<p>Does anyone have ideas for places to visit - we’ve been to Hawaii a few times but not to Maui. Will be there in a few weeks to celebrate P’s 55th and our 30th. (We’ll have our own car, so don’t have to take Mom and Dad with… though the nude beaches may be out due to gravitational forces…) We’re more the nature and history type instead of nightlife… most of the guide books I find are geared too much toward nightclubs, shopping and picking a hotel (we’re set there). Any hidden gems?</p>
<p>do haleakala volcano. take the road to hana. Stop at half the waterfalls and get under the flow. (Can’t do half. There’s a bunch.) Play on black beach right before Hana. We had maybe two other couples in the whole area. Eat seafood fresh caught every night. Take the $29 sightseeing boat BEFORE the $70 whale/porpoise watching boat. If they are there, can’t remember the migration, you’ll see them on the $29 just as well. Go out to the snorkel place, the arch, the cone, the something. A rock in the middle of nowhere. LOL. Swim with the sea turtles on that same snorkel. . uhhhhh. that’s all for now. Do the vineyard up the mountain. Go all the way around the island. (The rent car companies are just chickens. LOL.) The aquarium is nice on a bad day.</p>
<p>BTW the haleakala road and the road to Hana are as spectacular as you are likely to find. I wish I had been on a motorcycle. ;)</p>
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<p>That would be Molokini!</p>
<p>I definitely recommend both the road to Hana and Haleakala. Be sure to start your trip to Hana early so you have time for the black sand beach and can continue on past Hana to the Seven Sacred Pools/Oheo Gulch where there are some really nice pools and waterfalls. One of my S’s favorite places is La Perouse Bay which is a huge rocky lava flow from the last volcanic eruption in the late 1700’s (his favorite, however, is the sunrise bike ride down from Haleakala). If you want to see Maui’s rainforests be sure to visit the Iao State Valley Park and the Iao Needle.</p>
<p>That’s it!!Thanks roshke. You are spot on today. (OT: Thanks for the post earlier.;)) </p>
<p>W said “arches” was puerto vallarta.</p>
<p>Oh, and she remembered the neenee birds. We saw some. Well, we are pretty dang sure we did and convinced ourselves we did anyway.</p>
<p>curm - Glad to help. Thanks for that steak dinner, too! ;)</p>
<p>If you don’t want to go to Molokini to snorkel, or just want to be able to go from shore, you can snorkel at Black Rock by the Sheraton. You can just go off the beach there.</p>
<p>dragonmom,
We are going to Maui at the end of this month! I’d like to recommend an excellent guide book called, “Maui Revealed” by Andrew Doughty. It has all of the ideas mentioned above plus more. They’ve left most of the hotel information out and instead provide a link so you can get that from their website. My SIL, got it at a great price on half.com. I am a bit anal about researching for vacations (and colleges and…) and this is the best book out there for Maui.</p>
<p>Some of us are going to do a zipline at Skyline Eco-adventures. <a href=“http://www.travelwithachallenge.com/Hawaii-Zipline.htm[/url]”>http://www.travelwithachallenge.com/Hawaii-Zipline.htm</a> I also want to go to an organic farm where they grow coffee and fruit. We went to Maui several years ago and had a wonderful time and are excited to be going back.</p>
<p>Too long since I’ve been there to add anything useful. Unless I can think of the name of the restaurant in Lahaina that we lovelovelove.</p>
<p>Just jumped on the thread to say… I think we have a <strong><em>winner</em></strong> in the Thread Title department.</p>
<p>btw, it was Maui Zowie in my day ;).</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great ideas. I’ll head to Half-price books tomorrow to see if they have the book kathiep suggested (and unload a ton of AP review books, college guides and misc. paperbacks. Think we’ll keep most of the required reading books from English classes “just in case” she ever wants to revisit some of them.)</p>
<p>Hi dragonmom: </p>
<p>We go to a different island every summer, so I have been to Maui 1/2 dozen times. My favorite guide book is Hidden Maui</p>
<p>First of all, the road to Hana is surely an all-day trip and if you really want to enjoy it, get a room at the Hana hotel (there are just 2 out there) for the night. Then you can visit the 7 sacred pools and stay awhile. Most people make the mistake of driving out and then having to turn around and drive back. If you can take your time on the road and stay awhile, it is more enjoyable. Waterfalls depend on how much rain they have had each year. Some years they are spectacular, others less so. If you are going soon, it is early enough, you may have good water. The road to Hana gets crowded, so you should go early. Take good shoes for climbing on the rocks etc. to get to the waterfalls. There are lots to look at, but if you want to get in them, you will have to do a little walking. Just past the hotels at Hana is a red sand and black sand beach. Again, both require a little walking, but worth it. </p>
<p>If you are adventurous, take one of the group excursions that go up to see sunrise over Haleakala, and then bike down (it is all downhill…really!) The back country along the road is very, very pretty. You have to get up really, really, really early for this and it is chilly up there at sunrise (so borrow blankets from the hotel!). We did it on our honeymoon (22 years ago!!!). </p>
<p>Snorkling at Molokini is great, but you do need to do the organized trip out there as it is a nature preserve. There is a great snorkling beach at the very end of the road on the south side of the island on the Wailea side. By the way, the south side is my favorite side to stay on. It’s is away from the Lahaina night life, which is fine by me. The Wailea side is quieter and more lush.</p>
<p>This time of year, a lot of the fun organized activities sell out. Go online and just google Maui for some fun excursions (if you like the organized type). There are lots of back country activities, but you need to research before. You can usually get better prices in advance.</p>
<p>When my daughter and I were in Maui a few years back, we took a guided horseback trail ride from the rim of Haleakala down into the crater. That was really amazing and we still talk about it to this day. We also did a helicopter tour on the big island and on Kauai. I’m pretty sure that you can find them on Maui as well. Also, if you haven’t learned to surf or windsurf, that’s a great way to spend a day – lots of places available for lessons and it’s really not that hard to learn.</p>
<p>Another thought. Go see The Old Lahaina Luau. It’s authentic and it’s great. Beautiful setting, really friendly people, great show – well worth the money and both educational and entertaining.</p>
<p>For the faint at heart, surf lessons in Lahaina harbor are “tame”</p>
<p>I’ve spent most of the day on the computer talking to my sister in laws and planning some things for our family to do in Maui - we leave in two weeks! Thought I might share some links that I found. We have a group of 24 people but it looks like we’ll be doing things in groups of 6-12, depending on interests. </p>
<p>Here’s what we have so far:
Sunday: Lay around the hotel all day (huge hotel on the beach with multiple pools) Monday: group of 12 are going to bike down volcano with <a href=“Cruiser Phils - Bike Maui”>Cruiser Phils - Bike Maui; 6 more of us (maybe more) are going to go kayaking and snorkeling here: <a href=“http://www.hawaiisnorkelingguide.com/turtle_town_maui.html[/url]”>http://www.hawaiisnorkelingguide.com/turtle_town_maui.html</a><br>
Tuesday: 6 of us are going to take a plane to Oahu (only $39 each way!) and visit Pearl Harbor. My husband said he might go scuba diving that day. Another group of the twenty-somethings and teens might do this: <a href=“http://www.goofyfootsurfschool.com/[/url]”>http://www.goofyfootsurfschool.com/</a>
Wednesday: some sort of Hawaiian special breakfast for all 24. I don’t know the details, probably pool lying and maybe shopping later.<br>
Thursday: The road to Hana. I loved this drive, my sons remembered it as boring!</p>
<p>Friday: zipline for 11! The place I had mentioned before was all booked at their original location but have just opened up a new longer, higher (i.e. more expensive) zipline and we’re going to try it out. Might do this cruise at night: <a href=“http://www.hawaiiactivities.com/index.cfm?activity=EBABF634-29BB-496D-901999890A73E4C3[/url]”>http://www.hawaiiactivities.com/index.cfm?activity=EBABF634-29BB-496D-901999890A73E4C3</a> or suggest that my parents try it. Saturday will be our last day and I’m sure I’ll be rounding up coffee and pineapple to take home. Nothing like a little planning to get me excited!</p>
<p>one more comment about doing the Road to Hana: if you are prone to carsickness (which I am) - well, let’s just say that you will certainly deserve that “I survived the Road to Hana” t-shirt! And you will enjoy it much more if you do stay overnight in Hana.</p>
<p>Well, we are going to Maui in 2 weeks and wondering how Dragonmom’s trip was?</p>