Maui Beach Hotel

Road Trip USA 2002: Maui, Mar 22-25

by M0B1US

This page chronicles my epic overland journey of the United States from landing in New York on January 28th 2002, to my departure from Oahu on April 7th 2002 for New Zealand.

Maui: From Oahu on to the The Big Island.

We wanted to go somewhere more exotic than Oahu, especially when it was being very windy while we were there, and knew that we had to book flights to the Big Island to take up our friend’s generous offer of accommodation and guided tours. So, why not a quick detour to Maui?

Normally interisland air travel is very reasonably priced with fares ranging from $60-95, and a whole range of discount coupons and air passes with Hawai’ian, Aloha and Island Air. However we booked our flights at very short notice and were affected by returning during the Easter break, and the after effects of 9/11 which still meant route cancellations half a year on.

As we needed a hire car and accommodation as well, we got a ‘package deal’ of flights to Maui, the Big Island and return to Oahu, three nights accommodation in Kahului and a hire car for an all up price of less than $800 for two people.

Landing in the morning at the small Kahului airport, it was a simple task to clear baggage and pick up our hire car and be on our way within about 15 minutes, which has to have been one of the fastest airport turnarounds in my long experience!

The airport is very close to town and an easy drive to our hotel, the Maui Beach Hotel on Kaahumanu Ave in the centre of town overlooking Kahului bay where cruise ships dock. The hotel was fairly average, but was good value and well located for Maui, right in the middle of the island’s attractions.

As the major town on Maui, it has the cheapest amenities such as food, petrol and shopping than the tourist resorts. Also, as it’s more like an everyday town than a resort, the accommodation is much more reasonable too. If you plan on visiting Haleakala or Hana, staying here easily knocks an hour off your travelling times each way! Our favourite activities were:

Whale Watching from Ma’alaea Bay with the The Pacific Whale Foundation as it is a non-profit making organisation whose proceeds are ploughed back into the study and protection of Humpbacked Whales. We had a good time and saw a number of whales and dolphins, unfortunately we weren’t treated to any breaches, but it was well worth the time going!

A leisurely evening stroll of Lahaina , parking a little east of the Banyan Tree and taking in the historic waterfront before stopping to eat at the Pioneer Inn, which was very nice indeed! Followed by some window shopping.

Viewing the Sunrise at the summit of Haleakala - When it came, the dawn was utterly breathtaking, it was one of the best and most moving experiences I''ve ever had...

Exploring Upcountry Maui and visiting the Island’s only winery, one of only two in all of Hawai’i and we managed to visit both in the end!

Attending the Maui Marriott Lu’au, although apparently not quite in the same league as the Old Lahaina Lu’au, was still great fun nonetheless featuring performers from seven different Polynesian nations and an awesome Fire Knife Throwing display as its finale…

It was with a heavy heart that we left Maui as three days was obviously not enough to cover the whole island and we had to make the difficult choice of not doing the Hana road – something for next time perhaps, when we can also visit Kauai and Molokai?

Maui from a Polynesan Tour Bus

by grandmaR

"Sunday June 20 - Arriving in Maui"

My grandson said he had been waking up at 5:30 so I did not set a wake-up call and of course we didn't wake up until 6:30. We threw on our clothes and went up to the buffet to eat. I had bacon and a bagel and cranberry juice. I also stuck a roll in my pocket.

He could not find his passport (he needs a photo ID to get back to the ship), so he gave me his backpack and I found it. Then I told him to put the backpack away and when he did this he stood up suddenly and wacked his head a very good one on the folded back upper bunk. I did not know whether I should take him to the doctor or not, but decided not to. Our tour today was the volcano. I walked out to the gate on shore but he was caught by the photographer bird

They put me and another lady aside to sit up front on the bus, which was good. My grandson (with a headache from coming up under the bunk bed) sat in the back by a window. But the bus driver made him come and sit by me which annoyed him VERY much. He was having trouble taking photos from that seat.

We saw one of the vans of the biking people - they go up to the top and just coast all the way down. The bike ride begins at 6500’ elevation of Mount Haleakala, OUTSIDE the park, where you will descend the 21 switchbacks on the western slopes with only 200 yards of pedaling. I didn't pick that as a tour because it was a long time since I rode a bike and my grandson only learned to ride a bike recently.

On the way up to the Haleakala Crater. we stopped to snap a photo of Tom Cruise's garden.

On the way down we stopped for a snack at a roadside stand, and we saw horse farms and the sugar cane factory. We got back to the ship about 1300.

When you get back on the ship, first a guard comes and has to see a photo ID and the ship card of everyone on the bus (my grandson has been carrying the copy of his passport photo instead of the passport, and I have been using my driver's license), and then you have to go through a full security scan like at the airport, except you don't have to take off your shoes. I forgot that I had my cell phone the first time and had to be wanded. After we got on board again, we had lunch in the buffet as the dining room is never open for lunch.

My grandson went up and participated in a soccer tournament and got the second place trophy which was a sports drink cooler/bottle. (Orange). I went to Trivia and won a deck of cards. I ate in the dining room and had cheese cauliflower soup, beef stroganoff and Dark Chocolate Orange Bavarian Cream.

The cabin steward gets to our room quite late - I have to stay dressed longer than I would like. When he got to our room he made a cobra out of the bedspread (which is just kind of a scarf thing across the bed and not a full bedspread).

I asked him what the round thing in the bathroom was and apparently it is where you put a sharps container if you need one.

The other thing that happened to my grandson this evening was that he missed a step and fell and smashed his camera screen (it still works - you just can't see the pictures until you download them). It is fortunate that I took all my cameras with me as he can now go back to using the one that he had in Yellowstone.

"June 21st - The Best of Maui"

Again we had breakfast in the buffet and got to the tour early and were allowed to board and sit in the front. This time I picked to sit on the right where there is a better view. We had the same bus driver as yesterday, but my grandson was much happier today. The tour is the Best of Maui and it is a fairly long tour.

First we stopped at some kind of park where there were buildings in the style of the seven nationalities that make up Hawaii - Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Portuguese, Puerto Rican (I think), Polynesian and US. He did the whole circuit of the park and I just took in the area around the bus and used the bathroom.

Then we went up to another state park (Iao Valley) where there was a volcano tube core like a needle, and a stream and some waterfalls. My grandson again did all the trails and I just walked up to the bridge and back.

Our next visit was to a Maui Tropical Plantation - a working plantation where we had a little trolley ride (our trolley time was 10:40) to see how various things grew and had a coconut husking demonstration. But first I bought some things and had them shipped.

After the trolley ride they gave us lunch. This consisted of a cup of pineapple (I ate my grandson's as he does not like fruit), a fried shrimp (I gave mine to my grandson), Hawaiian chicken, and rice. There was banana cake and coffee at the end. I got the cake and he ate the cake part (he said he had never had banana cake before) and I ate the icing on his which he didn't want.

Our last stop was the Maui Ocean Center, and this was a marvelous aquarium with just Hawaiian fish. I got a wheelchair - my grandson doesn't have enough mass to push me in a wheelchair up an incline, but the wheelchair had wheels that I could push too. We got some really good photos I think which I have posted the first part of. We left there about 2:30

After we got back on the ship, my grandson went up to the sports deck and I went down to the cabin to take a shower. I was trying to figure out how to work the shower. I did not see that the temperature control was on the side, and I was only turning the water pressure knob, when the hand held shower head came off the stand and sprayed all around - which since I was standing half out of the shower and had the bathroom door open also, that meant that the bathroom mirror and the closet doors also got some spray. Anyway I had a nice shower when I finally got the temperature turned down.

I edited and posted some of our photos for the Ocean Center. My grandson went to the Second City show which he LOVED, and he came back and recounted the complete show for me - he was wired.

The towel animal tonight was an elephant which he also liked

We moved overnight to the Hilo on the Big Island.