6 Days in Maui! We had never been to Hawaii so when the proverbial light bulb finally went off, we decided it was high time that we check out the 50th state of the US. Usually, our holiday destinations involve a fair bit of adrenaline (rock climbing, mountaineering, ski adventures, etc.), so going to Hawaii for vacation was definitely hard for us to justify to ourselves. I mean, isn’t Hawaii the place our parents want to go to chill at the beach? Turns out, we were oh so wrong. Well not entirely. It’s still the vacay location of choice for many American families, but Hawaii has so much more to offer for thrill seekers! For our 6-day trip, we settled on Maui as our first island to explore! Here’s what our itinerary looked like: Day 1: Arrive, settle, snorkel, snuggle As soon as we landed in Maui, we made our way to the Whole Foods that was near the airport to stock up on breakfast and lunch items for the week. We booked an apartment so that we had the flexibility to make our own breakfast and lunches without having to drop $100s for every meal. Yup – Maui is expensive. Pro tip – local fruit from Maui is amazing. We stocked up on local mangos and it was the best decision. SO YUM. We then checked into our apartment at the Royal Mauian and quickly went snorkeling to get comfortable with our fins and breathing under water. We had a dive trip pre-booked for the next day at 6 am. The snorkeling right outside our apartment was fantastic with several turtles hanging out near the rocks. I am glad we did this, because it took me a few minutes to get comfortable with the whole breathing from the mouth thing. With snorkeling done, we were free to explore the town a bit. We showered and head out to the local cool spot called “The Bermuda Triangle”. We started off with a dinner at Paia Fish Market (at this to your list – we went back here!) followed by walking around the area getting familiar. At this point, we had been awake for 15+ hours and with an early am wake up, it was time to hit the hay. Day 2: Dive! Thank the heavens for time change – Maui is 3 hours behind San Francisco. So, waking up at 5 am was a piece of cake. We had some breakfast and packed up to go for our first dive! I was a bit nervous since the last time I had dove was over 12 months back. Anyway, I took a deep breath and got ready for our dive in Molokini Crater! We chose to use Pro Diver as our dive guide and it turned out to be a great decision. They were one of the only dive companies that offered “back wall of Molokini” as a dive location. Our first dive was the inside of the Molokini crater, which was incredible. Even though, the conditions were a bit choppy, the visibility was stunning. Our boat captain then dropped us towards the outer edge of the Molokini crater and we caught a current that shot us to the back wall of the crater. This was the most stunning part as we came face to face with three reef sharks. The sharks were totally chill and hung out with us for several minutes, after which we started the ascend to the surface where the boat picked us up. More on our Molokini dive in a separate post. After the dive, we head back to our rental to get showered up and untangle the megaknot my hair had turned into. Keep in mind, the dive started at 6 am so we were done and back at our place by 10 am bright and early and had the whole day ahead of us. We had lunch at our place and after a bit of relaxing, decided to drive down to the Big Beach in Makena. This was clearly the local’s hangout spot as there were tons of families and friends hanging out at the beach and getting in their surf. The water was on the rough side but we absolutely loved swimming in it. We grabbed coconuts on the way to the beach, which turned out to be a great decision after the dive in the early morning. The path to big beach winds through Wailea, the mega resort area and this has a fancy mall as well. If this is something you’re into, it could be a cool stop along the way. After this, we went out to dinner and drinks at Three’s Bar and Grill. The food was delicious, and the service was on point. We had a great time and retired in bed early with a glass of wine and sound of the ocean to lull us to sleep. Sharks in Molokini! Day 3: Road to Hana We had heard on multiple threads that the Road to Hana is a must. Even Justin was keen to check it out and we both thought that it was a must do with our convertible. So, we were on our way to the Hana around 9 am, which we realized was already too late. From Kihei, we had a 20 min drive to Paia and that’s where the road to Hana starts. The views in Paia were spectacular and we quickly made a mental note to stay in Paia area the next time we visited the island. From Paia, the road is pretty straightforward. You will know by the hundreds of other cars on the route as well. While the sights were spectacular, we did not enjoy this road to Hana. It was overcrowded and people were stopping at the smallest sight of a waterfall. Several cars were blocking the road and the experience wasn’t entirely worth it. And as a result, we decided not to stop along the road until we go to the Honokalani Beach (Black sand beach). When we arrived at beach, it was still relatively deserted. We quickly found a parking spot and walked down to the beach. There were bathrooms at this park so that was a welcome relief. We made our way to the Honokalani Beach and this was stunning! We swam in the waters and Justin tried some bouldering on the nearby rocks. The swell was strong almost the entire time in Maui so I stayed closer to the beach, but I thoroughly enjoyed swimming in the black sands beach. As we were leaving, the beach got super busy and full of people. Glad we left when we did. We had lunch just into the town of Hana at a food truck stop where there were 5 food trucks to choose from. This was delicious! (and one of the few food options before turning around). At this point, we had to decide whether to return on the road we came down or continue down around the park. Reluctantly, but excitedly, we continued on the road. And this was the best decision we made. Right after the black beach, the crowds die down and the there are fewer people on the road. Our first stop on this section was the boulder beach (I have no idea what its called and can’t seem to find it online. It was the first stop right on the side of the highway after passing the town of Hana!). We were the only ones here when we arrived, and it was incredibly romantic. Only one other couple stopped on the way. Following this, we made a stop at Wailua Falls and swimming hole. This was awesome! Hardly 10-15 people on the trails and only 2 people in the water when we arrived. We swam and enjoyed the force of the waterfall. One of the best swimming hole stops ever. Our next stop was the Haleakala National Park. We stopped to hike to the seven sacred pools where the water flows through seven levels before finally entering the sea. This was a spectacular sight! The views were breathtaking but the sounds of the sea crashing into the rocks was even more incredible. We loved every second of it. While the roads are sketchy coming into the national park, they are absolutely stunning once you’re in it. For us, the best part of Road to Hana, started after Hana. Everyone has their own experience, but this was our favorite. After the drive, we had dinner at Paia at Café Des Amis. This was one of the best places we ate in Maui. Paia is definitely a local’s town and the vibe at this restaurant was testament to it. After a sumptuous meal, we drove home and hit the hay. Note 1: Car rental insurance does NOT cover the section after Hana. We did it anyway and drove very carefully. Please consider this before driving. Note 2: There is little to no food between Paia and Hana. Pack snacks and fuel your car! Beautiful Wailua Falls Day 4: Surf + Fancy Dinner! By Day 4, we were really settling into the Hawaii time zone. We woke up lazily and after breakfast, decided it was time to pop our surfing cherry on this trip. We made our way down to Kalama State Park beach and rented long boards at Maui Wave Riders shop. This was easy because the shop was literally across the street from the beach. We paddled out to the break – it was a very mellow break and stayed and surfed for 2-3 hours. Every wave was wonderful, and we absolutely loved every second of it. I caught a few waves and so did Justin. It was a great way to spend the morning. We then lazed and relaxed back at our apartment before getting dressed and heading to Hotel Wailea for a fancy dinner. This was our only fancy dinner and we loved it! The food was delicious, and the service was extraordinary! Highly recommend this :) Day 5: Relax This ended up being one of our more memorable days in Maui. We spent the day eating breakfast, swimming multiple times in the waters outside our apartment, snorkeling to see the turtles and just overall relaxing and enjoying the beautiful views surround Kihei area. For dinner, we went to Café O’Lei. This was one of the best meals we had in Maui and was literally across the street from our apartment. I indulged in some Lychee martinis and the bar tender read my mind and made me a second one as soon as I finished the first one Day 6: Dive in Lahaina! By Day 6, it was time for our two dives in Lahaina. As most dives, this dive started reallllyyy early and we had to drive all the way to Lahaina from Kihei. This drive was beautiful at 6 in the morning as we saw the sunrise light up the sea and the coastline. We arrived in Lahaina within ~40 mins and had no traffic along the way. However, as soon as we arrived in Lahaina, things started going downhill. The weather was iffy with a storm coming in a couple days. And our dive guide – Lahaina Divers was totally not what we expected. We realized that they are a highly commercial diving outfitter with close to 40 people waiting to get on a dive boat with them that day. At our arrival, we were all ushered into a room to sign waivers and then fitted into diving gear. From here, we got on a massive dive boat with 4 dive masters. Each dive master had a group of 9. The entire experience was insanely commercial and frustrating to both me and Justin. Our dive site was in Lanai, a 45 min boat ride from Lahaina. We saw a pod of dolphins along the way that swam with the boat for a while! Once we arrived at the dive site in Lanai, we realized right away that the water was extremely choppy. We still decided to go ahead with our dive location of choice: Lanai Cathedrals. The dive itself turned out to be a total nightmare for us. The water was extremely wavy and cold with low visibility and the divers in our group seemed quite inexperienced. One of the guys in our group couldn’t maintain his buoyancy at all and kept kick a bunch of reefs, which drove me crazy. Lanai cathedrals are absolutely beautiful, and I’d love to dive there again – albiet with a different dive outfitter (and in perhaps different conditions). Our second dive – Grand Canyon, was also incredible. There were tons of archways and caves that you could swim through. However, due to the waves and bad visibility, this was actually quite challenging. I still enjoyed it but was constantly thinking of when it was going to end. Following 10 people through these caves and arches didn’t make it fun either. Once the dive ended, we loaded back on the boat and headed back to Lahaina. Justin and I grabbed some ice cream floats and realized instantly that Lahaina was NOT the place for us. It was way too touristy. We promptly got in the car and decided to drive out of town to find a place that had ramen. A quick google search showed that a restaurant called “Star Noodle” was situated in Lahaina hills. We decided to check it out and were kind of surprised to see that it’s in a warehouse style district. After we arrived, we realized that this restaurant has been ranked as the top 5 places in Maui to eat! And we were not disappointed. The ramen was incredible, and the cocktails were to die for! We arrived at just the right time and found out that this place had a massive line after we got in and got seated. If you want to eat at the Star, make a reservation! For dinner, we went back to Paia fish market in Kihei because Justin loved it. I believe I got veggie tacos (they don’t have a huge veggie selection). And we went home to bed to recover before returning home the next day! Diving in Lahaina. The visibility was quite poor and the current was pretty strong. But these archways were amazing! Day 7: Return to SF Returning to SF was bitter sweet. But we were ready to get back home to our pups and our life in SF. Its been real Maui! We'll return for more adventures in the future!
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MahimaNuclear Engineer, Product and Strategy expert, Vegetarian, Adventurer. Categories
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