Maui wowee! From the ocean, to the mountains, to bright, juicy, exotic food, it is hard not to find something to love. Even the Kahului airport in Maui, as your first footsteps onto the island, is pretty incredible. The ability to sit outside to enjoy a meal while you wait for your flight, or if you are ravenous post flight, is so wonderful.
We arrived at about 7:30pm, and by the time we got our rental car, it was almost 8pm, and we quickly checked Yelp for a good, nearby, open place for a quick bite to eat. Tight Tacos was an 8 minute drive away, and the tacos were so so good, and super inexpensive. Between the four of us, we tried a cheese quesadilla with sour cream and guacamole, local fresh catch fish tacos, a shrimp taco, a beef taco, rice, beans, and corn. We all enjoyed the tacos (fish and shrimp were best!), and it was a perfect fast meal post flight. The little taco joint gets bonus points for having a parking lot in front, a separate eating room, and delicious hot sauces to try. If you are near the airport, I highly recommend stopping at Tight Tacos !
Once we were satiated with tacos, we began the drive to our hotel on Kaanapali beach, and it was a great first location to spend a night (could have spent a few!) on the island.
Waking up and strolling down the beach to head into Whaler’s Village after coffee/breakfast was wonderful! The walk along the beach was so refreshing after a long travel day, and having the sun on our faces was just delightful.
The first coffee shop we stopped at was Island Vintage Coffee in Whaler’s Village. The coffee was definitely not my favorite (I had a small latte) and it was mostly because it tasted a bit burnt. Despite not being the best latte I have ever had, I was super grateful for the caffeine. I would go back for the food, though! We got an everything bagel topped with avocado, vegan macadamia nut cheese, tomatoes, and a bunch of beautiful herbs. A perfect little coffee shop breakfast. My mom tried the chai latte, and it was most likely a powdered mix with a weak taste. Something to keep in mind- we parked in the mall parking garage, and if you bring your ticket with you, you can get it validated at the coffee shop to avoid the parking fees!
Right next to Island Vintage is Choice Health Bar, and this was a cute little place to grab smoothies, juices, and acai bowls! Since my family is full of passionfruit lovers, we got both of the smoothies that have passionfruit in them. They were super delicious and fresh island fruit is always a must!
After leaving Whaler’s Village, we decided to stop by Island Press Coffee for another latte and chai latte so that we could compare the two coffee shops. Island Press was way less crowded, and the coffee was about on par with Island Vintage. I was still happy for another iced latte, especially since at 8:30am it was already almost 80 degrees out! My mom’s chai latte was better, though, and the passionfruit pound cake was delicious. They also have Valley Isle Kombucha on tap.
After getting some caffeine and food in our systems, we ended up walking all the way down the beach back to Whaler’s Village. My first stop was at Ono Gelato, for a macadamia nut gelato called Coffee Crunch, which was Maui coffee, macadamia nuts, and chocolate chunks.
The little local convenience store in Whaler’s Village sold Maui made Vitalitea Kombucha, and I tried the Stardust, which is Hibiscus, ginger, and blue spirulina. While it was great to have something cold, this kombucha is on the watery side.
After some shopping in Whaler’s Village (which has lots of cute little boutiques and souvenir shops) we walked back along the beach to check out of our hotel. The rest of our time in Maui would be spent in Wailea, so we had a nice drive down the highway along the ocean. I had found this really cool vegetarian restaurant that my sister and I wanted to stop at in Lahaina, very close to Kaanapali. Moku Roots is a great restaurant in a colorful outdoor strip mall. I had the burger of the week, which was a spirulina and black sesame bun with jackfruit seed and macadamia nut miso aioli, lettuce, tomato, onion, green papaya, cabbage slaw, shiitake mushrooms, and a taro patty. My mom got a raw beet pasta salad, my sister got the coconut bacon avocado blt sandwich, and both were great! We also tried their famous chocolate chip taro cookies and their vegan pina coladas.
Right across the way from Moku Roots is Island Cream Co., which I had saved in my maps prior to heading to Maui. Island Cream Co. has locally made ice cream and shave ice. I opted for another macadamia nut ice cream, and it was very good!
Continuing on our drive, we stopped at Leoda’s Kitchen and Pie shop. We opted for the Lilikoi (passionfruit), pineapple macadamia nut, and guava chiffon pies. They are super small little pies, which is perfect so that you can try multiple flavors.
There is a little market next to the Olowalu fruit stand, and we picked up some Lilikoi macadamia nuts and some fresh passionfruit!
Our next stop was at Papawai Scenic Lookout to watch the humpback whales! We had noticed the whales in the ocean on the drive, and as soon as we saw the little lookout where we could park, we took advantage of the stop! It was so fun watching the whales breach, flip their tails, and spout water. There were so many of them going in a few different directions, looking like they were the happiest whales. Heading to Hawaii in February is amazing because the whales are migrating, and catching glimpses of them in the ocean is pretty remarkable!
After settling into our condo for the next 4 nights in Wailea, we went for another walk along the beach. One of the hotels has Humble Market Kitchin, which has great ocean views. The food was just ok, and I think we all decided we wouldn’t go back, unless we just wanted ocean views!
Our first morning in Wailea we walked over to Akamai Coffee, which is a super cute, clean, modern, and super beachy vibed coffee shop. This one of the best lattes we had on the trip, but what kept me coming back each day were the lilikoi (passionfruit) croissants. OH MY GOODNESS. These croissants were the best I have ever had (surpassing the ones I tried in Paris, even!) and I am still dreaming about them. Momona bakery makes them and she delivers the delectable croissants most mornings Tuesday through Saturday. If you are in the Wailea area, you must try these croissants! They are so so good! She makes other pastries, too, but I couldn’t stop ordering the passionfruit filled croissants!
Akamai Coffee also has some wonderful small plates for light breakfast options, including egg toast, colorful soba noodle salads, and of course, avocado toast.
For a more substantial breakfast/brunch/lunch, we drove to Kihei, which is right next to Wailea. Lava Rock Cafe has a great outdoor rooftop bar, which was wonderful for sitting and enjoying a meal. Some local favorite items to try are the papaya filled with yogurt and granola, loco moco (a rice based dish topped with egg and breakfast meat), and veggie scrambles. They were also running a special that included a $2 regular mimosa or passionfruit mimosa with each meal. The passionfruit mimosa was delicious!
After a nice meal, we drove over to Makawao, which is a cute little historic town full of cute shops, boutiques, a bakery, and a bike shop! Makawao has a little food truck area with some lunch options, as well as some really good coffee! After strolling around Makawao, we headed over to Mahalo Aleworks to try a local Maui brewery. Right next to the brewery is a wonderful coffee shop called Crema at Marlow that serves pizza for lunch during the week. In addition to the more traditional pizzas, Crema has a few local pizzas, including a braised pork which has the Hawaiian Kalua pork, a spicy arrabiata sauce, lilikoi butter, and mozzarella. Passionfruit on pizza was unexpected but absolutely delicious! Another local pizza we tried was the broccolini, which had local kupa’a farms broccolini, castelvetrano olives, and calabrian chili oil. The last one we tried was the funghi, which had local lapa’au oyster mushrooms, fontina cheese, and confit garlic. These pizzas were so good!
If you are on the Marlow side of Makawao, across from the coffee shop and brewery is another food truck area, which also has a pizza food truck, some barbeque and taco food trucks, a vegetarian food truck, and a cookie food truck, called Cookie Lab.
We grabbed some passion fruit oatmeal cookies and a gluten free coconut cookie for our bike ride up to Haleakala the next day.
First thing Saturday morning we met up with friends to ride our bikes up Haleakala. We met up in Paia, which is a cute surfer town that happens to be near the start of the Haleakala climb. We had rented bikes from the bike shop in Makawao the day before, which was perfect for doing the hill climb. It was such an amazing day, and we had the most perfect weather. It was so fun climbing 10,000 feet to the summit. Near the park entrance, there is a $15/cyclist entrance fee, unless you have a National Parks pass.
During the ride up, we saw many people who took a shuttle to ride their bikes down, so we did feel a bit like salmon, but totally worth it. The hill climb is smooth, gradual, and absolutely breathtaking views the entire climb up. The ride started at about 75 degrees and ended at the summit at probably 50 degrees, which was very nice for climbing. My mom drove to the top and was able to pick up Ariel and me, and the others rode back down the hill.
The ride up the mountain took about 4.5 hours, and then a half hour drive down and back to Makawao to return the bikes.
After dropping the bikes off, we got some coffee from Crema at Marlow, and the fresh made macadamia milk is absolutely delicious. I actually ordered just a glass of macadamia milk, it was that good!
After getting back to the condo, we took a stroll on the beach where we saw a super cute turtle as the sun was beginning to set.
We then walked over to dinner at Lineage in Wailea Village. The food was pretty good, albeit very expensive! It is a great spot to go with a large group because the meals are served family style, and it is fun to try as many dishes as possible. My family enjoyed the cocktails, too! Some of the dishes we tried were the shrimp, poke bowl, cauliflower, local fresh fish catch, and crunchy noodles. We tried two of the dessert options, a chocolate coconut macadamia mochi sundae, and a creme brulee cake.
ROAD TO HANA
We spent Superbowl Sunday driving the road to Hana. This is a very cool scenic drive, with many stops along the way. I definitely agree with most of the reviews I read which have said that a solid day should be devoted to the drive. Just logistically it makes sense since it is about 3 hours to Hana and 3 hours back (a bit quicker if you circumnavigate the island, but we did an out and back instead). The highlights of our road to Hana were the black sand beach, the Pipiwai Trail and Waimoku Falls (just to the bamboo forest), and some of the waterfalls along the road. When we did the Pipiwai trail, the final waterfall was closed, so in hindsight, we could have turned around at the bamboo forest. The bamboo forest was the best part of the trail! The wind blowing along the bamboo was an incredible sound, and was something unlike I had ever heard before, It was a very cool trail, and was 4 miles roundtrip. We also had some amazing ube ice cream and fresh fish sandwiches along the way!
There are so many places along the beach to rent stand up paddle boards, kayaks, canoes, surfboards, and snorkel kits! One day we rented stand up paddle boards, and another day we did a morning canoe tour to see whales. This was my favorite activity and the highlight of our trip. The whales were absolutely incredible, and they came right next to our canoe! Our guide had a device that he would put into the water so that we could hear the humpback whales singing underwater. It was absolutely incredible, and prior to this experience, I had no idea that whales created songs. We had a GoPro which turned out to be the best thing because we were able to video the whales underwater with it. It was so fun and amazing to see them swimming and diving just a few feet from us. This was an excursion to remember, and I will definitely be joining another one the next time I am in Hawaii!
The other island we saw on our trip was the Big Island. This island is way less crowded than Maui, has fewer beaches, and much more open land. In Maui we joked that there were chickens everywhere, and on the Big Island, the chickens were replaced by goats.
While we rented mountain bikes, I wouldn’t actually recommend trying to mountain bike on the Big Island. The road cycling scene is much stronger, and similar to Maui, the roads are all very smooth and well paved, and much more suited to a road bike.
The highlight of the Big Island was Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. It was really cool to see some red lava in the distance (there are many short, scenic hikes where you can get a nice aerial view of the lava below). It was also really cool to walk across the lava fields, and to go through some lava tubes.
One of our favorite restaurants was in Hilo, which is the biggest city on the Big Island. The restaurant is called Izakaya Miyo, and we did an omakase or chef’s tasting menu. It was really fun to be surprised at every course, and to have each course explained to us. We also sat right at the sushi counter, so it was super fun to watch all the dishes being prepared. Each course was incredible, and the restaurant itself is small, cozy, and has a nice vibe. The highlight was the dessert, which was a chocolate macadamia nut ice cream with peanut butter sand and a macadamia nut mousse, topped with a torched meringue top. The flavors and textures were spot on, and it was absolutely scrumptious.
Another great meal we had was at Manta, which is a restaurant in the Mauna Kea Resort, in between Kona and Waimea. I had the local fish special, which happened to be Onaga, a Red Snapper, and it was the best fish I have ever had. It is extremely delicate, and mild, and just so easy to eat. If I ever see Onaga or Red Snapper on a menu, I will definitely be trying it again!
Before heading into Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, we stopped at a wonderful coffee shop called Koana, which is in a town near the park called Mountain View. This tiny town has a couple cute restaurants and food trucks, in addition to some of the best coffee you can find on the Big Island (and maybe all of Hawaii!). If you google Koana (which we did) you will find 170 five star reviews, and while it may be hard to believe, I will also be adding another one. Brian opened this cute coffee shop up on 2019, and he did an amazing job decorating it and creating a cozy coffee community. The pour over coffees are amazing, the milk teas are delicious, and the vegan ice cream sandwiches are super nice on a hot day. Something you must try, even if it is hot, is the Lava Shot. It is a small drinking chocolate, the size of a shot, that has dark chocolate, ginger, tumeric, cinnamon, cayenne, and coconut milk powder. It was the best drinking chocolate shot I have ever had (sorry Ritual Chocolate!), and was the perfect treat to end our coffee and milk tea tour at Koana. We also had the privilege of talking to Brian, the owner, and hearing his story, all while he made us delicious drinks. I wish we had been able to go back more than once, and this is definitely a spot worth going to on the Big Island! And recently, Koana made Food and Wine's Best Coffee Shop in Every State list!
