My husband and I are planning to go to Hawaii in early March for our 20th anniversary. We are planning to go to Maui and the Big Island. We would like to go for 10 nights. We aren't sure if we should split our time evenly or spend more time in Maui. We thought we should do the Big Island first and then Maui. We were looking at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel and the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island and the Wailea Marriott and Renaissance Wailea on Maui. Looking for any advice on how to split our time and any information on these hotels or other hotels that would be nice. Also, roundtrip airfare from Chicago seems to be around $600. Is this a good price? Thanks for your input!

$600 from Chicago in March seems like a very good price. I don't think you'll do much better.

I prefer the Hapuna Prince Beach Hotel to the Hilton Waikoloa. The Hilton Waikoloa reminded me of Disneyworld when we visited the resort. I go to Hawaii for the beaches and not an amusement park feel like I had there. We had a great stay at the Hapuna Price and the shared privileges at the Mauna Kea are an added bonus. The beach at the Mauna Kea is just gorgeous and the Hapuna Beach is beautiful too. There is a manmade beach at the Hilton if I remember correctly.

We stayed at the Renaissance Wailea in 2001, it's a nice resort. I'm not familiar with the Marriott.

I would probably split the time evenly between the islands.

I should have added that I fly from Chicago too, we've flown four times and the best price was $450, but that was during low season in November 2004. During peak season, I've paid between $600 and $800 from Chicago.

The rooms were very nice at the Hapuna, large with a huge marble bathroom with separate shower, tub, and toilet. The service is excellent too.

We stayed at the Hale Kai condos in Maui, near Lahaina. www.halekai.com. It was wonderful! Having a kitchen helped curb some of the costs too.

If I wanted a more resort type environment, I think I would stay at the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel. It is considered Maui's most Hawaiian hotel.

Thanks for your responses. Anyone else?

We just spent a week on the Big Island. It was not nearly enough, but if you want lots of easily accessible sand beaches, you won't love it.

Too bad you're not flying from Houston -- fares are down to $320.
I was not impressed with the Big Island and am glad I didn't spend more than 2 days there. Of course, if you're really into volcanoes then you might love the Big Island. I prefer sandy beaches. I went in Feb-March so I didn't actually go in the water (too cold for me) but I still liked walking along the beach. I'd spend more time on Maui. I also stayed on Oahu -- lots to see & do there!

The Renaissance has been purchased by
the W hotel firm and will probably be under reconstruction by then. Maybe try the Maui Prince that is on the best beach in Wailea. We've tried them all and the Prince is not the fanciest but has the best beach, restaurants and is not so razzle dazzle as many others=
quiet and nice.

Thanks. I was thinking about the Maui Price. Is it much further south than the other hotels? Also, has anyone stayed at the Diamond Resort? Any comments about that hotel?

Delta has a Hawaii special running until tomorrow (I think), for travel thru' mid March. Some excellent fares tho' I don't recall if Chicago was one of the cities, check delta.com

I have never stayed at the Maui Prince, but I can tell you that the beach that it is on is a fabulous beach that can have great swimming and snorkeling. Have a great time.
-Bill

The Waikoloa is a nice hotel, but does have a "Disney-ish" feel, as compared to the other hotels. My daughter loves the pools and waterslides, though, so that's where she always wants to stay.

The grounds are quite large, and you definitely have to be in a laid back frame of mind there - if you're staying in the towers furthest from the lobby, it can be a test of patience to wait for the monorail or one of the boats to come by.

I always ended up walking (no patience) - though the walk itself is pretty nice - through a corridor with a lot of art - but after a few times it got old and I wished the monorail/boats were more efficient.

The Maui Prince is a pretty nice hotel - not as fancy as the others in Wailea. It is at the furthest point down the road, but it's maybe only 5-7 minute drive further than the Kea Lani.

I stayed at the Renaissance before it was bought by the W hotel firm. It's also a nice hotel, but I'm not sure how much it's changed.

My favorite hotel in Wailea is the Kea Lani. Every room is a suite and the grounds are absolutely gorgeous.

Well, my message was subed by "IMaQ" but I stand by message, whomever Iamq is!

We are getting ready to finalize our trip. We booked our airfare ~$600 per person roundtrip with one stop but don't have to change planes. We are pretty sure we are going to book the Fairmont Orchid on the Big Island and the Fairmont Kea Lani on Maui.

Any thoughts on what to do? We plan to take a day trip to the Volcano on the BI and do some snorkeling in Kona. On Maui, we thought we would do the Road to Hana and sunrise at the crater. Not sure what else we should do at this point. Thanks for your input.

No need to make any plans at all now - just talk to your concierge about it when you get there. You can do only what you feel like doing then! No plans, no pressure.

Enjoy,
Steve
Maryland

Hi,

I'm from Chicago too and we're heading to Maui Feb. 11 for my brother's wedding. We're also staying at the Kea Lani. We paid $650 incl. tax for our tickets with one stop.

This board has been a huge resource for me in planning our trip (lots of Maui experts who are Fodorites). You should do a search for "top 10 Maui," there's a great thread with many posts on people's top 10 things to do in Maui.

Re activities, we're kicking off our trip with the West Maui/Molokai helicopter trip with Sunshine on our first morning. We'll also be doing the Haleakala downhill bikeride with Haleakala Bike Co. Then a couple days of scuba diving (completing our open water dive certification), and we finish with the road to Hana, spending our last night at Hotel Hana Maui. A lot of people do a Molokini snorkel trip, but we're focusing on diving.

If you're looking for great restaurants, again I'd do a search on the board for "maui restaurants" or "maui grinds." Plenty of posts here to keep you busy. We've got reservations at Nick's Fishmarket, I'O, Capische, Hula Grill, Sansei, Lahaina Grill, and Mama's Fish House. (We're big foodies.)

Hope that helps...have a great time!

Oh, one other thing, don't know if you were going to do a luau, but we're doing Feast of Lele(http://www.feastatlele.com/).