Maui Travel Guide- Part 1

I am so excited to share this post with all of you. I know so many people like me love to travel and get the full experience while visiting their destination, but let’s be real, while traveling is amazing, traveling is expensive. Between, lodging, rental car, excursions, and food, you can empty your bank account quickly. I am definitely that girl who would rather spend money on experiences than things, but I try to be as economical as possible. Don’t get me wrong, we usually have that one really nice dinner and that one activity we splurge on, but my best piece of advice is research before going. My second piece of advice is speak to the locals when you get there. They will tell you where you can find the best happy hour, swimming hole, and even the best place to snorkel with sea turtles. I have decided to break this up into two posts because I am sharing a lot of information, so bear with me.

Maui is absolutely beautiful! Social media probably got tired of my Insta stories, but every step we took was another amazing view. I could not stop taking pictures, not just Eric and I but the unbelievable views.

Our travel day started Tuesday evening after work! Our flight was at 6am Wednesday morning which meant getting to the airport at 4am, so we spent the night in ATL. My biggest saver for vacations is always flying out of ATL if you are in the Birmingham area. For some, this seems like a big inconvenience to drive two hours to ATL, park your car for the week, and get a hotel but with flying out of ATL made our flights $200 cheaper a ticket, which saved us $400. Since Eric and I love to travel, we have come up with a good little system when we travel out of ATL. We park our car at an off premises location from the airport called The Parking Spot. It is covered and uncovered parking for $8 (uncovered) a day. We call an Uber to come pick us up and take us to our hotel. This way we do not have to worry about messing with our car before the airport. Depending on which Marriott we stay in, we will either take the train or the complimentary shuttle to the airport in the morning. For those of you that don’t know, Eric works for Marriott and gets an employee discount (my favorite thing about his job, did I just say that out loud?). Anyways, obviously with flying out of ATL, there do come expenses. It sounds like a lot of hassle, but it isn’t. Parking for the week was $90, our hotel was $35, and gas was $50 (there and back). That’s still a $225 savings rather than flying out of BHM. I also like flying out of ATL because if your flight gets canceled, you have triple the numbers of options than you do in Birmingham. Oh and guess what? My sister’s flight got canceled that morning out of BHM. Thankfully they were able to make it out, but they did not arrive to Maui until 8 hours later than they were originally supposed to. Oh well, the important thing is they made it!

Our first night in Maui was uneventful. We had a small delay at LAX, and by the time we got rental cars, dinner, a small load of groceries, and checked into the condo it was 10pm. Yes, you read that right. I said condo. While I love to save money and think I’m pretty good at it, I really got this talent from my mother. My mom takes this saving money thing to a whole different level. She was able to find a cute little condo at Royal Kahana on VRBO. Talk about a great location. We were in the middle of Lahaina with an ocean view and balcony. I definitely recommend doing the condo versus resort if you’re looking to be practical. My mom paid half of what you would at resort or hotel. Y’all that ocean view was an important amenity this trip. You see December-May, Humpback whales migrate through the Pacific Ocean from Alaska and tend to put on a show if you’re paying attention. Every morning we would sit on the balcony and watch these whales. We had to have seen 50 whales a day if not more. My mom nailed it on the ocean view. Who needs to go whale watching when you can sit on your balcony with a cup of coffee in hand in your pajamas? We also saw numerous dolphins as well!

A whales tales

Day 2—My family was eager to get up. I think my sister, Eric, and her husband were up at 5:45am with a cup of coffee in our hand. HELLO time change. We went over to an awesome restaurant my parents had been to before (they went to Maui last year, and this year we got the invite) on Napili Beach called the Sea House Restaurant. My parents could not stop talking about this breakfast, so the expectations were high. Andddd they exceeded them! One with the location, two the food! I had a crab meat omelet that my father would not stop stealing bites of (no matter how old I am, some things never change). It was delicious!

Our View at Breakfast

The best Crabmeat Omelet

After breakfast, we all turned and looked at my sister and asked her what the plan was. I actually have to give my sister a lot of credit for how much she researched for this trip. I was very impressed and kind of liked her having the reigns. This is very unusual to one let my sister lead and two to have the center of attention (kidding, kind of). I do love to be in control, but I am always willing to go with the flow and do what others like to do. My sister suggested we go over to the Ritz Carlton and hike a trail on the property. My eyebrow and face probably said it all. I was down with that suggestion, and the words Ritz Carlton were said! I did ask if anyone thought we could get a cocktail and lay by the pool too? I was ignored, per usual! This hike was called Dragon’s Teeth. Absolutely beautiful! My family spent a solid 2-3 hours here if not longer. Just miles of beautiful scenery and property all around! Across the street the PGA Golf tournament was going on, so there were a lot of people on property but that didn’t stop us. This is a must see if you visit Maui!

We stopped at a little store on property and got a snack and then headed on to our next hike to Nakalele Blowhole. This was incredible too! It was actually a Treacherous hike, and while on this hike my sister proceeded to tell us about a man that died at this blowhole because he got too close. So if you ever visit this blowhole, stay back! Below is a video of the blowhole! So crazy that lava formed all of this!

Excuse my Dad and Eric talking!

Heart Rock! One of my favorite pictures!

Day 3—This is one of the highlights of the trip: watching the Sunset atop Haleakala Crater National Park and then biking 22.2 miles downhill. This was the excursion I wanted to do the minute I found out we were going to Maui. The downside of this excursion was waking up at1:00am to be at the top of the crater by 4:00am to watch the sunrise. Oh my goodness, it was so worth it though, and one of those once in a life time experiences. I knew going into it that it was going to be freezing on top of the crater, and I thought we were prepared. Eric and I had many conversations about what to wear but also thinking how we were going to be shedding clothing the whole way down on the bike ride. We are talking about 65 degree temperature change. All the props to Haleakala Bike Company—I was so impressed with how prepared they were. They had us wind suits, backpacks, gloves, helmets etc. I was also grateful for the bikes we had (Trip Advisor can scare you). They were brand new! After the numerous reviews I read, many people’s complaints with the bike companies that did this excursion were the bikes. So we really hit the jackpot. We started at 3:00am in a bus that takes you all the way up to the top of the crater. This is where we watched the sunrise. Wow, just wow! It was so neat to be above the clouds and watch them roll in! 

I wish the pictures did it justice!

After the sunset, we started our bike ride down. This specific excursion was a self-guided tour, meaning you were on your own. I was nervous that we were going to get lost, but with technology these days, you could scan a code on your iPhone, and it would show you the way. Also, the bus driver only repeated himself 14 times saying you only have 4 right turns.  On the way down, we were starving and stopped at a bed and breakfast and had brunch. Definitely recommend doing that. There are three places to choose from when going through the small town. We decided to stop at the first one! After brunch we got back on our bikes and finished the rest of 22 mile bike ride. I don’t think I pedaled more than 10 times. It was all downhill and gorgeous views. I kept telling myself “Karrie soak this in.” It really was so beautiful. I encourage everyone to do this if you are visiting Maui. 

When we got back to condo, we decided to go to the pool for a little bit before dinner. That evening we went to a really awesome restaurant call Hula Grill. It was located on the beach and had an awesome atmosphere with live music. We ended up staying in this area the whole night walking around, shopping, and of course getting ice cream.

Before Dinner at Hula Grill

Day 4—This was a “do what you want kind of day.” Most of us were feeling tired but still wanted to explore and not do anything to crazy. We ended up cooking breakfast this morning, and I am so glad we did because the whales were putting on yet again another show. I think we stayed on the balcony for a solid two hours just watching the whales. After breakfast, we went to an area we passed the day before. It sparked all of our interests, so we went back to check it out. It was a really neat small hike that led to a Honolulu Bay Beach that was known for snorkeling. This is actually where Eric and I thought we could go if we found some cheap snorkeling equipment. As we were starting to head back to the car, two big catamarans were pulling in to let snorkelers off. Eric and I looked at each other and said, “Well, we know this is a good place. Let’s come back tomorrow and snorkel.” We then headed to Front Street for the afternoon. This street is known for their great restaurants, shopping, and great views. We walked around, ate lunch, and then went to the Lahaina Harbor. Just before we got to the harbor, we came to this huge Banyan Tree that was in the middle of this park. Pretty incredible just how huge it was. While at the harbor, the deep sea fishing boats were coming in, and I noticed people gathering around. Oh course I had to go check it out. The man was holding a huge Mahi Mahi, but that’s not what was catching everyone’s attention. It was a 6ft shark circling the boat looking for scraps. Way too cool. I have seen a lot of wild life in my life but never a shark that big.

Honolulu Bay Beach

Front Street after lunch!

Tomorrow I will share with you Day 5-7. These are some of the best days which include the road to Hana and snorkeling with the sea turtles. I can’t wait to share the rest with you, and hope you have enjoyed it so far!