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Travel: Majestic Maui – Part 2

The continuation of last month’s TRAVEL column…

Winter is the best time to see the humpback whales that come here every year. They stay from December through April to give birth to their calves in the shallow water between Maui and the islands of Lana’i and Moloka’i. The sight of these majestic animals breaching out of the ocean and slapping the water with their fins and tails is incredibly awesome.

Whale watching is only part of the wonders of the ocean that you can see in Maui. Snorkeling and SCUBA are both fabulous here. With so many spots and so many tour companies to take you, it is impossible to name them all.

I will name one though – the Pacific Whale Foundation snorkeling tour to Molokini Crater. The men and women of the Pacific Whale Foundation are very professional and really care about the environment and protecting sea-life. These people are real oceanographers and marine biologists who know what they are doing and can teach you some things along the way.

The Molokini Crater tour is great because it is a mostly submerged volcano crater that has become a haven for all kinds of exotic fish, sea turtles and coral which makes for a fabulous snorkeling experience. If you would prefer to see Maui’s diverse ocean life without getting wet, you owe it to yourself to go to the Maui Ocean Center near the harbor in Ma’alaea, it may be small compared to some aquariums on the mainland but it packs a lot in there. One hint for the snorkeling tours is to book a morning tour. It may be more expensive but you will have much calmer waters and better sights.

If you prefer to ride the waves instead of swimming below them, Maui won’t disappoint in that area either. Known as the windsurfing capital of the world, you will be hard pressed to find a better location to throw down a board and a sail.

Maui is an island made up of two volcano cones forming a valley in between. This makes for a prime windsurfing spot since it makes the relatively constant trade winds speed up as they are funneled through the valley.

The north side of Maui is practically dirty with windsurfers after 11 a.m. every day (before 11 is reserved for surfers). Speaking of surfing, Maui has its fair share of fine places to surf as well. Though not as famous as O’ahu’s North Shore, Maui sports a wide range of areas suitable for beginners (Lahaina) and deranged surfers looking to tackle monster waves (all along Maui’s North Shore).

If you are not a seaworthy person and get seasick easily, Maui has just as many ways to entertain you on land as it does on the sea.

Golf is a favorite here and some of the courses around Makena and Wailea will put to shame many of the courses back on the mainland. The Makena South course, as well as Wailea’s Gold or Emerald courses, make for some fabulous golf with even more fabulous views.

One tip though, you should try to get an early tee time since later in the day the winds can really pick up and wreak havoc with your scorecard.

Hiking is also an incredibly rewarding experience in Maui. I won’t even bother naming all the hikes you can take because I would like to finish this article before I have to board the plane to go home. Suffice-it-to-say, even jaunts of just a few miles off main roads can reveal sights of wondrous beauty.

A review of Maui would be incomplete without mentioning the Road to Hana. Okay, I mentioned it, now I can go on. No, really, people all have different opinions of the Road to Hana. Some people feel that it’s not a trip to Maui without driving the Road. Some did it once and learned their lesson, and the rest heard enough from others to not even bother.

You can count me in the second group. Don’t get me wrong, the Road is 34 miles of some of the most fabulous scenery you could ever want to see on an island. Some even say it is like driving through Eden. You are literally surrounded by greenery and waterfalls (if they are turned on, more on that in a bit) for much of the way. You are also traveling on some of the most winding two lane roads with one lane bridges you will ever find. You will be extremely glad for power steering after you are done with this drive!

One of the most spectacular things about the drive are the dozens of waterfalls you can see along the way, though how many, and in what condition, can vary greatly. The falls are typically more pronounced in the winter because it is the rainy season. However, even then they can be just a trickle. This is because the East Maui Irrigation company actually has the ability to divert water from the falls to the sugarcane fields on the other side of the volcano (which they did on my drive). While the drive can still be spectacular when there are no waterfalls, it does change the equation as to whether it’s worth the trouble.

One point to note is that some of the more spectacular waterfalls are not visible from the road and require you to park and hike to them. Good luck. Most of the parking stops have enough room for five or six cars, but about 1,500 to 2,000 cars drive to Hana every day. This heavily congested drive can make it truly difficult to enjoy all the views.

While Hana itself might not be much to see when you get there, I suppose everyone should probably drive the Road to Hana for the phenomenal scenery and to say they did it.

The final activity I’m going to cover is the sunrise over Haleakala tour. Haleakala is the youngest, and largest, of the two volcanoes on Maui rising 10,000 feet above the sea. From the top you see incredible views of several other islands as well as all of Maui. It is THE place to catch a sunrise or sunset and is high enough to give you a pristine stargazing environment. It is also the home to several observatories. It is a bit of a drive, and due to the elevation, it can be very cold up there – especially at sunrise or sunset.

Many companies offer the sunrise tours and will pick you up at your hotel at about 3 a.m., (yes, I did say 3 a.m.), or you meet them at their store about that time. They will drive you to the top of the volcano to view the 6 a.m. sunrise.

After a breakfast and watching the sun rise, they put you on a mountain bike, give you a helmet and lead you down the volcano. You descend from 10,000 feet to sea-level all on bike. While a relatively easy ride physically, since you let gravity do most of the work, it can still be a dangerous ride because you are sharing the winding road with cars traveling both directions.

The reward all of this is the awe-inspiring sunrise and fantastic views all the way down. (Hint: schedule this adventure early in your trip since your body will still be on Eastern Standard Time and you will most likely wake up around that time anyway).

I could go on and on about Maui – where to stay and where to eat (Maui Tacos!) – but I will leave that up to you and your own tastes. There are a wide variety of nice places to stay that aren’t any more expensive than places on the mainland. Your biggest expense is going to be the airfare from Michigan which is generally high.

Everyone says it is so much more expensive to eat in Hawaii, but I haven’t found that to be true. At most of the chain restaurants, the price is about the same as home. What is more expensive are groceries (though you can still save money if you stay in a condo and buy breakfast and lunch items), and gasoline. Other than that, Maui can be darn-right cheap. Especially, if you are going to spend most of your time lying by the pool or on the beach – and those are both free!

I hope this has given you a little glimpse of what Maui has to offer. If you have any questions about Maui or would like us to do a review of somewhere else (I really need an excuse to go to Europe), please feel free to email me at: jeff@healthandleisureonline.com.

Until next time, Aloha!