[temple5]

I just got back from Maui (13 nights) so I figured I would share my thoughts.

We are a small family (mom, dad, and 17 month old) so we had a very easy and relaxing vacation - so take all these recommendations with that limitation (17th month old) in mind. If you are a couple or single or have older kids or no kids then your situation or abilities might be different.

+1 for the above chocolate Mac nuts recommendation from costco, we downed 2 of those and took 2 back home.

Have to recommend the Maui Revealed book for anyone interested, great info and other than a Thai place on the last day the book never let us down.

Who went: Mom, Dad, 17 month old that waddles/walks and loves dogs (so you know what kind of activities we were restricted to (with a child)

Where did we stay? AirBnB condo rental in Kihei across from Kamaole beach
park 3.

What beaches did we visit?
*Of the Kamaole's, #1 was the nicest - great for paddleboarding in the morning
*Wailea beach - nice beach, easy parking, clean washroom and shower area, great area to snorkel on the left by the rocks
*Big beach in Mackena beach park - what everyone thinks of as a picturesque Hawaiian beach - no shower area and only porta potties
*black sand beach near Big beach

Where did we eat: (mostly home made groceries)
*Costco (2 trips) (pre-made) (best thing about this trip is my wife I think got more comfortable with Costco, pre Maui she had been anti Costco),
*Kihei cafe (8X) (OMFG awesome breakfast) dont be scared by the lines or the non reserved seating, you will get a seat and the food will be worth it, probably the best breaskfast place I have ever been to that just does breakfast right - French toast there is amazing.
*Maui Tacos (4X) - good affordable meal that a 17th month old can eat
*Cheeseburger restraunt in Shops at Wailea (1X) not great, wouldnt return in the future). If a really messy burger is your thing then this is the place, but if you dont want to have to eat half your burger with a knife and fork then avoid.

Travel on Maui:
Unlike Honolulu, get a car for Maui. In Oahu you can easly vacation there without a car with trips and Thebus, in Maui you cant.
We got a car rental for 12 days through allsaverental.com and I cant reccomend them enough. They are owned by a used car dealership that rents out cars that arent likely to sell (our 2013 Hyundi Elantra had a large dent in the back driver side passenger door).
I used a car service to get us to Kihei the night we arrived and we survived for a day without a car. The company was great to deal with, they picked me up at the condo, did the rental, they allowed an airport return wihtout crazy drop off fee (just leave the key in the car locked in long term parking lot A).

What did we do?

*Haleakala sand snakes hike - I would suggest doing this 6mi r/t hike early in the day. We had a great view which wasnt my wifes previous experience so weather could be a factor I guess. $10 park entrance fee - bring 1.5L water per person without pack if you go in the afternoon as it can get warm.

*Wailee ridge hike 5mi r/t - we made it but we probably should have turned around with a baby carrier as it was very steep and slippery in some sections (some mud on the backside and legs from slips). Great views though, well worth it. Bring hiking boots or at least good cross trainers with good soles. I saw people coming up in running shoes on our way down and back soon after with streaks of mud on their bum from sliding down. We each also had hiking poles which I would consider a must have for a hike like this.

Iao valley "hike" - nice to see but probably would go again. Its not a hike as a liessearly walk - dont need any shoes for this. Leave this for the last day you are in Maui unless you are that side of the island for a reason.

Worlds best banana bread (in the book) - Its a windy road north of the airport that turns in the a blind turn one lane road. The banana bread was good (very moist and sweet) but no nuts or choc chips so I guess it depends what you consider worlds best, for the distance and drive it wasnt worth it. However driving the 1 lane road was worth it just to drive it and take pictures.

Lahaina visit (we went twice) - the first day we went was Haloween which is a big f'n deal hear - its like a mini Mardi Gras - this people go crazy for it here. We had forgotten it was actually Halloween when we went and I am glad we went early because a 20 minute drive was apparently a 60-90 minute drive had we left late afternoon. There is an outlet mall here and the town itself is nice with its main street but I dont know if I would visit again. We made 2 day trips out of it due to having a young one where he slept under the banyan tree both times for his naps. Oct31 day was just a crazy busy day which is why we came back a second time, the second was a Monday and I have say I am not sold on the hype this place gets. Its nice and if you are hankering for some shopping then this is the place on Maui to go but you can get the same type of shops else where. I am a big Peter Lik fan so I had to go this gallery (even though I cant afford anything) but other than that I would say its a 1/2 day adventure. If you book a Molokini snorkel adventure than go there when you get back.

1/2 day at Maui Ocean center - awesome for kids, my little guy loved it, I would go back without a kid and rent the audio as my wife did and even though she only got 1/3 through it (with sans kid running around) she said it was well worth it

Snorkeling in Molekini: There arent many things you can do with baby on vacation but my wife really wanted to go snorkelling so we bit the bullet and paid for 2 with probably the most expensive company (Trilogy $125US each) as the book recommendation had this ship in Oahu for planned mainteance while we were there. The deli guy at Times supermarket recommended them to us which is why we eventually picked them.

The cruise goes to Molikini for about 70 minutes then a second place determined by weather. We went to I think "crystal cove", where I saw turtles but actually spend most of the time pulling my wife and kid on a large plastic floating device with a window in it so our little guy could get in the water - he went crazy when he saw ships and overall was just an amazing baby little guy on the boat the whole time (dont worry about sea sickness as it only affects people over the age of 2).

My wife and I took turns snorkeling for about 30 minutes each which was enough time, great visibility and highly recommend doing this if you can snorkel/swim and want to sea fish. I counted over 2 different types of fish with Octopus and turtles.

Second stop didnt have good views and after about 10 minutes saw 2 turtles but wasnt worth snorkeling so the company had a orange floating looking thing where the little guy say on while I pulled with flippers and my wife just hung on (not sure what she did, she doesnt like flippers as prefer breast stroking but i felt like I was pulling both of them. The way our little guy reacted while on that thing probably made this the highlight of our trip and that is ignoring the obvious safety issues that could have happened since he wasnt strapped in just sitting like he was riding a horse and none of us had life jackets. As we were driving away we were both like, wtf just happened, they let him on the water without a life jacket - wow.

As for the review of Trilogy. Of the ones we looked at they are the most expensive by 25-50$ per person and I have nothing to compare to as its the only one we have been on but I was very impressed.

Left at 7am and returned 1230 - 2.5 hours snorkeling and 3.5 hours travel Breakfast was selection of juice, coffee, pop, water, cinnamon buns, fresh fruit and hot choc. I didnt have breakfast so had 3 cinbuns and they were very tasty. While at Molokini they had nachos and salsa available (not great quality but handy if you got hungry), after the second snorkel they had marinated chicken breast, rice, ceasar salad, and a bun for lunch and the chicken and salad were easly some of the best I have had. Had second portion of the chicken and 3rds of the salad. Not easy to eat on a boat while hold a little guy but I managed. After the bar opened with unlimited alcohol though most were up on deck and didnt have any. After they had scoop white ice cream with choc sauce in cups.

Crew was very helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable 5*.

Even though its not an Ono recommendation in the book (likely because of price and the food isnt buffet) I probably wouldnt go elsewhere unless the boat spent more time in Molokini which would be hard as they want to keep track of you for safety purposes so its not like you should go to far from the boat.

I golfed once in Kanapali in the morning on a golf tour and wanted to zip line but we will be back so I can zipline another time.

Daycare - although we didnt end up using it, there is one in Kihei that will accept drop in kids, however they require a TB shot which isnt standard in Canada so not wanting out little guy to get sick while on vacation we decided against it. It is an option, just bring you vaccination form from Alberta Health and either get the TB shot in Alberta or Maui urgent care facilities also will administer for $26 US. You will need to call to book but it is available.

Day you leave, as we are on the opposite side of the island in a condo a late checkout wasnt available so where does one shower the night before a night time flight. Well the Maui Family YMCA is your only option after 430pm - they charge 10 per person plus 1 per child under 16. It was expensive relative to what we needed it for but it was well worth it to be "clean" for the flight.

Maui baby rentals is who we went through with the crib/high chair. Kind of an odd comany to deal with communication wise. They had the crib/high chair sitting outside our open air condo complex when we arrived which seemed a bit odd that they dont care about theft and we left it there when we left. Not much communication from them but we got what we needed, and everything worked out.

Day you leave, as we are on the opposite side of the island in a condo a late checkout wasnt available so where does one shower the night before a night time flight. Well the Maui Family YMCA is your only option after 430pm - they charge 10 per person plus 1 per child under 16. It was expensive relative to what we needed it for but it was well worth it to be "clean" for the flight.

Gas pricing - ranged from 2.50/gal at Costco to 3.50/gal at a Shell on the road from Kihei to the airpor. In Kihei gas was $3.30/gal which even with the exchange rate I think is cheaper than Canada.

Comparison with Honolulu/Oahu

If you into shopping, nighlife, urban, not needing to spend money on car rental, then Honolulu is for you. The activities in Oahu from cheap ticket and tours is cheaper than comparable Maui options (hard to find a tour place in Maui that isnt part of the Wyndam group trying to get you to go to a timeshare presentation). Don be fooled by Molokini $30 snorkel cruises, there is a bit of a * next to them.

Maui:
More expensive - Kihei Times supermarket or Costco near airport are must go-to places for relatively inexpensive food. Tours are more expensive
Better condo options if cooking is your thing, Oahu is more hotel dominated i find.
Much better eating in Oahu, I am not much into eating out (I hate tipping) and I found it hard to find a authentic Hawaiian food place in Maui (I have been to Oahu 3 times and I have my go to for hawaiian food).
Much less homeless, it exists in Maui and can really see it on the beaches for windsurfing east of the airport but for the most part it was non existent. Its in your face in Oahu.
Much less Japanese tourists with their ridiculous selfie sticks.
I am not a Organic foods type but Whole foods near the airport is an experience unto itself. If your only organic shopping experience has been community then you owe it to yourself to go to a place that doesnt smell like smelly yoga feet the moment you walk into the door. I still think organic is a scam but my wife doesnt and this place at least is a good place to shop. If you want community type store try Blue moons in Kihei if you are missing that yoga studio I dont shower because water is mother earths blood smell.

What I didnt like:
5$ cart rental at airport in OGG - its free in YYC by comparison. I went to rent it after we parked at the airport and saw it and turned around and told my wife FtS I am carrying the bags.
The price of milk

Overall, I probably wouldnt go back to Honolulu/Waikiki unless I went with another couple who hadnt been to Hawaii before. Certain things in Honolulu are nice, circle island tour, kayak rental tour, Hanama bay snorkel etc. but if you have and just want a nice beach/island/activities vacation then skip Oahu and go to Maui.