Maui – New Finds and Old Favorites

This is the best island to go whale-watching, both from boats and on shore. April is the end of the humpback whale season in Maui, but we saw them on our boat tour and from our lanai. Oahu has the Waikiki Aquarium and Sea Life Park, and now Maui has an answer to that in the Maui Ocean Center.

Maui attracts many quality artists, and good galleries can be found throughout the island. Upcountry has a high concentration of galleries in Makawao and its shoreline neighbor Paia.

We have visited a few small museums that are worth repeating if there is time: Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum (sugar), Bailey House Museum (boarding school/landscape painter), and Baldwin House (doctor/missionary). This trip, we returned to the Whalers Village Museum (Harpoons R Us). A day in the old whaling village of Lahaina is mandatory for a trip to Maui. Just walking around, browsing through the shops, noting the historical markers, marveling at the huge banyan tree, enjoying the food, and of course, people-watching will fill the day with fun and good memories.

Quick Tips:

Find a roadside park between Maalae and Lahaina and enjoy the beauty of the West Maui Mountains on one side and Auau Channel on the other. These are fun places to get in the water without the crowds. Soothing!

Check with your airline about when their check-in desk opens. We needed to return our rental car 4 hours earlier than our flight. We thought we would check in, be rid of our bags, and then enjoy the remaining time reading and shopping the terminal shops. We ended up standing 2 hours on concrete waiting with our luggage for the check-in desk to open. With no seating or air-conditioning, this was fairly uncomfortable.

If you have a handicap parking tag in your home state, bring it with you. It is quite advantageous to find parking spots. Sometimes regular parking lots are full but the handicap spots are empty.

Best Way To Get Around:

Rent a car. The Kaanapali-Lahaina trolley that we used in the past was not in operation this trip. The Sugar Train is for amusement only.

Previously, we had stayed in the Kaanapali complex. This trip we found a bargain $135/night, one-bedroom condo at the Kaleialoha. This was definitely a good-news, bad-news situation. We had put a deposit on an air-conditioned unit with a king-size bed, but they switched us to a non-air-conditioned unit with a queen-size bed. We had free parking, but there weren’t enough spots for all units. Luckily, we are evening-at-home people, so we always found a parking spot. The condo was beautifully decorated with a Martha Stewart-like kitchen, and the bath had been remodeled with a great walk-in shower. The best room in the place was the lanai with its view. Mornings were the best, mid-afternoon sun was way too bright, sunsets were wonderful, and the moon and stars over Molokai and Lanai were very special.

Beach access was a wood stairway at the corner of the property onto the sandy beach next door. From our lanai, sea turtles could be seen poking their heads up and waving their flippers. I did hear a snorkeler comment that there is nothing alive out there directly in front of our condo. Those turtles must be pretty lonely. Kaleialoha also has a lovely blue-tiled swimming pool.

We did experience a lot of noise at this condo. The condo next door was being remodeled, so we heard saws, hammers, sanders, etc., all day. The grounds’ crew had some leaf blowers that reached a very high decibel level. Our condo had quiet-time hours that were observed, but the one next door apparently didn’t do this.

We booked our tour through Expedia over the phone, and I had to drive to their office in Lahaina to pick up the tickets, and of course, get my arm twisted to book something else in addition. Despite that inconvenience, we found Pacific Whale Foundation to be just what we wanted in a tour company.

We checked in at their Front Street store, then the group gathered at a specified corner of the Banyan Tree Square. Our guide led across the square and to the staging area at the harbor. Here is where I had trouble - she walked too fast. I am mobility impaired and had great difficulty keeping up. They need to have an alternate plan. Another guide briefed us, and we were photographed before boarding.

At first, it seemed like we weren’t destined to see any whales. The guides continued to tell us about this humpback population, their schedule of migration, their behavior in these waters, the rules of encounter… but no whales in sight. Suddenly, a whale breached near us. Shortly after, her calf followed doing a breach. He was so pleased with himself that he did at least 12 more breaches of varying skill. What a show! The skipper turned us around to avoid rough waters rolling in from Molokai. We outran that and found another group of whales south of Lahaina. This was a pretty good show for April.

As a bonus, we could see how pretty Lahaina is snuggled up to the West Maui Mountains. The three- or four-person crew was very knowledgeable and pleasant.

The Maui Ocean Center is probably the best tourism addition to this island since they invented snorkeling. This is all family entertainment. We rented a magic wand audio guide to share between the two of us. However, that novelty wore off soon, because the narrator was a bit long-winded. The signage along the way was well done, well placed, and sufficient for our needs. The dynamic of the surge zone was interesting and something that isn’t addressed in some other aquariums. It is easy to spend a long time in the Living Reef building. The Turtle Lagoon, Tide Pool and Hammerhead Harbor are worth a visit on the way to the Whale Discovery Center. Here, quiz questions spark an interest in the exhibits. Hawaiians and the Sea is an anthropological exhibit placed at the entrance to the Open Ocean Aquarium. A 54-foot-long glass tunnel allows the visitor to feel what it would be like to have all those fish swimming around you.

But wait, there’s more! The center has a good gift shop and two restaurants. One is a family-oriented fast-food place called Reef Café. The tables where outside and had no sun protection. We ate at the Seascape Ma’alaea Restaurant, an open-air but completely roofed structure overlooking the harbor. It had island-style cuisine. I had a crab cake salad with asparagus that may have been the best meal I had on Maui. Entrée and beverage averaged about $18 a piece.

We had not known what to expect when we arrived. I would suggest you don’t cut your time short here. Start at opening time and plan to have lunch here. We saw one family racing through the exhibits with dad repeating, "We’re going to miss the plane!" every few minutes. Don’t do that!

Before returning to our condo, we crossed the parking lot to the Harbor Village, where we checked out a couple of shops and had dessert at the Café O’Lei. We were seated on the lanai overlooking the harbor. That was good entertainment, and we spent $10 apiece for good coffee and remarkable desserts. Mine was a pineapple upside-down cake with a scoop of Lapperts vanilla-bean ice cream on the side on a plate drizzled with caramel sauce. Wow!

Any trip to Maui should include some time upcountry. The diversity in scenery and culture from the resort areas is a delightful change. We have visited the crater of Haleakala and the Protea farms previously and someday would like to return.

This trip we decided to "do the galleries." The coastal town of Paia was a sugar town that almost became a ghost town until the shops were spruced up and galleries and eateries moved in.

One shop I always stop at is the Maui Crafts Guild. One of the cooperative artists is behind the counter and willing to talk about the different crafts and artwork. Turn onto Baldwin Avenue and follow it upcountry to Makaowa. Along the way are some interesting houses; two picturesque, old churches (Holy Rosary and Makawao Union); pineapple fields; and great views down to the ocean. In Makawao are many more galleries, studios, and eateries. Be sure to stop in a Hot Island Glass and watch the craftsman use graceful moves and seemingly light touches to create objects of art. When we were there, he was making a jellyfish encased in a large glob of clear glass. I found just the souvenir I wanted at David Warren’s gallery and plan to order more items from him. One artist featured here carves small wood objects from the core of the Banksia Protea, as they have a unique texture.

If you return by way of Paia, take a small detour towards Hana and stop at the Hookipa Beach Park or overlook and watch the windsurfers. It was a colorful display full of action.

This old whaling town is the primary gathering place for Maui tourists, so parking is a real problem. There are a lot of tourist attractions available here, such as amphibious duck turtle tours, whale-watching, snorkel cruises, submarine ocean bottom exploring, historic walking tours, historic homes, an old prison and other whaling days-related museums, and an art museum in the old courthouse. We even ran across an archeological dig near the 505 Front Street shopping/eatery complex.

The banyan tree seems to be the starting point of touring Lahaina, and well worth some attention, too. Be warned that sitting under the banyan tree can be hazardous to your hair and clothing, and not just because of the birds; I had a big juice banyan fruit plop on my head and run down the back of my blouse.

Shopping varies from souvenir/T-shirt shops to Maui-made art/crafts to very tony galleries.

Food ranges from fast food to chain restaurants like Bubba Gumps and Hard Rock Café to really good local places like the Pioneer Inn, Longhi’s, Aloha Mixed Plate, and Pacific O. Brunch at the Pioneer Inn was about $11 apiece. Our meals at Aloha Mixed Plate averaged $13 apiece for a mixed or grill plate and beverage. Another bonus about Aloha Mixed Plate was that if you arrive for sunset, you also got to hear the music from the Lahaina Luau next door at no additional charge.

We have been visiting Maui since 1980. In all that time, the Whalers Village has consistently been a desirable place to shop, eat, and enjoy the sculptures and museum.

The parking ramp adjacent is convenient for those not staying in Kaanapali; tickets can be validated at stores and restaurants if you make a purchase. If you are staying in the Kaanapali area, you can approach the Whalers Village from the sea walk.

There is a fast-food court, but we enjoy eating at Leilani’s on the Beach and the Rusty Harpoon. We paid $16 apiece for plate lunches and a beverage at Leilani’s. At the Rusty Harpoon, it was $26 apiece for the same with a dessert.

Shopping is great here, with a few of our favorites: Martin and McArthurs, Borders, and the ever-reliable ABC.

On the second level is a very informative museum on whalers and the whaling industry. The displays touch on what the oil was used for, how the whales were killed, and the various desirable products that were processed and transported. We were also told about the lives of the men onboard: who became whalers, how much they were paid (very little), and what they did between whales. This is our third visit to this museum, and I really enjoyed following one family through the exhibits. The son had previewed the museum and was teaching his parents all the wonderful things he had learned.