I am Japanese and I have been to Oahu, the Big Island, and Kauai in the state of Hawaii. But, I had never been to Maui before so that I and my American wife decided to go to Maui this time in December 2018.

Each island in Hawaii has different type of attractions. I felt Maui is a resort island that has a culture close to American mainland culture. My wife felt the same way after the trip.

I summarized our travel experience and some statistics in order for us to use it for future trips to Hawaii.

Maui Popularity

The figure below shows the tourists popularity by island of Hawaii. The data are percentage of visitor days on each island in 2017, pulled from the website of Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism. The most popular island is Oahu, the second most popular island is Maui, and the third most popular island is Hawaii Island.

Travelers from the US mainland, Canada, and Japan account for about 80 to 90% of total travelers to the state of Hawaii. Hawaii is very popular tourist destination for Japanese people, however Maui has less Japanese tourists than Oahu and the Big Island. I felt that Maui has less of the features that make you feel “This place is almost like Japan”. There are places in Oahu that reminded me of Japan.

Hotel: Royal Lahaina Resort

I was going to stay at Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa at first, but a travel agent told me that workers at Sheraton has a labour dispute, so it would be best to avoid Sheraton. We decided to go with Royal Lahaina Resort considering our budget of about $5,000.

We booked a room and we were fortunate to be given a room with a king size bed at the 12th floor of LK tower at Royal Lahaina Resort.

The price was a little over $200/night. Also, there was a parking fee for $15/night.

I felt this was okay compared with some other hotels in the area. While doing my online research for this trip I delved into the confusing trend of “resort fees”. When doing your research please pay attention to these fees, they can range in price and sometimes do not include the parking fee and that can be a whole other fee. One hotel we looked at had a resort fee of $30 others were as high as $40 per night.

It was very satisfactory stay, considering the view from our room, comfortableness of bed, the size of room, the room service and so on. We felt very comfortable in staying at the room. There is a gym, tennis courts, and golf courses nearby.

Tourist Site

Haleakala National Park

Seeing the sunrise from Haleakala summit was amazingly beautiful!

This was the best moment of our Maui trip for sure. I highly recommend this trip when you visit Maui. You can go to the summit by a regular rental car.

The cost of admission fee was $25 per vehicle.

Also, making a reservation beforehand is necessary to see sunrise at Haleakala summit. The reservation cost is $1 per vehicle.

I and my wife hoped to go to the Haleakala summit on the next day after we arrived at Maui because seeing the sunrise from the top of Haleakala requires that you wake up very early in the morning. We wanted to go before we fully adjusted to the time difference. The weather forecast looked nice for the day when we go to the Haleakala, so I and my wife decided to go on the second day of our travel as we planned.

We left our hotel around 2:40am to make sure we got to the summit in time for around 6:45am sunrise because the official website of Haleakala or some Youtuber said it would take about 3.5 hours to get to the summit from the Lahaina area. But, it turned out it only took about two hours to get to the summit. So, we enjoyed seeing countless beautiful stars in the sky from the summit and waited sometime in the car until the sun started rising.

For your reference, in order to enjoy the stars and sunrise, it’s necessary to bring warm clothes! At the top of the volcano, it’s 40 degrees or colder and sometimes it’s really windy. We saw people dressed in t-shirts and flip flops, those people didn’t stick around long though. I would also recommend bringing a flash light. The flash light on your phone works but it is not ideal.

This trip was totally worth it, the sunrise was incredible and to see it above the clouds made you feel it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity! If I and my wife have a chance to visit Maui in the future, we would definitely go to see the sunrise from Haleakala again, so maybe a twice in a lifetime opportunity, lol.

The Road to Hana

Some people say the road to Hana is like the road to heaven and it’s about enjoying all of the beauty along the way. A lot of Youtubers put the road to Hana as No 1 travel experience in Maui. Because of the info, I had a high expectation of the road. But, I was actually disappointed by the road to Hana.

Although there were beautiful waterfalls, scenery and interesting plants along the way, I didn’t think it was worth 3 hours of driving from our hotel.

It was not worth going for me maybe because I have many experiences of driving that type of winding roads on mountains in Japan. Vegetations are interesting and Hawaii has very beautiful scenery, but I don’t think you you would have to go out of your way to go to Hana highway to see those.

Surprisingly my American wife actually didn’t enjoy the road much neither. She was wondering why the Hawaiian government didn’t make a wide paved road towards Hana if about 2,000 cars drive the road everyday.

If you haven’t experienced the road to Hana, you may want to see what it looks like out of curiosity and I understand it. Probably I would not choose to go to Hana twice in my life, but I would still recommend you to drive the Hana highway if you have not seen the road to Hana.

Also, it’s better to bring cash when you go to the road to Hana. There are many local shops on the way. Some places do not accept credit cards. I saw a shop charging 10% extra for a credit card transaction fee. Of course, the customer didn’t look happy.

Also, cell phone reception is not good on the road to Hana and we could not use Google maps for most of the time when we were driving. It’s helpful to bring a travel guidebook with a map.

Nahiku Marketplace

This Nahiku Marketplace is located around the mile marker #29. There are about 10 shops in the marketplace. We ate Coconut Shrimp & Fries and Vegetable Fried Rice at Island Chef restaurant. They were ok taste-wise, definitely not worth the price. But, we were tourists, so I accepted paying higher price than its value in terms of its taste. The place takes advantage of tourists and charges expensive price for the foods like other restaurants in Maui do but here it was even more obvious.

Coconut Shrimp & Fries was $20 and Vegetable Fried Rice was $14.

The person who cooked the dishes was nice, so overall it was fun experience.

Also, there was a black cat getting foods from the restaurant customers, it was cute!

Kahanu Garden / Piilanihale Heiau

In order to go to Kahanu Garden, you go towards the sea at the intersection located at around mile marker #31. After driving the gravel roads towards the sea, you will find the sign of Kahanu Garden.

The entrance fee costs $10 per person.

Heiau means an ancient Hawaiian sacred site. I was surprised to see the massive rock heiau. This was one of the best sites along the Hana highway. There was only one party besides us when we visited the site, so the place may not be that popular. I would highly recommend this place when you drive the road to Hana.

As shown in the picture below, the bathroom was not port-a-potty but clean and modern, which was a lovely suprise after some of the facilites we visited.

Waianapanapa State Park

This state park is located at mile marker#32 and has a black sand beach. It is a very popular site on the road to Hana.

Pools of Oheo

Pools of Oheo is located at mile marker#42. This place is a part of Haleakala National Park.

The receipt of admission fee is effective for 3 days after you paid it. So, if you go to Pools of Oheo within 3 days after you go to see the sunrise at Haleakala summit, bring your receipt and you will not have to pay the admission price twice.

I actually forgot to bring the receipt that I got from my first visit to Haleakala, so I had to pay another $25 for the entrance fee.

Please do not make the same mistake as I did. Keep your receipt of Haleakala National Park entrance fee.

Whale Watching

We used a Whalewatch Sail tour operated by Pacwhale Eco-Adventures.

It costs $59 per person before tax and the tour was about 2 hours. I booked online and went to the place 45 minutes before the sailing time.

December was early in the whale watching season. We saw about 4 whales swiming. Seeing whales was really exciting and amazing experience and seeing the beautiful scenery from the boat was very relaxing. It was also nice because we were done by 1pm and had the rest of the day to go to the beach and enjoy!

Kahekili Beach

Kahekili Beach is a beach in front of Royal Lahaina Resort.

The beach is directly north of Kaanapali Beach and accessible by walking from Kaanapali Beach.

If you would like to relax on the beach, I would choose Kahekili Beach over Kaanapali Beach. Kahekili Beach has nice beautiful water and waves like Kaanapali Beach does. A good thing about Kahekili Beach is less people. Kaanapali Beach was chosen as the third best beach in the US in 2018 by Tripadvisor so that the beach is famous and has so many people on the beach.

If you do not like many people around you on the beach, I would recommend Kahekili Beach.

Snorkeling

Black Rock

When we went to snorkeling around the Black Rock, we could see 3 turtles and many fishes. They were cute and beautiful. The water was so clear that you could see the bottom of the sea about 9 feet deep from the water surface.

My wife had never swam in the sea before this trip, so I looked for a snorkeling place for beginners. We practiced how to breathe with snorkeling equipment near the shore and went near the Black Rock to see the turtles and fishes. It worked very well and we had a great time snorkeling.

Some people say the Black Rock is not suitable for beginners of snorkeling, but if you practiced near the shore before you go further in the sea, the place could be really nice snorkeling spot even for beginners.

The free parking lot is limited nearby the Black Rock. The picture of parking lot is shown below. There is a parking lot on the ground near Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa, but the parking lot has maybe space for 20 or so cars.

It’s better to go early in the morning if you want to park your car at the parking lot.

We went to the Black Rock by walking for about 10 minutes from our hotel, Royal Lahaina Resort. I was so glad that we stayed at Royal Lahaina Resort this time as it was very convenient to the beaches.

Kapalua Beach

Kapalua Beach is also suitable for snorkeling beginners. We could see so many fishes while snorkeling, but we could not find any turtles, which was a little disappointing.

This place is shallower than Black Rock. If you want a safe snorkeling for beginners, I would recommend Kapalua Beach.

Free parking lot is limited near the Kapalua Beach as well. Some pictures for the parking lot are shown below.

There is one parking lot at Kapalua Beach, but it can have only about 30 to 40 cars. When we went to the parking lot at around 9:30am, there were only 2 car parking spots left. It’s good to go early in the morning if you would like to use the parking lot.

Costco (Contact lenses and Gas)

We found out that we left my wife’s contact lenses at our house after we arrived at our hotel. We were panicked when we found it out. But, we decided to go to Costco the next day as soon as the store opened at 9:30am in an attempt to get contact lenses. Fortunately, the first appointment scheduled canceled their appointment so my wife could see the doctor right away.

The eye exam cost about $134 (in the US it is necessary to have an eye exam if you do not have a paper copy of your doctor’s most recent eye exam results, which may be different from Japan). The $134 would have been unnecessary additional cost if we brought her contact lenses to begin with. But, it was totally worth the money because she could enjoy the rest of her trip with better sight snorkling and wearing sun glasses. We were so luckly!!

Surprisingly, the doctor said we were not the only one tourists she’s enountered who forgot to pack their contact lenses. Forgetting to pack contact lenses may have been the most exciting incidents during our trip.

Gas is the least expensive at Costco. We got gas at $2.89 a gallon while other gas stations advertised $3.99 a gallon.

Foods

Foodland Farms

We bought local healthy food at this supermarket. You can buy a delicious salad and fruits at reasonable prices. The salad we bought was $8 per bowl.

Poke is much less expensive here and more delicious. My favorite poke, Poke Ahi Wasabi, was $12 a pound. A half pound should be enough for one person.

If you are interested in a Japanese food called Natto, fermented soy beans, you can also get it here. It’s available for $3.

Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice

I have eaten delicious shave ice many times in my childhood in Japan. So, I didn’t have high expectations for the quality of shaved ice before going to this shop. We ordered a large shave ice, Sunset Beach flavor with mochi on top. It was surprisingly delicious! The quality of ice was very smooth as if it was a powdery snowflake. My wife liked it as well so I was happy to buy shave ice at this place.

McDonald’s Saimin

I watched a Youtuber saying you could get Saimin at McDonald’s in Hawaii. Saimin is a food like ramen that originated in Hawaii. I bought it for $5.39 at a McDonald’s located at 340 Dairy RD Kahului, HI 96732. The taste was terrible, I would never order it again in the future. But, it was still fun experience because it was my first time to eat Saimin at a McDonald’s and a new experience. The option of Saimin is not on the menu board, so you would have to ask a clerk to get it.

Izakaya Genbe

I liked Japanese foods at Izakaya Genbe. It was real Japanese food and delicious. It’s much more expensive, compared with the quality and price of Japanese foods in Japan. I liked Agedashi Tofu for $8 in particular.

Lineage

One of the contestants for American TV cooking program called Top Chef, Sheldon Simeon, created this restaurant.

We ordered the following foods at the restaurant, the cocktail South Side Southside for $14, Huelo for $6, Cone Sushi for $6, Kimchi Dip for $8, Smoke Meat for $18, 1/2 Huli for $40, Steamed rice for $3, Filipino Cereal for $10 and Chocolate (tarte) for $12.

They were all super delicious!

The tastes seemed like a really good combination of Filipino, Japanese and American cuisine. According to our server, the dessert of Filipino Cereal and Chocolate are from childhood memories of Chef Sheldon. The sweetness of those desserts was exquisite. We were so full before having the desserts, but we could finish all the desserts without any problem because they were so delicious!

Iine Ramen

I ordered Original Ramen for $12 and it was good. The soup was based on pork bone and pork meat. Wavy thick noodle matched really well with the soup. Japanese cooks are cooking this ramen.

One small disappointment was the noodles were stuck together as shown in the picture below.

This would not have happened if the cook kept mixing the noodle when the noodle was boiling. I have never seen noodles stuck together in Japan while I have seen it in ramen restaurants in the US many times. I like smooth texture of noodle so that I hope American ramen restaurants will improve it in the future.

Choice Health Bar

When you get tired of meat based foods and want to eat healthy vegetable based foods, this place is appropriate to try. I had Soba Noodle Salad for $12 and a smoothie called Wow Maui for $8. Soba tasted like real Japanese Soba noodle and it was good!

Travel Expense

Hotel, Flights, Rental Car: $2,360

Excursions, Foods, Souvenirs: $895

Gas: $62

Contact Lenses: $134

Total Expense for this Maui Travel for 7days, 6 nights: $3,450

Our budget was up to $5,000. We may have tried to reduce our cost too much. I could have spent much more, but our personalities stopped us from behaving extravagantly. I guess our Maui trip turned out to be a great vacation while we saved cost at the same time. We will spend more money next time when we go to Hawaii!!