Things we did in Maui

This probably isn’t going to be super interesting, unless you’re planning a trip to Maui, but honestly, you should totally go to Maui. I’m mostly posting this here so I have something to refer back to when we go back! In case you missed my post last week, here’s a pile of photos.

Things We Did

Here’s a timeline of the things we did. A lot of the time we just hung out at the hotel by the pool – I never thought I’d be someone who did that but when in Hawaii…

Date	Activities
Tues 9	Fly from Seattle to Maui (6 hours)
Weds 10	Shopping in Kahului / Mill House
Thurs 11	Shopping / Massages / Ferraros at the Four Seasons
Fri 12	Visit aquarium for tour / Omakase at Morimoto
Sat 13	Alex – scuba certifications
Sun 14	Road to Hana / Luau at Andaz
Mon 15	Alex – scuba certifications / Shark dive at aquarium
Tues 16	Market by Capische / Dinner at Duo at the Four Seasons
Weds 17	Ziplining / Paia Fish Market / Submarine tour / Wolfgang Puck at the Four Seasons
Thurs 18	Sunset sail
Fri 19	Dinner at Monkeypod
Sat 20	Fly from Maui to Seattle

Aquarium

Alex loves aquariums (no idea why, we just always seem to go to them, but we don’t bother with zoos!) so we went to the Maui one which was nice, but it’s a bit small (to be fair, they are a very localised aquarium, so it doesn’t need to be bigger).

I would recommend the behind the scenes tour – it’s $15 extra each I think, but it was really cool to get to go behind the exhibits and feed the turtles and other fishes!

Alex got certified for his scuba thing while we were on holiday, and they have a thing where you can swim in the biggest tank with tons of sharks and rays. (I knew that I didn’t want to do that because we had some a beginners scuba thing at our club and I had a panic attack in a pool where I can stand up and have swam for a few years so didn’t think it was a good idea to do that in an ocean I have never been)

https://mauioceancenter.com/

Road to Hana

The recommendations that we received for this was to have someone else driving because the road is not great. Then we got to the tour place and found they had a huge mini bus and the road is fully tarmac’d! If you’ve ever driven in the backroads of Wales, you will laugh at the idea of these being bad roads!

I wanted to do a helicopter tour anyway, so we chose the Hana Sky Trek tour with Temptation Tours, which seemed to be the most cost-effective option to do both. The tour only has 6 people on it, and the tour guide we had (Tony I think?) was really nice and cheery (always talking!) We made quite a few stops along the way to look around, take photos and buy souvenirs.

The pilot (Derek, which I only remember because of the Good Place) was awesome too – his wife worked at our hotel so he flew over the hotel for us. He flew us up to near the top of the volcano, and the route back went around the bottom part of the island. You could buy a video of the flight for $40 (I think)

https://www.temptationtours.com/hana-sky-trek.html

Luau

This was near our hotel luckily, but lots of our friends told us this was the best one they had been to and the hotel also recommended it.

The luau at the Andaz is set up so you’re sat at tables of about 8, and food is served family style while a show is performed to explain how Polynesian ancestors came to Maui and settled in the ahupua’a (land division) – insight was given on Hawaiian values that focus on the love of, connection to, and kuleana (responsibility) to the land.

It was pretty interesting and the food was decent, I think it was about $200 a head.

https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/hawaii/andaz-maui-at-wailea-resort/oggaw

Ziplining

We were totally going to do two ziplining things within a few days of each other! This was so fun – we got pretty dirty so next time I’d probably take a change of clothes. We combined this with the submarine tour because they were sort of near each other (at least compared to other things we were doing – we didn’t spend much time on the north west part of the island)

https://www.zipline.com/kaanapali

Submarine Tour

I did not want to scuba or snorkel so this was the alternative to looking under the water! It was a fun trip, but super claustrophobic – I think the capacity was 48 people and we were full – you are all sitting very close next to each other and if there are kids screaming (because they’re excited, which is fine!) then it got a little much at times.

https://atlantisadventures.rezgo.com/details/151037/atlantis-submarine-tour-maui-dropdown

Dinner cruise

We went on the Alii Nui because the hotel recommended it as their favourite. They took us too and from the harbour, which is right by the aquarium. This was nice to go out on the water for a few hours at sunset, the food was fine and the drinks were all inclusive in the price.

https://www.aliinuimaui.com/royal-sunset-dinner-sail.htm

Places we ate

The Mill House – we went for dinner, but I think it would be more fun to go for lunch because then you could go and wander around the plantation. Apparently you can also enjoy views of the Waikapu mountains while you dine but it was too dark by the time we got there!

Ferraros (Four Seasons) – basic Italian stuff, we had a nice table facing out to the sea

Morimoto (Andaz Hotel) – this was probably the best meal of the holiday, we had the omakaze menu and it was incredible.

Duo (Four Seasons) – probably my favourite restaurant at the hotel, we went on the Tuesday when they do an all you can eat sushi/seafood thing

Wolfgang Puck’s Spago (Four Seasons) – this was so bad compared to everything else we had at the hotel!

Paia Fish Market – https://paiafishmarket.com/ – we got lunch here before the submarine and it was so good and quick!

Monkeypod Kitchen – mehhhhh. Quite a few of our friends raved about this place but it was just meh. Not terrible, just average. It reminded me a LOT of Giraffe restaurants in the UK.

Things We Were Going To Do But Didn’t

Sunrise tour of Haleakala

We booked in to do the sunrise tour then the ziplining, but realised that Alex couldn’t go on the only day they had available because he had been underwater too long the day before. One for next time!

https://www.skylinehawaii.com/

Mama’s Fish House

Everyone raved about this place, but we couldn’t get reservations – I’ve heard some people booking months in advance!

https://www.mamasfishhouse.com

Turtles!

There’s a beach near Mama’s Fish House that is famous for having lots of turtles come up at about 2pm. We just ran out of time annoyingly!

Eat all the food

It was so easy to eat well, but we just didn’t have time to eat at all the places we were recommended, so here’s a long list which I intend to make at least a dent in next time.