For our honeymoon, we spent nine days in Maui. It was the perfect mix of fun and relaxing, and it was exactly what we needed! Maui is known for being the more resort-y island, perfect for honeymoons and romantic getaways. I wanted to share about our trip and our recommendations for anyone else interested in planning a trip to Maui.
Where to Stay
We stayed at the Sheraton on Ka’anapali Beach, which is right next to Black Rock. We loved it there and would highly recommend it to everyone! If you want to splurge more on your accommodations, there are great resorts in the Wailea area; however, we felt like the Sheraton was a more reasonable price for us and in a great location.
We loved being right on Ka’anapali beach! Black Rock is known for having great snorkeling, and while I could lay out at the beach all day, Aaron doesn’t feel the same. He had so much fun being able to just walk right into the ocean in front of our hotel and snorkel. We saw plenty of fish and even had some turtles swim up right next to us. Just a short walk (less than 10 minutes) down the beach is the Whaler’s Villiage shopping center where you can find some great restaurants and shopping–everything from an ABC Store to Louis Vuitton. The Sheraton is also just a short drive away from Lahaina where many excursions depart from.
What to Eat
A huge highlight of our honeymoon was all the amazing food we ate. We both like to think of ourselves as foodies, and we love to indulge in a nice dinner. You’ll hear from everyone that the #1 place you must eat in Maui is Mama’s Fish House… and it’s true. It was honestly one of my favorite meals I’ve ever eaten in my life! The one caveat is that you have to get a reservation well in advance. We went during a peak tourist time and capacity was more limited because of Covid, so I put the date reservations opened for our trip on my calendar (which was six months in advance) and made our reservation the day they became available so I could get a time around sunset. Now you probably don’t have to be that obsessive, but when we were there in mid-June we heard that it was booked out until October!
Our favorite places we ate on the trip were:
- Mama’s Fish House
- Paia Fish Market (generous portions and amazing fish!)
- Hula Grill
What to Do
Maui is known for being the “resort” island and more suited for couples. Our priority was to have a relaxing vacation rather than always being on the go. Even so, Maui has plenty of fun things to do. Our most notable activities (other than laying out in a cabana all day eating chips and guac) were an excursion to Lana’i, a sunset dinner cruise, and a day in Pai’a.
We did an excursion to Lana’i through Trilogy Excursions and absolutely loved it! On the boat ride over, we saw at least thirty spinner dolphins swimming alongside our boat and jumping out of the water. Once on Lana’i, it was a short walk over to Hulopoe beach where we could go snorkeling, check out tide pools, and go on a short walk to a stunning lookout point. The snorkeling was amazing, and we saw so many different fish. Aaron loves snorkeling, so he spent quite a while doing that while I did a bit of snorkeling with him before falling asleep on the beach. The food was great by excursion standards. We had cinnamon rolls and wraps on the way over, and for lunch on the island, we had chicken, lo mein, and salad. The whole crew was so kind and fun, we would 100% recommend any excursion with them.
Later on in our trip, we did a sunset dinner cruise (also with Trilogy Excursions).
We didn’t do the Road to Hana because rental car prices for the time of our trip had skyrocketed and would have cost well over the price of our hotel! If we ever go back to Maui, doing the Road to Hana would be my #1 priority. We did rent a car for one day so we could go to our reservation at Mama’s Fish House (#priorities). We spent the day in Pai’a, which is known for being a hippie town. I know I already mentioned Mama’s Fish House under the previous section, but really… if you’re going to Maui, you have to go.
Since we didn’t have a rental car for our trip, we took Ubers to Lahaina for our excursions. I will say that I would not recommend Maui if you don’t have a rental car. Apparently, service isn’t great on the island, and we had major difficulties with Uber. We scheduled an Uber to go to the airport three days in advance and the driver never came. By the time we got a taxi, we missed our flight! Everything worked out okay and we still had a great trip overall, but I had to do my due diligence and warn you.
