A few months ago we took an incredible trip to Maui. The boyfriend (Evan) was there to shoot a wedding and I was there to soak up the sun. I didn’t bring any of my professional camera gear, but I did have my trusty, compact Fuji X100. I don’t know much about the wedding other than the couple got married on a boat and I picked Evan up a few hours later, sunburned and wearing a purple lei. He looked lovely. He definitely had a great time.
To say that this trip was a bit last minute and thrown together, would be an understatement. (Then again, anything that isn’t meticulously planned for months for me falls into the category). But things were crazy busy and wedding season was in high gear right beforehand so we set our focus on this being more of a business trip then leisurely.
I decided to rent a car at the very last minute and it was by far the best idea I have ever had in my life. First of all, car rentals are stupidly cheap on the island and driving is really, really easy and very leisurely.
We stayed at Kahana Falls in Lahaina, which had some really great reviews and it was a short jaunt to Kaanapali, the location of the wedding. Our room at Kahana Falls came with a mini kitchenette – which included a microwave, mini fridge, toaster, and dishware/utensils. We took advantage to our close proximity to a Safeway to get snacks and in-between meals and we even grilled out one night near the pool. Speaking of the pool, it’s just as awesome as the reviews say. Sandy bottom, waterfall perfection with tons of loungers nearby.
My only suggestion would be to upgrade to a suite with a full kitchen so you don’t roll out of bed right into the kitchenette every morning. On a really fun note, I taught Evan how to make scrambled eggs in the microwave. He didn’t know that was a thing. It totally is when you don’t have a stove.
We spent the couple of days after the wedding driving around and just bumming around on every single beach we could find. The really neat thing about Maui is that all of the beaches are publicly accessible and most have ample parking. One of our drives included taking Honoapiilani Highway all the way around the north-west part of the island and then back up to Kaanapali. We stopped at the Nakalele Blowhole on the way, but it was just a hole that day. Then we proceeded to Iao Valley State Park, which was closed. Luckily, there’s plenty to explore around the park and we were just having a great time hiking and enjoying the amazing weather.
Our next adventure was to the south-west part of the island, to Makena Beach. We walked through Makena State Park and watched it open up to this beautiful, large beach. It was terrific, but we saw that several people were climbing up the rocks to our right so we HAD to follow them. As we were walking down the lush path down towards the beach on the other side of the rocks, we passed a German couple and the man exclaimed “you’ve found the best beach on the island!” <Please tell me you read that sentence in a German accent>.
We hit the sand and Evan, who was behind me, grabbed my hand. He only said one word, “um ….”. I looked up and I saw SO MUCH NUDITY. I’ll let you decide if we stayed or if we left, but in case you are looking for it, it’s called Little Beach and you can access it through Makena State Park.
Unfortunately, we did not do the Road to Hana because we ran out of time, but we had some lovely adventures so we were not too sad. And we promised to come back … soon!
