Arriving in July

[gmgdvm]

My girlfriend and I will be spending a week in Honolulu and 1 week in Maui. I am coming down for a conference the first week, so unfortunately I will not be able to dive as much as I want to. We will be staying in Lahaina while in Maui.

Are there any books that are recommended? We have 3mm wetsuits, do we need them or can we get away with just skins. Is there anything that you usually tell first timers they must do or see.

We will be arriving July 13!! I cannot wait!

Thanks,

Greg
gmgdvm

 

[Matteo]

I have only been to Maui once, but if you're looking for a couple of "must-do" items, I would highly suggest sucking it up one morning and doing the Mt Haleakala sunrise gig as well as the Hana highway, basically a road that runs along the East side of the island with the most spectacular views most will ever see(check out the opening scene of Jurassic Park for confirmation)...these two items both rank in my personal top-5 of greatest life-time experiences....enjoy tour trip!!!!!

as far as underwater stuff, ther are lots of folks here that can lead you in the right direction

 

[Wildcard]

Haleakla is way over rated if you ask me of course I lived at the foot of it so I may be jaded. It;s a trafic nightmare. If you go, get off the moutain as soon as you can or 10 billion bikes will block your path down. Don't do the bikes BTW. Must do's include the Maui Ocean center near where you will be. If yo can, do the shark dive. It is one of the top..Well, it keeps getting bumped but still in the top five dives I have done. Even if you dont dive it, it's still worth the visit. Molokini crater is a snorklers haven, best avoided unless you just want the boat ride. The back wall on the other hand is world class! Go with one of the companies that does advanced divers and skips the inside crater. Black rock is a great shallow night dive.
For Oahu, try to sneak a trip to the Sea Tiger in. It's well worth it. 3mm suits are ideal, skins can be a little light, in my frozen opinion.
Enjoy your visit!
Aloha

 

[DiveMaven]

Wildcard is 100% right.....go with the 3mm full suit so you're comfortable on all your dives, not just the first one. You'll likely see folks who wear only bathing suits, shorties, skins, 3mm full suits, and 5mm full suits...there's definitely quite the variety. Personally, I won't dive in less than a 5mm full suit in Maui anymore, but we dive everyday while we're there and repetitive diving definitely sucks the heat outta you after about the 3rd day.

The water should be in the upper 70's when you're there so plan accordingly.

 

[Hawaii Scuba Divers]

Yes if you get cold better to have than not since they are yours..Only ??????? in by you.
Sunrise is fantastic very Cold even in summer well cold for Me and i dive year round in Trunks..Aloha.

 

[WIBB]

We just got back and already miss being there. See my post on it if you wish.

Haleakala sunrise was cool, but we like that kind of thing. If being cold isn't despite the glorious sunrise and lack of sleep then skip it. We would do it again and spend some time exploring the park itself.

Must do items: Molokini back wall if you are experienced enough. Cathedrals at Lanai. Head up the west end and see three things at least: Dragon's teeth, the blowhole (especially with swells from the north), and the Olivine Pools. The road to Hana is cool. Don't rush to Hana itself (nothing to see) but do hit the black sand beach at the state park just before it. Outstanding sights. If you do it right the Hana trip is an all day event. Don't leave Hana at 6-7pm and expect to do the south loop in the daylight. It's a wild ride at any hour, after dark is nerve wrecking. I'd do it again any day. Check out Venus pool (ignore the no tresspassing sign as the locals advise) after Hana as well. If it has water running it should be spectacular. It was dry for us but still cool to see.

I use a 3mm Henderson Instadry and was nice and comfortable till my 3rd dive. Then I could tell I was getting cold. Not chilled but somewhat cold. My wife dove her skin. She got cold on the 3rd dive as usual. But, you just deal with it.

Eats: We enjoyed the Hula grill for our nicer meals. Leilani's was too busy to get it (same ownership as Hula) when we tried. Hula is easy to get in if you don't mind sitting near the chef's line. If you eat early (6pm) you shouldn't have trouble gettnig in anywhere. Otherwise reservations are a good idea. It is a busy area. It's all expensive too. In Lahaina there is a place called Cool Cats that has great grill food. The burgers are fantastic. We ate at Pacific'O also. It was just okay for us. The preparation was good but the menu seemed limited. We had the pasta moana with mahi. Very good. Again, pricey.

Books? Get your hands on a book called Maui revealed. You'll be glad you did when you head to Hana or try to find some of the sights. I wasn't going to get it, but a friend borrowed it to me. And I am glad he did.

If you like deep sea fishing Maui is a good place to do it. We went out twice with the Ho'Okela (captain Steve and Capt Denny) and had a great time. I'd use any charter there though. They all seemed good from what I sensed.

Enjoy your trip.

 

[SwimsWithSharks]

I've got to disagree with Wildcard on Haleakala. I've done it several times and (except for one time when it was clouded over) it is beautiful. I agree, however, that it is a good idea to beat the crowd down. If you enjoy bike riding, you can try Aloha Bike Tours which is a different style of the bike ride down Haleakala. I tried it once. If you feel you must ride down Haleakala, this is the operation I would recommend. The road to Hana is beautiful. Don't tell my car rental company but, last time, I just kept going and drove around the south end of the island. Beautiful and different and really not that bad of a road.

Several good operators on Maui. You have already received some good ideas for dive sites. There is also some good shore diving. A quick search through the posts will come up with comments on the Maui dive operations. If you check my web site (left hand side), there is a link to Hawaii resources. I've tried to collect some useful links.

Oh, and, unless you are extremely warm blooded, definitely the 3 mm.

 

[Wildcard]

I don't think I have ever heard anyone claim Maui was a good place to fish. The "shallow" basin surrounded by the islands is called the dead zone. North shore is good but overall Maui is only fair at best for fishing. Again Kona is the hands down winner but if maui is all you can do, don't pass on it. The first time you hook up to an electric bule fish with a big pointy nose that wants to spend more time out of the water than in and burns off 6-800 yards of line on the first run, you too will be hooked. Heck, even the lowly Mahi mahi ( hawaiian for strong strong) will give you a battle, a show and some fine eatting!

 

[KrisB]

Unlike Wildcard, I'd say Molokini crater is worth the visit, too... especially if the shore dives are washed out from a south swell.

You're virtually guaranteed 150' + viz, and a great deal of the fish act "natural" around humans.

Of course, for those of us spoiled by good shore dive conditions and the backwall, the crater doesn't seem anything too special.

 

[DiveMaven]

I would say that unless you know you'll be returning to Maui in the future, plan to do things like the road to Hana and Haleakala while you're there. We own a timeshare on Maui, so go at least once a year. Combine that with the fact that we live on the West Coast, and it's a direct flight, it makes Hawaii a very appealing vacation destination for us. Last year we enjoyed our timeshare in August and invited another couple to join us. It was their first trip to Maui and they said many times that it likely would be their only trip as Maui is out of their normal vacation price range.

Because my husband and I go frequently, we often do nothing but dive and hang out, which is what we planned to do on this trip. We planned to dive everyday, but our friends had their own rental car so they weren't bound by our activity choices and could do whatever they wanted. Our friends are a husband and wife team where the wife doesn't dive, and since she was exhausted and just wanted to do nothing the first couple of days, it was perfect for her husband to dive in the mornings and hang out with her in the afternoons. Unfortunately, she set a presidence and once the husband started diving with us every morning, he didn't want to stop.

They wound up with only one day to explore the island and do stuff, and unfortunately that was the one day where we had rain, so going to Haleakala wasn't really an option. When we all got home, she was pretty disappointed that she didn't do the things she wanted (Haleakala, horseback riding, parasailing...), but at least felt rested and healthy, which was a positive outcome of the trip.

Fortunately for them, we really had a great time together and found that we're an extremely compatible 4-some for travel, so we invited them to join us again this winter. When we invited them, the wife made it VERY clear to the husband that he would NOT be diving everyday this time. We've already planned our charters so he'll be able to dive 3 days and still have 3 days to do stuff with his wife.

Food for thought.