Maui in April - Two Weeks with the Family

[freshprince1]

So as we drove home in the snow last night, we booked 2 weeks in Maui in mid April 2015; have been planning to do so for some time....just so happened that it was snowing when we finally got around to doing it. Taking the whole family (wife and 3 kids [7, 5, and 1]), as we enjoy vacationing with our little humans.

I read through a couple of older threads about Maui, and am pretty excited. We frequent Hawaii, but this will be our first time to Maui. We love the beach, hiking, exploring, and just relaxing - no interest in night life. We will likely book a condo in Kamaole III - we're not resort people.

I would love to hear any suggestions or experiences about Maui, especially things that the kids might find enjoyable i.e. good beaches, parks, zoological stuff, tours. And perhaps some suggestions on a couple adult activities like longer hikes, helicopter tours, boat tour/dinners...etc (the in-laws are coming and will have a couple days with just the wife).

Thanks for the help!!

Mahalo!

[benyl]

My kid likes the Maui Ocean center. You can pick up starfish and sea cucumbers.

We just got back from Maui. It was our second time. Don't think we will be going again for a while.

Food isn't as good. Everything is more expensive.

Don't get me wrong, it is a great place. We just like Oahu and what it has to offer a little more.

April is pretty late to catch the whales. I think they are all gone by then.

If you want to swim with sea turtles, this cove right by the pool is full of them.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/504...9f2ced702c4abf

tough to find parking around there though.

[freshprince1]

2 days until departure....current plans are:

- Molokini Snorkel and BBQ tour with with 2 older kids (5 & 7)
- Maui Ocean Center
- Road to Hana
- beaches
- metal detecting on the beach with the kids
- a few hikes
- more beaches
- Condo in Kamaole booked

Can't wait to get out of here. Any other suggestions?

[Tik-Tok]

Just a side note, the east side of Hana is fully driveable back from there (highway 31), and has some nice points of view. The road is rough in a lot of spots, but we took a mustang convertible with no problem.

You aren't stuck behind all the slow geezers scared of their own shadow that way.

[idriveabox]

Skip the Molokini snorkel tour if anyone in the family gets sea sick easily. My wife hurled the entire way out and during (money well spent).

[locust]

Go eat at monkeypod. http://www.monkeypodkitchen.com/ amazing pies.

Drive up to Haleakalā crator. It's a neat view 10000 feet above sea level. You literally drive through the clouds.

[freshprince1]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
Just a side note, the east side of Hana is fully driveable back from there (highway 31), and has some nice points of view. The road is rough in a lot of spots, but we took a mustang convertible with no problem.

You aren't stuck behind all the slow geezers scared of their own shadow that way.

Good to know! We'll be rocking the minivan, so we should be good.

Originally posted by idriveabox
Skip the Molokini snorkel tour if anyone in the family gets sea sick easily. My wife hurled the entire way out and during (money well spent).

We're pretty good on boats...but I think wifey plans to dose the kids with a bit of children's gravol just in case!

Originally posted by locust
Go eat at monkeypod. http://www.monkeypodkitchen.com/ amazing pies.

Drive up to Haleakalā crator. It's a neat view 10000 feet above sea level. You literally drive through the clouds.

Thanks, we'll add it to the list.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[austic]

Last trip highlights
Scuba diving was fantastic and we did the back wall of molokini so the snorkel trip should be great.

Trip to the crater was fun, there is a goat farm and really good ranch in that area if you make a day out of it.

Road to Hanna was mind numbingly annoying. Slow cars, terrified terrible drivers all following in a slow moving straight line to stop at all the same stops.

[JustinL]

There's a coffee and bake shop in Upcountry that we go to every time we're in Maui. It's called Grandma's coffee house in Kula. https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Gra...c1a3ec41103a88

Nice quiet place to grab a snack and a great view from up there.

Waihee Ridge Trail is a nice hike that you can do with the whole family too.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Wai...ce6dcb872ff0a0

[npham]

- Star Noodle is always a favourite place of ours to check out when we are there.
- The brunch/breakfast at the restaurant for Kapalua/Plantation House is fantastic. You watch people tee off and come down 18 from the restaurant too.
- Surprised no one said Costco yet. It's usually the first stop after getting your rental car and your last stop to fill up the rental. Get water, snacks, sun screen, patio chair, discounted gift cards for restaurants and tours.
- Private sea kayaking and snorkeling was tons of fun.
- Sunrise at Haleakala was fun(got engaged here), but cold. Dress appropriately.

[mo_money2supe]

We'll also be visiting Maui, leaving in two weeks time, staying for just shy of two weeks. I've read all the other threads already; just following this one for additional info. We'll be travelling with our 14-mth old so any infant-friendly tips would be appreciated too. I've already bookmarked everything mentioned. Will be splitting up our trip staying in Kula, Ka'anapali, and Wailea. TIA!

[89coupe]

Last summer we stayed in Wailea for two weeks at this location, highly recommend it for anyone with a family.

http://www.vrbo.com/312644

The beaches along Wailea are awesome.

Some of our favorite activities included.

Haleakala
Road to Hana
Hiking up to Waimoku Falls
Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay
Snorkeling cruise with http://www.aliinuimaui.com/ by far the nicest Catamaran in Maui.

I'll post some pics in a bit.

[89coupe]

Maui 2014

View from our Condo


Condo from the outside


Garden path to beach from condo


Wailea Coastline & Beaches





Alii Nui Catamaran


Hanauma Bay


West Coast

[89coupe]

Hana Side/Coast Line









Waimoku Falls


Haleakala



Maui Beach Sunset

[freshprince1]

Great suggestions, everyone. Thanks for the info! We're really looking forward to it. I will post up a list for the things we did and liked when we get back for anyone else reading this in the future.

Originally posted by mo_money2supe
We'll also be visiting Maui, leaving in two weeks time, staying for just shy of two weeks. I've read all the other threads already; just following this one for additional info. We'll be travelling with our 14-mth old so any infant-friendly tips would be appreciated too. I've already bookmarked everything mentioned. Will be splitting up our trip staying in Kula, Ka'anapali, and Wailea. TIA!

That's how old our youngest is. Looks like we'll overlap by a day! PM me your email address if you have any questions as your trip comes up. I'll likely be checking email at night when the kids head to bed.

[v2kai]

If youre in Lahaina, good eats on the cheap (relatively) and pretty much right on the beach with nice relaxed atmosphere is a small restaurant called Aloha Mixed Plate. Added bonus, they have their own parking lot. The fried noodles there are awesome. Rest of the menu is pretty good too.

Da Kitchen offered some decent food. Bit greasy though.

The Cannery Mall is a bit of a hole in the ground but they had free hula dancing shows which might be nice for kids. I think it was the local dance clubs that put it on as there were a range of ages including youth dancers and adult. Also there was a Pho restaurant in the food court. Most expensive pho I've had in my life lol but the broth was actually some of the best I've ever had. Stingy on the meat though.

The farmers market was also neat to check out near the gift shop of the aquarium.

Speaking from our own experiences, we really liked Kihei. Nice and quiet compared to Lahaina and lots of beaches to chill out on.

My wife and I did Molokini with the Alii Nuii and it was a great excursion but from our experience some of the best snorkeling we did was straight off the beach. Molokini had larger schools of fish but the majority of the neat stuff I saw like a moray eel, flounder, young lion fish, turtles etc was just by heading out from a random beach. The clip below was the highlight of our snorkeling adventures. We had to walk through the Sheraton to get to that particular beach, it was on the sheltered side of black rock. Because the hotel blocks easy access it was pretty quiet, only a few hotel goers on the beach and a couple teens jumping from the rock face further out.

I saw a fin sticking out from under the rock and decided to dive down to have a look... I think I woke him/her up. Whoops. I think it thought my teal gopro strap was a piece of seaweed because it came within a few inches of my camera lens. Really cool experience. (I'm aware of the protection laws, I didn't touch it!) The turtle was around four to four and a half feet long, the biggest we saw while we were there. Super chill and after few big gulps of air went back under the rock to have a nap. Also you can hear the whales in the background. /end Maui video whoring



On our way out to the airport we randomly found this place to have dinner http://www.mauikavabar.com/
I had the grilled salmon and it was awesome. Nice simple meal before getting on the plane for the long haul back to Canada and quite close to the airport.

Hope all the beyonders heading out to Maui have a great trip!

[austic]

Originally posted by v2kai
If youre in Lahaina, good eats on the cheap (relatively) and pretty much right on the beach with nice relaxed atmosphere is a small restaurant called Aloha Mixed Plate. Added bonus, they have their own parking lot. The fried noodles there are awesome. Rest of the menu is pretty good too.

I forgot about that place, love going there for breakfast

[J-D]

Originally posted by v2kai
Added bonus, they have their own parking lot.

This sums up the only thing I hate about hawaii in one sentence. The amount of time I've spent driving around aimlessly trying to park, goddamn

[austic]

Ya everyone has a rental car on the island so its tough to park. Only Downside to Maui