Maui or Oahu? Anywhere else in Hawaii?

[Charlie99]

Maui has really nice scenery on the surface, most notably IMHO, the Hana Highway (or the "fabled road to Hana" as the travel guides call it), voted the most scenic highway in the US. It's a twelve hour round trip from Kaanapali, but you get black sand beaches and waterfall plunge pools that you get to swim in. I recommend taking a guided tour instead of trying to drive it yourself, some of the turns seemed kind of treacherous. I've only been to Maui once, but it's one of those destinations that leaves and impression.

Another alternative to the guided van tour to Hana and back is a combo van/helicopter tour. We took a couple visitors on the morning tour which is a van out to Hana in the morning, lunch, then a helicopter tour of the crater and on back to Kahului airport. The afternoon trip takes the helicoptor out, and the van back.

 

[bluemagoo]

Try Hotel Lanai very quiet up there...

Personally I love camping above Kula in the redwood forest - very quiet and cool temps. Lots of eucalyptus trees add a wonderful scent to the surroundings too.

Tim

...did Lanai way back when the "shopping center" was a row of four converted homes; the bowling alley had the poor cashier running down the lanes to clear the pins, feed the pin setter, and roll our balls back; the pinball machines had no flippers and were the kind you had to bodily shake; the old wooden gymnasium was standing only because the termites were still holding hands. We slept on the floor of the then brand new gymnasium; courtesy of one of the Lanai families acquainted with some in our group. I knew that place was going to be different when the pilot of the HawaiianAir DC9 slammed that bird on the deck, brakes groaning and engine-reversers screaming, and nearly tipping the plane doing a highspeed turn before running out of runway; landing at the old Kona airport was the same deal except there was a lava wall at the end of the runway instead of a dropoff as on Lanai (in fact, I believe that the only accident by HawaiianAir, then known as InterIsland, was in the 40's when a DC-3 did a slow-motion face-plant after rolling off the end of Lanai's runway; nothing seriously hurt except egos). The takeoff was even more exciting: crank the engines till they're nearly ripping off the mounts, let go the brakes, and liftoff just as the runway ends and the ground slopes away. Took awhile before somebody realized flying like this was only for Navy carrier jocks; prop birds do it better.

 

[divebrasil]

Should I rent a car in maui? Where is the best area to stay if we want diving and other kinds of leisure?
I noticed there are 2 airports also.??

Thanks

 

[diversteve]

Visiting a few years ago, Kihei kind of reminded me of SoCal's Venice/MuscleBeach scene with lots of "beautiful people" with their headphones and sweatbands, jogging and roller-blading all over the place. Not my style; just a crusty warthog I guess. I remember when that place was just all keawe trees and bushes. Quiet is upcountry at Kula Lodge -- until about 0430-0500 when all the #(%!@* tour buses start grinding their way up to sunrise on Haleakala -- but it's still my favorite. Hana Hotel ranks high on quiet ....high on price too....

We stayed in Wailea so I guess I missed all that. I did get hit on to buy some Maui Gold just down the road from the galleries in Lahaina once, kind of surprised me...not the selling as much as how open the seller was about it.

 

[Charlie99]

Should I rent a car in maui? Where is the best area to stay if we want diving and other kinds of leisure?
I noticed there are 2 airports also.??

Thanks

A car is pretty much a must if you are going to do anything other than hang out in one resort, such as Kaanapali.

The main airport is in Kahului. The one in W. Maui is much smaller. If there are scheduled flights, they are just little puddle jumpers going to nearby islands like Lanai.

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Maui kind of divides out into 4 or 5 areas.

West Maui, which includes Lahaina and the big Kaanapali resort area are the most touristy. Lahaina is a quaint, interesting, town full of restaurants, art galleries, and the inevitable t-shirt shops. The main section of Kaanapali is one big hotel after another, with a long oceanfront sidewalk joining them together. Shopping center in the middle. The Sheraton and the nice Black Rock dive site are on the north end of the main Kaanapali resort.
Kahana, Honokowai, Napili are north of Lahaina and have a wide variety of condos. The high end Kapalua resort adn golf course. is a bit further north.

Central Maui, Kahului and Wailuku, is the location of the airport, most of the local residents, Walmart, Home Depot, and cheap hostels.

South Maui is Kihei, Wailea, and Makena. Kihei is several miles long by a few blocks wide. Strip malls. Many condos, a few smaller hotels. I'm not familiar with the San Diego area, but Kihei would probably remind you of one of your local beachside cities. Wailea is golf courses, upscale condos, and luxury hotels. Makena is making the transition from country to upscale large individual homes, golf courses, and few hotels spilling south out of Wailea.

Paia, on the north shore, east of Kahului is a small town with a lot of character. Windsurfing hangout. Lots of hippies still left over from the '60s.

Upcountry are a few towns along the roads you'll use to get to the Haleakala crater national park. Popular with some people as it's cooler a few thousand feet up. Not generally a good place for divers though, due to altitude concerns.

Hana is on the eastern side of the island, in the windward rain zone. Nice place to visit, but I'd go stir crazy staying there more than a day or two.

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For a first visit, I recommend the main Kanapali resort area, since that's 'where the action is'. Cheaper accomodations, but still convenient to Lahaina are in the towns just to the north.

 

[divebrasil]

For a first visit, I recommend the main Kanapali resort area, since that's 'where the action is'. Cheaper accomodations, but still convenient to Lahaina are in the towns just to the north.

Charlie, thanks for all the advice.
But aren't most of the good dives out of Kihei? How long is the drive to Kihei from Kanapali?

Thanks,
Yan

 

[diversteve]

Should I rent a car in maui?

Yes, everything is a drive from the airport to the West side, which is the tourist area.

I noticed there are two airports also

I've always flown into Kahului, the main airport and then drove across the island to either Lahaina or Wailea. Kahului is where the locals live, there's really not much there for tourists, the cruise port is there, things like the Home Depot, Walmart etc.

Some flights do land at the West Maui airport, if you stay in the Lahaina or Kanaapali or Kapalua area it would be a lot closer, but I think the fares are higher. You'll still need a car unless you want to stay close to your hotel. Most of the diveops don't pickup. This summer they started limited public bus service so that's an option for general sightseeing.

But if you plan to dive the best of Maui, the boats leaving from Kihei typically do Molokini and South Maui, the boats from Lahaina typically do Lanai. So to do both you'll drive at least once since it's much quicker to drive to Kihei and sail over to Molokini than it is to sail over to Molokini from Lahaina - or vice-versa. It's a good 35-45 min ride since there's really only one main road that goes north/south along the West Maui coast.

If you plan to take a helicopter ride, you'll also have to drive back near Kahului to the heliport, unless they pick you up with their van. I highly recommend it, you'll see parts of Maui that are almost inaccessible. We hovered about 50' away from a 200' waterfall, flew into the volcano craters and out towards Hana. There's some amazing scenery that you can't see any other way as there's no road encircling Maui.

Where is the best area to stay if we want diving and other kinds of leisure?

Depends on what you want. Anything around Lahaina will be more crowds. Personally I think the area near Whaler's village is the worst, there's a lot of condos/hotels golf courses nearby that add to the congestion.

We stayed north of Lahaina once about 1/2 way between Lahaina and Kapalua, in a quiet condo right on the beach with a 10min drive to Lahaina for everything except the nearby McDonalds. It was pretty nice.

You'll find that more of the activities are based in/near Lahaina. Parasailing, Jetskiing, the sub trip boats, dinner cruises, catamaran sails etc. are mostly based there or nearby in Maalea. Or down in Kihei.

Kapalua a little farther north is a nice area if you're a golfer, but farther from everything else. It's also pricier.

My dive buddy and his family just stayed last month at a condo in Maalea, which is 20min. south of Lahaina, it's quiet in that area. Nice quiet sandy beach 200' from their door, during the week they had it to themselves. A lot of the locals go to the beaches all weekend - I would if I lived there!! But from there you'd be driving to everything except the couple of restaurants in the Maalea pier area, it kind of shuts down at night. The Maui Seaquarium in that area is worth the trip, I read recently that you now can dive in their shark tank.

Lahaina is like a cross between Mission Beach and LaJolla w/o the cliffs. Art galleries, touristy type restaurants - Hard Rock, Forest Gumps etc. - dive ops, t-shirt shops etc. It's just this side of trashy in some areas. North of Lahaina is Whaler's Village, it's the closest thing to a mall on that side of the Maui. Several good restaurants in that area - one was called Auntie Rose's or something similar. Great view of the sunset during dinner.

If you like crowds, stay in one of the big hotel/condo complexes in that area. Or at/around the Sheraton at Black Rock.

Last trip to Maui we stayed south of Kihei in Wailea. The big draw there is the famous golf courses and the Grand Wailea resort - which is super, but expensive$$$. They have an outstanding buffet there though, worth the trip if you're staying nearby. If you're a golfer, play the Blue course, if you're a great golfer, play the Gold. It's pricey though, get discounts on the web or through your booking agent, we saved $50 by going through our condo's front office. And I think it still was $185pp.

We had a newer one br ground-level condo with a view of Molokini from the patio for about $135/nt. It was in a complex with about 30 4-unit buildings with a 1 block walk - on property - down to the beach. The only downside about it was that it was right next to a public beach so always busier. You do want to watch what you leave locked in the car at public beaches on Maui, some of the car rental agents warn you where.

A lot of the condos closer to Kihei are bigger multi-unit buildings, some of them are on right on the water. We liked being a few minutes away from town, it was quiet at night. There's good shorediving in the Wailea area, Wailea Beach, Makena landing, 5caves/5graves are all 10min away. Parking fills up fast so go early.

Wherever you stay on Maui, it's pricey. If this was my first trip to Maui, I'd stay somewhere near but not in Lahaina - maybe just to the south for more of the "Maui" experience. But I'm not a fan of big resort hotels.

my (long) .02

 

[divebrasil]

I have seen that a lot of people stay in condos. The problem is that when I search to buy airfare only, it costs as much as the full packages including hotel. The same thing happened when I went to the big island.
Sometime, the airfare only is more expensive than the full package.
Is that normal? ANy suggestions?

 

[diversteve]

I have seen that a lot of people stay in condos. The problem is that when I search to buy airfare only, it costs as much as the full packages including hotel. The same thing happened when I went to the big island.
Sometime, the airfare only is more expensive than the full package.
Is that normal? ANy suggestions?

Without knowing the details of what/when/how much you're looking to spend it's hard for me to comment.

A few things we've done in the past to keep the prices down: We book the condos directly with the owner or site property manager. It seems like the big travel consolidators, i.e. Travelocity etc. generally charge more. Worse still is going through a dive consolidator or your local LDS travel agency.

From Phoenix, we have a discount air carrier - Air Trans - that flies direct to Maui. Also Hawaiian just started direct service a couple years ago from the western U.S. so that helps to keep prices competitive. Maybe you have something similar in your area.

In some cases, they don't have links to the travel websites like Orbitz or Travelocity so you might have to make some phone calls. Southwest doesn't show up on Orbitz for example - although they don't fly to Maui...

Also you might see about driving up and flying out of LAX. There's more flights on the big carriers, United, American, etc from there, so probably a better deal. Once we flew from here to LAX on Southwest and then to Maui on American, it saved enough to make it worthwhile. And if you have definite dates in mind, try Cheaptickets or Priceline, the only downside is you're committed once you buy the tickets and they're usually not refundable. Also check them for errors when they arrive, you only have 24 hrs. to make any corrections.

As much as you can plan ahead, pre-book everything you can, even divetrips, luau's etc. Even with the discount coupons offered everywhere on-island, Maui attractions are cheaper when paid for in advance.

 

[Charlie99]

Charlie, thanks for all the advice.
But aren't most of the good dives out of Kihei? How long is the drive to Kihei from Kanapali?

It's about 50 minutes from Kaanapali to the Kihei boat ramp. Lanai has quite a few good dives, although you will rapidly get tired of going to the Sharkfin/Lighthouse combo, since that's the pair of dives done when the swell direction make the other dive sites difficult. Cathedrals I and II are awesome must-see formations of lava, and there are lots of other interesting dive sites.

When staying in West Maui, I'd typically dive mostly with Extended Horizons to Lanai, and drive over to Kihei a couple of times for Molokini trips. When staying in Wailea (just south of Kihei), it was the reverse -- mostly Molokini, with a couple drives over to Lahaina to catch the Lanai boat.

There are lots of good shore dive spots in both West and South Maui.

The recommendation for Kaanapali is more about topside activity and atmosphere. Kaanapali and Lahaina have more of a tropical vacation paradise atmosphere. Kihei is more like a normal american city, which just happens to be alongside a nice beach. (I don't mean to diss Kihei ... I live there 4 months a year and enjoy it immensely ... just trying to paint an accurate picture of the character of the place.)

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For cheap airfare, ATA has great deals from SFO to Kahului/OGG. Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays has bought large blocks of seats on ATA, as well as at various condos. They sell package deals. Suntrips is another well known source of combos. About 40% of the condo rentals in my condo complex are through Expedia and Travelocity, so obviously they have some package combos for sale.

If you are going for an extended stay, then a private rental through www.vrbo.org + a cheap ticket with ATA would be the best. For a week stay, it's a tossup whether that or something through Expedia/Travelocity/Orbitz would be cheaper.

What week you pick has a big effect on price. Maui doesn't really have a slow season, but it does have weeks here and there that are slow. Slow weeks also means not so many divers on the boat. Post-Labor day,but well before Thanksgiving is a good time. BTW, the Halloween celebration in Lahaina is also know as the Mardi-gras of the Pacific. The 1st couple weeks of December are slow times --- after Thanksgiving crowd leaves, but before the Christmas crowd starts coming in after Dec 15th.