marshall531

So continuing on our journey on Wednesday March9th we awoke again to a golden day of more sunshine and relaxed by the beautiful hyatt kauai pools. At about 4PM the clouds started to roll in and my wife had scheduled an appointment for a manicure and pedicure so while she was there I found a nice hammock(there are alot of hammocks spread out throughout the hotel grounds) Put on my headphones and listened to a cd while looking at the blue pacific ocean. PARADISE I HAVE FOUND YOU AT LAST. It was drizzling a little but that did not affect my mood at all. After my wifes manicure we were off to the Popoi Shopping center for dinner at Roys. The food was very good but the desert was the highlight of my meal(chocolate soufflet with the chocolate oozing out of the center. I just wanted to lick the plate after I finished scrapping it with my spoon. Again each meal seemed to cost around 100-125 dollars for two and that was just with two virgin pina colodas(For those of you novices that is without alcohol). On Thursday another day of just relaxing and enjoying the grounds of the hyatt all day long. Thursday night was dinner at the beach house so we had to leave the pool area early since we had a 5:30 PM reservation. This restaurant is a must do on anyones trip to kauai. It is right on the beach and we lucked out because it was clear night and the sun just sunk into the sea. It was amazing to watch all the diners get up out of their chairs and head beach side with cameras clicking away. The restaurant even has hired a photographer to take pictures if you would like. It is 20 dollars for a 4x6 picture. We bought one only because the sunset came out better with their camera than with mine. The food was enjoyable but the chocolate souflet didn't compare to roys the night before. Friday March 11th another day of brilliant sunshine and today was the day I had planned to go to the north shore. We were at the pool until 12 noon and then the clouds rolled in very thick but no rain until we headed out on our way up past Lihue. Our first stop was the Wailea waterfall which is very very accesible off the main road. Only a two minute drive. The falls were gushing with water and even though it was a pretty steady rain I managed to get a few photos of my wife and I by the falls. Next we stopped at the Kilaui light house. It was very hazy at this time almost 4PM but the views were beautiful. THe seas are very angry this time of years. It is awesome to sea the waves cracking against the rocks on the shoreline. From there we drove past princeville and headed out to Ke'ee beach. I wanted to see the view that my ultimate kauai guide book showed of the beginning of the Napali coastline which the book said you can see from walking a little past the edge of the beach. Well we drove all the way there and you can't see it at all. It turns out you have to hike about a mile or two up the trail which is right at the beach in order to get a view of the napali coastline. WE had a 5:30 pm dinner reservation at the princeville so this just was not possible since it was now almost 5PM but Kee'ee beach is awesome. The waves were massive. On the drive back to princeville the Hanalea Valley is just as pretty as it is shown in the guidebook. The taro fields are beautiful and the whole setting is just like a picture postcard. Dinner at the Princeville for there Friday night seafood buffet was amazing. The nicest part was the view. We had a table on there outdoor terrace and all we saw were these amazing mountains and the feeling of being in a place that unless you are there I can't really describe. The food was excellent with seafood and regular fish and meat and the desserts were to die for. We hung out around the hotel for awhile. It is the kind of hotel that I feel is the exact opposite of the hyatt. The princeville reminds my of a place when I was a child when you went to someones house and your parents told you look but don't touch a thing. This is the kind of hotel you would expect the rich and famous to stay it. The Hyatt has a much more youthful feel to it and again I can't say enough of that view with the opening when you first walk in. The only people who can really appreciate what I am saying now are the ones who have already been at the kauai Hyatt. Our last full day at the hyatt started out with pouring ran. I awoke at 7am since I was driving to the top of the wamea canyon lookout. My wife didn't want to go since she had just seen it from the helicoptor and didn't want to get up early. I was hoping that the rain would stop but it just kept getting heavier and heavier. I past the wimea canyon road sign and started to turn on Kokee road but remembered the guidebook said the views were better from the wamea canyon road to I turned around and headed back(Only at two minute drive). Turning up wamea canyon road I keep going higher and higher until I came to the Wamea canyon lookout. there is a little path to the lookout and there I was with about 8 other people looking at nothing but white. You couldn't see two feet in front of you. I was standing like an idiot hoping for the fog to lift but it didn't and after 10 minutes I headed up to the next look out where the fog was just as thick. So I kept going higher and higher until i got to the last lookout. Actually the road was closed( just as the guidebook says it is sometimes for a year or more) but this last look out I believe it is called the Kalua lookout is suppose to have majestic views of the napali coast. You could here the waves crashing below but when you looked out you could only still see white. Well I remembered that my bible the ultimate kaui guidebook said the views are even better at the last lookout the Pau ali( I think that is it) Lookout. I saw the trail where the road was blocked off to cars but it was a paved road and I said oh what the hell I don't know when I will be back lets take a walk. I was the only one up at this lookout at this point so I proceded to walk the mile the last and final lookout. The rain was not heavey but it was as if you were actually walking throught the heavy fog. The road was filled with potholes and I know now why it is closed to cars. I walked for about 45 minutes up a very steep incline and was thinking all along that I could drop dead up here and no one would find me for weeks. Cell phone reception is non existant up here. Well when I got to the top the fog was thicking than ever but there was one sign that was visible to me. It said MOUNT WAILEA THE WETTEST SPOT ON EARTH and boy did it sure feel like it. I took a picture of the sign and just kept thinking I guess I wasn't meant to see the napali coast from the ground only from the helicoptor which is more than most people I guess. So I started to head down the mountain I had just come up and as I am riding down I looked to my left and there it was the canyon was opening up before my eyes. I pulled over to the road an saw a beautiful waterfall in the canyon which is much greener than the grand canyon. I got alot of great pictures so my day up by the canyon was not a total waste of time. When I got to the bottom I took Kokee road which was nice. Heading out of the town of Wamea I past the sign I had heard so much about. JO JO Shave Ice. I had a shave ice on tuesday in the mall in lihue and thought it was just okay but I had to see what the book was talking about. This is about as much of a hole in the wall place as you can get. The line was about 5 people long but they have so many flavors of toppings it is hard to decide. I had a chocolate and butterscotch mix with macadamie nut icecream. It was to die for. I had just wished my wife was there to taste it. By the time I got back to Wamea the sun was shining brightly. My wife had just go done with here massage at the anara spa which said was was awesome and the rest of the day we layed out in the sun and relaxed. Dinner the last night was at Donderos. I was a little disapponted. The food was okay. My wifes fillet was tough and the garlic scallops were so filled with garlic she couldn't eat them. It is a nice looking restaurant but I would have preferred to go back to Casa D'amici. We packed that night because our vacation in paradise was coming to an end. We were heading to they hyatt in maui first thing in the morning.
On Sunday morning we were up early since we had a 9:30 AM flight on ALoha airlines. They don't fly direct to Maui so we had to stop in Honolulu(You don't get off the plane). We arrived in Kahuli at 11:15 and picked up the rental car at alamo again. We stopped at the safeway at the lahaina cannery mall just outside of kanapali.(Kanapali for those of you who don't know is basically just and area of hotels five minutes north of Lahaina. When I was planning this trip I was agonizing over weather to stay in wailea(South maui) or Kanpali(west maui). Kanapali won out only because of the proximtiy to the shoppint. I knew that they hyatt in Maui was not rated any where near as high as the one in Kauai but most people gave it very good ratings. We arrived at the hotel at about 1PM and also go another lei greeting. The lobby area was already much more filled than the kauai hyatt. There was a group called sterling that had 1500 guests there(the kauai hyatt has a total of 610 rooms and the hyatt maui has 800 something rooms) When we got to the front desk I waited on line for about 15 minutes only to be told my room wouldn't be ready for about another hour but if we wanted to we could go to the pool. We hadn't planned on not getting into the room and all our bathing suits were packed in one of the bags. We felt okay it is only on hour we can walk around and have some lunch. We came back in an hour and 10 minutes(now it is almost 2:45PM) to be told it will be at least another half hour. Well I blew my top I was so annoyed. By now the lobby is filled with hundreds of bags of people both checking in and checking out and you can hardly move around the reception area. I started raising my voice which I usually don't to the person behind the desk telling that we had just spent a week in heaven at the kauai hyatt and now I felt like i was transferred to Hell. I said it was not acceptable and I wanted to speak to a manager immediately. The worker just kept saying come back in one half hour it should be ready. I said no I wanted to speak to a manager and I wanted to speak to them now. By now my voice was really getting load. He said one minute sir and in two seconds he returned with a key to a room. We had been upgraded which I had asked when I was first told that I would have to wait one hour form a garden view to a partial ocean view. When we got to the room it is much much much smaller than the kauai hyatt. the toilet is actually in the same room as the showere whereas in the Kauai hyatt it is in a separate room The bed is much lowere to the floor(Platform bed) But this was actually the best part of the whole facility. The bed feels as if you are sleeping on the most unbelievable cushion you can imagine and the pillows are so so soft and fluffy). THe view from the room was very nice. We were in the tower closest to lahaina so part of our view was of the mountains and the other part was of Lahiaina harbor.(And a part of the parking lot which as I said before didn't bother us) By now it is after three we threw on our bathing suits and headed down to the ppol hoping to find a nice secluded spot like we had at the hyatt kauai. Well we get down there and there are wall to wall people everywhere packed in like sardines. There is no room to even move around. We finally found to lounge chairs separated but I managed to move them to a section together. We were so disgusted at this point. One thing i forgot to mention when we checked in was we were told as we were at the Kauai hyatt that there is a 15 dollar resort fee. The only difference is that in kauai the 15 dollar fee included valet parking every day. In Maui you have to pay an additional 10 dollars on top of the 15 if you want valet parking of course I said no thankyou and fortunately due to the tower we were in there is a parking lot by the laui which is by our tower which was almost always empty(except during laui times). Getting back to the pool on sunday afternoon. We were relaxing at the pool with our cooler filled with our sodas and someone(a worker) comes over and says we can't have a cooler by the pool. I said whynot and they said it had to due with liabiltiy reasons(Baloney it had to do with the fact they wanted us to by the drinks from them) When I said there was only soda and water in the cooler they said they needed to look into it to make sure.Unbelievable but I let them do it and they said okay. Sunday night I had made dinner reservations at my wifes favorite restarurant SPagos. The only problem was spago was in Wailea in south maui about a 45 minute ride but we took the ride and stopped at the shops of walea before dinner. We were so so disappointed in spagos in Maui. It is so unlike spagos in Las Vegas(even though the setting overlooking the pool at the FOur seasons was beautiful>) The menu at spagos was so limited and the only shell fish they had was sold out so the only other thing on the menu I even remotely liked was pork chops. It was prepared very nicely but when i got the bill and it was 150 dollars without tax and tip and this is without liquor and the fact that I had to settle on something at that point I said to my wife and she said to me we really had to stop spending so much money on a meal only to feel that we had to settle on what we were going to eat. I had previosly made arrangements for the rest of the trip to eat at Nicks, Swan court and mamas fishouse which are all very expensive and we decided we didn't need to keep spending 150 dollars on meals to enjoy them. So the next day(Monday we relaxed by the pool all day(we got there early so were were able to get two spots on the grass just before the ocean) before all the vultures got there. We stayed there all day but had to leave by 3 for the old Lahaina Laui. I can't compare it to other lauis but the food was very good and the laui was wonderful. It tells the story of hawaii. We made the reservations early so we had what was called traditional seating. You sit on mats on the floor and you are right up close. A word to the wise if you have long legs or are the slightest bit heavy chose regular seating otherwise your legs will cramp up on you. The evening was very enjoyable. Tuesday was our first journey to the road to hana. I bought that stupid CD they sell in all the stores with these two jerky guys guiding you. The mile markers are all mixed up. After you leave Paia the mile markers say 14 and 15 and then all of a sudden it says 1 and 2. I didn't know where I was. I tried to follow the maui revealed book. My wife was reading it to me and that was easier to follow. I call the road to maui and accident waiting to happen. There are spots in the road where people would just pull there car over to the side and the road is narrow as it is and cars are coming in two directions. There were a couple of pretty water falls and the road is curvier than any road I have ever been on and I live in the suburbs of Putnam county new york and we have alot of curvy roads but none like this. We drove as far as the hana airport. The keane penisula was my favorite part of the trip. There is a great banan bread place there and also right before the hana airport there is a lady selling fresh coconut. she cuts a hole in it and lets you drink the juice out of it and then cuts it in half and you eat it. Also she sells coconut candy which was delicious. WE had left the hotel at 8AM and by 11 AM we were at the hana airport. We had previously decided that we weren't going to drive all the way around past hana or even to hana since we had been told by many people that there wasn't much to see in hana and to tell you the truth once you have been to Kauai nothing can be more beautiful. So we headed back to the hotel. It took us until 1:30 to go from hana to kanapali with no stops(A 2 hour drive). when we got back to the hotel the sun was shining and we relaxed by the pool.The pool was not as crowded as it had been on sunday or monday and I was told the second half of the sterling group was checking out that day. One other negative about the hyatt in maui. We found some pills(someones medication) on the floor behind the night table in the bedroom(an indication of how well they clean the rooms). Also most days the rooms were not made up until 2 or 3 PM. One night someone actually turned down our beds and left two chocolate candies on the bed. Getting back to the day it is now tuesday and we had cancelled our swan court reservation. We walked around Lahaina at night and decided to try bubba gumps. I no this is a chain restaurant but the service was very good and you are sitting right on the ocean where the waves are crashing right up against the windows. The food was good but the entire bill was 48 dollars for two. We had spent almost four times that on sunday at spago. It felt so good just it normally again and they had a very extensive menu. Wednesday was a day laying at the pool all day and dinner was again in town of lahaina at a place recommended to us by a few of the shop owners. It was called Lahiana coolers. It was a very nice restaurant off the main street and again dinner for two with appetizers was under 50 dollars. On Thursday was another early day as we headed up Haleakala. We left the hotel at 7AM and we were told to dress very warm that it could be in the 30's up there. The day before they actually had to close the top of the summit do to high windes. We were told that it would take about 2 hours to get to the summit and that is exactly what it took. The drive up to the top was very very exciting to me(But not where near as exciting as the helicoptor ride in Kauai). To see the clouds keep getting lower and lower and you getting higher and higher was amazing. The road is very curvy(no where near as curvy as hana) but your ears actually pop. It was neat seeing the bike riders shedding their clothes as they headed down Halekala. I kept waiting for it to get freezing called. It was now 8;30 and it still felt mild to me. There is very little vegetation at the top only these silver plants which are very pretty. It wasn't that windy the day we were there and the temp was about 52 degrees which in my book is a nice spring day in new york. there is a little observatory where you look out and see the crater. It was neat to see this but no where near as fascinating as going to the big island(which I will have to save for another trip). From one view point you look at the crater and if you turn slightly to the right there it is the big island of hawaii right in front of your eyes with snow(that is what I said snow) at the very top of it. The top of the big island is up to 15000 feet where as haleakal is only 10300 feet. But as I glanced down at the bottom of my feet was a small pile of ice. Unbeleivable I am in hawaii and there is ice(Actually two days earlier the record was broken for the coldest day on record in Kahuli. Figures I have to be there when the coldest record is broken. An interesting thing then happened. When I left to go to the top of Haleakal I had a half a tank of gas. As I am leaving the observatory the empty light goes on. I start to panick. If you run out of gas up there there is no gas station for miles. The signs all say go down in low gear but I figure if I coast down in neutral I will be fine so that is just what I did coasted in neutral breaking only when I had to and fortunately I made it down without running out of gas. Let this be a warning fill up before going up to the top of Haleakala. The car burns alot of gas going up the big volcano. We were back at the hotel to a day of golden sunshine again. We realized the on Friday morning we had to checkout. THe hyatt said we had to vacate the room by noon and we couldn't stay later but there were showers by the pool. WE decided that if we layed out by the pool until 11 that would be enough since we wanted to do whale watching on our last day. I had booked a two through Pacific Whale foundation. Our 48 passenger boat left at 1:45 and within one half hour we started seeing mother and baby whales all around. We even saw a what jump out of the water. It was way in the distance but how could you miss it. It was a very enjoyable boat ride. This was almost the end of our journey. We walked around one last time on Front street. The night before we had our pictures taken by the parrot man on front street(for those of you who have been there you know exactly who I am speaking of) we had to pic up the pictures taken the night before and then we had a 6:30 PM reservation at David Pauls(Breaking my promise of no more expensive meals) we had checked the menu out and there menu was much more extensive. The restaurant is very nice. We each had an appetizer. My wife had the spring rolls and I had the CHili reillono. For dinner we split a 2 pound lobster it was delicious and more than enough for the two of us. (That entree itself was 62 dollars and each appetizer was 15 dollars. We even had a side of creamed spinach for 6 dollars extra. For desert we had the david paul sampler.It was 19 dollars for half a serving of the top for items(Blueberry pie(oh so delicious) crem brulee and two chocolate desserts). The meal came out to 175 dollars but who cares the next night it was back to good old home cooking. Left front street and headed back to the hyatt to pick up our luggage which had been held there since checkout and left on our 11;25 flight to Los Angeles and then back to New york where we arrived at 4PM. Our trip to paradise was now over and despite the issues with the hyatt in maui it was a perfect vacation. I would never again stay at the maui hyatt but would probably try one of the hotels in south maui. (the fourseasons looked nice) In repsone to the question someone asked about laundry in Kauai hyatt it is on the third floor aroudn the corner from donderos restaurant. The washers and dryers are free and the degerent was free too(Unlike maui hyatt where they are on the first floor and charge 1.50 to wash and to dry and a buck for the degerent. We defintely brought too much close for two weeks so only bring half of what you thin you will need. If anyone has any questions they want to ask me please email me at [email protected]. I hope this has been helpful and I haven't been rambling on too much. Thanks

marshall531

I received comments from two readers who said my report was hard to read without paragraphs. I apologize for this inconvenience and hope that people will still take the time to read it. If you would like I can re send it with the paragraphs in place. Thankyou

juanita1989

Marshall -- I enjoyed reading both of your reports, paragraphs or no paragraphs. Thanks so much for taking the time to tell us about your trip!!

Maggi

Thanks for your detailed report, Marshall. It confirms what so many have recommended: Do Maui first, then Kauai. We did that and really enjoyed Maui, the road to Hana, Haleakala, etc. But Kauai is the place we wanted to stay forever...
Mahalo, Maggi

iceeu2

Thanks for the report marshall...I like your style of story telling with or without paragraphs. When you were describing seeing the Waimea Canyon, I got goosebumps! Only 53 more days for us.

Did Roy's have a prix fixe menu or no?

Also, do you remember how much the seafood buffet was at the Princeville and do you recommend or highly recommend?

kalunchi

great trip report. I enjoyed it every bit. i'm anticipating as I will be doing maui first, then kauai. 5 days in each island, hopefully it's enough time.
145 more days~

marshall531

Hi, Thankyou for your taking time to read my report. In answer to your question Iceeu2 the price of the princeville buffet was 50 dollars per person. I would highly recommend it but you must get a table on the outside looking at those mountains. Even though you can see them from the inside it is much more spectacular sitting outside. I don't recall seeing a price fixed menu at roys. If you have any other questions feel free to email me at [email protected]. Thanks again

iamq

marshall,
Thanks for the report. Good information and it left me wishing that I did not have to wait 4 more months!

i2,
The buffet was $50.00 per person last summer. I thought the buffet was great. We had a relaxing and satisfying meal that lasted around 3 hours! It is a buffet however, and some people would balk at paying that much money and then have to serve yourself. We probably wouldn't do it again, but we are planning on doing the Sunday brunch this summer.
-Bill

Kaymit

Marshall

Loved reading the 2nd part of your trip report too. It's too bad about the fog in Waimea canyon. We were lucky and had perfect weather the day we drove up.

We had the same problems on the road to Hana with the cassette tape and road markers changing on us.

We too loved the Old Lahina Luau but we chose to sit in chairs.

We did not stay at the Hyatt in Maui but had read mixed reviews.

We could not include the big island in our trip last fall so we are now planning our next Hawaii trip to the big island.

Ag3046

Re: Maui Hyatt- Have stayed there twice, once 10 years ago and then 5 years ago. I know exactly what you are talking about. The pool was once manageable. Last time it was awful. No chairs, noisy, the poolside restaurant was dirty and had flies. I'm hoping to try the Grand Wailea, but am very concerned it's going to be the same sort of overly busy poolside place, too. Pity, the Hyatt Maui was just lovely 10 years ago.

marshall531

Hope you are enjoying the report part 2. I hope your trip is as enjoyable as ours was. Have a safe trip

marshall531

ttt

Knowing

Thank you for your trip report. We got married at the Hilton Hawaiian Village 10 years ago and stayed at the Hyatt Kauai last year. I found myself remembering all of the wonderful things we experienced there. We went to Aruba this winter and the entire time we kept saying to each other, "We should have gone back to Kauai again". Next year!

teadrinker

JAUNITA1989, Please read my report about Jerry & Sharon's trip around Oahu that you recommeded we do on the Hawaii, March 2005 thread...where I said we were looking for things to do different "this time around". Let me know if you've read it! "Teadrinker"

juanita1989

Hi, teadrinker! Yes, I did read your reply about the trip on the other thread, and replied to you there. I am so glad you actually took the trip around the island and found it so enjoyable! Check out my reply on the other thread.

marshall531

here is part to the report. Any questions feel free to email me at [email protected]. Once again thankyou for all of your suggestions on this site. It made our trip a trip of a lifetime.