For the second part of our trip to Hawaii, we spent some time on Maui - the garden island. The only problem is that much of Maui was brown and dry during our visit, primarily due to a strong El Nino pattern that had cut off most of the moisture the island depends upon to make it the lush tropical paradise it's been known to be. Still, there were parts of the island that still had some intense tropical forests, some beautiful scenery and a more contemporary feel than the Big Island.
The difference between the Maui and the Big Island is evident from the start as you land at Kahului Airport. While the Kona Airport is more like a series of tropical huts, the Maui airport is modern and comfortable with jet bridges (compared to having to use stairs or ramps to get on and off planes at Kona), wide concourses and nice shops. The area around the Maui airport is more urban (there's a Costco just past the entrance to the airport) than the Kona airport which is basically out in the middle of a lava field north of Kailua-Kona.
With all that, there's also a lot more traffic on Maui. That was sort of a pain at times, but it wasn't anything that we hadn't run into before. We found Maui to be more touristy than the Big Island. We spent some time in Lahaina and as a friend told me after we came back, "It's sort of like Estes Park, isn't it?" Meaning, they had all these shops that catered to tourists - many of which sold t-shirts (like "I Survived the Tsunami - 2010), fake lei's and other schlocky overpriced items. We spent about two hours in downtown Lahaina - and that was about an hour too long. Easily, the Lahaina-Kaanapali resort area of Maui was the most touristy area we encountered during our visit to Hawaii. The downtown area of Kailua-Kona rivaled Lahaina's downtown in terms of shops and restaurants that catered to tourists, but Lahaina was more blatant about it.
Our hotel was the Grand Wailea in Wailea-Makena on the southwest side of Maui. Now, that place may have been the most fancy - and the most expensive - place we've ever stayed. The hotel was on 40 acres of beach front property that had splendid views of the western hills of Maui, as well as the Hawaiian islands of Kahoolawe (including the crescent-shaped Molokini crater) and Lanai. The ocean-view top floor room we stayed in normally went for $699 a night. Like I've said before, if I didn't have the Hilton Honors points there was no way we would have been able to spend even a night at the Grand Wailea. It was a beautiful place.
We had some great meals, although I have to say that I thought the restaurants on the Big Island - overall - were better than the ones on Maui. We took a day long road trip to Hana, we watched surfers try their luck on the huge waves on the north shore of Maui, and we went whale watching out in the Pacific just off the Maui coast.
Before we made plans to go to Hawaii, we had talked to a number of people who had been there before. We wanted to know what island would be the better place to go to - Maui or the Big Island of Hawaii. We heard good things about both, so Cindy said, "Can't we go to both islands?" After spending nearly a week on both islands, I really can't tell you which island I liked better. Both had some interesting aspects that I liked, while both had a few things that I didn't like. But the "likes" of both places easily outnumbered the "dislikes" of both places. I could easily live on either island. But I'd have to be making 10 times the amount of money that I do now just to be able to afford the Hawaiian lifestyle.
But I will say that I think we didn't spend enough time on Maui. There were places that we were discovering on our last day on the island. I do think if we went back, I'd want to spend more time on Maui
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