Hawaii for the HM - Looking for advice

Annie584

The FI and I have decided to go to Hawaii for the HM !!!! (EEK) !  We would like to try and book things on our own instead of going thru a travel agent.  Does anyone have any suggestions on where to stay in Maui ?!  Any feedback on resorts / HM packages / Travel sites that take care of airfare & hotel / all-inclusive packages ? ... looking for any advice you have to offer.  We don't have specific activities that we'd like to do but we're pretty adventurous and up for anything. Any suggestions are appreciated !  Thank you ))

itzMS

I'm pretty positive that nothing in Hawaii is all-inclusive.

Best airline for flights will depend on where you live.

If it were me, I'd open up a Marriott Rewards credit card and stay at one of the Marriott hotels on the island.

MayDay513

AI's in Hawaii are not like how they are in Caribbean and Mexico. It is not cost effective from what I read. All the AIs I have read about in HI are like very scheduled very structured like you eat at this time and that time. Not like where you have unlimited drinks, food, entertainment, and watersports (some of the AIs in Caribbean have).

No feedback on Maui specifically. But I definitely would recommend a rental car.

Annie584

That's GREAT advice about the AI ... definitely don't want to be on any type of "schedule"... thanks

daria24

 A true AI doesn't exist in Hawaii, and quite frankly, would be a waste IMO. You go to Maui to explore the whole island, not be stuck on one small plot of land.

We went to Maui and stayed in Ka'anapali at the Westin. It was not my style. Kaanapali is a planned resort community-so it's very touristy. The beach is AMAZING, I have to give them that, but I didn't care for the manufactured style. Also I thought the Westin wasn't worth the price for such a small room and subpar (for a 4 star hotel) service. We went to South Maui and I much preferred that area. It's still dotted with the big hotels, but it's not completely tourist-central, there's a little bit more character. 

We booked our trip through AAA, but we were going to three different islands. Most of the hotels have deals with car rental companies-once you select a hotel, call them and see what kind of a deal they can give you, versus booking on your own. 

Jells2dot0

Check out gohawaii.com, which is the Hawaii Visitor's Bureau. They give you tons of info on the various islands so you can choose what best fits your wants and needs. Unless you are planning on booking the air direct with the airline and the hotels direct with the hotel, you will most likely being using a travel agent. Expedia, Travelocity, etc are online TAs, so if you're going to go that route, you might as well speak with someone who actually knows about the islands, can help guide you, give advice, and help if an issue arises. A good TA can beat any price out there. If you have airline miles to use or hotel points to burn, then going with a TA (online or not) is probably not worth your time.

Also, we stayed at the Fairmont Kea Lani in Wailea.

Pepper6

Maui is the island we spent the least amount of time on (which is why we're going back in Nov), but we stayed in Lahaina and enjoyed it.  Generally, we book most of our travel through the standard sites (i.e. travelocity, expedia, etc), but we've also used great deals through Groupon and Costco Travel.  I recommend booking your flights, hotel, & rental car together because you typically get a package discount, not to mention that it simplifies everything.

As far as food and activities, you need to book those separately.  Tripadvisor is my absolute favorite travel site for finding places to eat and things to do, we use it on every single trip and we've never been disappointed with something that's been rated highly on there.  For food, you can either look up a few places in advance so you know places you want to try, or just pop on while you're local and get the app on your phone and use their 'near me now' feature.

For activities, I recommend looking up a few things you know you are interested in doing.  If there is something you know you 100% want to do, go ahead and book it in advance directly through the company that offers the tour (they usually have a link to their websites if you find them on tripadvisor).  Sometimes, places offer a discount if you book a certain amount of time in advance, and most places are flexible with the dates if you run into inclement weather while you're there.  I also recommend to leave several days available to either just lounge on the beach, or to book anything else you hear about.  For example, when we went to Kauai, we got a lot more rain than we were expecting, so one of our 'beach' days was kind of pointless, so we went to the concierge and booked an ATV tour, which wasn't something we thought we'd do, but was the perfect activity to do in the rain.

Gisellerina

I stayed at the Grand Wailea in Maui last October and loved it.  While there, we took a helicopter tour through Blue Hawaiian - it was amazing!  I can't remember who we used for our Molokini snorkel tour, but wasn't impressed - they were very pushy about using pool noodles to snorkel.  If you've never tried it, snorkeling on a pool noodle is just weird.  Several of the tour operators are very pushy about that.  Other than that we just laid on the beach and by the pool.  One of our favorite restaurants was Mama's Fish House.  If you like sushi, KAI Wailea is very good.  Things like snorkel tours and helicopter tours can fill up quickly, so you may want to schedule those things well in advance and for the beginning of your trip.  Then if they're cancelled due to weather, those activities can be rescheduled, so you don't miss out.

Annie584

Thank you all SO SO much for the advice!!  I truly appreciate you taking the time to comment )

audubonbride2013

We just got back from our HM on Oahu and Maui.  We loved both islands and want to plan a trip back to explore some of the other islands.  

We booked using Costco Travel because that gave us the best rate at the time.  We packaged our hotels, rental cars, and some activities on both islands through Costco.  I recommend not booking too many activities in advance so you have time to explore on your own.  Like PPs I also recommend getting a rental car.

While we were on Maui we stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Ka'anapali.  It was a great resort with a big pool, water slides, and a hot tub, but they just started renovations before we left so if you are interested you will want to make sure the renovations will be done.  

For activities, we really loved walking around Lahaina and exploring Front Street.  We also really enjoyed the road to Hana for waterfalls and the black sand beach, but that is a full day trip so make sure you leave early to get it all in.  We booked a snorkel trip to Molokini and sunset dinner cruise through Costco.  The water was rough the day of the snorkel trip so that didn't end up being too great.  We honestly found better snorkeling on Maui by just walking down the beach to Black Rock in Ka'anapali and swimming from shore.  The sunset dinner cruise was nice, but that's something you could book while you are down there with no problem.  We also went to Royal Lahaina Luau and really enjoyed that.  Some of the luaus book up in advance so if you want to go to a particular luau I would book that in advance.

silver0319

@audubonbride2013, your HM sounds lovely! FI and I are strongly considering a Hawaii HM through Costco. Did you use Costco Travel online or did you book it over the phone? We would love to do a multi-island trip but the website doesn't seem to give that option.

audubonbride2013

@silver0319 We booked everything online.  I believe there was an option to look for multi-region trips when we searched Hawaii on Costco's site, and that gave us multi-island options.