Hawaii

Maui Honeymoon Review

Here is my Maui Honeymoon Review, it was our first time to Maui so I hope it's helpful. I know there are girls on the board that can be of way more help than this...but I thought I'd share.

 

 

Costco Travel: A

If you’re a Costco member I highly recommend you checking out their travel offers. We did & booked our honeymoon through them. It was our hotel stay (7nights) at the Royal Lahaina, a Luau at our hotel, $250 in food/drink credit, breakfast buffet for 2 daily, 2 mai tai’s nightly, sunset dinner sail (amazing!), rental car, & valet parking (or regular) all for $2430.  We were able to afford it & thought all the events were great & had a great time staying at this hotel.

 

Royal Lahaina: A

This is a more Hawaiian hotel on the Kaanapali beach, but I loved it for a number of reasons. 1- It was more quiet & peaceful than bigger hotels with water slides & kids running about. 2- The beach had less people & was wider than the other beach to the east of the Sheraton & Black rock. 3- Newly renovated, so the room was newer, with a comfy bed, nice lanai, & Hawaiian modern décor. Finally, the mai tai’s were great & they had 2 pools that were never crowded, could always find a lounge chair, we were able to use their shuffle board & bocce ball pits. Overall, it’s a hotel, & we really didn’t spend a TON of time there, we knew it wasn’t the Ritz Carlton & we are reasonable people. But were pleasantly surprised with our choice!

 

Alamo Car Rental: A-

I know with car places they say “or a like model” of cars, but we had upgraded our package to get a convertible. Only we got a Sebring convertible & not the mustang we thought we were getting. Then we were taunted all over the island by other mustang’s that went whizzing by. Our car ran fine, it was a convertible & did the job, but we still wanted a mustang L

 

Royal Lahaina Luau: B

I didn’t think this was all that special. I had been to the Paradise Cove one on Oahu the year before & they had games, & lei making, & more entertainment & better food. The food was standard, the MC for the night was cheesy. If you like kitsch & are ok w/ OK food & entertainment I’d go here. We did it only b/c it was included in our package. Otherwise I hear the Old Lahaina Luau is where it’s at. I will say, they had open bar which was nice, just order a mixed drink b/c they pre-make all the blue hawaii’s & mai tai’s so it’s light on the alcohol.

 

Skyline Eco Adventures: A

This was both our first times zip lining so we decided to try the 5 line course at the base of the Haleakala Crater Nat’l Park. It was a fun time for first timer’s. Anyone who knew what they were doing would be bored until the last 2 zips. It was a great time for us & money well spent. It takes you through a forest, they talk about some birds that are indigenous to Hawaii, & then we crossed our 5 lines. They are VERY safety conscious, which I liked. I would advise booking online in advance b/c they were saying they were selling out every day.

 

Teralani Dinner Sunset Sail: A+

We were both thinking this would be some cheap weird excursion, but were pleasantly surprised when this larger catamaran pulled up to wisk us away on a 2 ½ hour sunset sail. Took us from our hotel beach, down to the Ritz Carlton’s cove area & dropped anchor to eat, then sailed back up towards the east, turned around & came back to the Sheraton in time to see their nightly torch lighting ceremony where the guy jumps into the ocean. VERY COOL! Helps that we had one heck of a sunset…the night b/f we had rain & were glad we hadn’t chosen that night to go. Overall, I totally recommend it.

 

Mama’s Fish House: A

We booked our reservations weeks in advance of our trip & let them know it was a special occasion. We had a seat by the window, with a card congratulating us on our wedding. Then the manager came out with a special lei for me J It was very special. I loved the food, I know some people think it’s over priced, but I live in Los Angeles…food/living is expensive. It was good food…we got the macadamia encrusted crab cakes, I got the lobster & crab stuffed Mahi (little TOO rich after crab cakes), my husband got the Pepper encrusted Ahi tuna cooked rare. It was all rather delicious! I got the lilkoi colada which was amazing & DH got the Mai Tai, which he liked. Overall, it was a special meal together…we thoroughly enjoyed it...especially the view!

 

Road to Hana: B

All I can say is we left at 5:30am, & should have packed more food & water…not much opens b/f 7-8am along the drive. Too many people & everyone has the maui revealed book, so it’s not really like it’s ever just you. We liked the back half of it the best. Less people & we ended up doing the WHOLE road around which was really cool. That part I liked.

 

Maui Brewing Company: A

 DH & I love craft brews, if you do too check out their tour as well as their brew pub. Great beer we can’t get here on the mainland! Loved the food at the pub too it was all great!

 

Haleakala Crater: A+

We didn’t do the bike ride down…to be honest that looked more dangerous than zip lining! But we did drive to 10,000 feet & it is a site to be seen. It was crazy to be above the clouds & to see the silverswords. We loved it & were so glad we did it. Takes a while to get up there, but it’s worth it!

 

Overall we had a great honeymoon…did a lot of hiking & some shopping. Definitely get to Lahaina to see the Banyan tree, its amazing! Had a lot of fun, took a lot of pictures. I advise driving as much of the island as you can b/c it’s so different in each part of it.

Re: Maui Honeymoon Review

  • edited December 2011
    Sounds like a great trip!  Thanks for the reviews.  Must try Maui Brewing Co our next trip out.
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  • FSForeverFSForever member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Thank you so much for the review.  Sounds like you had a great time. 
    We use Costco every year for spring break trips and this year I started looking at the packages for the HM part of our Maui trip. I have been watching for the calendar to finally flip so that I can see what deals are around the corner but I think we may need to wait until the first of the year to book and get the extras. 
    I am glad you posted re Hana.  We have been debating if we should do that with the kids or wait and go it alone.  I'm thinking alone. 
    Again glad you had a good time.  

  • edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_hawaii_maui-honeymoon-review?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:73Discussion:9d42e85c-2ea4-4dbe-a01e-5ef11bd289b5Post:21a05d73-af00-4a4c-8993-a1f443e717b7">Re: Maui Honeymoon Review</a>:
    [QUOTE]I am glad you posted re Hana.  We have been debating if we should do that with the kids or wait and go it alone.  I'm thinking alone.  Again glad you had a good time.  
    Posted by FSForever[/QUOTE]
    Alone.  Absolutely.  Unless you have patient kids, it's a loooooong way to be in a car with no escape.  And it's not even like you can drop them off and let them find their own way back.  No cabs.  No buses.  LOL.
    image
  • breanessbreaness member
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Thank you so much for the review! There are so many things on here that we are planning on doing so it really helps :)
  • edited December 2011
    Yay thanks for this! Cant wait to go there on our honeymoon!
  • kimmykupcakeskimmykupcakes member
    5 Love Its First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Great reviews! Thanks! I'm glad to hear Mama's went above and beyond since we are having our wedding and reception there. I'm going to check out Costco for some of our other honeymoon travel.  Thanks for reminding me of that.
  • fabutanfabutan member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Yayee, great reviews!  Glad you had a wonderful honeymoon...   I want to/have to/need to do a sunset sail next time!!  :)

  • FSForeverFSForever member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_hawaii_maui-honeymoon-review?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:73Discussion:9d42e85c-2ea4-4dbe-a01e-5ef11bd289b5Post:c4846fa6-80c5-4afb-81e0-1372166d02de">Re: Maui Honeymoon Review</a>:
    [QUOTE]In Response to Re: Maui Honeymoon Review : Alone.  Absolutely.  Unless you have patient kids, it's a loooooong way to be in a car with no escape.  And it's not even like you can drop them off and let them find their own way back.  No cabs.  No buses.  LOL.
    Posted by Tanq&Tonic[/QUOTE]

    <div>They are very patient and travel a lot so they would be appreciative but there is just some stuff we want to experiance alone. </div><div>
    </div><div>I'm glad you added Mama's too. We were thinking of having a dinner or even staying part of our HM there. </div>
  • carrieoz_76carrieoz_76 member
    Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_hawaii_maui-honeymoon-review?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:73Discussion:9d42e85c-2ea4-4dbe-a01e-5ef11bd289b5Post:21a05d73-af00-4a4c-8993-a1f443e717b7">Re: Maui Honeymoon Review</a>:
    [QUOTE] I am glad you posted re Hana.  We have been debating if we should do that with the kids or wait and go it alone.  I'm thinking alone.
    Posted by FSForever[/QUOTE]
    I'm not sure kids would like much of the actual drive from the backseat, although they'd probably like the pools at the end (but depending on their age, I'd worry about them).  But for adults, I think Hana is not to be missed.  While there are often a few other people in popular places, the only place that really gets crowded is the pools at the end - which is less crowded earlier in the day because the buses haven't arrived yet.  <div>
    </div><div>The road to Hana feels like what Hawaii must have been like without all the trappings of the developments, and it spoke to us.  We loved it so much the first time we went, we stayed there at the beginning of our honeymoon so we'd have more time to explore it, and it was absolutely worth it b/c we got to go to a couple places the daytrippers don't have time for (like a gorgeous pool that's off the beaten path, and a hike into a bamboo forest).  </div>
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