Given that this is our third visit to Maui and that some of these places and things are repeats, it’s tough to know how to catalog it. I’ve decided to break it into four posts. The first (this one) will cover our beach days and where we stayed. The next will cover and some of the delicious food we ate. The last two, the animal sanctuary and snorkeling Molokini, will be broken into their own posts since those were new activities.

Hale Pau Hana

We stayed at the same place as last time, The Hale Pau Hana. It’s a spot in downtown Kihei that’s neither resort nor hotel. It’s more of a condo, I’d say, though it comes with some amenities like the occasional towel refresh, lots of beach gear for you to use, and a price that’s roughly half what the resorts charge. It’s quiet, right on the beach, and is walking distance from good food, necessities, and about a mile up from their local grocery store: Foodland. We like to start our trip by getting stuff to make our own breakfast (to eat on the balcony every morning) and lunches to take on the beach. Dinners we do out. It’s part to keep costs down but we also like the slow pace of just getting up and enjoying a simple breakfast on the balcony, the view from which cannot be matched by any breakfast joint anyway.

It’s worth noting that the beaches here always have a TON of turtles. You can see them from the shore pretty regularly (we even spotted some from our balcony) but they will also swim right past you in you’re just off shore. 🐢 There’s a live feed of their beach on YouTube… see if you can spot some turtles.

As you can see, the views go to 11 here. Since we had opted to travel on July 4th, we also lucked into two fireworks displays visible from our balcony. The first by a bunch of hooligans who were entertaining the entire complex and the second a bunch of professional hooligans entertaining half the island.The beach here isn’t private, but it’s not busy either. If you choose to go, I suggest early June because it does get humid and the beginning of the summer is more tolerable than the end.

Makoa Car Rental

If you visit Maui, you will want to rent a car. Makoa does it right. They park the car in the airport lot the night before and leave the vehicle unlocked for you. They message you the location and code to the lockbox (in the trunk) the night before. When you arrive, you walk to your car and drive off.

When you leave, you simply reverse the process. No lines. No waiting. No human interaction of any kind. Just the way god intended it. It’s only a little more than a typical car rental but WELL worth it for the time savings and simplicity of it.

Makena Beach

Sarah and I got married in 2011 and the whole wedding (party and guests) stayed at a resort that’s no longer there. However the beach, unsurprisingly, still is. Despite the resort having been converted into condos, the beach is still accessible to anyone. There’s even a decently sized free public parking lot nearby, but get there early as it does fill up. Sarah got a nasty mosquito bite shortly after arriving for our wedding which kept her out of the water until after we moved on from this beach, so it was high on our list to revisit this spot. It was weird to be in place of such meaning for us and have it look so different, but the clear water and amazing views got us over that unease rather quickly.

Admittedly, we did a terrible job taking pictures at this beach. Shame on us for living in the moment.

Big Beach

Not far up the road from Makena Beach is Big Beach… a location I can only assume was named by the discoverer’s 4 year old. It is quite big, so I’ll give the lad that. The waves here are pretty nasty but you can swim, I’m just not sure I would advise it. There are some neat tide pools and rough surf to the left, a lot of open beach in the middle, and some mild hiking and occasional rock climbing off to the right. Just don’t venture too far beyond the hiking area or you will end up at a nude beach. Or do. Live your best life.

Now that you’re thinking about the nude beach, let me snap you back to reality with some logistics. There’s a paid-by-credit card (or app) parking lot here. Although it’s not a big lot, we’ve never had trouble finding a space. I think there’s more than one lot too.