Maui suggestions

Last fall, about 3 days before the fires, my wife and I booked our 20 yr anniversary trip to Maui for mid-April. We’ve spent the time since then paying close attention to the situation on the island and talking to our AirB&B hosts wondering if we should book another island, etc. We’ve decided it’s still a go – sounds like tourism is now about at pre-fire levels, aside from Lahaina, obviously. We’re staying in Kihei on the southwest side of the island. Looking for any reccomendations on activities, beaches, restaurants, etc. We’ll do our fair share of lounging, but we’re pretty active vacationers, we like to hike, etc. Hoping to see some great waterfalls, extinct volcanoes and beaches, eat some great seafood and down my share of Mai Tais! Let me hear your suggestions if you have any from past experience. We will have a rental car.

I would suggest a trip up to Haleakala.. dress warm. On the way up or down, hit the Kula Bistro… really good food and deserts ! You could spend a day going to Hana… thrilling drive ! Lots of places in Kihei to eat… only one I would steer you away from is Amigos, mexican food out of cans. I would hit the 5 Palms for breakfast one day or maybe more. Are you golfers ? There are 3 main beaches along Kihei.. Kam 1, 2 or 3. Watch out if somebody tries to send you to Little Beach (nude)

The sunrise at Haleakalā and bike ride down to the ocean tour is great. Nothing like pedaling through a eucalyptus forest and pineapple farms.

The road to Hana was cool but frankly I got tired of driving by the time we headed back. Just like sledding, I love everything about it but sometimes I get sick of constant massive steering to avoid death.

The road to Hana is really the only way they see waterfalls on Maui. But yeah… the twists and drop offs are fun !!! I actually drove the backside, from Kapalua to Kahului… (where rentals cannot go) in my RAM 1500 ! The wife says “NO WAY” to that ever again !!!

I’m no help on Maui, but we did just get back from Oahu. Bring a few pair of good walking shoes, we didn’t do any specific hikes, but were still putting on 15-25k steps a day. Eat all the Ahi, we had Poke Bowls for lunch nearly every day which was relatively affordable, and so fresh it was awesome everywhere.

Maui and Oahu are fairly close in size, so you will be able to cover the whole island in a fairly short drive (traffic permitting). Find out the traffic patterns and drive the opposite, getting stuck in traffic meant an hour to go like 6 miles at times. We drove the entire coastline, and there’s tons of cool random stops along the way. They also have bathrooms at nearly every beach, and lots have water stations as well. Find a Malasada’s (a type of donut) place for breakfast at least once. Nothing is cheap, but getting away from the touristy areas will result in more reasonably priced restaurants. Get the Kalua and Lau Lau pig at least once, basically different versions of pulled pork. Mai Tai’s are great, but I preferred Rye Tai’s, same thing just with Rye Bourbon instead of rum.

We did Oahu 20 years ago on our Honeymoon, and did the island drive with all the stops. Definitely the best day of our trip and looking forward to having our own car the whole time on Maui. We’re actually going to spend 3 nights in Oahu at the end of our trip because we want to see Pearl Harbor, the Missouri, Waikiki and Diamondhead again. Not golfers. And my wife likes fish and seafood but is not a fan of sushi, sashimi or poke’ – That sucks to be her because there’s no better place on earth for that than Hawaii. I will be eating it as much as possible – aside from some Hawaiian pork, I may not eat any other meat at all.

The Road to Hana is a must do experience on Maui. Plan on a full day and start early. Better yet is booking a room for an overnight. We stayed at Hana Kai Maui. I also recommend getting an audio guide that you download onto your phone and listen to via bluetooth on your rental car. The gps on your phone allows it to know exactly where you are so it can tell you about what’s coming up. It gives a lot of entertaining info along the way and helps by telling you what to look for so you don’t acccidentally drive by it. The one we used is now called GuideAlong.

I highly recommend Mama’s Fish House. Mama’s Fish House is in Paia on the Road to Hana, but I wouldn’t try to combine the two unless you’re staying somewhere in the area. The meal is excellent and the surroundings beautiful. It’s also VERY expensive and reservations are required (and impossible to get unless you book a year in advance). You can, however, submit a request online to be notified about cancellations. They told me that calling a day or two ahead to see what’s available is better yet. That’s what I plan to do in March.

Maui is one of our favorite places. Enjoy your trip!

I would agree on the main tourist attractions of Haleakala and Road to Hana and recommend doing both.

You’ve seen a few say that the Road to Hana gets long. I still say it’s worth it, just know that going into it, it’ll be a long day of driving, but you’re gonna be seeing views you’ve never seen in your life before.

Sunrise at Haleakala is fine, and as others have said it’ll be chilly in the pre-dawn hours. I would highly recommend doing this on one of, if not your first day. The uniqueness about travelling west is that the time difference can work to your advantage. Hawaii being 4 hours behind us, you could get up at 3 or 4am there and it feels like 7 or 8 here, so I recommend doing early morning stuff the first couple days while you’re still on MN time.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

We’re actually going to spend 3 nights in Oahu

I’d recommend Duke’s in the Outrigger Waikiki, especially if you are there on a Thursday night, their prime rib buffet was excellent!

stjoeguy wrote:

I also recommend getting an audio guide that you download onto your phone and listen to via bluetooth on your rental car.

This is great advice too! We found out about these at the end of our trip, so we didn’t do it but I did check out the app someone recommended, Shaka. Only $20 and tells you about all the places to see, and you can choose to stop or keep going and it’s integrated with GPS.

For the best Poke’ bowls, go to Tamuras, in Kahului. Yeah its a liquor store, but it has the best Poke’ !!! There is a Tamuras in Kihei too, but the Poke’ is better in town.

Its been 20 years but we stayed in a condo on the north end of Kihei, on Sugar beach for a week, before heading to Kauai for a week.

Do you snorkel? We had some very good snorkeling on the south end of Makeena beach ( aka Big beach, and yes big_g we did climb up the hill and take a quick peek at Little Beach Also did several more bays/spots up north of Kapalua.
We did Haleakala one morning for sunrise which was pretty cool (in both senses of the word). We didn’t make it all the way to Hana, but we stopped at a couple places near and past Hookipa on the north shore to watch the surfers (we were there in November for our anniversary) which was incredible!!!

At the condo I brought a telescoping rod and early mornings caught various fish off a small rock jetty nearby. Met a great local who told me which were good eating and we had several breakfast’s of fresh fish.
We did see a few whales from our condo, but we were a little early for that but that might be an option.
Have a great trip, no such thing as a bad vacation!!!

I will second Xplorers recommendation for Big Makena beach south of Waleia/Makena. It was my favorite beach. We named my youngest daughter after this beach. Nice sand and snorkeling was decent on south end. Saw lots of turtles. Body surfing there was also good at times. The trip to Little Makena beach is not worth the effort (trust me). Unless your in to wrinkled up things you wish you didn’t see. You can drive south of Big Makena. There are some secluded beaches just to the south you will see people parked in the lava fields. You can hike back to the ocean and it is secluded and awesome snorkeling too. Momma’s fish house is awesome and worth the visit for a great meal and dinner experience. They have some cool surfing up in front of that place too. Gazebo restaurant up in Kapalua for breakfast is very good and popular place. Whale watching boat rides or a trip to Lanai is a great time too. These can be fairly reasonable (less than 100.00 per person). I’ve fished on 2 of our trips and that was awesome too. Expensive but awesome.

For all you guys who have gone to Hawaii, what would you consider the sweet spot as far as timing? Getting the best weather versus having to endure the worst of the tourist hordes.

I have long wanted to go, but I hate, hate, HATE over-tourism and it has gotten so much worse in the past 5 years at so many places that were awful to begin with. Is there a sweet spot in Hawaii or are the tourist hordes so bad year around that it’s a no-go?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

For all you guys who have gone to Hawaii, what would you consider the sweet spot as far as timing? Getting the best weather versus having to endure the worst of the tourist hordes.

I have long wanted to go, but I hate, hate, HATE over-tourism and it has gotten so much worse in the past 5 years at so many places that were awful to begin with. Is there a sweet spot in Hawaii or are the tourist hordes so bad year around that it’s a no-go?

There are tourists all year, but is not hard to get away from the crowds. i lived there for a year near Honolulu. I never found the tourism to be real bad, but I stayed away from the traps. Just like anywhere you can make your experience what you want.

As far as weather, you are going to get the best weather in late summer through November. Spring tends to have more rainy days.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

For all you guys who have gone to Hawaii, what would you consider the sweet spot as far as timing? Getting the best weather versus having to endure the worst of the tourist hordes.

I have long wanted to go, but I hate, hate, HATE over-tourism and it has gotten so much worse in the past 5 years at so many places that were awful to begin with. Is there a sweet spot in Hawaii or are the tourist hordes so bad year around that it’s a no-go?

Holidays, summer (no-school), and spring break will be the busiest. October/November and late January/February are low seasons. The islands are full of little micro-climates so you can decide when you want to go and then pick an area that likely has better weather during that time. Generally for weather think 85 and sunny year round, but with dry seasons and wet seasons. High surf on the north sides in the winter and south in the summer, winter surf being more intense.

The islands are all super different, but if you want less touristy I can recommend Kauai for sure and maybe The Big Island too. FW and I spent 10 days on Kauai truck camping on beaches for $3 a night. Spent every sunrise paddle-board fishing and chasing turtles around. We had miles of beach basically to ourselves with just a little effort required. Kauai might be the least touristy, least red tape, and have the easiest climate of any place I’ve travelled to with my wife.

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tswoboda wrote:

chasing turtles around.

So now you harass turtles. I will add that to my bingo card.

Slow tourist season on Maui is Late April to Mid October. That’s when the Greens fees are reduced even more for Locals.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I have long wanted to go, but I hate, hate, HATE over-tourism and it has gotten so much worse in the past 5 years at so many places that were awful to begin with. Is there a sweet spot in Hawaii or are the tourist hordes so bad year around that it’s a no-go?

I think your best bet is to go to one of the smaller islands. We just got back from Oahu and Waikiki was always busy, always. There were a few spots we found that were not super busy up island (NW and East sides), but that was the exception, not the norm. North Shore was crazy busy both days we went there, which might have been worse due to the surf contest going on, but multiple locals said it’s pretty standard to spend an hour going 10 miles.

If you’re staying in Kihei you’ll be close to Molokini Crater. The snorkeling there was fantastic.

Thanks for the replies, guys. Good info as always.

BigWerm wrote:

I think your best bet is to go to one of the smaller islands. We just got back from Oahu and Waikiki was always busy, always.

That’s pretty much what I thought, but the problem is I hate to go all that way and not see Pearl Harbor. So I suppose the only reasonable option is to hit Oahu on the way in or the way out for a couple of days standing in line with the hordes.

And speaking of Pearl, anyone have any ideas how far in advance you have to book tickets to see it? Is this like a Washington DC thing where entrance to the best tours is booked up a year in advance?

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

And speaking of Pearl, anyone have any ideas how far in advance you have to book tickets to see it? Is this like a Washington DC thing where entrance to the best tours is booked up a year in advance?

A few months was plenty for us, I want to say we booked in November and there was still plenty of options but there were a few sold out. You will want to book the USS Arizona AND the USS Missouri tours for the full experience. We only did the Arizona, which comes with access to the Pearl Harbor Memorial, but I wish we would have done the Missouri as well. Very solemn and somber place.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Thanks for the replies, guys. Good info as always.
And speaking of Pearl, anyone have any ideas how far in advance you have to book tickets to see it? Is this like a Washington DC thing where entrance to the best tours is booked up a year in advance?

You can’t buy them until 2 months in advance – I just bought ours the other day, probably about a week after they went on sale for our day and had no problem getting them. There’s a lot of tour companies that will sell enhanced tours, take care of transportation, USS Bowfin submarine, Punchbowl cemetery, etc – all-in-one. But if you just want the basic Pearl Harbor visitor center and Arizona Memorial tour, go through Recreation.gov – it’s only $1 and then you can pick and choose other things in the area as you wish. I HIGHLY recommend the USS Missouri Battleship tour. A simply amazing piece of history and military hardware. To stand on the exact spot where WW2 ended is something surreal. As I said before, we’ve been to Oahu 20 years ago on our Honeymoon – and we’re making a special stop for a couple of night on the way home just to see these things again. But as far as crowds – even on Oahu, there’s PLENTY of places to go to get away from them. The Lanikai beach area on the Island’s east side is AMAZING, definitely rent a car and get out of Honolulu for a day or two, you’ll find all kinds of great secluded places.

A couple of pics of the Missouri and the spot… and my favorite of the USS Missouri guarding the Arizona.

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If you are susceptible to car sickness/motion sickness, you might want to reconsider doing “The Road to Hanna Highway…” Unless you trust Dramamine to cover for you…

My doses didn’t “cover for me”, the trip was “miserable” to say the least, considering I was outside the tour van 7 time throwing up on the first leg of the tour…

The smart asses I was travelling with bought me a t-shirt that read “I survived The Hanna Highway…”

In my view, “Just barely…”

Be careful out there…!

Fortunate enough to have been to Maui twice. This doesn’t make me an expert of course. Great memories to be sure from the trips.
I would avoid two things on the trip:
1. Road to Hana – too long of a drive for what’s at the end of the drive.
2. Mama’s Fish House – WOW on the prices!!

Enjoy the trip!

I’m 66 years old and want to go one more time. Hate the flight. I like Kauai for less going on. Busy beaches and more to do are a draw for some. But I prefer away from it as much as possible. Next trip will be 10 to 14 days to clear my bucket list. As long as it takes in Pearl Harbor, then rest of the time on Kauai. May book it with layovers in Oregon at the in-laws for a couple days to break up the flight. With my knees and back sitting over 2 hours anyplace is a chore.
I would not go without a helicopter tour. That was my favorite part of our last trip. Cliche as Dukes restaurant is, food is pretty good and was 200′ from our condo. We also found a couple locals spots for breakfast up the hill out of town, that were great and opened early. Being from the Midwest, I was ready for breakfast about 3:00 in the morning. Got on their schedule just in time to come home. On the flight home, we flew over our house on the Mississippi River on the descent. Landed in Chicago and sat for 3 hours to fly 45 minutes home.

My wife can get a little car sick. But we’re renting a convertible so I’m hoping with the top down and fresh air, it’s not an issue. Plus, I’m going to have her drive most of the Hana Highway. It’s just easier. Then she can’t yell at me.