's Pizza.
Day 5: Pineapple Farm Tour
After the conference in the morning ended, we headed over to the Maui Gold pineapple farm/plantation for our tour. I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this, but overall I'd say it was completely worth the price. Our tour guide was very entertaining while talking all about the ins and outs of growing pineapples. There's something like 3+ million pineapples growing on the farm and they only have 4 employees planting the pineapples. They each plant between I think he said 12,000-15,000 per day. You do get to eat some pineapple on the tour and each person on the tour gets a pineapple that's boxed up for taking it back home. Dinner from Kinaole Grill food truck again while watching the sunset at Kamaole Beach 1, and that's it for the day.
Day 6: Kapalua and whale watching
For the last day of the trip, we drove up to the Kapalua area for some snorkeling at the beach and then a whale watching tour in the evening. We did eat a Kihei Caffe for breakfast before getting going. Food did not disappoint.
This is definitely a more popular tourist area compared to Kihei. Our condo had snorkeling gear that we were able to use, so we didn't have to rent any. Parking there is hard to come by. There is a small parking lot at Kapalua Bay Beach, but it fills up quick and lots of people park on the street. We were fortunate that someone was leaving their spot as we got there and didn't have much of a walk to the beach. We've only been snorkeling twice so don't expect any type of expert review here. It was fun, there are lots of fish to see when snorkeling at the beach, and that's all I've got. Apparently, this is popular place to see sea turtles, but we did not. Theres a walking path that takes you along the shoreline and we did walk a little bit of it, but got distracted and walked out on some rocks jutting out into the ocean. This was probably the nicest beach we went to.
After the beach, we headed back over to the Lahaina area where our whale watching tour was leaving from. Not without a stop for more shaved ice at Island Cream Co. Like the other shaved ice places we visited, it did not disappoint.
Lahaina is still very much recovering from the fire and large chunks of it are closed off to tourists. There were multiple places we saw entrances that had security guards present doing ID checks and only residents were allowed in to those areas.
We went through Hawaii Ocean Rafting and got a 2-hour tour on their rigid inflatable raft, so you're essentially at water level for the tour. It was phenomenal. There's the main guide and I believe a biologist on board to talk all about the humpback whales that are in this area. There were whales all over this area. Got to see a mama whale and her calf up close (<15 feet away from the raft). Only thing we missed was an up close whale breaching.
I will note that I know we saw various articles talking about whether or not people should visit Maui and the Lahaina area after the fire. Both the guide and the assistant on our tour both live there and they said they absolutely want people to keep coming. It allows them to still work and continue to live there. If tourists don't come, they have no way to support themselves.
Final Thoughts
Even though my wife and I aren't beach people (seriously, can't stand getting sand everywhere!), I will say both our Hawaii vacations have been awesome. I'd put Kauai over Maui mainly because it's just less built up than Maui. Getting to Hawaii is the cheap part of the trip. The price of everything over there is crazy.
Rental car sucked. I'm a Hertz Gold Member (which I don't think amounts for much but I get it though work) and there were 2 choices when we got there black Challenger or white Challenger. One of the most stripped-down cars I've rented in a while. I think our base model 2011 Sorento has more features than this thing.
Traffic on Maui is busy pretty much all the time, so plan accordingly. However, parking in the Kihei area was not bad at all, which was surprising to us.
Other places we ate at that I didn't mention above: Lappert's Ice cream at the shops and Wailea and Peace, Love, and Shaved Ice in Kihei. Both were great. Lappert's was definitely pricy.
If you're planning a trip to Maui, hopefully this gave you some helpful information.
We flew in late to Maui from Vegas and the only thing we did was get groceries, unload at the AirBNB, go get dinner, and go back to the AirBNB to get some sleep. The conference was in Wailea and we found a Condo (much more affordable than the resort) 5 minutes away in Kihei. Dinner was at Pizza Madness Maui. We did figure out that pizza is probably the most affordable food to get if you're eating out. I'm not going to turn this into a food review (because I'm a terrible food critic), but I will say most all the places we ate we enjoyed. Some were better than others, but overall we were pleased with the places we ate at. Interesting tidbit is that it's legal for minors to sit at the bar in restaurants on Maui, which we learned our first night there.
Day 1
From the time we started researching Maui, we knew going to the top of Haleakala for sunrise was priority #1. You have to get a reservation due to parking limitations. I think they open up about 2 months in advance. It's only $1 to get the ticket, and you sign up through recreation.gov. Everything we read said to try and go the first full day you are there because of the time change coming from the mainland. It's about 2 hours from where we were staying, we were up around 330am to get there by 6 and we got there just in time. Make note that if you want to do this, it's gonna be cold and could be windy. It was in the low 40s with probably 50+ mph winds! Despite all that, it was totally worth it. After the sunrise, it was back down the mountain to a nature trail that was quite interesting. Apparently, explorers came to the island and planted a bunch of random tree species that have essentially become pretty invasive so there are ongoing efforts to remove these. China, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, and a few other places I can't remember.
After leaving the NP, we headed over to Baby Beach near the Maui airport. Very much looked to be a less touristy beach. Watched quite a few kite surfers while we were there, which was fun. Neither my wife or I are huge beach and ocean people (but our daughter definitely is) so not much to say other than it was a beach. One neat feature is you can watch the planes come in and land from this one.
Lunch was at a food truck park near the Costco on Maui. I will say the food truck scene on Maui is pretty fantastic. Numerous food truck parks around the island, all with a wide variety of food types to choose from. We got food here from Pele's gyro king and Thai Fusion, both were really good. Again, my food critic skills are about on par with Andy from the Office.
Since we'd been up since 330am, we went back to the condo, ordered dinner from Penny's Pizza, watched a movie and crashed.
Day 2: The Road to Hana
Originally, this was not on our itinerary. We'd read mixed reviews about making this drive, but we really wanted to go to the Kipahulu District of the NP to hike the Pipiwei Trail and see Waimoku Falls. In order to beat traffic, we left early (about 5am if I remember correctly). We figured we could make good time that way (as good as you can expect on this road), and take a more leisurely pace back to the condo at the end of the day. Definitely the right call leaving really early. Traffic was essentially non-existent almost the whole way there. The locals drive like psychos along that road and it's pretty easy to spot them coming. We'd just move over when possible and let them pass, no big deal. Anyway, got to the trailhead around 9am, and the parking lot had maybe 10 other cars there. Overall, I'd say it's a moderately strenuous trail. Mostly going up in elevation on the way to the falls, which we definitely prefer. There's a bamboo forest about 1 mile into the trail which is so cool to see. There are signs restricting you from going close to the falls due to falling rocks. We spent some time there wading around the various pools and to eat lunch as well.
Once back to the car, we made our way back along the road to Hana, stopping at different places for ice cream, shopping, etc. There is the Hana Gold chocolate plantation along the way and I will say their chocolate is quite tasty. Be prepared, because like everything else there, it's expensive (like $10 for a pretty small bar). Last stop on the way back was Wai'anapanap State Park and their black sand beach. We lucked out because we somehow got a same day reservation, which is apparently very rare. I will say it's not exactly sand, more like black rocks and small pebbles. It was cool though to spend some time there. Made it back to Kihei in time for a later dinner at Stewz Burgers. This place was good enough to go to twice in the week we were there.
Day 3: Beach Day
Not much to say about this day. I had my conference in the morning and my wife and daughter spent time at the beach near the Condo. Afternoon was spent at the Condo's pool, then we went to another beach for dinner. Got shaved ice at Da Kine Shaved ice in Kihei and went to Charley Young Beach for dinner and sunset. There's a food truck in Kihei named the Kinaole Grill which serves a few different fish plates and this place was really good. Like Stewz Burgers, we went there twice for dinner while we were there.
Day 4: Beach Day
Similar to the previous day with conference in the morning and the family at the beach. In the evening we went to an outdoor mall in Wailea for a free Polynesian Show, which was definitely entertaining. Our daughter loved it. Dinner this night was I believe take out from Black Rock Pizza in Kihei. Definitely would say Black Rock and Pizza Madness were better than Penny's Pizza.
Day 5: Pineapple Farm Tour
After the conference in the morning ended, we headed over to the Maui Gold pineapple farm/plantation for our tour. I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this, but overall I'd say it was completely worth the price. Our tour guide was very entertaining while talking all about the ins and outs of growing pineapples. There's something like 3+ million pineapples growing on the farm and they only have 4 employees planting the pineapples. They each plant between I think he said 12,000-15,000 per day. You do get to eat some pineapple on the tour and each person on the tour gets a pineapple that's boxed up for taking it back home. Dinner from Kinaole Grill food truck again while watching the sunset at Kamaole Beach 1, and that's it for the day.
Day 6: Kapalua and whale watching
For the last day of the trip, we drove up to the Kapalua area for some snorkeling at the beach and then a whale watching tour in the evening. We did eat a Kihei Caffe for breakfast before getting going. Food did not disappoint.
This is definitely a more popular tourist area compared to Kihei. Our condo had snorkeling gear that we were able to use, so we didn't have to rent any. Parking there is hard to come by. There is a small parking lot at Kapalua Bay Beach, but it fills up quick and lots of people park on the street. We were fortunate that someone was leaving their spot as we got there and didn't have much of a walk to the beach. We've only been snorkeling twice so don't expect any type of expert review here. It was fun, there are lots of fish to see when snorkeling at the beach, and that's all I've got. Apparently, this is popular place to see sea turtles, but we did not. Theres a walking path that takes you along the shoreline and we did walk a little bit of it, but got distracted and walked out on some rocks jutting out into the ocean. This was probably the nicest beach we went to.
After the beach, we headed back over to the Lahaina area where our whale watching tour was leaving from. Not without a stop for more shaved ice at Island Cream Co. Like the other shaved ice places we visited, it did not disappoint.
Lahaina is still very much recovering from the fire and large chunks of it are closed off to tourists. There were multiple places we saw entrances that had security guards present doing ID checks and only residents were allowed in to those areas.
We went through Hawaii Ocean Rafting and got a 2-hour tour on their rigid inflatable raft, so you're essentially at water level for the tour. It was phenomenal. There's the main guide and I believe a biologist on board to talk all about the humpback whales that are in this area. There were whales all over this area. Got to see a mama whale and her calf up close (<15 feet away from the raft). Only thing we missed was an up close whale breaching.
I will note that I know we saw various articles talking about whether or not people should visit Maui and the Lahaina area after the fire. Both the guide and the assistant on our tour both live there and they said they absolutely want people to keep coming. It allows them to still work and continue to live there. If tourists don't come, they have no way to support themselves.
Final Thoughts
Even though my wife and I aren't beach people (seriously, can't stand getting sand everywhere!), I will say both our Hawaii vacations have been awesome. I'd put Kauai over Maui mainly because it's just less built up than Maui. Getting to Hawaii is the cheap part of the trip. The price of everything over there is crazy.
Rental car sucked. I'm a Hertz Gold Member (which I don't think amounts for much but I get it though work) and there were 2 choices when we got there black Challenger or white Challenger. One of the most stripped-down cars I've rented in a while. I think our base model 2011 Sorento has more features than this thing.
Traffic on Maui is busy pretty much all the time, so plan accordingly. However, parking in the Kihei area was not bad at all, which was surprising to us.
Other places we ate at that I didn't mention above: Lappert's Ice cream at the shops and Wailea and Peace, Love, and Shaved Ice in Kihei. Both were great. Lappert's was definitely pricy.
If you're planning a trip to Maui, hopefully this gave you some helpful information.