Kahului

After we finished up our time in Kaanapali we made our way back to Kahului to settle down and Danielle began working in the hospital and clinic.

We spent several weeks here so it’s too much to include everything we did, but we can give some of the highlights and favorites!

Favorite Cities

Kahului is a great home base because it’s in the middle of everything. 

Paia

It’s a quick drive to Paia, an old fishing village and namesake of the Paia fishmarket (there’s several in different cities on the island). There’s a good bike trail that starts here as well as a couple beaches and a good “baby” beach.

Kihei

Kihei is just south of Kahului and a frequent visit of ours. There are several parks to choose from here for the kids and fantastic beaches as well. Kihei also has a calm beach right by the Kalama Park which is where Donnie and the twins experienced their first surfing lessons. We would often come here for dinner and then watch the sun set on the beach.

Wailea

If you keep going past Kihei you’ll arrive at Wailea which seemed to be the older resort area on the island. We just loved it. Probably our favorite. There’s a boardwalk that’s paved that runs through several of the established resort areas and beaches. The beaches do tend to be crowded here, but we could always find parking just south of Ulua beach here (parking in general on the island is a nightmare). While the bigger kids were in camp and Danielle was working, this was where Donnie and Pax would explore.

Lahaina

Lahaina is a decent drive (45 mins depending on traffic; there’s only one road to get there much like all travel throughout the island) from Kahului and so we didn’t visit a lot but we did make sure to make it out because it’s worth it. As mentioned before there’s lot of restaurants here and excursions by boat. We set out on the Reef Dancer while family was in town and everyone (especially the tour guide who just wanted to hold Pax the entire time).

Favorite Activities

Danielle was busy at the hospital during our time in Hawaii, but we did make some time to explore almost the entire island. Of course we visited a lot of the beaches, but we were also pleasantly surprised by Haleakala and other adventures around the island.

Beaches

• Baby Beach in Paia
  
  Parking at this beach was a nightmare and so we only visited it twice. You also have to get in early in the mornings before the winds come in. I’d avoid it because you either have to carry your stuff and the kids about a mile down the beach (from easy parking) or get lucky and find a parking spot in a residential street area (not nice for the locals).
  
  

• Baby Beach in Lahaina
  
  Probably our preferred beach for the little guys (2 yo and 5 yo) but also fun for the 8yo twins and us adults. We saw turtles half of the times we visited this beach. The only drawback is the access to showers. We ended up buying a portable shower head and a couple collapsible water bags to clean the sand off in the parking lot.
  
  

• Kamaole in Kihei
  
  Kihei in general has several great beaches and there’s 3 Kamaole beaches to choose from.
  
  

• Polo Beach in Wailea
  
  This was an area we found toward the end of our stay and wish we had found it sooner. Parking here was the only easy, guaranteed spot we found on the island for beaches. Easy access to showers as well. There’s a walking path that passes thru 3 beaches (Polo, Wailea, and Ulua) and it’s one of our favorite areas. A little touristy and busy though.

Hiking

We didn’t get to do as much hiking as we did in Colorado and Utah. We didn’t bring or ship our child carrier packs and that was a mistake! But we did make some trips out for the beautiful mountain hikes.

Iao Needle Trail

Makawao Forest Reserve

Waihee Ridge Trail

Ohai Trail Loop

Road to Hana

We survived the “Road to Hana”! The views were amazing and the limitless stops and sightseeing are worth the stressful hairpin turns. We’d have loved it even more if the kids were old enough to do some of the quick waterfall hikes. Luckily they’ll all be teenagers by the time we’ve forgotten how scary it was and are willing to do it again :)

Butterfly Farm

On the way to Lahaina from Kahului there’s a new little Butterfly Farm Tour that is so much fun for the kids (and us adults)! They teach the kids about the lifecycles of butterflies and take you around several different enclosed areas to see different species of butterflies. Such a neat experience.

Maui Reef Adventures

Boat trip for Milo’s Birthday

For Milo’s birthday we took a private boat/snorkeling tour out of Maalaea.

Haleakala

We saved the best for last on this post!

We had heard about the dormant volcano on Maui before we arrived but nothing prepared us for the beauty and majesty we encountered when we made the drive up (yes! you can drive to the summit!) During the day there’s trails throughout the various elevations on the drive up and at the summit there’s a path (a long, steep path) that takes you down to the crater. It’s such an amazing experience and probably one of our favorite things on the island. We enjoy beaches, but we’re mountain people, we think!

The drive is very popular - so much so that you have to get tickets if you want to enter at sunrise. It seemed that tickets were never available for this (and getting the kids up at 4am didn’t sound fun) so we instead opted to do a sunset drive up. It’s such a neat experience - MUST DO if you visit Maui!

OK THAT’S A RAP

This post took forever to compile but we hope someone has found it useful! We know we’ll refer back to it the next chance we get to make it back to Maui!