Maui

Maui was my favorite island of the two. I guess I liked the slower paced, less city-like feel. There was so much to do here and I am so bummed we didn’t get to stay here longer. A couple of people had mentioned we should have made Maui the second part of the trip and I could see why. It was more relaxing even if there was just as much to see/do. But because we did so much in so little time it really didn’t make a difference for us. However, that is something to consider for a next trip 😉. 

We stayed in the Kihei area. I wanted a central location that wouldn’t take too long to get to certain points in the island. Lahaina had some pretty nice hotels/condos and beaches but a must do in my list was Road to Hana and I just knew that driving from Lahaina on top of the length of time that road to Hana would take was not something that was going to work. We planned on doing it in one day with two cars and two toddlers. Definitely not ideal. And so location to me was everything. Actually, every time I plan our trips our itinerary determines where we stay at as I try to make it as convenient as possible. Especially when we travel with kids. 

I also try to group activities/adventures by their location. We had 5 full days in Maui and so I assigned each day to the north/northeast, west end, and southeast with an extra day to just chill and do a little bit of nothing. 

Our Maui itinerary included:

 

Nakalele Point and Honolua Bay on the west side of Maui. I was not expecting this drive. The road was very curvy and reception was not good at all. It was a beautiful scenic drive but when I tell you nakelele point was at the very tip of the island I am not even exaggerating. We were so high up the view was amazing! Funny thing is that we never made it to the blowhole 😂. Every so often during our hike someone would quit and turn around. I wasn’t wearing the right shoes either (a big oops on my part) and after talking to a couple who were returning back we decided to just take a few pictures where we were and turn around. We didn’t want to risk anyone getting hurt just a few days in. 

Honolulu bay was interesting. We found parking right away thankfully. And made the ten minute walk towards the bay. I didn’t like how rocky it was to get into the water. But once in the water it was all forgotten. The boys had a great time and swam with daddy  to a good spot for snorkeling. They saw school of fishes, beautiful anemones, and turtles. As I had read online, staying towards the right side of the bay was best and had the best things to see. 

   

  

Kaanapali Beach/ Black Rock

Kaanapali beach was one of our favorite beaches in Maui. It was so beautiful!!! 

Story time. We wanted to be where the black rock was and putting that in the gps kept sending us to the Sheraton hotel with a private entrance. There was no way to get in and I was so upset because as a mom of boys I knew that they would have loved jumping off the rock with their dad. Needless to say I was determined to find this rock so we set camp on the far right side of the beach (which was actually after black rock) and hubby and I walked to the left where the gps kept sending us. We ended up figuring out that you had to go through the hotel or a small entrance right at the start of the hotel to get to the beach. It is a public beach but being that hotels are there you will have a mix of locals, tourists, and hotel guests mingling on the beach side. That being said, it was very packed! Way too many people for our liking. Since we did find what we were looking for I told hubby he should jump from the rock, (because you know, if you didn’t record it it didn’t happened 😂) and that we would just go back to the rest of the family instead of making them move only to be on a crowed beach. 

The climb up was not easy. Definitely not kid friendly. And there were a lot of people on top of the rock waiting to jump. When hubby got up and jumped he noticed there was another way to get up which was easier and faster but still not the best for kids as they would have had to climb the rock. 

Overall our time on Kaanapali was amazing. We parked in the shopping center area because we couldn’t figure out the parking closest to black rock. We had lunch at the food truck and order some pizza and fries for the kiddos. 

We originally had intended to visit the town of Lahaina, do a little walking and eat dinner before the drive back to Kihei. Well that didn’t happen. It was a long day and we wanted to go back to the condo. Instead we stopped at Kihei food truck area and it couldn’t have turned out any better. The ambiance was amazing, the sunset was beautiful, and the food delicious. It was the perfect ending! Very much worth the early wake up call and the long drive.