Sadly, our Maui vacation is over! My husband and I went for about 8 days, one of which was our 2 year anniversary. Just got back this morning. I am 28 and my husband is in his early thirties (no kids), just to give you some background on us and our perspective? J Oh, and I prebooked all of our activities online and did lots of internet research before settling on a package. We ended up booking our accommodations, rental car, and flight tickets as a package from ?Great Hawaii Vacations?, which gave me the best price I could find online. And of course, we got a lot of use out of our copy of MR (?Maui Revealed?), and used the Hawaii entertainment card a couple of times. I?ll post a link to our photos once I get them all online?

TUESDAY ? our flight landed at something like 11:47 a.m. We were hoping to swing by the Iao Needle/Valley before heading to our condo, but we were BEAT. After we got our luggage and rental car, we called the condo rental office to ask when our condo would be ready (check-in time was 3:00 p.m.). Luckily, they said we could check in as early as we wanted, so we drove straight to the office to pick up our keys. Well, after getting lunch at Cheeseburgers, MaiTais, and Rock ?n Roll (the sister restaurant to Cheeseburger in Paradise), which was OK ? it was the cheapest place we could find in the Shops at Wailea (where we had to pick up our keys). We stayed in a gardenview studio condo at the Wailea Ekahi village (lower village), and it was satisfactory for what we paid. I must say, that our particular condo probably had the worst view in the entire development ? most of the ?gardenviews? had AMAZING views of the beautiful lush grounds (which is what we were hoping for), but our unit was in the back and the lanai was right up against a row of shrubbery. Very secluded, but not very scenic. Just about EVERY other condo had a much better view. Also, our unit was pretty basic as far as décor, I certainly didn?t feel like it was ?luxurious? in any way (many of the photos I saw online were of units with gorgeous interiors that were very decked out ? not so with ours). While this was a little disappointing, we felt we couldn?t really complain since it was clean, everything was in working condition, and it WAS technically a studio condo with a ?garden view?, which is what we paid for. We decided to get over it and spend most of our time OUTSIDE of the condo. I will say that the service from Destination Resorts (the rental office) was superb and the housekeeping was fabulous. Coming home to a clean condo every day was SOOO nice ? they even did our dishes (or unloaded the dishwasher if a load had already been washed).

Other good things about Wailea Ekahi ? had a washer and dryer which we used almost every day, fully equipped kitchen (this was very important to us so that we could do a lot of our own cooking), beautiful grounds that were a joy to walk through (they were the lushest of any we saw), quiet and private units, and extremely nice pools. Though we only used 2, they were both wonderful and NEVER crowded. Even the main pool that is oceanfront right on the beach we had to ourselves a few times (very nice at night)! Also, the condos are at the end of the beachwalk that stretches along all the major Wailea resorts ? this makes it very easy to enjoy the restaurants and other amenities of the resorts without even having to get in your car. Private grill on the lanai, which we got a lot of use out of. Oh, and they?re on a GREAT BEACH!!! Keawakapu was our favorite beach and it, too, was NEVER crowded. Total paradise.

Back to the report ? after we got settled in our condo, we explored the grounds/property a little bit and then went grocery shopping. Used our membership card at Safeway and STILL paid through the nose. Spent $150 on JUST the basics (I?m talking cereal for breakfast every day and simple sandwiches for lunch, plus a few dinner items) for about 4 days? worth of meals for the 2 of us. Yikes. I?m sure we could?ve gotten better deals elsewhere, but we were pooped and just wanted to be done with it. Stopped at Maui Taco on the way back to grab some dinner (it was already 7 or 8), which was OUTSTANDING (MR book came through on that one). Sooooo tasty ? great place to grab a quick bite that?s cheaper than most other places! Collapsed in bed because we had to get up EARLY the next day for the Haleakala sunrise.

WEDNESDAY ? woke up at about 2:00 a.m. (sort of) to get ourselves up to Haleakala for the sunrise. Left shortly before 3:00 and were at the summit by 4:30, when it was just getting crowded. After we parked at the summit, the rest of the spaces filled up within minutes and everyone else had to park at the visitor center, which is a short distance below the summit. The sunrise was nice (we had a few clouds to add to the sky?s colors), but it wasn?t as great as I was expecting. It was VERY cold, VERY crowded (lots of people trying to stand in front of you and block your view), and a lot of hassle for something that didn?t even begin to compare to the sunsets we saw almost every day. Not worth it in my opinion. My husband and I both agreed that we should have driven up later and gotten the much-needed sleep we were so desperately missing! After the sunrise, people clear outta there like bats out of he**! We had to hang around cuz we were doing the horseback ride into the crater at 8:30. So we ate our breakfast that we had packed, and explored some of the trails before meeting our horseback riding group.

The horseback ride into the crater was an awesome experience; I think I took at least 50 pictures of just that ride. Amazing landscape to see. It was with ?Haleakala on Horseback? (NOT the company mentioned in MR), but the group leader was great, lunch was great, and we only had 6 people in our group ? the other 2 groups we saw had 8 or 9. However, it was a bit more ?intense? than I was expecting, just so you know. I am in no way an experienced rider ? never took lessons or anything ? but I HAVE ridden horses QUITE a few times in my life, and I was NOT expecting to be on a trail that was difficult even for the horses! I thought the trail would be sand-like (kind of how it looks in the pictures), but it is mostly ROCKY and EXTREMELY steep. My horse stumbled and slipped more times than I can count, as did everyone else?s, and it made me nervous as heck. There were several times I thought my horse was gonna go down and I thought I?d be spending the rest of my vacation in a body cast. No one else seemed to be nervous, though, so maybe it was just me (and my husband)! I asked the group leader about it over lunch, and he said that although they slip a lot, horses are great about catching their footing again quickly?whatever. All I know is, I was sweatin? it! NOT for the faint of heart?

We got back to the condo late afternoon and showered off the grimy layer of dust that settled on us during the horseride ? quite a THICK layer, I might add! Pretty gross ? in our eyes, ears, nose, and everything. Sorry that might be too much info for ya.

Can?t remember really what we did that evening ? I think we just relaxed at the beachfront pool and then made our own dinner at the condo. I?m sure we went to bed early since we had been up at 2 a.m. for 2 days in a row, had gotten no sleep on our flight, and were dealing with the time change?

THURSDAY ? Beach day! Thank God?we were in desperate need of some R ?n R. Enjoyed Keawakapu beach although we could NOT figure out how to snorkel. We had brought our own snorkel sets from Costco, and supposedly there was great snorkeling right off the side of our beach but the waves seemed HUGE to us. I don?t know if this was normal surf, but we could NOT even keep the equipment on our heads long enough to see anything. The waves bowled us right over ? if you?re supposed to get PAST the waves, there?s NO way we could?ve made it out far enough. So we were kind of sad about that. But we enjoyed boogie boarding and laying out instead. Had lunch at our condo, and then went to the pool closest to our unit. Very nice, relaxing day, but got sunburned. Crazy, since we used waterproof sunscreen that we reapplied OFTEN ? usually I get NO color when I use sunscreen. I couldn?t believe that we both got burnt! Aloe was very helpful, but my husband is just starting to peel now. Made our own dinner at the condo and went to bed early cuz the next day was the road to Hana!

FRIDAY ? Road to Hana ? leave as early as you possibly can for this. We left at 6:45 a.m. and didn?t get back to our condo until 7:30 p.m. (AFTER DARK)! And we were pretty fast movers, I might add! We did a lot of the stops listed in MR, but certainly not all of them, and we only spent 5 ? 10 minutes at most stops (with the exception of Blue Pool and Oheo Gulch, which were 30 ? 60 minutes. You need AT LEAST that much just to get to these sights and that?s pushing it). The road past Hana is definitely a bit scary (lots of sheer drop-offs next to the road and having to back up to a turnout if you come face-to-face with a car coming the other way, not to mention a very shaking, rattling ride on the torn-up road), but worth the drive. Very beautiful. Loved seeing all the waterfalls. Blue Pool and Oheo Gulch were my favorites; I?d say they are the must-sees. Oheo Gulch was very crowded, but still amazing ? like a waterpark with all the pools and falls, kids jumping off the falls all over the place! Blue Pool was a lot more secluded when we were there (only a few other people); just gorgeous. Kind of weird to get to, though ? strange dirt road with lots of signs telling you not to go, yet many of the locals seem to have set up their own ?parking lots? near the pools charging money. Anyway, don?t get weirded out ? it?s worth the crazy walk over all the boulders.

Made our own dinner at the condo again when we got back and went to bed early, since we had ANOTHER early morning the next day ? absolutely hate getting up early on vacation, but it seems the only way to get to do everything you want to do!

That?s all I can manage to type at the moment. I?ll type up part 2 within the next few days, including how we got a free luau!

Sorry about all the question marks in my text - that's so weird. I'm guessing it's because I originally typed it in Word and then copied it to this forum?

Thanks for sharing, tstrohn! The Ekahi condos sound very nice, except for your "view." Guess you can't control that......... but it sounds like a great place to stay in. Looking forward to the rest of your report......

Can you tell me what unit you were in? I posted about the heat and need for a/c, which you answered, thank you. I've narrowed it down to several units with a/c in the living room and bedroom, but now I'm focusing on the view, so I want to avoid your building. Thanks.

We were in building 3, pambrown2 - have you looked at the village map (it's available online on many of the condo websites)? Although buildings 1-3 are technically in the "lower village", the grounds slope upward sharply just before them, so they are on the hill. The upper units in building 2 (and possibly some of the lower units) have GREAT views - we only noticed because we walked past them every day on our way to the pool. The foliage there is so lush and dense that it gets in the way of ocean views for many of the units, though in that case I'm sure that they would be listed as garden views rather than ocean views. As I said above, MOST of the garden views were very beautiful. Even in our building, the lanais on either side of us could see a sliver of the ocean, but our little studio was squeezed right in the middle facing the complete back of the property (a line of shrubs).