Despite being born with ocean-deficient genes (itself a further irony because I was born about 200 meters from the Pacific), I managed to get myself down to the beach at Ka’anapali and into the ocean. Twice. I know I know – I can hear the peanut gallery already, but we’re talking baby steps here. Thankfully we’re a very long way away from shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.
Honestly, there’s pretty much no way not to have a brilliant time on Maui and even with the Holiday invasion, things are distributed around enough that you never feel like you’re part of a mob. Some notes:
- Wailea is the place to go if you want to feel like you’re on the Las Vegas strip. The Grand Wailea Hotel is architectually neat to check out, but is also the only place where we encountered rude staff and hollering kids.
- Save $$$ on rental car extortion and take the Maui Bus. It’s only a buck per ride and you can spend more time looking out the window (trust me, you’ll do this a lot). Skip the car until you absolutely, positively need it.
- Grady from ILX suggested that we check out Colleen’s in Haiku. We did, and holy crap was it good. Haiku itself is a great little town and felt most like the Maui that I was picturing to myself (jungle, farm, damp air) before arriving. When it’s time for a return visit I’d see about finding a weekly rental or B&B type of place there.
- Kona coffee is indeed all that it’s cracked up to be.
“Save $$$ on rental car extortion and take the Maui Bus…Skip the car until you absolutely, positively need it.”
The bus doesn’t go around the back side of the island, which was my favorite part. If I’d had time it would have been even better on a mountain bike, tho.
The bus does go as far as Haiku though which gets you pretty close to the Hana Road (and the jungle on the north side)