JES

Can anyone suggest a NON-resort luxury hotel in a great area of maui (beautiful beach, great restaurants, close to a town)?

Our budget is about $500/nt.

Thanks for any suggestions

DebitNM

What is a "non resort" luxury hotel?

hulapieguy

Could be misinterpreting, but seems like an oxymoron for a VACATION destination to me. (There would be plenty of qualifiers in big city BUSINESS oriented destinations.)
Perhaps a luxury single family home, in a locale such as Wailea, via VRBO.com?

JES

My response for Kauai brought some great suggestions so I'm posting it again. Resorts are big and less personal such as Hyatt, Hilton, etc. Like an enclosed little city. Non-resort - smaller but still nice. Boutique hotel would be nice. Something with less big buildings and cement and more beachy feel.
Thanks Hula, that's an idea I will check out too.

JES

ttt

suze

I think that's because the options on Kauai are simply very different than Maui. I'm not sure if these are luxurious enough, or if you would like being in a town, but there's are non-resort hotels in Lahaina.

JES

Thanks Suze. How is Lahaine compared to the rest of the island to stay?
I did get some guidebooks but they don't really put their opinion in I'm guessing because they don't want to deter anyone from an area and hurt tourism there.
That's what I love about this forum

suze

Personally I love Lahaina. It's an old whaling town. Used to be the capitol of the islands when there was the monarchy, so has some history about it. It's a bit too honkey-tonk and 'touristy' for some people's taste (lots of shops, bars, restaurants, shows) but I really enjoy it. (But I like places like Puerto Vallarta, Key West, Waikiki too). It's still convenient for seeing the rest of the island and the less developed areas. Just depends what you like.

Underhill

Non-luxury might mean no a/c, which can be a problem.

suze

Underhill, I took the request to mean no only to staying at a mega *resort* but YES to a *luxury* hotel? Not non-luxury together??

sf7307

Non-resort, but yes luxury ( per the poster's other thread re Kauai)

ladystack

Napili Kai Beach Resort -- quiet area, great beach, 20 mins to Lahaina and next to Kapalua resort. Small hotel,low-keyed entertainment options, very traditional feel.

hulapieguy

Hi again,
We ran into some old friends at a party last night that were among those who promoted Hawaii to us years (many) ago. Remembered your inquiry, so asked about a house they rent every winter in one of the coolest areas of Maui: Paia.
It's priced a little over your budget, but might be worth a reach; believe I'm safe in saying it's one of the more reasonably priced houses anywhere in the Islands that fronts a sandy beach.
Our friends rent directly from the owners, but it's also listed by Hawaiian Beach Rentals:
http://www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com/...age.htm#photos

Odin

Napili Kai hotel is a great suggestion. The location is wonderful.

sf7307

>>

The location IS wonderful. But I don't really think it falls in the "luxe" category.

MomDDTravel

we stayed at a hotel in Hana for one night... we drove up there and did not want to drive back to the marriott... I will have to find the name...but it was about 14.5 year ago on our honeymoon. I believe that another poster recently stayed there.. it does not have a resort feel and is luxurious.

MomDDTravel

http://www.travaasa.com/hana

here you go - we liked it and there are some more recent trip reports - (I hate to recommend something from so long ago!!)