ehrmanna:
Long story but I am going to the Grand Wailea resort in Maui in June.....for FREE!! (again, long story).
I have never been to Hawaii before and intend to do some diving while there.
Here's my question(s) -- the resort claims to have a dive shop. Does anyone know if this shop is affiliated with any of the many highly-recommended operators posted on this board? Anyone know anything about the Grand Wailea dive shop? Go with them or go off the grounds? Will other dive operators pick me up at the Grand Wailea if I so desire?
What advice do you have for me?
Hi,
We dove from Wailea Beach which is the dive site immediately next to the Grand Wailea a couple of years ago. We rented tanks from their dive shop, which was nothing more than a large shack with gear rentals, classes and a few accessories. I don't remember much else about their operation though, except that they were helpful in describing the dive site.
The dive there is shallow - 40' at the first reef, and slightly deeper farther out and it's fairly open, there's some interesting stuff near the point. Picture of Wailea beach:
http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/Hawaii/Maui/Wailea/
I think the big white building in the center of the picture is the Grand Wailea, so you can see how close it is. It's a popular site, not one of the best for shorediving on Maui, but it's an easy sandy beach entry with maybe a 100 yd. swim out to the reef. When we were there there were divers constantly coming/going. Lots of fish, we saw Puffers, a group of big Pipefish, Triggers and hundreds of reef fish. There's supposed to be Turtles and even Mantas are seen there occasionally.
The Ulua Beach/Makena Landing area nearby also has good diving.
Since you're staying in South Maui, you should dive with Robinsons, Severns or B&B Scuba. I don't know about B&B but Robinsons and Severns leave from the Kihei boat ramp, which is probably 10 min. or less north. If you look at Severn's info page, they have directions from Wailea. I don't think there are
any dive operations that will pick you up in South Maui. Since the South/West coasts of Maui are so far from the airport in Kahului, most people rent cars. There is a shuttle service available from Kihei, they picked me up quickly when I called them.
The resort is sort of by itself as it's surrounded by golf courses and condos so unless you plan to spend all your time there, I'd suggest renting a car. Restaurants in the Kihei area are a couple miles away, there is one really upscale shopping center nearby that you could maybe walk to, but when we were there all that was there was an upscale outdoor sandwich type place and one other restaurant. But it was under construction so there might be more there now.
We ate at the Grand Wailea buffet once, the food was great and you can't beat the view. The way the resort is situated, the lobby and public areas are on top of a cliff and the resort drops down below to the ocean level. It's pretty impressive. If you're golfers, play the Blue Course, serious golfers, play the Gold Course.
You'll should really see the rest of Maui. Maui Ocean Center is a really good aquarium - it's about 45 min to the north. Lahaina town is about an hour north, it's really the heart of the tourist part of West Maui, most of the galleries, shops etc. are there, and there's Kanaapali and Kapalua as well. They're also the most touristy, several times we went through there there were traffic delays, especially by the West Maui airport. If you look at a map, it doesn't look that far but there's only one main road and everybody uses it - times can double if there's an accident.
The Kihei/Wailea area is quite a bit quieter, I think some of the locals live in Kihei also, so it's a mix of resorts, condos, public beaches, regular stores and some good restaurants. Some of this may have changed, we were there in 2001.
PM if you have other questions,
Steve
