quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
The Old Lahaina Luau is good, probably better than anything you'd get on Oahu.

This.

Skip the road to Hana. Ain't nothin' there.

We had a different experience. Take the road to Hana. Stop at any of the switch backs. Hike back into the foliage. You will be stunned at what there is to discover. We never made it to Hana. He found paradisiacal entertainment along the way. When I have a little more time, I'll upload some pics.

The road is gorgeous, and this is a good time of year to do it. If you only go halfway and stop at the Keanae Peninsula, it will still be worth it. There will be flowering trees, waterfalls, and beautiful landscape. There's an arboretum just before Keanae IIRC with a walk through the trees.
If you go almost all the way to Hana there is a great park, Waianapanapa park, with black lava cliffs and sand. Look for the black noddies.
Almost to Hana off to the left there is a lovely botanical garden and an old stone heiau (Hawaiian temple), one of the largest.
If you decide to go--it's the journey, not the destination. There may still be a good restaurant at the Hana Ranch that has good Maui beef burgers. Beaches in the bay at Hana are also nice but not for surfing or sunbathing.

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by radioman:
quote:
Originally posted by kkina:
The Old Lahaina Luau is good, probably better than anything you'd get on Oahu.



This.

Skip the road to Hana. Ain't nothin' there.

Sorry Darth, but I couldnt disagree more. One of the best days of my life was driving the road to Hana with my wife. We swam in several of the waterfalls on the road. Red Sand beach IS the most beautiful place ive been to in all of Hawaii ot any where else, with the possible exception of Eternity beach on Oahu. Be careful for the naked women because apparently Red Sand Beach is considered a nude beach by some. You have to go off the beaten path a bit to get there, but it is unbelievably beautiful. Take a cooler to Red Sand and spend a day there and I promise you you wont regret it.

Maui Dive Shop for snorkel trips to Molokini.

Take a walk over to the Kea Lani hotel next door and get some onion rings and a smoothie at the pool bar.

quote:

Originally posted by dwood4:

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by radioman:
quote:
Originally posted by kkina:
The Old Lahaina Luau is good, probably better than anything you'd get on Oahu.



This.

Skip the road to Hana. Ain't nothin' there.

Sorry Darth, but I couldnt disagree more. One of the best days of my life was driving the road to Hana with my wife. We swam in several of the waterfalls on the road. Red Sand beach IS the most beautiful place ive been to in all of Hawaii ot any where else, with the possible exception of Eternity beach on Oahu. Be careful for the naked women because apparently Red Sand Beach is considered a nude beach by some. You have to go off the beaten path a bit to get there, but it is unbelievably beautiful. Take a cooler to Red Sand and spend a day there and I promise you you wont regret it.

I wasn't the one who said to skip the road to Hana. To the contrary... I advocate exploring on the road to Hana.

We Stopped here for lunch. Tons of wild chickens in the jungle. Notice the overgrown wall? That is a switchback/turnout. Look for those, park and hike in to explore.



We found this pond/lake about 1/4 mile from the road. The rope swing looks like it hasn't been used in years.



This is above the waterfall the feeds into the pond



About 1/4 mile above the pond we found this waterfall.



Notice the rain?



Rain starts at the drop of a hat on the island.
See how the rocks turn dark when they are wet with rain? They also become slippery as ice...literally.



The rocks were so slippery that we had to crawl out on our bellies to get back to the car. We were so muddy and laughing so hysterically that we made a spectacle of ourselves as we escaped the grasp of the jungle. We were a giggly mess! What an unforgettable adventure. Take the road to Hana and explore.

ETA: sorry about the pic sizes...

We have stayed at the Marriott in Wailea several times and the area is gorgeous. But we ended up spending very little time there, all of the action for us was in Lahaina and Kaanapali for food, snorkeling, and boogie boarding.

The Molokini Crater snorkeling tour was awesome. There are numerous companies that specialize in this activity. Expect an early morning start, beer and breakfast, with more beer and BBQ. afterwards. Black Rock in Kaanapali is a very good place for snorkeling. Early in the AM is best, IMO.

Wailea dining, Monkeypod was very good, great mai tais.

Elsewhere, Mama's Fish House in Paia is excellent, a bit pricey, but worth it, IMO. Paia Fish Market is great for inexpensive fish lunches. Aloha Mixed Plate in Lahaina is great for cheap plates and drinks, also Da Kitchen is great for Hawaiian plates. And I always make a trip to Roy's for a dinner. And Star Noodle in Lahaina is excellent also.

There is a stop on the Road to Hana at a little chapel where Charles Lindbergh is buried:

DSC_0239 by David Casteel, on Flickr

DSC_0244 by David Casteel, on Flickr

I doubt very many people even know Lindbergh died on Maui and is buried there.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Get yourself a copy of Maui Revealed and start reading.

I've been to Hawaii 7 times and 2 of them were to Maui. I am glad that I followed the Sigforum recommendation and bought the books for each island. I'll add two things to this:

Reading the book ahead of time (or on the plane flight) is good, but what is even better is spending the additional $10 to purchase the Maui Revealed app. It ties to your smart phone's GPS and it's great for finding a secondary thing before/after your primary thing. For example, you just snorkeled at a great location and you're starving so you open the app, click on the map, and it'll bring up nearby restaurants that are "Ono" (Hawaiian for good). Their restaurant recommendations are so much better than the jackwagons on Yelp.

YMMV, but out of 7 trips the only Ono meal that I didn't enjoy was Monkeypod on Maui. Started off with them not having my outdoor table reservation and substituting a shitty indoor table by the kitchen entrance. Next was their foamy take on the Mai Tai. Maui Revealed's recommended dish was super oily (somebody actually drizzled EVO over the entree) that night and I didn't enjoy it at all.

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

quote:

Originally posted by pulicords:
Check out the Star Noodle Company in Lahina. Especially the pork buns!!!

http://www.starnoodle.com/

+1

We were here not long after they opened years ago. Felt very low key being back in and among the warehouses on the hill. Nice little jewel back then. Since they’ve been discovered I’m sure the waitlist had grown. Nevertheless a good meal.

Thank you guys for all the recommendations, I trust you guys over all the yelp reviews for sure! My wife's conference is 7 days and we are staying an extra 3 days so we are packing in all we can.

When I was in Maui I went on a submarine tour. Saw a lot of marine life and a (purposely) sunken ship. The Captain sat the sub on the ocean bottom @ 129'.
Quite cool.

+1 on Mama's, you will already be staying at a really nice resort with a great pool system, beach and restaurants, right next door to the 4 Seasons, if I remember correctly. We went to a magic show one night, it was in the guidebook and really entertaining.

quote:

Originally posted by old dino:

quote:

Originally posted by Lunasee:
When I was in Maui I went on a submarine tour. Saw a lot of marine life and a (purposely) sunken ship. The Captain sat the sub on the ocean bottom @ 129'.
Quite cool.

I have heard about these tours ... would love to go on one.

Yep...last time I was on Oahu did the Atlantis submarine ride. Loved it. There actually wasn't that much to see that day, but just the experience of diving beneath the waves was cool.

Our road to Hana drive was easily the worst part of our visit to Maui. I schlepped a ton of camera gear and one of the main reasons was to photograph the waterfalls. What the book didn't tell me was that the water for the falls (except for one) has been diverted to support the resorts on the South side of the island. The only waterfall running was fenced off as it was the fresh water supply for the north side. When I got to the end of the road I spoke to a park ranger who told me the falls only ran after it rained.

If you can
. swing it, flights to Pearl are pretty inexpensive. Seeing the monument would be high on my list. Not sure if the whales are running be did a catamaran whale watching tour and had a blast. We had a baby whale that was very curious about the boat. The captain stopped and killed the motor. Everytime the baby got close mom would come over and nudge him away. It was really cool.

We went to Maui for the second time in June 2016.

Road to Hana is a must but you have to stop frequently along the way. If you just drive there and back it is boring. At the end go to the 7 sacred pools. The waterfalls are amazing. We were in a Nissan Minivan because there were 6 of us. We still circled the south side of the island and had no issues. It is definitely worth the trip.

The Hana Ranch had a food truck out front. Easily the best burger I have ever had.

If you like to hike, go to the top of Haleakala. Make sure you take a sweatshirt. You will need it. If you don't, you will end up like me with one of the really nice National Parks Sweatshirts that run about $70. For a family of 4, that is a quick $300...

Take a surfing lesson.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
Maui is looking for his hook.

You're welcome.

Been multiple times if not for the insane cost of living and general anti gun environment I would probably live there

Momma Fish House is a must.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Sh...hei_Maui_Hawaii.html

Best cinnamon roll I ever had. Went back there about three times that week.