We just got back from our Hawaii trip on Saturday morning and wanted to share some thoughts since I learned so much from others on this thread and because this trip was all possible due to churning! Flights (on AA), hotels, and rental car all paid for with points.
We stayed 4 nights at the Grand Wailea, arriving on Thursday evening in Maui using my DH’s FNC from his Hilton Aspire, and 3 nights on HH points from his SUB and some from mine also (I had the Surpass and the Hilton biz). The resort was beautiful! The room wasn’t particularly special (except the space in the bathroom was really nice, and the separate tub/shower came in handy too), but the grounds were gorgeous and the pool was awesome. It’s very spread out though, and I thought the layout was a bit confusing until we get used to it. We got daily housekeeping, and with my DH’s diamond status (due to the Aspire) we got $50/day food credit. From my understanding they calculated it in total, and we could use the credit at any location onsite. We got food from Café Kula a couple of nights because we just liked to relax and eat in the room. There was self-parking available, which we used and I believe it was $39/night (from looking online I thought only valet was available for $49/night). Parking was convenient and easy to get in and out of. As I mentioned the pool was very nice, but the slides are only open until 4, and at night there is pretty much no one there. During the day the pool area is very busy though.
This was our first time on Maui and overall we liked it. My DH and I had only been to Oahu previously, and it was a lot different. Very few chain restaurants (from what we could find anyways), not as much shopping as Oahu, and just much less commercial. We did the road to Hana on our first full day, and wish I had planned it on another day (we didn’t have much choice because of the reservation I had for Wai’anapanapa State Park (black sand beach)). We had a 7-10 am ressie at the black sand beach, which was almost at the end of the road, so we kind of did it in reverse. I thought it` was fun and really loved the scenery, but my kids (DS10 and DD8) got tired or being in the car, especially after traveling so much the day before, and my DS got a bit carsick towards the end too. We really liked the black sand beach though, and the views from the top were gorgeous! I wish we’d had more time there. We left the hotel at 5:30 am or 6 am and didn’t get there until around 9 am. We also saw the O’heo Gulch (Seven Sacred Pools) but didn’t get to swim in the water at the bottom. I wanted to do the hike to the bamboo forest but my kiddos were pretty much done at that point so we didn’t make it. We did also walked through a cave and had lunch at a food truck area and got some yummy banana bread! Saw several beautiful waterfalls as we were driving by, and got some good pictures!
The other days in Maui we mostly relaxed, we spent most of one day at the pool and also at the beach near our hotel. There was some pretty good snorkeling near the shore/rocky area between GW and the Wailea Beach Resort (I think that’s the name) where I saw a sea turtle swimming. That was so exciting! Luckily I had my camera with me and got a good pic. We had pictures done with the onsite photographer at GW (free 45 minute session, each individual picture was I think either $70 or $90, but we got the least expensive package that included 20 digital pictures). Overall were pretty happy with them but I did wish we had done more pictures on the beach instead of all around the resort. I should have spoken up and asked to go ahead and go down to the beach sooner for the pics. Also, we scheduled the session at 5:15, I really wish we had done them about an hour later to catch the gorgeous sunset.
Overall I enjoyed Maui but thought some parts were not as pretty as I expected (mostly referring to the drive from the airport to the GW, which we also drove the same way on the way to Hana and back). I felt like it was more of a locals island and due to some signs/graffiti we felt a little bit unwelcome as tourists. But everyone we spoke to or were around were very friendly so not sure if there’s just certain people there who feel that way? It was just a bit different from when we’d been previously and had felt extremely welcomed.
Maui also felt hotter to me than Oahu, not sure if that’s true or just what it felt like.
Oh, we also went on a drive and saw the turtle beach (can’t remember the name, the one on the way back from Hana) which was really neat! We got some great pics but be aware there is a stone wall you’re not supposed to go past to see them (we didn’t, just zoomed in to get the pics).
We flew to Oahu on Monday and the transfer seemed to pretty much take up the whole day (we did get in a little beach/pool time that morning), with having to re-pack, return the rental car, drive to the airport, check in, etc. The Maui airport was definitely a little dated IMO and there was a small food court area but the table/chairs were unavailable (I’m assuming due to covid) so be prepared to try to find a place to eat. Not sure if the island-hopping is worth the time or not, I kind of wish we had just stuck to one island, but on the other hand liked visiting both so I guess I’m torn on whether visiting multiple islands is the best use of time or not. One thing to note is that I booked through American but flew on Hawaiian Airlines from OGG to HNL, and I did have to pay the baggage fees on HA (luckily with my HA member # I only paid $35 instead of $50 for our two checked bags). On American our bags were free due to my Citi biz AA card.
Oahu is like a whole different world, at least HHV is! So huge and so many shops/buildings/people! We were upgraded to a full ocean view instead of a partial, which was nice. We stayed in the Diamond tower, which did have a pretty good ocean view. The pools there were fine, just not near as nice/big as GW. They have 2 kind of bigger slides, but one is only open 11-2, the other from 2-5 (I think). Be prepared that there is pretty much a line for everything there, food, check-in, etc. They also run out of pool towels frequently. You can only use the $30/day food credit at certain locations, which they tell you about at check-in. It is a per-day amount, though, not total. For the relatively low points costs and the 5th night free, I think it’s a good value to stay there, but next time I really want to try Aulani.
We did a 3 hour dolphin boat excursion that was the highlight of the trip for all of us! We saw several spinner dolphins off the side of the boat, including some babies jumping out of the water! We also got to snorkel and see another sea turtle and some pretty fish/reef areas. It was a small boat with only about 12-15 passengers and 2 guides who were really awesome! Really glad we got to do that. I’m also glad it was only 3 hours, I think for our age kids it was about perfect.
We did a few scenic drivers around the island and to the North shore. We tried to get a dole whip from the Dole plantation but the line was super long and we decided not to wait. We did get one from a CBD store in Honolulu though
I almost forgot, Thursday night there was a tsunami watch that totally freaked out this Kansas girl! It was triggered by an underwater 8.2 earthquake in Alaska. Luckily the watch was cancelled after a few tense hours. We were actually watching a local channel with a reporter filming on location at the HHV beach! The watch ended up being cancelled though.
For anyone going soon I would say make sure to get your reservations early, and if there’s dining you really want, try to make those early too. With our kids (at least DD) being a very picky eater, and neither my DH or myself being big fish eaters there wasn’t a ton of restaurants that we were dying to go to. I would have liked to go to the Monkeypod happy hour, but we just never made it. Overall I really wanted this to be a relaxing vacation without a lot of time constraints and that’s what it mostly was. My DD8 is not overly anxious to go back anytime soon, and I think I’m good for a while too. Maybe in 2-3 more years we’ll go again. My kids both say they prefer WDW so that makes me happy
If anyone has any questions please let me know! Sorry to write a novel but hopefully this is helpful for anyone thinking about visiting Hawaii soon!
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