Hawai'i Travel Thread

[UMTerp]

I just got back from honeymoon in Hawai'i, so I thought I'd start a trip report / Hawai'i travel thread. I can answer any questions about the trip, and hopefullly others that have been there can chime in with their own experiences, and this thread can serve as a reference to those going in the future.

This first post will be an abbreviated trip report. It was difficult to pare this down to ten photos or so since we took so many (and the pictures don't even do the place justice), but I'll give it a shot:



This was the view off our balcony in West Maui. We spent seven days in a condo that my wife's sister lent us, then three days at Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel on the Big Island. We didn't get to explore the Big Island as much as we probably should've, as we did a lot of relaxing towards the end of our ten days. But the trip was awesome, and hopefully I'll get to go back every five or ten years or so. After being there, I think the ideal Hawaiian vacation is probably Maui for half the time, then an island you haven't been before for the other half. I think I'd like to do Kuaui next. The only other really tiny regret I had was not bringing my golf clubs. I thought I wouldn't want to play because I didn't have any friends to play with, but I really wanted to after seeing some of the courses (and weather.) Guess I could've rented. Oh well.



This picture was from a hike through a small bamboo forest at about the 6-mile marker on the Road to Hana. It was amazing how you could really just go off on your own just about anywhere on the island to explore, be totally secluded from just about any other people, and see such beautiful sights. I guess I'm just used to suburbia where that's impossible. We saw a few waterfalls on this hike too, but I liked the lighting and the direction of the bamboo in this picture, so I chose it for this thread.



These next three pictures are also from the Road to Hana on Maui. This one was just a typical view from the road - high above the water overlooking a peninsula in the distance. I was actually a little nervous before making this trip - everyone I'd talked to about it was like "Yeah, the road really is pretty dangerous. You need to be careful." And while it wasn't like driving the highway, I never felt like I was cheating death or anything. I was definitely expecting worse. Just drive ~20mph, keep your eyes on the road, be careful when you approach one of the 36 one-lane bridges, and you're fine. At times I wished I was in the passenger seat to enjoy the scenery a little more, but there are pull-offs for many of the better views, and being in the passenger seat would also mean that I'd have to endure six hours of the wife's driving, and much of the road had no guardrail. So I guess I was fine where I was.



Not much to say about this one - I thought the shadows on the branches made it a cool shot. The perspective is a little deceiving though, as we're standing at least 100 feet above the water here, looking down/out over the shrubbery onto the rocks.



This one of the biggest waterfalls we saw. There are so many of them along the Road to Hana, that you really have to pick and choose which ones to pull over and see. Many of them require a short (or not-so-short) walk. This one was called Lower Puohokamoa Falls, and was a couple minutes into the woods at about the 11-mile marker on the road. And again, I'm not sure that this picture does justice to the enormity of the falls. We're looking thousands of feet away, and I'd guess the waterfall is over 200 feet high.



This picture was taken in the town of Paia in the late afternoon before our dinner at Mama's Fish House, which I may write about in another post. Paia was a neat little town - seemed kind of hippyish, lots of little surf shops and markets and art galleries - cool place to kill a couple hours. Apparently they're known for their great windsurfing too - something about how the winds blow across the beach rather than perpendicular to the shore. Hawai'i was weird like that, where you'd have very drastic differences in culture, pace of life, and even climate just miles apart. Check out this rainfall map of Maui. There's literally places that get almost an inch every single day less than 10 miles from areas that get less than an inch of rain a month. In Paia, it rains almost every day, but not very hard. I thought this picture of the rainbow turned out well. Before my trip, I've have said that it looks like someone put a picture of Kansas in the foreground of a Hawai'i picture. But you name it, they have it. Farms, grassy plains, desert-like areas, lush rainforests, lava rock - a little bit of everything. There were actually some really bad wildfires while I was there too that I wish I'd have gotten some better pictures of.



These next four pictures are all sunsets, which probably make the best pictures, though I tried to pick some diverse and interesting ones. The first two, including this one, are from Maui, and next two are from the Big Island. This particular one was at a little dockside bar called Kimo's in Lahiana. Lahaina was probably the most commercial/touristy spot we went in Hawai'i, but there was decent shopping, it had about the only discernable nightlife in the area, and it was about 15 minutes away from were we were staying, so we ended up there a few times. I like the flames in the foreground in this one.



At least for the time being, this is probably my favorite picture I took the whole time. I just love the focus on the clouds and the coloring the sun gives. This was just a sunset taken off our balcony on a random night. The island of Molokai is in the distance on the right side of the photo. There was a raincloud over Molokai 100% of the time. They said that's how explorers back in the days could spot islands from great distances away - they'd just look for the clouds that didn't move. We could see Lanai to the left from our balcony as well, though that island didn't make this picture.



OK, on to the Big Island. These next two sunsets are from Kona. This one was the view off our patio/balcony at the Resort.



Here's another one from the Big Island. This was the view from a place called the Lava Lounge before dinner on our final night. We really had some incredible meals over there, and I'll probably post about a few of them in other posts. We ate at a place called Pahu i'a after this - the star of Four Seasons' resort on Kona. I took a bunch of pictures there, so I'll definitely post about this meal, and I may do a few others too. Mama's Fish House, which I mentioned earlier, was also wonderful, and we really enjoyed a sushi place called Sansei, which was on Kapalua's property. It was great value and a lot of fun - I think we got out of there for less than $100, and it seemed like we had tried half the menu by the time we were finished. Two great breakfast we had were at the Gazebo Restaurant on the shores of Napili Beach, and The Plantation House, which overlooks the Championship course at Kapalua. Both breakfast spots were actually the same price, down to the penny. I thought the clubhouse at Kapalua was very reasonably priced as well - I'll probably look into staying in that area if/when I go back to Maui in the future.



He we are outside of Lava Lounge / Pahu i'a about an hour before the previous picture. I'll post a mini trip report on that meal in this thread at some point too.

There's a ton of stuff I didn't get to yet either - snorkeling in Honalua Bay was cool (I'd never been snorkeling before), and we also took a boat trip to Molokini Island for more snorkeling. The Aquarium in Ma'alaea was worthwhile. We did a luau in West Maui one night. I skipped over a lot of the Hana stuff, etc. But I guess this is enough for now...

[KJS]

Good timing. I am heading to Maui for the first time in October with my wife and another couple. We have not found a condo yet. I would love to hear impressions about what town to stay in on Maui. Our main desires are to have a place we can cook, have some grocery stores nearby so we can stock up on food easily, but also have some restaurants we can go to nearby as well. Plus, of course, places within stumbling distance for cocktails.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

KJS

[jzpiano]

Excellent TR. I'm going to Maui for a week in Oct for my honeymoon. We will be staying in the Kaanapali region. We are planning on doing the Road to Hana for sure and even go to Haleakala crater. I've been to both before but only when I was 9 or 10 so I don't remember a whole lot about either just that they were beautiful. She has never been there fyi.

As far as some things to do, I'm still trying to figure that out so any recommendations would be great. Here is what I was thinking. We are going to see the luau at the Hyatt I have tickets for that already. Also, the future Mrs. wanted to do some horseback riding and I was looking at going to http://www.ironwoodranch.com/ anybody have any experience with them or any other place? I also wanted to do some snorkeling while we were there and really wanted to ride on a Catamaran rather than a boat. Any suggestions with that? Also I'm looking for a couple of nice places for dinner and a couple lunch (can be anything here), any help with that would be great.

[UMTerp]

[ QUOTE ]
Excellent TR. I'm going to Maui for a week in Oct for my honeymoon. We will be staying in the Kaanapali region. We are planning on doing the Road to Hana for sure and even go to Haleakala crater. I've been to both before but only when I was 9 or 10 so I don't remember a whole lot about either just that they were beautiful. She has never been there fyi.

As far as some things to do, I'm still trying to figure that out so any recommendations would be great. Here is what I was thinking. We are going to see the luau at the Hyatt I have tickets for that already. Also, the future Mrs. wanted to do some horseback riding and I was looking at going to http://www.ironwoodranch.com/ anybody have any experience with them or any other place? I also wanted to do some snorkeling while we were there and really wanted to ride on a Catamaran rather than a boat. Any suggestions with that? Also I'm looking for a couple of nice places for dinner and a couple lunch (can be anything here), any help with that would be great.

[/ QUOTE ]

Kaanapali is about the perfect spot to stay IMO unless you've been there a hundred times. We didn't look into the horseback riding too closely. The only place we glanced at had a 220-pound weight limit, and I'm ~230-235, so we dismissed the horseback riding and looked for other activities. I'd imagine different places have different restrictions.

One thing we didn't do that is supposed to be really cool is the sunrise bike trip down the volcano. I know two people that did it, and both said it was the highlight of their trip. Again, I can't recommend a specific company for that, but I'm sure some online research would point you in the right direction. You do have to wake up at like 2AM for that, but if you do it towards the beginning of the trip when your body still hasn't adjusted for the time difference, apparently it's not so bad.

The snorkeling we did on our own at Honalua Bay was actually better than what we did on the boat, but I thought the boat trip was still worthwhile. It's a mini-sightseeing trip as well, you get lunch on the grill and some beers, etc. We went with a place called Maui Magic, and it was fine. Kind of a last-minute booking, but everything was good. I'd give it at least a B.

The Old Lahaina Luau is supposed to be the best one on the island, but that has to be booked weeks, if not months in advance.

Dinner:

Mama's Fish House was awesome, but pricy. We spent a hair over $300 - 3 cocktails, 1 bottle of wine ($80), 1 appetizer, 1 salad, 1 soup, 2 entrees, 1 dessert. So if you cut down on the booze or skip the appetizer or something, $150-$200 is very doable. Totally worth it though.

Sansei (sushi) is highly recommended. 25% discount if you order between 5:30 and 6:00 too. You'll likely be eating early dinners towards the beginning of your trip because of the time difference, so getting there for the discount isn't the worst idea. It's still packed and a good atmosphere. One drink apeice and a ton of sushi came out to under $100.

Our other dinner spots were Roy's in Kahana - nice, but pretty average IMO ($150ish, including drinks), you can skip it. Nothing too special about it. We also ate at the bar at Kimo's in Lanhaina, which I enjoyed. We probably had 4 beers each and split an appetizer and a burger for like $80. Downtown Lanhaina has a lot of little bars on the water like that. Before Kimo's, we tried something called Lahaina Oyster Bar and Grill, and left after a half hour because the bartender was in an awful mood and the atmosphere was really sterile. Skip that place.

Lunch:

Gazebo Restaurant in Napili - open only for breakfast and lunch, right on the water. No reservations though, and it's popular, so you'll stand in line for ~45 minutes. Not a bad wait though - you're outside, and it's good scenery. We spent $25 + tip for an omelet and pancakes that we shared. No booze there, but you can bring your own champagne for mimosas.

Mala Ocean Tavern. The books seemed to like this place, but I thought it was average and overpriced. A couple of fish sandwiches and a drink for like $60. Food was fine, but not worth it IMO. I could have just been in a "meh" mood that day or something though - there was nothing inherently wrong with the place.

Aloha Mixed Plate. Local cuisine. Nothing fancy, but a solid lunch on a lazy day. We had a pork plate, barbecue plate, a smoothie, and an iced tea for about $30.

Also:

We did Plantation House at Kapalua for breakfast on our last day there, but really it's more of a lunch/dinner place. Our breakfast was good and reasonably priced with a great view though, and my wife's sister had recommended it to us for dinner, so that might be worth a shot.

David Paul's in Lahaina is another upscale place we didn't try, but was recommend (I think we'd have been looking at another $250+ there, and I was only doing one of those meals per island.

You'll also get a buffet meal at any luau you go to.

I'm sure there are other restaurants worth checking out too, but those are the once I had experience with unless I'm forgetting something.

[BretWeir]

If you want a cool horseriding trip, one outfit does trail rides into the Haleakala crater. Wife and I have done this twice and it was great each time -- the views are incredible, and they take you right down to the crater floor, where you can see the silverswords, rock formations, etc.

As for snorkeling, I'm not sure about catamaran trips, but there is fantastic snorkeling around the base of Black Rock right on Kaanapali Beach. If you go early it's usually no more crowded than the main "off-shore" snorkeling sites.

[UMTerp]

[ QUOTE ]
Good timing. I am heading to Maui for the first time in October with my wife and another couple. We have not found a condo yet. I would love to hear impressions about what town to stay in on Maui. Our main desires are to have a place we can cook, have some grocery stores nearby so we can stock up on food easily, but also have some restaurants we can go to nearby as well. Plus, of course, places within stumbling distance for cocktails.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

KJS

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd definitely stick to either West Maui or the west coast of the Southern part of the island. I thought West Maui was perfect for a first-timer. It's about 45-minutes from the airport. Lahaina is the main "going out" locale on the west side, but you probably want to stay a bit north of there. Check out towns (areas?) called: Kaanaapali, Kahana (where we stayed), Napili, and Kapalua. They all are right on the coast, and close enough to civilization (there are some really remote spots on Maui.) I'm not the right one to ask as far as recommending a specific condo. The southern towns you'll want to check out are Kihei and Wailea - I didn't spend much time there though. Wailea appeared to be a slightly more upscale Lahaina. Anything in a more remote area (i.e. Hana) seemed to be more suited for return visitors that wanted a different experience. And don't pick a condo because of a specific beach. They're mostly all easy to get to, and you'll want to see a bunch of different ones anyway.

Grocery shopping is expensive (maybe 25% higher than the prices I'm used to in the DC burbs.) There aren't a lot of choices either - there was a Safeway in Lahaina, something called Star Markets, and one other one I saw. There's a Costco near the airport too - not sure how much you're planning on buying.

You'll have to rent a car. I didn't notice many cabs now that I think about it, but I'm sure they're around. Also, book your activities in advance. Not necessarily all your restaurants, but if you're going to do a luau or a bike trip or boat cruise, book them in advance. The "good" ones won't be available the while you're there. We had three reference books - one little one I don't remember, the Fodor's one, and Maui Revealed. Fodor's was good, but I highly recommend picking up the third one in advance of your trip (and it's very helpful there as well.)

[dogsballs]

I've lived on Maui for the past few years. First North Shore, now in Kahana on the west side.

West side is best for a tourist vacation, imo, tho I personally like N shore and upcountry if I were to buy a place to live myself. Most restaurants in Lahaina town itself aren't as good as you'd hope for or expect. With exceptions of course, eg David Pauls. Better further out to the north..kaanapali to Kapalua. Food shopping; we generally go to safeway adn Napili market. Star market is avoided cos we kept finding we'd bought stuff there that was well past its sell by date. Napili market always has nice fresh fish.

Acommodation: All sorts of standards and prices. Depends on ur budget. I'd google something like "maui vacation rentals" and look first for short term home rentals if I was coming for a vacation. See if I could afford a detached home rental; if it was in my budget I'd def do that for the quality of accomodation you'd get.

West side restauratns I'd recommend, well a couple of my favourites: (NB: this doesnt even scratch the surface; theres gazillions of places to dine out on Maui)

Roy's at Kahana - UMTerp musta had an off day or summin; I've been many times and its always been great.

Sansei at Kapalua - best sushi on the island. We always get the shrimp dynamite and panko crusted ahi starters...mmnmnmmmm. Its mobbed for the early bird specials but thats ok.

Mala Tavern - again, dunno why terps review but this is one of our regular haunts. Great - but expensive - mojitos ($11), and the foods usually very good/well prepared (kind of eclectic Mediterannean style). One of the few places right on teh waters edge too.

Maui Brewing Co - near Roys. For red meat and beer nights. They're 4 for 5 for me with their prime rib. All excellent, except once overcooked (under teh lamp too long & slow waiter). My review of some of their beers is here.

Oher restaurants on the island I know well:

Mamas Fish House (in Paia) is about as perfect a restaurant as you can get; you better like seafood tho. Perfect setting and interior. Booking essential; try to go for sunset kinda time for the spleandor of the sea view. Nice and casual atmosphere and...expensive. Gotta be done if you're here tho.

Fish Market (Paia) - plan a fish sandwich lunch here some day. Fresh grilled fish menu; usually busy at luch with lots of locals and windsurf bums. Serves beer.

Jacques (Paia) - seafood and sushi in a tiki setting. Get teh lava pie dessert.

Paia has other good small scale/cheaper eating places - a small creperie/indian cafe (yeah, sounds a wierd combo but is good stuff); milagros is a fairly standard tex mex type joint; forgotten the name, but there's a spanish tapas type place thats good for a quick meal also. Also a flatbread pizza place opened recently - havent been masel' but heard a bunch other people like it.

If you go out to Hana you could do worse than drive a mile or two off the route and eat lunch/breakfast at Colleen's in a small town called Haiku. Dubbed a bakery, its more like a stylish diner with emphasis on high quality food & the waitresses are usually all hotties. Best coffee I've had in any cafe/restaurant on island/also best N shore breakfast. They turn the lights down and light up candles for the evening sitting, so its even a good spot for a dinner date too, if you're in that area. Doesnt stay open late tho...mebbe 8pm - not sure exactly.

Back toward the main town of Kahului, but off the beaten track is Haliimaile General Store. It's actually a top notch restaurant, just used to be a store a long time ago before morphing into what it is today. Doesnt have much in the way of views or spectacular settign - its stuck in teh middle of the cane fields; so the food has to be good. Went once, I liked it, but too many other good places with views.

Half way up to the crater of Haleakala is Kula Lodge which makes it a lunch spot with great views out over the island and parts of neighbouring islands.

Must do's for visitors:

Go up teh volcano (haleakala crater). Its just so different; like being on the moon or something. If you want to do the cycle down thing, I'd suggest going with Haleakala Bike Co ; they're based in Haiku - right next to Colleens - and rent out good mountain bikes; they run you up in a van and drop you off - you make your own way back down to the shop. The other companies generally drive you up and you have to cycle down in a big group with a leader on crappy small bikes...just a big tourist herd thing.

Drive the road to Hana - scenic/winding/rural. try and budget time to hike up to the bamboo forest and waterfall if you can or are inclined to do a couple miles of hiking.

Before you get to Haiku and after Paia is Ho'okipa, the windsurfing mecca of the world pretty much. Usually just surfers in the am, but in the afternoon the trade winds pick up and the windsurfers and kitesurfers come out to play. Take your camera along in the pm (after driving back from Hana or hitting Paia for lunch after teh volcano trip) and watch the pros and hardcore windsurfers show off on the waves. Loop the loops, jumps. tearing around at high speed; stuff like that. A little bit further on and off on the dirt tracks is the lookout over Jaws, the famous and HUGE surf break. It usually only breaks in the winter when the big swells come down from the North. Pretty amazing to watch these guys if youre lucky enough to be here when it goes off.


Snorkelling: The snorkelling isnt as good as it is on some other islands - for some reason the reefs arent as well developed. Some nice spots around tho. Just ask at any of the many dive shops for advice. (side note: On the big island, I went for some beautiful snorkelling at a place called City of Refuge).

Whale watching: from approx Sep - Apr humpback whales breed and calve in the waters off Maui. You see em all the time if you look out to sea for a few minutes. Plenty of operators run whale watching trips. You don't have to be on a whale watching boat to see whale action though. If youre into fishing as well, best thing is to charter a fishing boat and go sport fishing; you'll see teh whales and get some fishing in too. I did this with when my brother was out with his kid a few months ago. Caught mahi mahi and saw a pile of whales, as well as getting a cruise round to see the spectacular sea cliffs on the back side of Molokai...would never have got that on a whale watching boat. And just us, not a bunch of other tourists. More expensive of course.

[dogsballs]

PS: In the summer, just north of Lahaina about half or more of the saturdays, there are hawaiian outrigger canoe races at a beach just past teh Post Office. Free to go watch - just gotta find somewhere to park.

This kinda thing...

[rapidacid]

I was just in Maui last week on the south side in Kihei ...

The road to Hana is pretty sweet ... overall we took 1000 pictures on the trip and a lot of them were on this road

The Shops at the Marriot in Wilea are sweet ass ... Rolex / Tiffanys / Tommy Bahamas ... stuff like that ... I recommend walking around there

Sushi at Sansei is [censored] out

The crater sunrise is pretty cool, but it is very cold and the awe is kind of short lived ... it is 10K ft tho so you may get altitude sickness ( one chick was barfing her face off ) ... the bikeride down wasn't for me, but others looked to have fun

The beaches are pretty sweet on the southside ... a mile or two past Wilea is something called Big Beach and the surf is wicked fun, tho kinda scary if you're not used to medium sized waves / strong undertow

The weather is pretty ideal on the southside ... mid 70s all day every day ... no rain ... sweet breeze ...

Wanted to see if there was any reefer around, but I didn't really see one sketchy looking person the whole time I was there ... anyone know how to go about this for a tourist?

[rapidacid]

Also, we did the Luau at the Maui Prince in Wilea ... I'd recommend it