Aloha - First...you could call my husband and I pretty lucky. My husband won the December trip thru his work. We had to travel Dec. 6-12th. Won the Trip the 1st of November, not much time to prepare. We have been to Maui twice before.. we try to save and go every two years during our boys (10-12) spring break from school.. Well, March 2004 is our year to go.. so, we will be leaving again in 51 days!!!!!

My husband and I have been married for 23 years and have not been anywhere for more than a few days all alone since before our kids were born.. It was a weird feeling to think how would we relate for 7 days all alone!!! Well - by the second day it was just like a second honeymoon, giggles, holding hands, stolen kisses and glances.... it was just what we needed!!

We left at 6:40 am from the Northwest (6 hour direct flight) and arrived on Maui at 10am. We rented a jeep and I swear drove every road there was to drive! Weather was good, alittle more rain than March but the rain is so different than what we are used to. Actually I had a compact car for 190.00 for the week... great deal.. I stayed with the luggage..while my husband went to pickup the car. This way you don't have to load luggage on shuttle and unload again for the car. In no time my husband pulls up to curb with the Jeep...like we could afford that upgrade during xmas time... But when I saw his face.. he was like a little kid with a new toy... he has always wanted to rent a jeep but.. we usually have the kids with us. He was so cute....I just couldn't be angry with him. But... I have to say never again... that Jeep beat the crap out of us on road to Hana (we drove the road all the way around) very bumpy and it was really noisy, especially when it was windy and raining. We never took the top off either... oh well it was fun, Im just getting old!

It was wonderful to arrive so early. We could shopped for food and supplies and at Kmart and Safeways and still have a nice plate lunch at Aloha Plate by Safeways before checking in to our Condo at 3pm. Don't forget to go to the service desk and get your Safeway card. It saved us about $50.00 on groceries and liquor. We bought a cooler and sun lotions, shampoo etc. at Kmart. Prices at Kmart are the same as home and I figure why pack that stuff. There are also a lot of cute gifts and souvenirs to take home.

The condo was perfect. We stayed at the Whaler Condos on Kaanapali Beach in ground floor studio. The condo could have used a little spiffing up, but really very nice. Brand new king sized bed.. it was wonderful! The Pool and hot tub were great! Every night we loved going to the pool/hot tub about 9pm right before bed. It didn't even bother us when it was raining. It rained almost every night but is almost like a mist. The pool doesn't close until 10pm! When we stayed at the Sheraton in 2002 the pool closed at 8pm, which was a bummer for our kids. The first evening we walked from our condo to the Sheraton at Blackrock for drink at sunset. They have live Hawaiian music with a beautiful hula dancers from 5pm to 7pm at their pool-side bar. At sunset a native man does a cliff dive ceremony off the tip of Blackrock. Very beautiful and romantic to the live music.

We drove all the way around the west end of Maui, checked out the Kapalua Bay hotel and Villas they are really beautiful... a lot more laid back area compared to the Kaanapali area which seems to be more active. We snorkeled/swam at Kapalua Bay. We stopped for fresh hot banana bread at the little village about half way near the blow hole. There were Taro fields all around it was really beautiful. There was also a ESPN Pro Surf competition at one of the cliffs on the way...stopped and watched for a while. It was really a nice early afternoon trip.. I recommend purchasing the Maui Revealed book.. it has a lot of useful information about historical places to see and it is even so detailed that it tells you the mile markers to watch for along the road. It was great for road to Hana and around west end past Kapalua. Great information on resorts and condos too.

We did the road to Hana..it had rained a lot and waterfalls were huge and gushing but so gorgeous! We drove all the way around....road coming back thru Kula was long and bumpy... it was so pretty. High cliffs and ocean on one side and waterfalls that just looked like the fall right out of the sky. It was so much greener than May 2000 when we drove to Hana the first time. We stopped in a quiet little park in Kula by Pineapple Winery for late lunch picnic lunch. We then went back to the Condo for a much needed shower and relaxed by the pool, then walked along the beach for another beautiful sunset on Kaanapali beach.

There also was another couple from my husbands company that won a trip. They stayed at the Lahaina Shores in Lahaina. They came to our condo one day to snorkel. They had never been before and we gave them a few pointers.. like don't walk in front-wards with your fins on... you will be knocked down by a wave in no time and look like a 1st time tourist for sure. We took them to Blackrock which is just a short walk down the beach from our condo... then drove a few minutes to Kapalua Bay again to snorkel and swim. We love Kapalua bay...very calm and the water was very clear that day.. Good place to snorkel for the first time and a great place for kids. We saw needle fish, and a eel there! One evening we drove to Lahaina to their condo. The Lahaina Shores. It was nice but, I didnt like the cinder block walls felt like a school building and the beach was nothing compared to Kaanapali. We did happy hour on Front street, people watched for awhile and had a really fun dinner at Bubba Gumps.

I did some Christmas shopping at Whalers Village at Hilo Hatties and ABC Store and for Tee Shirts in Lahaina. We rent our snorkel gear from Maui Dive Shop in Whalers Village.. so nice to pickup and drop off our gear there right be fore we leave. Whalers Village is right next door to our Whaler condo. I tried the Optical Snorkel Mask this time... my eye aren't very bad, but.. I had been missing so much detail. We ate twice at the Rusty Harpoon in Whalers Village right at sunset...loved their stuffed shrimp and fresh fish.. We barbecued a couple of times, steaks and kabobs with pork and green pepper/fresh pineapple..yummy! We also drove to Napili area..it is very pretty area lots of private house on windy roads. We ate lunch at Maui Tacos in a little strip mall there. It was really good but a lot of food for lunch!!

There had been a couple of really rainy days right before we got there and on the 2nd day we were there.. the car port at the lobby that you drive thru fell in on a car! No one was hurt but it was quite a sight to see...the car was crushed. They think it was caused from having planters on the top of the car port that were full of dirt and plants and it became saturated with all the rain which made it collapse. I am sorry I didn't get at picture... The people had just loaded their luggage and were checking out to catch there flight.. They had to stay an extra day to work out the car situation and wait for the engineers to tell them it was safe to move the car and get their luggage out. One morning we got up to take our daily walk along the walkway along Kaanapali beach and decided to ask the front desk at the Whaler if we could look at a 2 bedroom ocean front and a 1 bedroom condo.. They were so nice and gave us temporary keys to a 12th floor deluxe ocean front with the warp around Lani.. The Lani went all the way from the dinning room in the front of the building (beach front) the went around the corner of the building to both bedrooms... the view of Blackrock and Molokai and Lani' were awesome. I would love to be in that unit when the whales are off shore in March. We also checked out a 6th floor, 1 bedroom facing the courtyard. The view of the beach, grounds and pool area were really nice. We also did this same thing and toured some of the other rooms when we stayed at the Sheraton in 2002.

We packed a lunch one day and went to explore Kihei and Wailea. We parked at the last resort in Wailea?? cant remember the name of the little beach park there... They are buidling more Condos right next door to it. We walked from the park all along the walk way on the beach to three of the resort hotels.. they are gorgeous and massive. Very upscale. I felt very out of place there... guess I belong back on the west side of the island. Kihei is a fun place... lots of fun outdoor crafty places and art galleries. Then we drove to the very end of the Wailea area that afternoon and walked along Big Beach. There were a few people body surfing. It is huge beach with lots of sand and it has a really great view of Molikini crater. Just a short walk and over the lava cliff from Big Beach there is a beach called " Little Beach", a lot of people were body surfing there.. It looked like a lot of fun. We read about "Big Beach" and again found it by using the Maui Revealed book. But beware...of "Little Beach" it is clothing optional. Needless to say we didn't stay here long! There were people there with and without suits.

We had a wonderful time and it was hard to go home.. but we weren't frowning or sad when we left and were probably the most cheerful people on the plane on the flight home..because we knew we would be back in 2 months. But when we come home from our trip in March...now that will be sad.... knowing we wont be back until 2006! It was a last minute trip which turned out to be the best 2nd honeymoon we could have ever hoped for. I think not having time to plan and worry about all the details and just going with the flow...makes for a much better state of mind when you are actually there!!!

I would love to answer any questions you may have. Maui no ka oi! (Maui is the best!)

Great report, the detail is especially nice. We will be in Maui in March as well, my wife and I along with one other couple. We are celebrating our 35th anniversaries, both couples, we were married within one week of each other. (We're not as old as it sounds, we were pretty young when we married) We're staying in the Napili Bay area, and are planing to do the road to Hana. My wife and I did the Hana trip once before, but we came back the same route. We would like to go all the around as you did. What time did you start, did you stop much, and what time did you get back. We are considering an overnight stay in Hana, but as we have already paid for our place in Napili, we would be adding extra expense. Open to that if we have to. I know what you mean regarding the jeep, we had one on the BI and it not only beats you but it guzzles gas!

Great trip report. We'll be there in Feb. for 2 weeks. We have a 2 bedroom timeshare and will be celebrating our 25th anniversary along with a couple we're invited to join us. They also just had their 25th.
We've done the West Maui road around and throught it a bit hairy in some places, but I'll do it again. We've been to Hana a couple of times (we like to bring people and they need to see places we've already seen), but we've never gone all the way around. I'd like to do that this time. We've visited the winery several times and brought back the Maui Splash wine. It's made from pineapples, but really just a hint of the taste and very refreshing in the summer.
Good idea on the card from Safeway. We haven't tried it before, but will be sure to this time. 2 weeks is a lot of time to eat out all the time and we really just want to relax the get some sun the 2nd week. In between whale watching and snorkeling of course.
I'll be sure to send a report when we get back.

Thank you for your kind words! Both of you please be sure and do trip reports when you return. Question from ribar55 on the road to Hana.. We left about 8:30am from Kaanapali. We didnt stop again until the first waterfall on the road to Hana. We stopped at Hana Bay and at a couple of other beaches and parks along the way that were listed in Maui Revealed. We stopped for pictures mostly.. not more tha 15 minutes at each place. We wanted to swim at 7 sacred pools but they were not letting people swim because the run off from all the rain was too dangerous. We didnt walk down and look at the pools either. We thought if we couldnt swim we didnt want to spend $10.00 to enter. We were in Kula by about 2:30-3pm for lunch in the Park. If you want to stop and hike to waterfalls or swim in pools you will need to add more time. If you are being tour guides for the other couple..I think you would enjoy the West Maui trip also.. When we go in March... my brother and sister in-law are meeting us in Maui and we think we will skip the Hana trip and take them on the West Maui Loop instead mostly beause the Hana trip would not be any fun for our young boys.

Riggsie, Great report! We went to Maui Dec 19-30th and stayed right next door to the Whaler at the Kaanapali Beach Hotel. We commented every time we walked by the Whaler at how nice it would be to stay there. I could see my husband cooking supper on the grill while I relaxed in the pool!

I was wondering about the Safeway card.
We stopped there and at check out the clerk asked if we had their card and I said no. She gave me a form to fill out. I figured I might as well as we are going to Kauai in March. I didn't get a card at that time. I just assumed that we would receive one in the mail. Did you actually get a card at that time?

Yes - we did get our card at the customer service desk the day we were shopping.. I started shopping and my husband went to customer service and got the card.. Im sure he filled out the form there and then they gave him the card..

TTT for Beadbear!!!

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