Maui, Hawaii: Planning Your Way to an Unforgettable Experience
What to Expect
Language
Hawaii has two official languages English and the Hawaiian language ?lelo Hawai?i. We always try to learn a few local words as we are preparing for our holiday. Here are a few that we learned:
- Aloha – Hello
- Aloha kakahiaka – Good morning
- Aloha ahiahi – Good evening
- A hui hou – Until we meet again (goodbye)
- Mahalo – Thank you
- Mahalo nui loa – Thank you very much
- E kala mai – I’m sorry/excuse me (this one is for all you Canadians out there)
Currency
US Dollar
We used a combination of cash and cards on our last visit. A few of the smaller road stands only accepted cash.
Safety
We felt incredibly safe on Maui, it is a great spot for families. Everyone went out of their way to make our kids feel welcome.
Local Customs
Tipping is like the rest of the US, around 15-20%.
My daughter commented that you could tell how friendly a city was by someone’s reaction to her smiling at them as she walked by. She is happy to report that Maui passed the smile test and if full of very friendly people.
Cell Phones
Depending on where you are travelling from, you can likely add a US package onto your existing phone plan, although it is costly. Instead, we chose a more affordable option and purchased local SIM cards and pay-as-you-go plans from T-Mobile at Costco.
When to Visit
Weather
We visited Maui in March over spring break and had beautiful weather for our entire stay with most days around 26-27°C/79-81°F. Many days the winds came up in the afternoon so if we wanted to enjoy the beach or snorkel we tried to get out in the morning. If you plan to visit Haleakal? National Park on your stay, make sure to pack some warm clothes and maybe even a toque. It can be cold and windy and is particularly chilly at that elevation if you are visiting around sunrise or sunset.
Getting There
Kahului is the main airport on Maui where you will likely arrive, whether travelling internationally or coming from another island. It is located on the North side of the island and is about a half-hour drive from South Maui and a little longer if you are staying in West Maui. We picked up a rental car from the airport. The rental cars are in a separate building a short trolly ride from the airport.
Local Holidays
We visited over spring break and Easter. A few bigger places (e.g., Costco) were closed on Easter Sunday but most things were open including the grocery stores. There were a number of fun things on for Easter including a free family day event at the Sugar Museum.
Location, Location, Location
On both our visits to Maui, we have chosen to stay in Kihei. We like its laid-back feel and family-friendly beaches. It is also a central starting point for all our favourite things to do on the island. Kihei has a lot of condos, making it a popular spot for vacation rentals. This area of Maui is also quite budget-friendly and on an amazing stretch of beaches.
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Day Trips
As I’ve shared previously everyone gets to pick something they want to do on our holiday, so we had a few interesting day trips to make these ideas a reality as well as a few extras.
- The Road to Hana: although a long day and one very windy road, we love the road to Hana. We saw waterfalls, stopped for a lot of homemade banana bread (Aunt Sandy’s was our favourite), played at the black sand beach of Wai’anapanapa (which now requires a reservation), explored a bamboo forest, and found a bright pink pineapple growing on one of our walks.
- Haleakal?: after visiting Haleakal? and hiking the Sliding Sands Trail in the afternoon we stuck around to see the beautiful sunset and take in the stars. We opted for sunset over sunrise since we knew the probability of getting the teenagers up and out of bed to catch the sunrise was low. Unlike sunrise you don’t need a reservation to enter the park for sunset.
- Whale Watching: having never been to Maui during whale watching season before, we decided we needed to book a whale watching trip. This had us up early as we made our way to check in for 7 am before embarking on a 90-minute trip with two knowledgeable guides and saw at least 20 humpbacks. We lured the kids out of bed with a stop for cinnamon buns on the way. There was already a short line-up at 6:15 am, that’s how good they are.
- Turtle Town: We counted over 35 turtles making their way to shore on Ho’okipa Beach. We came across another half dozen turtles at the far end of Baldwin Beach and snorkelled with a few on Charley Young Beach. We went in search of the illustrious Turtle Town giving Maluaka Beach a try but alas it was too windy to see much in the water.
- In Search of Shave Ice: my daughter’s goal for this trip was to find the best shave ice on Maui, having shared that she would happily eat shave ice every day if she had to. We looked and found over 30 places on Google Maps and she picked a few favourites to visit based on ratings and recommendations. In the end, we ate shave ice every couple of days and tried some amazing creations. More on this coming soon.
- Iao Valley: We visited central Maui after checking out the Sugar Museum and made our way to Iao Valley Monument State Park, which recently reopened after a wash out. The park requires a reservation, but we were able to do this the morning of our visit once we had a look at the weather. It costs $10 to park your vehicle and $5 per person to enter. From the car park, it is a fairly short walk up several stairs to the lookout to see the Iao Needle in this spectacular rainforest. There is also a garden and forest walk along the river. Plan to spend about an hour and bring a sweater or rain jacket as this park gets an average of 365 inches of rain each year. After your visit stop in the nearby Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens (this was a recommendation from our GuideAlong Tour and it was beautiful).
Something New
We wanted to try a couple of new things on our second visit to Maui. Here’s what we tried for the first time.
GuideAlong
Although we have never tried an audio travel guide before, a family friend raved about using GuideAlong (formally Gypsy Guide) when she visited Maui. We thought we would give it a try since we love a good audiobook. It didn’t require data or wifi and provided location-based audio tours as we saw the sites. We named our guide Ross and found the stories, facts and history a great addition to our travels. Ross also recommended several stops that we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. I loved learning more about the Hawaiian alphabet and pronunciation.
Flytographer
Another friend told us about Flytographer, a worldwide travel photography service. When I did a little digging, I was excited to learn they are a Victoria-based, Canadian company. I loved the idea of capturing some family travel photos since it’s been years since we’ve had family photos done. Our kids are now both taller than me and wanted to have this documented in a picture frame.
The biggest factor in our decision to try this was to capture some holiday shots with our whole family. I take all the photos when we’re away and am rarely in any of them (yes, I really am on all the holidays). We have a running joke in our family that whenever I hand over the phone to a friendly, fellow tourist, who kindly offers to take a picture of all of us, it usually ends up being of our feet or cuts off the background we are trying to capture. While I haven’t given up trying, it usually doesn’t end well. We had a great hour at sunset capturing our photos with Marie on Po’olenalena Beach and can’t wait to see how the pictures turn out.
