Maui Trip Reports?

[olliesmom]

My husband and I are traveling to Maui in March 2017 and I've been trying to read as many trip reports as I can to prepare! I've found a few online through blogs/TripAdvisor but haven't been able to find too many.

I just finished reading the Maui/Aulani report on this board (thanks Vernie822!) and loved it! Are there any DISers out there who know of other past Maui trip reports, or where to find similar ones online?

I don't know if it would be appropriate to post a TR on this forum when we return from our trip as we are doing just Maui, no Oahu/Aulani, but if there is any interest I would be happy to share ours to help future planners out there!

Thanks!

 

[alohamom]

You can try Fodors.com, there are lots there. Their travel forums are broken down by state though, so you kind of have to sift through them but people have been posting there for years, myself included. Here is the link.. http://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/hawaii/

 

[nkereina]

We spent 3 nights in Maui - my trip report is in my signature. Maui is covered on page one, our dates in Maui were Sunday 9/18 - Wednesday 9/21.

We LOVED the Westin Maui and the thought island itself was a good mix of natural beauty and tourist/commercialization. Less commercialized than Oahu, but moreso than Kauai where we also spent 3 nights. We did find Maui to be a comfortable 80 degrees most of the time we were there, with very low humidity but also extremely windy. Not sure if it was the time of year, but our shuttle driver did say it's typically pretty windy in Maui. While this made for comfortable temperatures for sightseeing, it wasn't conducive to beach/pool time. YMMV!

 

[ktlm]

I don't have a trip report, but we were there in July. We stayed at the Hyatt Kaanapali. We loved the grounds, the area, and the common areas of the resort. The rooms were bare bones and not impressive, but we had an ocean view and minute we looked out the window it really didn't matter what the inside of the room was like. The view was amazing. The rates were good too- we got a good discount which was nice since we spent time at Aulani first at their high summer rates. My absolute favorite thing we did was the Road to Hana. It was absolutely beautiful. The Garden of Eden Arboretum was definitely worth its admission price. I would highly recommend getting a CD guide if you do the Road to Hana, it tells you where to stop along the way and it gave us some great spots where we would not have known to stop otherwise- we got ours in our hotel shop- but we saw them all over. If you do that, definitely get an early start- there are so many things to see and do along the way! We stopped in Paia and bought sack lunches. We were glad we did that. There were a few places to stop for food along the way-but it was nice not to have to worry about it and to worry whether you are going to see another place if you don't stop at one you pass. Paia has several places that sell sack lunches for the drive. I did not find the drive scary at all-I've driven far scarier scenic drives. We also did the Haleakala crater- DD and DH loved it. Me - not so much. That drive scared me far more than Hana! I also did not do so well with climbing to that altitude and immediately hiking. We had debated whether to stay at the Grand Wailea or the Hyatt so we did go look at the Grand Wailea area and ate over there- for us, we decided we made the right choice in staying in the Kaanapali area-- we really liked Lahaina. So, that is my very very abbreviated trip report-- if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them if I can. We loved Maui!

 

[bcwife76]

My family and I went to Maui this past May for a week, we stayed just north of Lahaina. I have a PTR going on the cruise board and within that PTR is a mini trip report of our time on Maui:
http://www.disboards.com/threads/this-2017-ptr-is-all-over-the-place-updated-11-1.3484095/

 

[Vernie822]

My husband and I are traveling to Maui in March 2017 and I've been trying to read as many trip reports as I can to prepare! I've found a few online through blogs/TripAdvisor but haven't been able to find too many.

I just finished reading the Maui/Aulani report on this board (thanks Vernie822!) and loved it! Are there any DISers out there who know of other past Maui trip reports, or where to find similar ones online?

I don't know if it would be appropriate to post a TR on this forum when we return from our trip as we are doing just Maui, no Oahu/Aulani, but if there is any interest I would be happy to share ours to help future planners out there!

Thanks!

Hey there!! Glad you found my report, I didn't go in to a ton of detail because I knew most people were probably concerned about Aulani. Please let me know if you have any questions, would like resort/restaurant recommendations, etc! We really LOVED Maui and my husband is already dying to go back!

 

[olliesmom]

These are all so wonderful, thank you so much!! I feel so spoiled with the number of WDW trip reports I've been able to read here for our Disney trips, so these are great to have too! We are getting super excited and the more I'm reading the more I wish we had longer than a week booked...

We've already booked our resort, but Vernie822 (and others)- I would love any restaurant recommendations especially for inexpensive restaurants!

 

[nkereina]

These are all so wonderful, thank you so much!! I feel so spoiled with the number of WDW trip reports I've been able to read here for our Disney trips, so these are great to have too! We are getting super excited and the more I'm reading the more I wish we had longer than a week booked...

We've already booked our resort, but Vernie822 (and others)- I would love any restaurant recommendations especially for inexpensive restaurants!

Where on Maui are you staying? At the Whaler's Village in Kaanapali Beach, there is Leilani's and Hula Grill. Directly across the sidewalk from each other and I believe both have a casual bar seating area with bar food and a dining room that you can make reservations for. We ate in the dining room at Hula Grill and it was still casual and very good. In the same area near the Whalers Village is a Roy's as well.

Lots of good options in Lahaina as well. We ate at the super casual Lahaina Pizza Co. which was good. There's also a Cheeseburger in Paradise, Lahaina Grill, and Fleetwoods which is owned by Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac! Cool Cat Cafe is supposed to be the best burger on Maui but we didn't get a chance to try it.

 

[olliesmom]

Where on Maui are you staying? At the Whaler's Village in Kaanapali Beach, there is Leilani's and Hula Grill. Directly across the sidewalk from each other and I believe both have a casual bar seating area with bar food and a dining room that you can make reservations for. We ate in the dining room at Hula Grill and it was still casual and very good. In the same area near the Whalers Village is a Roy's as well.

Lots of good options in Lahaina as well. We ate at the super casual Lahaina Pizza Co. which was good. There's also a Cheeseburger in Paradise, Lahaina Grill, and Fleetwoods which is owned by Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac! Cool Cat Cafe is supposed to be the best burger on Maui but we didn't get a chance to try it.

We are staying in Lahaina at Lahaina Shores but will be renting a car so it looks like the Kaanapali area looks fairly accessible as well!

Leilani's was on our list but mmmm Lahaina Pizza Co. looks great, definitely adding that to our list! I'm going to look up Cheeseburger in Paradaise and Cool Cat Cafe. Thank you!!

 

[Vernie822]

We were in Wailea but we ate in a few different places - Ka'anapali and Lahaina were very close together. We often found ourselves at Kihei, which is close to Wailea but not far from Ka'anapali/Lahaina either.

We ate at Kihei Caffe; I believe I had some pics of the restaurant and food in my report but that was one of our most memorable visits. The food was really cheap! I'd say $10-15 for a full breakfast with a drink. I want to say my french toast was ~$10 and my husband's pork fried rice was ~$11.

We went to Whalers Village in Lahaina, lots of shopping to do there! It was under a lot of construction when we went, but you may find a few places close to there to eat.

We went to a place called Jawz Tacos in Kihei that was a total dive, but still really good. I had fish tacos and my husband had a burrito. $20 meal for the two of us!

If you're looking for shrimp trucks, a coworker of mine said Geste Shrimp Truck (near the airport) was good. We did shrimp trucks in Oahu so we didn't get a chance to go there.

We did Duke's in Ka'anapali, if I'm being honest I didn't love it. I think I chose wrong, but for no alcohol, 2 meals, and an appetizer, I thought $75 was pretty steep. I would rather have eaten at another local place!

The ice cream place we tried (Lapperts?) was worth trying!

Other places that were on my list (per good reviews from Disboards, Yelp, etc) that we didn't get to are:
South Maui Fish Company
Coconuts Fish Cafe
Maui Fish n Chips


I'm a huge fan of cheap dive-y local places, and honestly that was some of the better food we had! We only ate at the resort once and it was good but I really enjoyed the local stuff a lot more. Let me know if you want more pics or info on any of the places we went to.

 

[ktlm]

The food prices are generally pretty high in Hawaii. Basically, if an ingredient is not grown or created there, it has to be shipped there. On the bright side, because a lot of the ingredients are grown there, the food is generally incredibly fresh and really good. There are a ton of places in Lahaina to eat. It is such a cute area.

We ate at the Hula Grill in Kaanapali. We ate at the Chef's counter and selected our food from the Barefoot Bar menu because the wait was long. The food was great. The bar menu was also significantly cheaper than the dining room menu. There were things on the bar menu like burgers, flatbreads, fish tacos, salads, and more. It was fun to watch the Chefs at work while we ate. They must be absolutely exhausted at the end of the day! We did the cheaper menu just because of time, but I would not hesitate to do it again just because it was good.

If you are coming back from the Road to Hana, or over in the Paia area, several people recommended the Flatbread Company to us. It smelled great and I would bet it was really good, but the wait was too long, so we walked over to Café Des Amis. If you like Indian food/curries, we really enjoyed Café Des Amis. They had live music and the food was good and not overly expensive. There is a Gelato place between those two places that is really good too, if you are looking for dessert.