Just got back from Maui and we had the best time. I booked our flights on United redeeming 2 RT coach tickets for 45K miles each person (from NY). We landed on Sunday at 2:30PM. We got our bags and headed straight to Budget to pick up our rental car. We booked it through Costco, which seemed to be a great price ($280 for a standard SUV for a week – ended up being a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited). When booking through Costco you can check the prices every day or so and keep on making reservations and then cancelling the more expensive ones. This worked to my benefit because my initial price was 390. If you are using Budget I would strongly suggest signing up to become a Fastbreak member and linking your Costco reservation to your Fastbreak number because this means that you don’t have to wait on a ridiculously long line and also your car will be waiting for you starting at the time you put on your reservation. We brought some food from NY – POM meals and cheese, because I was told you can’t find that in Maui but they had in Costco. We headed to Costco to pick up some fruit, snacks, water (waste of money because hotel gave me free bottled water everyday) and bread. We shipped a flat surfaced Panini maker to make eggs and grilled cheese.
We finally got to the Hotel and we really can’t say enough wonderful things about this property. We stayed in the fabulous Marriott Wailea Beach Resort.
I requested a complimentary upgrade and they addressed it at check in, told me she’ll look for the best room to switch to. I checked back 2 days later and the room was a better view behind the adult only infinity pool, but at that point we didn’t feel like moving, the room they gave us was perfect and as a bonus the terrace was covered in shrubs so we had some nice privacy to sit outside and relax. But they trimmed them a day after we declined the upgrade lol, you win some and lose some, all good though.
That night we split the Fettucine Alfredo from Pomegranate and were very impressed, a bit oily but very good.
Day 1:
The next morning we got up early and left the hotel at 3:15AM to go to the top of Haleakala at 10,000 feet to watch the sunrise. We got there at the perfect time, still room for parking before the tours get there and still places left to stand by the railing. You’ll need a car pass to go all the way up which you can easily get at recreation.gov for $1.50. You have to do this in advance because otherwise they’ll turn you around. You still also have to pay the $25 park entrance fee which you can only do at the entrance of the park on the morning of. This was a truly remarkable experience offering incredible views of the sunrise and Maui. I highly recommend this and if your flight gets in after noon the previous day, the first morning you have there is likely a good time to do it and get yourself on Maui time. A side note, save your park entrance receipt if you plan on visiting the other side of Haleakala during the trip to Hana and going hiking to the 7 Sacred Pools, the bamboo forest or Pipiwai Trails – its good for 2 days after. The attendant honored mine even though it was 3 days but YMMV.
We stopped at Target on the way back and picked up some more essentials. Got back to the hotel around 8:30 AM, relaxed by the pool and then headed out to Kihei to take our surfing lessons. We booked through the hotel because it offered the best rate - $85 per person for a semi-private 2 hour lesson (just the two of us and an instructor). We used Maui Wave Riders and were happy with them. A guy comes towards the end of your lesson with a camera on the surfboard to take pictures which they sell a CD of the pictures they took for $40.
We went back to the hotel to relax by the pool for a bit, when the sun set, we headed back to our room and had our Pomegranate meals brought to us. Tonight we had the short ribs and the onion dark meat cutlets. They were all excellent but one had an amazing side dish called cabbage noodles which was basically bowtie noodles with deconstructed stuffed cabbages.
I will upload pictures in the appropriate sections in the TR when i have some more time.
