Hi Y'all! Thanks for all the info here, it was very helpful for planning our trip!!
We only had about a week in advance to plan our trip, and Hawaii was on our bucket list. We were debating between covering Kauai and Maui or just Maui. In the end we decided that since we are going to relax we will just stay on the same island, on the island that has it all - Maui!
I looked around for flights and didn't find any major deals on points. We had accumulated UA TB from CC airline credits, so we used that for the flights. We ended up getting the first seat in economy plus confirmed on the phone a few days prior on the phone, as we were traveling with a 7 Month old.
Just to note we mostly stayed on EST which really helped us get on the trail before it got full, and in the Andaz as well, we got to do the morning activities bright and early.
Food; we checked in a cooler full of dairy products and meat, and brought along a dairy sandwich maker, a fleshing Betty crocker, and a disposable grill.
We landed at 230pm after a stop in DEN. As soon as we got in, we went straight to Hertz with the trolley (which gives you kind of the Hawaiian vibe). Since I was a president circle member, right when we came there, the rep there told us to pick one of 10 cars in the reserved section, we went with the Chevy Yukon, my total bill was $150 for the car.
Road to Hana was a must for us, so we decided to drive down the Road, (takes about 2 hours with stops at the stunning waterfalls), and stay there for the night in the Hyatt Hana. It mostly rained the whole way down, so we just took in the views from our car.
We got upgraded to an ocean view bungalow on a globalist reservation. We ate some deli wraps we packed with us and called it a night.
In the morning we got up for sunrise (or earlier), but it was a bit cloudy, then we went to get our free breakfast and they offered us an array of fruits and vegetables for the amount of $84 which was how much we were eligible for with the free breakfast on globalist.
Another great thing was that they offered us to have late checkout, so we left everything there and after eating breakfast we headed down to the Pipiwai trail. We still had our national park pass card from last September when we went to Yellowstone, so we got free entry.
At first we weren't even sure how long we were going to hike, but once you go up you just can't stop, the views and 400ft waterfalls and the bamboo forest are just stunning, we ended up hiking up with our baby in the carrier all the way to the top, I would say it took about 3 hours round trip.
When we got back down to the parking lot I did a bit of convincing for the DW, to go down to the seven sacred pools, which flow into the Pacific Ocean. But once we were down there, she agreed that it was well worth it and not to be missed. We actually took the trail to the pools backwards, and it was much easier without any uphill. Sorry but the pictures just don't do justice.
When we finished the hikes around 1pm we felt like we had seen it all of Road to Hana, and drove back to the hotel where we showered and changed out of our muddy clothing, and had some lunch.
We checked out about 3pm, and headed up Road to Hana towards the Andaz we were staying for the next two days. We downloaded the "guide along" audio which played in the background of the must-sees, but we mostly did not get out of the car as we were drained. He was also talking too much about the history of the sugar canes in Hawaii so we kept on shutting him off.
