Maui Trip Ideas & Tips

Maui was a place we always dreamed of visiting and after 22 years of marriage we would finally make one of our dreams become our reality. This trip truly felt like a honeymoon and I hope if you can go with your spouse you feel this way as well!

I wanted to share with you all the tips we were given by friends and locals along with all the things we enjoyed, how we cut travel time along with the cost of plane tickets in half and all the other ways we saved money plus the most comfortable and affordable travel outfit in case you are headed to Maui in the future!

We stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Kapalau, Maui https://www.instagram.com/ritzcarltonkapalua/. We loved the environment, it was very chill and peaceful. The staff was incredibly welcoming and helpful. They greeted us with beautiful Leis. We had a kitchen which allowed us to cook brunch every morning. They have ocean views, a great beach for snorkeling and we had a room with a semi full kitchens (small fridge and no oven but there is a cooktop along with other small appliances). The boutiques in the hotel were the best shopping especially BikiniBird https://www.instagram.com/bikinibird/. The Luau at our hotel was absolutely worth every penny. The food was incredible and so were the performances. They included professional pictures as well! The gym was huge! They have zip lining right there as well. You could walk to 8 different restaurants within minutes. The also had bikes, beach gear, pickleball, tennis and basketball courts. There was so much to do in walking distance, we rented a car but you could easily do a lot at this resort without a car.

A local recommended we stay at the Napili point resort if we come back with our family which is not too far from where we stayed. She said they all have the best ocean views, full kitchens, grills on the balconies and one of the best white sandy private beaches for snorkeling. 

We walked several trails and our two favorites were the Kapalua walking trail and Kā'anapali - Honolua. The views were absolutely incredible. We were taken back by all the beauty and it felt like a great cardio total body workout. There were all ages on these trails and we felt safe the entire time even as we went off trail along the way to explore more.

Favorite beaches:

Oneloa for its private feel.

Kapalua Bay for snorkeling. Recommend getting there early to snag a spot on the end where the snorkeling is the best by the rocks or going at 2:30 when everyone seems to leave. 

Ukumehame for surfing🏄 

Restaurants:

Mala’s Tavern (dinner & brunch)https://www.instagram.com/malatavern/

Mama’s Fish house (reservations needed as soon as you book your trip) https://www.instagram.com/mamasfishhouse/

Seahouse restaurant (happy hour, early bird dinner & dinner)https://www.instagram.com/seahousemaui/

Burger Shack for the best fish Tacos https://www.instagram.com/burgershackkapalua/

Best Poke Bowls were from a restaurant inside the Honolulu store located outside of the Ritz Carlton. 

Duke’s https://www.dukesmaui.com/

Monkey Pod https://www.instagram.com/monkeypodkitchen/

Joey’s in Nāpili plaza https://www.instagram.com/joeyskitchenhi/

The Plantation House https://www.instagram.com/plantationhousemaui/

Kai Cafe for açaí bowls 

Mana foods in Paia for smoothies. Loved this little healthy grocery store! I would have to live in or close to Paia for sure if I lived in Maui. They had great boutiques for shopping and places to eat. Jaw’s country store is right up the road, another great stop before you hike the twin falls. Pack shoes with good tread that you don’t mind getting dirty. https://www.twinfallsmaui.net/location/

There are so many beaches to stop and snorkel at along the road. So grab snorkel gear prior to going or you can rent it for the week along with surf boards in multiple locations.

In Olowalu there is a great fresh fruit stand, general store, smoothie + pizza + taco truck. There’s also a cafe for food which typically had a line out the door. At the stand they split fresh coconuts for you to enjoy the water and meat. They also had the most delicious mangos.

Highly recommend surfing lessons with Zac Howard https://www.instagram.com/zackhowardexperience/. He is a pro surfer and we had the most incredible experience learning how to surf. We met him at Ukumehame. He provided the boards for our lesson. Zach and his wife Sarah made the experience so comfortable and enjoyable. 

After you eat dinner at Dukes you can walk straight to the beach to watch a beautiful sunset. 

Ways to make this trip affordable:

Use points for hotel and flights if you have a credit card that allows you to earn travel points, just pay off anything you charge each month (if you cannot pay off, I highly recommend not charging the items) so you do not have debt or interest rates hanging over your head. This will save you thousands of dollars. We like the American Expreess Marriot card because of all the benefits they provide.

If flying from Charleston take a direct flight to LA on Breeze Airlines. Then book a direct flight from LA to Maui on Hawaiian Air. Cuts travel time almost in half when traveling from the east coast, also saves a lot of money. I absolutely loved flying Hawaiian air. Flight is smooth, attendants are so friendly, seats are comfortable plus roomy and they serve you a good amount of food along with drinks at no charge. 

If you can get a hotel room with a kitchen we saved hundreds of dollars by making our brunch daily even with groceries being so expensive we still saved a lot of money. Also bought drinks at the grocery store which saved us hundreds as well. It felt so easy to eat healthy every where we went!

The three best Hawaiian known products I purchased were these for before and after sun: https://a.co/d/iyV2F9a and Maui Supreme oil. I actually tossed my moisturizer in the trash because after a week of using this on my face, body and hair I was sold: https://www.mauisupreme.com/the-oils

Found the best travel outfit. So comfortable and just had it dry cleaned for $10 at the hotel so it was nice and clean for the way back. Less outfits to pack which means more room in the suitcase for purchases. You can snag the outfit here: https://www.shopltk.com/explore/Freshfitkate/posts/b2cd9f35-1f96-11ef-b94b-0242ac11002e

I packed a ton of healthy snacks that I picked up at Costco which also saved us a lot of money from purchasing items at the airport. I packed electrolytes as well https://glnk.io/oq72y/freshfitkateas re-useable water bottles as well.

Instead of paying hundreds of dollars on snorkeling excursions we bought snorkel gear from OverUnder (highly recommend these) and snorkeled the areas where the excursions were at the different beaches located walking distance from our hotel. We saw all the turtles and tropical fish plus the moment was just shared between us! https://www.instagram.com/overunder.fun/

If you haven’t been to Maui I hope this helps and if you have been please share in the comments other places you would recommend!