Maui Trip Report

Old Jul 7th, 2007, 05:58 PM
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Maui Trip Report

Suzanne’s Maui Trip Report

June 22, 2007 – July 2, 2007

Maui Revealed – This book was a lifesaver while planning our trip. What I liked the best about the book is that they do not announce their presence while reviewing something. The restaurant, hotel, excursion, etc. just thinks they are regular tourists so a ‘true’ review seems to take place. I wouldn’t take too much stock in what they say about restaurants, because everyone has different opinions about what is good food. The ‘sights’ were pretty easy to follow as we were driving the west Maui road or the road to Hana but we were very careful not to go anywhere we shouldn’t. Even if the book told us to ‘go through this gate’ we were not about to do that!

Delta – We booked our flight about 10 or 11 months in advance because we used frequent flyer miles. I usually try to use delta when I fly and I’ve never had any real complaints about them. Because we booked our flight so early, I was able to use http://www.seatguru.com/ to find the best seats on the plane.

Alamo – It was the cheapest rate I could find and that is why I went with Alamo. Customer service is lacking, but the first car was fairly clean (we got a flat tire mid way through the trip) the second car was kind of clean. They handled the flat tire situation with no problems – we changed the tire and drove it back for a replacement car. I’d rent through Alamo again as long as they had the cheapest rate (cheapest rate is usually the deciding factor for me with regards to rental cars).

The Whaler on Ka’anapali Beach, Unit #661 rented from Susan, Owner of Hawaiian Luxury Condominiums http://www.alohacondos.com/whaler/ - Note: this condo was not booked directly through the Whaler property; it was booked through an owner directly. Because of this we had to pay an additional resort fee which really wasn’t that expensive ($50 first day, $5 a day after). We paid $199 a night and I noticed at the front desk that the room we got was going for $255-$330 depending on what they classified #661 as (ocean or garden). There is a mandatory $12 parking fee for all guests and I am pretty sure that no matter where you stay a parking fee will be added on somehow.

The condo was GREAT! It’s a studio with a beautiful canopy bed and full kitchen. The view of the ocean was also great (you can see pictures on the website above). They had everything that you will need to cook (pots, pans, coffee pot, glasses, plates, silverware, etc.) plus extra toilet paper, paper towels, all sizes of bath towels, a fan, iron and ironing board, books, tv, vcr, dvd player. We had to buy a few things that I wished the owner just had on hand – like cooking spray, spices, etc. I loved that there was a kitchen, it saved so much money. I don’t know how people can afford to go to Maui and eat out all of the time. There are also onsite laundry facilities if needed; we didn’t use them although we thought we may have to because we almost ran out of towels.

One of the best things about the condo is it’s proximity to the beach! The condo is right on Ka’anapali Beach (one of the best) and it’s a short walk to Black Rock (very good snorkeling). The pool is pretty small but who goes to Maui for a pool? Beach towels are available when you go to the beach or pool.

The one thing that really made me mad about the Whaler was the parking situation. As I said earlier parking is $12 a day. They have an underground garage (below the koi pond) and another parking lot a short walk away that used to be a tennis court. The garage was being worked on while we were there and more than half of the parking places were unavailable which meant the garage would fill up fast and sometimes we’d have to park and walk from the other lot. I am pretty sure that I saw employees parking in the garage and the other lot – and that is when I started getting mad. I guess it may seem a little snotty but I’m paying $12 a day to park in this stupid garage and I’m on vacation. Shouldn’t there be a lot somewhere that all or most hotel employees can park and then take a shuttle to the resort they are working at? That just burned me up! On a positive note, they do provide grocery carts in the garage to bring in your groceries with ease.

Skyline Eco Adventures (Zipline) http://www.skylinehawaii.com/ - We had so much fun doing this! First, let me just say that I’m not a big fan of heights – but I’m all about overcoming my fear. The tour guides are very professional and know their stuff. They hook all of the gear on you and make sure it fits before the hike starts. One guy leads the group and one guy is in the rear. The hike is really easy so no one should worry about that. The first ‘zip’ is super easy and short – but I still held my breath the entire time. I can’t remember how many times you get to zip – maybe 5 or 6 but each one is different. The last one is just WOW! It’s huge! We had a blast doing this and we would totally do it again. Also, during the entire hike I was checking out all of the cables and harnesses and in my non expert opinion they seemed very safe and secure. They take about 10 or 12 people so the line to zip is kind of long but I was entertained the entire time because it was fun to watch everyone else zip and the guides were really funny!
On a side note – if you can, schedule the zip tour on the same day that you drive to Haleakala.

Drive to Haleakala – We did not do any kind of sunrise or bike ride although we were told to at least 20 times (no kidding). The husband would have loved to bike down Haleakala but alas I’m accident prone and if someone was going to fall down the mountain that day it would be me. We booked the Zipline tour and drove to the top of Haleakala on the same day so it helped to break up the trip a little. We got gas before we went up to Crater Road in one of those little towns and it was a full service gas station (I just thought that was neat). The drive up is pretty easy (especially compared to West Maui and Hana) and the views are fantastic. It takes a long time or what seems like a long time to get to the top but oh is it worth it. I felt like I was in an airplane looking down at the clouds except not trapped inside. We were on top of the world! It is really really beautiful at the top. We both wanted to do the Sliding Sands trail, but it was getting a little too hot and too late in the afternoon for that. If we had booked an earlier zipline then we probably could have done it.

Paragon Sailing Charters (Lanai Snorkel, Beach Picnic & Performance Sail) http://www.sailmaui.com/ - This is one of the medium size catamarans which means at the most they will take 24 people. On the day we went they only had 10! It was fantastic, they opened the bar early, the boat wasn’t crowded, the water wasn’t crowded. They provide free mai tai’s (Strong), champagne, beer, deli lunch, and brownies on the return home. We didn’t use the snorkeling gear they had (we had our own) but it seemed pretty good. The crew was awesome and very friendly. We used the engine all the way to Lana’i and stopped to snorkel in Manele Bay. I thought the snorkeling was good but the husband said that it was better at Black Rock when he went a few days before. Two other boats were at Manele Bay before we got there, but after about 15-20 minutes they left and we were there (all 10 of us) by ourselves. I have no idea how long we snorkeled but we got back on the boat and docked at the harbor next to the bay. The crew gave us our lunches and sent us off to the Hulopo’e beach for about an hour(see side note below). We had a picnic lunch at the beach. Some people explored the resort near the beach but we played in the easy accessible pools (sea pools not chlorine pools). After our allotted time on Lana’i we got back on the boat and the crew put the sails up for our trip back to Maui. The beer, mai tai’s and champagne was flowing and we had a blast!

Sidenote on snorkeling trip: The other company that I had considered was Trilogy because they also go to Lana’i and they have a good reputation. They say that have ‘rights’ to use Hulopo’e Beach which I guess is true because they have a huge sign up at the beach. However, a lot of other companies go to this beach too. The reasons I didn’t use Trilogy is because they have a big boat which means more people and they don’t serve alcohol (is that bad?). I also noticed that they had put the sail up on the return trip, but they didn’t turn the motor off which means they were not actually sailing. Just my two cents.

Drive all the way around West Maui – If you can drive all the way around West Maui then the road to Hana will be a piece of cake! The road doesn’t really get narrow until past the Olivine Pools so it’s easy to turn around if narrow roads are not your thing. The first place we stopped was Kapalua to see the Dragon’s Teeth. We were following Maui Revealed but the book didn’t give the best directions. We knew where to park but I was a little timid about where to go next. We figured it out and got to Makalua-puna Point to see the Dragon’s Teeth, pretty cool and really cool ocean views too. It was easy to get there, no problems at all. Next stop: Nakalele Blowhole. We didn’t get too close to it, but it didn’t seem to be high tide so the blowhole wasn’t blowing all that much. I liked climbing up and down the mountain (it’s not like I was scaling it, but it was still fun for me). The views along this road are all great, something amazing to see around every turn and there are a lot of turns. Olivine Pools was our last stop before banana bread. I had heard from a lot of people that these pools were dangerous so I kept telling my husband that we were not going to do anything stupid and get ourselves hurt on vacation. I took a picture of a danger sign posted at the entrance. We got a little more than halfway down the side and stopped to take in the view from there. As we were looking at the pools and the tide coming in and huge wave came in and knocked a guy over. Luckily he didn’t get hurt, but that could have been bad. Again, I had a lot of fun going up and down the mountain. The road becomes narrow and one lane after the Olivine Pools, but there are great views of Kahakuloa village and yummy banana bread which we got from Lorraine because Julie was on vacation (there were signs). Because we ended up in Central Maui we wanted to go to the ‘Iao Needle but there was not one place to park so we had to drive on.

Road to Hana – I thought this drive was just beautiful! Someone had left the road to Hana cd in the rental car so we listened to that on the drive. It was pretty interesting to hear the history while we drove and it was very user friendly. We also had Maui Revealed, but that didn’t help a lot. We were not going to go trekking through the forest or down closed roads to get to a waterfall. Our intention was to leave pretty early in the morning to beat the traffic, alas we did not. I think we probably left the west Maui area around 7:30 or 8. We still didn’t see a lot of cars on the road but it was very difficult to find parking at some spots because they were already taken. My favorite spot was black sand beach – it is just beautiful and so many fun things to explore around the park. We also went to ‘Ohe’o Gulch (Seven Sacred Pools) but the pools were closed for swimming. They are still very beautiful to look at. Remember that ‘Ohe’o Gulch is part of the Haleakala National Park so if you plan to go to the summit or have already been save you receipt and go to both within 3 days (I think it’s 3 days). Another reason to go early is by the time you get to this point it’s afternoon and while we wanted to hike the Pipiwai Trail we also didn’t want to be on the Hana Highway after dark. Also, you can’t go all the way around anymore because of the earth quake that happened a couple years ago. Apparently they never re-opened the road that goes around. The other thing to remember while on the road to Hana is that locals don’t want to stop and see the waterfalls or go slow on the road. So, pull over if someone is behind you. We also noticed that most of the time locals tend not to yield at the one way bridges but tourist do - just let them go, they know the road very well because they drive it on a daily basis.

Warren & Annabelle’s http://www.hawaiimagic.com/ - This is a magic show, and it’s a really really really GREAT magic show! Reservations should be made well in advance because apparently they fill up fast. We only got the show tickets; not the combo drink and appetizer tickets. Because of that we were able to get there at 5:45 (instead of 5) and we avoided waiting in a long line. We still had time to order drinks and an appetizer (drinks were really strong, appetizer was ok). Annabelle is the ghost that plays the piano while you wait on Warren, the magician. I saw some people that were enjoying themselves listening to Annabelle but I just thought it was ok. It was kind of like a piano bar, but not really fun. Don’t let this deter you from going to the show – Warren is fantastic! He picks on the first couple of rows and the eight people in the ‘special’ seats. It’s all a lot of fun and the magic is crazy! I can’t figure out how he did that stuff. I wish I would have brought my camera now, but I just assumed that because it was a magic show they would not be allowed. Oh was I wrong! He is the only magician that I’ve heard of that allows photography and videography in his show. I would go see this show again in a heartbeat!

Drums of Pacific Luau at Hyatt booked through Tom Barefoot http://www.tombarefoot.com/maui/hyatt_luau.html - What surprised me the most about this luau is that the food was actually good, not great but good. I had heard that all luau food is yucky and people don’t go to luau’s for the food they go for the show. But I thought the food was good! If you are going to go to this luau get there early! We got there between 3:45 and 4 and we were one of the first people in probably about 10th in line. I’m glad we did that because we had a good view of the action. I wish I would have asked to be in the shade because it did get really hot before the sun went down. While the food was good the beverages were a disappointment overall, mai tai’s were watered down, beer was flat (they were poured ahead and kept in cooler) and most other drinks were pretty watered down as well. Sunburn=yummy. I’m glad we went to this luau for our first time in Maui, but I don’t think I would go to another.

Costco www.costco.com – We have a Costco at home so we had a membership but I am so glad we had this! Costco saved us so much money! The prices for the most part were exactly the same as what we pay at home. For about $150 we bought everything we needed for breakfast, lunch, snacks as well as water, aloha green tea (yummy) beer, wine, and mai tai’s for 10 days! I can’t even imagine how much we would have spent at restaurants for 10 days worth of breakfast, lunch and drinks. Costco is located very close to the airport.

Safeway http://shop.safeway.com/superstore/d...?page=corphome – Because Costco was about 45 minutes away and we wanted to cook dinner in one night we decided to go to Safeway. Whoa – compared to Costco it was super expensive! We noticed way too late for us to save any money that Safeway has a ‘Safeway Club’ and the savings are tremendous! If you’re staying at a condo and plan to cook join the club it will save you big bucks! Even if you are a Costco member join the club anyway because chances are you’ll need something else from the grocery story and Costco is farther away.

Aloha Mixed Plate http://www.oldlahainaluau.com/oll_me...ixedPlate.html - We wanted to try a ‘plate lunch’ so we ate here. It was ok, the meat had good flavor, but was tough. We ate here again but stuck to burgers – much better.

Leilani’s http://www.leilanis.com/ - It’s in Whaler’s Village and just next door to where we were staying so that’s the main reason we ate here. The food was pretty good we split a sandwich and appetizer (maui onion rings) that was plenty for us.

Sunrise Café, 693A Front Street, Lahaina – Our first morning in Maui we woke up at the crack of dawn, literally. We were still on east coast time and we were starving. We searched whaler’s village for anything open – nothing. We drove to Lahaina and found this. The breakfast was great of course we were starving but still. It’s a tiny little place that is very warm and friendly. We found out later that they also cater the lunches on the Paragon Sailing trip to Lana’i.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. http://www.bubbagump.com/index.htm - The food was good not great but good. Mine was a little greasy (shrimp stuffed with crab) but husband’s food was yummy (fish and chips).

Tropica at the Westin http://www.westinmaui.com/de-tropica.htm - Not good, overpriced. Great views.

Charley’s in Pa’ia – We ate there once for breakfast and once for dinner. Both times the food was pretty good. The breakfast service was bad, the dinner service was better. I had macadamia nut pancakes for breakfast and there were huge – as big as the plate. Just order one, trust me.

Miscellaneous notes:

The beaches are rough sometimes in Maui just like every other beach in the world. We’ve lived in Florida 20 minutes from the beach all of our lives so we know how rough the ocean can be. We saw people in Maui just like we see people in Florida get hurt because they didn’t understand what to expect from the waves. So, if you are not familiar with the ocean be careful.

Everyone needs sunscreen! This is said over and over and it’s in all of the guide books and in all of the websites. But if you’re like me you said something like yeah but I don’t really need sunscreen. I’ve always been able to tan very easily, I have olive skin on the rare occasions that I do burn it’s for about a day then I turn brown. I still brought sunscreen to Maui and so glad I did, used it everyday except the last when I ran out of sunscreen I wasn’t out very long and still got a little pink! Here’s why everyone needs sunscreen: it’s cooler in Maui so you don’t know that you are burning until it’s too late and you are going to be outside a lot longer than normal.

I heard that the Old Lahaina Luau is the best Luau in Maui but because it’s an authentic Hawaiian luau they don’t have fire-knife dancers (that is Samoan). Also, I heard that the Feast at Lele has the BEST food for any luau, but is also the most expensive.

Sansei Seafood Restaurant and Sushi Bar - We heard GREAT things about the sushi here and we were really excited about trying it. Husband called for hours and was told there was an early bird special so we decided to get there about 4:45 for the special that started at 5:30. Well, when we got there the line was already around the building! Turns out by the time everyone in front of us got seated we would still have to wait another hour to eat and we would miss the special. We were both way too hungry for that, so we didn’t get to eat here. That is the one thing that I was disappointed in during the trip. So, I’m putting the information out there for anyone else who wants to try the restaurant – get there EARLY and be prepared to wait in line! Information from the website (that I didn’t have in Maui): DAILY EARLY BIRD SPECIALS: Tuesday thru Saturday, 5:30 pm to 6 pm - 25% off all food ordered promptly by 6 pm Sunday and Monday Kama'aina Early Bird Dining 5:30 pm to 6 pm 50% off all food ordered promptly by 6 pm with valid Hawaii Driver's License Walk-in only, first-come first-served basis, no reservations and limited to space available Guests are encouraged to arrive early to ensure seating



travlinteach is offline  
Old Jul 7th, 2007, 07:55 PM
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Sounds like you had a great trip!
Thanks for writing such a detailed report- I found a lot of information I can use when I go to Maui in August!
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Old Jul 7th, 2007, 08:01 PM
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Kerry - no worries, glad to help. Trip reports are where I got most of my information from too. Get ready to go on the best vacation ever!

I should also add that my husband and I went to Maui for our one year anniversary and we are both 30. That information sometimes helps people decide if an activity would be fun for them too.
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Old Jul 8th, 2007, 03:52 AM
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Old Jul 8th, 2007, 08:10 AM
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Great report travelinteach. Sunrise Cafe is one of my favorites on Maui for breakfast and lunch. Sometimes they have music on their patio.
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Old Jul 9th, 2007, 06:45 AM
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Hi Travlinteach

Does the new Sansei location have any kind of ocean view?
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Old Jul 9th, 2007, 10:21 AM
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Cajun -

No ocean view at all. It's on office road about a half mile before the Ritz Carlton.
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Old Jul 9th, 2007, 03:44 PM
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Hi, travlinteach; great report!

Was the pool crowded while you were there?
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Old Jul 9th, 2007, 09:34 PM
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Samsaf-

No, the pool wasn't too crowded but it is very small. Most of the time we went to the beach but on the rare occasion that we did go to the pool we always found a chair. Hope that helps.
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Old Jul 15th, 2007, 04:55 PM
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Great, detailed report. I also just got back from Maui (as well as Kauai) and had a great time on both islands.

I just wanted to respond to your mention of Sansei. We stayed in Kapalua and therefore made a point of going to the Sansei there (I believe there's also one in Kihei) - and we're glad we did. We also tried to get in on the early-bird special, but found that the line was too long to get served by the appointed time. (You're correct when you said you must get there early - I'd say at least 30-45 minutes prior to opening). We waited maybe 20 minutes before getting our pager (lots of people left the line when they realized they weren't going to be in time for the discount), then walked the nearby Ritz-Carlton property. We knew that the pager couldn't reach that far, but they told us it would be at least an hour, so we just made sure we were back in time. The food was well-worth the wait. We eat sushi fairly regularly, and this was some of the freshest and most inventive sushi either of us has had. I can't remember specifically what we had, but we each had at least one beer or glass of wine (maybe two) and ordered a variety of sushies, and the bill was under $100 including tax and tip. I'd consider that cheap for a memorable meal in Hawaii.
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Old Jul 15th, 2007, 06:19 PM
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Sansei is still open in Kapalua? I was there a few years ago, and thought it was in the Kapalua Bay hotel, which I thought was being torn down. Any info on this?
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Old Jul 16th, 2007, 07:45 AM
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Lesm,
Yes, Sansei in Kapalua is still open. It is not inside the Kapalua Bay Hotel, but in front of the Ritz Carlton in Kapalua. DH and I were there in February and had a delicious meal. We encountered the same problem as Suzanne, but we waited the addtional hour and ate at full price - worth EVERY penny!
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Old Jul 16th, 2007, 01:40 PM
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I'm glad to hear that Warren and Annabelle's is still there. We saw the show in 2001 and we loved it! He is the best magician that I've ever seen. I wish I would have known that he allows videotaping because my Dad loves magic but I doubt he'll ever make it all the way to Maui. When we got home I raved about the show and I know that my Dad would have loved to see it.

Thanks for the trip report! It brought back some great memories.
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