psybk

I am looking to book my honeymoon to Maui for October 18-24, 2015. We decided one island because of the limited time. The question I have at this point is when to book? I realize it is the off-season, so we were thinking that we may get better rates if we wait to book. We are leaving from Syracuse, New York ( small city about 4 hour away from NYC by road). At the moment, we are interested in the Four Season Maui and The Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui Resort ( both ocean view rooms). Will the rates come down if we wait to book?

The second question is: Do you need to rent a car? We are fine with eating at the resort, although, we do realize that there are a lot of dining options available in Kihei. We were thinking about doing a few excursion such as: snorkeling in Molokini Island, seeing the sunrise Haleakala National Park and Road to Hana. But we also saw there are tours that offer transportation there ( and we really don't want to drive 2-3 when we are on vacation).

Are there any other must see things that I am missing. Please advise. Thanks in advance.

ChiSue

Virtually every visitor to Maui rents a car, although you will pay to park it if you stay at a hotel. Few condos have parking fees, and some are as nice or nicer than hotels. Condos also have no 'daily resort fees' like hotels. A small car is fine; you just need 'wheels'.

You are traveling a long way for a stay of less than a week; I count six nights. Day One will be spent adjusting to the time change. No departure day is a full day either. (If you have a late flight home, consider applying for a late checkout or buy an extra night. You don't want to be 'homeless' from a morning checkout until a late departure.) If you can spend more time, but need to spend less money for lodging, do it. Just being on Maui is the real reward -- more than staying at XYZ resort.

What's your best flight option? We fly Chicago-Maui most winters. I look for a nonstop on a wide-body aircraft on at least the longest leg. I avoid 757's. I think you can fly JFK or Newark nonstop to HNL -- then a short hop to OGG. We fly ORD-DFW-OGG. (Don't just look at west coast connections -- which often use 757's.)

If you would consider a condo, look in Wailea. Destination Maui rents nice units. I also like this site: www.mauiownerrentals.com Look at Wailea Beach Villas and Waila Elua and Ekahi. You can still go to hotels for their restaurants and spas. All Hawaiian beaches are public places.

jamie99

Yes you need a car, try discounthawaiicarrentals.com
They are a wholesaler and rent from the majors.

psybk

Thanks for the replies !

Inakauaidavidababy

I don't have it on hand, but there are a few preferred partner websites that offer incentives to the best of hotels in Hawaii including room upgrades and free breakfast etc. Worth searching for. Maybe someone here has a link. We no longer stay at hotels.

Inakauaidavidababy

This is the sight I have read about that may offer you 'deals'

http://www.whatahotel.com/regions/14/Hawaii.html

edjim

Maui in October is a great time to go. We've gone that time of year a few times. You'll enjoy it.

tifa2276

Hi! Congrats on your upcoming marriage! Maui is a great choice for a honeymoon!

I think flights are key to get them booked soon, especially if you're using miles and then you can play around with hotels. We live in NJ and we usually fly the non-stop from JFK to HNL and then take inter-island to Maui all on Hawaiian Airlines.

I think your choices of hotels are fantastic. I'd also throw in the Andaz Maui at Wailea as well which is a gorgeous property but has more of a modern vibe than the FS or Fairmont. I'd book a refundable rate for now and then play around and search as your date gets closer. Yes whatahotel.com offers you some perks from booking through their site such as free breakfast and upgraded rooms. Their rate may not necessarily be the cheapest but their extras often outweigh the cost once you add it all up. I do the same thing but I book through amex fine hotels and resorts and get the same benefits.

Same thing for the rental car. I book cars through discount hawaii car rental as well as costco and then just recheck on occasion. For our upcoming trip to Kauai, I booked a refundable rate for an SUV on DHCR which was cheapest at the time, but a month later I found that costco had a better rate so I cancelled and re-booked. It's the best rate so far so I'm sticking with that!

I do have a trip report from our time at the Andaz Maui in 2013: http://sulynnchen.com/travelblog/?page_id=545
We had already been to Maui a few times so we just kept this trip low key and did activities we hadn't done before and tried some new restaurants.

If you'd like to read our very first trip report to Maui for our first anniversary in 2009, you can see that here:
http://sulynnchen.com/travelblog/?page_id=38

It's a little more detailed as it describes what we did day by day but we managed to view Haleakala at sunrise, drive the Road to Hana including the Seven Sacred Pools, snorkeling at various beaches, zip lining, and some time spent on south Maui and Kapalua. We also ended the trip with dinner at Mama's Fish House in Paia before flying back home to NYC. Our first trip was only about a week long so about the same amount of time as your honeymoon. We managed to do many activities as well as relax so it was a good pace for us! Note, Maui was the perfect island for a convertible. I splurged for our first anniversary trip in 2009 and thought driving the Road to Hana with one was wonderful!

Also October/November is our favorite time on the islands. The weather is great and the crowds are low. Love it!

psybk

Thanks for the replies !

ltt

i could see not renting a car for 2 days. you can hang around the resort for the 1st day and do a tour of the road to hana the second day, then get the car. the tours to hana, try to get a small van one...with less people, you'll have more input on where to stop etc. you loose some flexibility by doing a tour but self-driving...the driver misses a lot as his/her eyes have to be on the road all the time.

brendonb29

If you are on a budget then kihei is the place to stay in maui. The road to hana is exhausting but so worth it. So beautiful. For other things to do I recommend the aquarium if you are not used to snorkeling. Also a drive to the iao needle is worth a few hours. Oheo gulch past hana which gas the 7 sacred pools. A nice dinner at buzzs wharf. Also snorkeling at Kapalua and black rock.

psybk

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. We are not on a budget, but will like to get a good deal if we could ( never pay more for something unless you have to mindset). We are trying to soak in all the information we can about Maui since we've never been before. Thanks for all the suggestions.

FaceInTheCrowd

Another reason to rent a car is so you can drive the Road to Hana yourselves rather than take a tour. By my math, you've only got 5 full days on the island, and I question if you should even consider it given that it'll take 1 of those days. But if you decide to do the RtH, best give yourselves the option of turning around if it doesn't turn out to be your thing. Better that than being stuck on a 12-hour tour.

psybk

Thanks for all the replies. We were hesitant to rent a car because we were uncertain about the ease of driving in Maui. We do drive everyday to work, but we live in a suburban city with traffic that is nothing like a big city ( the only thing we deal with tons of snow driving). I did read that driving in Maui isn't a big city but the road to hana is filled with a lot curves and turns. But I've not read about the driving being too bad in Maui.

tifa2276

The driving in Maui is not bad at all. The road to Hana will have hairpin turns and one-lane bridges but I think that is part of the beauty of the journey. It's like driving through a magical rainforest! If you don't feel comfortable driving you can always turn back. The only negative thing is that traffic can build up since roads are more limited than a larger city and everyone is going to be using the same road to get to/from places. Most of Maui is so beautiful and scenic that even just driving around by the ocean is lovely. I especially like the drive around from south to west maui and back and also driving upcountry.

sf7307

The drive through upcountry on the way to Haleakala is really lovely. The drive up to Haleakala itself might not be your cup of tea if you're concerned about driving (lots of mountain hugging).