Time for a life status update - I've graduated to an Mrs now. (micdrop, ha!)
Husband & I realized we never got to go on a "honeymoon", so it was time to make plans for one. Also factoring that we didn't plan a vacation in ages, we decided to get on it for the Thanksgiving holiday this year and call it it.
There's a ton of places to consider - and given our contrasting opinions - it took a while to freeze on one. After a lot of debates, googling, weather lookups, one or two fights - we finalized Maui, HI. The flights were expensive, but not exorbitant. Although November wasn't considered a great month to visit cuz the rains, Maui(or Hawaii in general) is so well-structured geographically that, there's always a sunny side on the island. Mind blowing, eh? Same here, until I actually saw that with my eyes from the flight the day we landed.
Maui's geography is a stunner - it has mountains consisting of the Haleakala crater, clear, warm beaches, thick tropical forests, vegetation, grasslands - oh, you name it, you have it.
Our Maui trip went through certain phases and I'll summarize each in a post.
Phase 0: The Planning
In a gist: there were lists, lists of lists and then, there were none.
This is literally how our planning phase progressed.
I had a "Maui: To Book", 2 "Maui: Potential things to do", 2 "Maui", 1 "Maui: Itinerary" which had multiple sublists and an email that listed out these itineraries to the Husband. We pondered over what to do, when to do what, and how to fit all of it in - lots of research, asking around (I literally asked everyone in my office if they went and what they did if they did go - ofcourse, my office everyone is about 10 people, so.) Anyway, I really wanted to see all of it and make the maximum of going there.
We had about 4.5 days in Maui to be precise.
Our original itinerary looked somewhat like this:
And then realized we missed the biggest part of going to Hawaii - Water stuff.
Our itinerary then looked like this:
Looking at this in the map, we realized our total driving time was about 5-6 hours per day.
And that we didn't have the time to sit on the beach and read our books or chill in a fancy resort - and that this was important for our vacation.
So here is what we did after that thought.
Booked Hyatt in Lahaina for all the days and rented a car. Period.
If you ask me, this is what everyone should do when planning for Hawaii. Book a place for all the days and do what you feel like on the day. You can always do what you didn't do the next time, coz trust me, there will almost always be a next time.
But I should say, doing the research helped - helped figure out what was in store and what were the options. It's better to know your options atleast :) We listed those out in one final list that looked now like this:
Papaya
Pineapple - Dole plantation
Coconut water
Eat fresh from a farm
Kahului village
Molokini Snorkeling
Massages
Hotel day - swim in the resort pool
Tour of the stars
Luau
Cruise
Iao Valley sunset - maybe on thursday?
Star gazing on the beach
nutcharis thai cuisine
banana bread aunty anne's ?
These were things we wanted to do and we'd decide when to do what after we reach.
We also did book our snorkeling trips in advance on Friday and Saturday - one was a groupon that we came across and another was the Molokini Snorkeling that had to be booked, else given its a long weekend it could get filled up. Didn't really think much about when, just picked a day and booked it.
Now, our planning took a different turn, where we were checking out what to do at the hotel, and finding activities we were interested in. Realized there was a Luau the hotel offers for Saturday night. So we booked that as well in advance, just to be sure.
But that's about it. We didn't plan anything else - no crazy drives, no breezy hikes, no bueno.
And that was the best thing we did, we figured later on. We didn't really need to do the advance booking on the ones we did either, there are so many "special offers" or other promotions that you can avail onsite and that you can only do when you reach. So I'll give you the best tip for planning any Hawaiian vacay:
Tip#0: "do NOT plan, pen some options down and relax" :)
This will make more sense once I complete my story.
Mahalo for reading!
Stay tuned for the rest,
Shamp
Husband & I realized we never got to go on a "honeymoon", so it was time to make plans for one. Also factoring that we didn't plan a vacation in ages, we decided to get on it for the Thanksgiving holiday this year and call it it.
There's a ton of places to consider - and given our contrasting opinions - it took a while to freeze on one. After a lot of debates, googling, weather lookups, one or two fights - we finalized Maui, HI. The flights were expensive, but not exorbitant. Although November wasn't considered a great month to visit cuz the rains, Maui(or Hawaii in general) is so well-structured geographically that, there's always a sunny side on the island. Mind blowing, eh? Same here, until I actually saw that with my eyes from the flight the day we landed.
Maui's geography is a stunner - it has mountains consisting of the Haleakala crater, clear, warm beaches, thick tropical forests, vegetation, grasslands - oh, you name it, you have it.
Our Maui trip went through certain phases and I'll summarize each in a post.
- Phase 0: The Planning
- Phase 1: The landing, the sighting and aha, that setting!
- Phase 2: WAAAAAATTTT-ERRR
- Phase 3: Do we have to go back?
Phase 0: The Planning
In a gist: there were lists, lists of lists and then, there were none.
This is literally how our planning phase progressed.
I had a "Maui: To Book", 2 "Maui: Potential things to do", 2 "Maui", 1 "Maui: Itinerary" which had multiple sublists and an email that listed out these itineraries to the Husband. We pondered over what to do, when to do what, and how to fit all of it in - lots of research, asking around (I literally asked everyone in my office if they went and what they did if they did go - ofcourse, my office everyone is about 10 people, so.) Anyway, I really wanted to see all of it and make the maximum of going there.
We had about 4.5 days in Maui to be precise.
Our original itinerary looked somewhat like this:
Thursday:
Iao Valley State Park, Waihee Ridge Trail, explore Kahului.
Halt in Kahului for the night
Friday:
Early morning head to Haleakala Summit
Head to Lahaina
Saturday:
Start to Hana
Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside
Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside
Waianapanapa State Park
Go around Kipahulu, Pipiwai Bamboo Trail
Go around Kipahulu, Pipiwai Bamboo Trail
Any other trails
Halt around Keokea or Kula
Sunday/Monday:
Chill
Halt at Lahanai/Kapalua
And then realized we missed the biggest part of going to Hawaii - Water stuff.
Our itinerary then looked like this:
Thursday:
Iao Valley State Park, Waihee Ridge Trail, explore Kahului.
Halt in Kahului for the night
Friday:
Start to Hana
Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside
Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside
Waianapanapa State Park
Go around Kipahulu, Pipiwai Bamboo Trail
Any other trails
Halt around Keokea or Kula
Saturday:
Early morning head to Haleakala Summit for Sunrise
Stay in an AirBnB in Wailea
Sunday:
Molokini Snorkeling
Head back to Lahaina
See a Luau
See a Luau
Monday:
Breakfast
Head out to Airport
Looking at this in the map, we realized our total driving time was about 5-6 hours per day.
And that we didn't have the time to sit on the beach and read our books or chill in a fancy resort - and that this was important for our vacation.
So here is what we did after that thought.
Booked Hyatt in Lahaina for all the days and rented a car. Period.
If you ask me, this is what everyone should do when planning for Hawaii. Book a place for all the days and do what you feel like on the day. You can always do what you didn't do the next time, coz trust me, there will almost always be a next time.
But I should say, doing the research helped - helped figure out what was in store and what were the options. It's better to know your options atleast :) We listed those out in one final list that looked now like this:
Papaya
Pineapple - Dole plantation
Coconut water
Eat fresh from a farm
Kahului village
Molokini Snorkeling
Massages
Hotel day - swim in the resort pool
Tour of the stars
Luau
Cruise
Iao Valley sunset - maybe on thursday?
Star gazing on the beach
nutcharis thai cuisine
banana bread aunty anne's ?
These were things we wanted to do and we'd decide when to do what after we reach.
We also did book our snorkeling trips in advance on Friday and Saturday - one was a groupon that we came across and another was the Molokini Snorkeling that had to be booked, else given its a long weekend it could get filled up. Didn't really think much about when, just picked a day and booked it.
Now, our planning took a different turn, where we were checking out what to do at the hotel, and finding activities we were interested in. Realized there was a Luau the hotel offers for Saturday night. So we booked that as well in advance, just to be sure.
But that's about it. We didn't plan anything else - no crazy drives, no breezy hikes, no bueno.
And that was the best thing we did, we figured later on. We didn't really need to do the advance booking on the ones we did either, there are so many "special offers" or other promotions that you can avail onsite and that you can only do when you reach. So I'll give you the best tip for planning any Hawaiian vacay:
Tip#0: "do NOT plan, pen some options down and relax" :)
This will make more sense once I complete my story.
Mahalo for reading!
Stay tuned for the rest,
Shamp
No comments:
Post a Comment