Has anyone been to Hawaii lately?

Was supposed to take the family to Maui for Spring Break last March and called it off last minute due to COVID explosion and the uncertainty at the time.

We initially rescheduled for June, then September, and then again to this March for Spring Break.

With the trip just ~7 weeks away, I’m hearing conflicting reports on just what it’s like to travel to Maui in this environment.

On the one hand, it seems that HI has done a great job of minimizing the cases in the state by requiring all incoming travelers to provide a negative test and imposing quarantine on those that may have been exposed. However, it’s a long flight and an expensive trip visiting Hawaii and I don’t know what to expect once arriving there.

I fear that many restaurants and activities were unable to survive without tourists for the better part of 8 months. Also, with many hotels operating at reduced capacity, it seems certain amenities such as room service are not currently being offered. I want to be able to support the local businesses by putting my tourist dollars to work, but if we aren’t able to get the whole “Hawaii experience” I may consider punting again.

So curious to hear what you’re experience was like if you’ve been to Hawaii recently. Would you suggest I stick with my plans or am I better off delaying yet again?

I haven’t been there lately but the travel groups I’m on have suggested that it’s unlikely you’ll get a full hawaii experience.

What is the “full hawaii experience”?

We were on Oahu during the holidays, everything was open for what we wanted to do. Every restaurant was opened, there was indoor dining (you’d have to agree to contact tracing first) with well spaced out tables. Certain amenities at the hotel were closed (lounge) , but nothing that impacted our stay. I enjoyed it cause it was fairly empty and everyone was very mask compliant. I even saw honolulu PD stop someone that wasn’t wearing a mask.

My friend who is in Maui now echoed the same.

We were hoping to do a snorkeling/whale watching excursion, luau, volcano hikes, etc.

Glad to hear that the restaurants are open for business and most of the visitors are respecting the mask policy.

we snorkeled - i saw there were whale watching excursions and scuba diving trips going out. They just do reduced capacity.

I did not see luau’s (i didn’t look but it seems doubtful).

Hiking a plenty - but if it’s a guided event i don’t know, but i can’t imagine it’s closed.

David not sure your level of experience with Hawaii so I’ll comment assuming you haven’t been. Or haven’t been a ton of times.

Maui - the waters is why u are going there. Wonderful snorkeling and scuba diving. Get to molikini crator. Snorkel is good but diving the back wall if u are experienced is excellent, but it is an intermediate difficulty dive with strong current. So likely a drift dive, and lotsa fun getting back on the boat :wink:

Sail to lanai. Fun day trip. Beautiful views. Trilogy does a great tour:

Snorkeling. I didn’t snorkel as we dive when we are there but tons of good operators in Maui. (They also know their money maker is the water).

Whale watching:

They run a great tour and profit goes to research.

The road to hana is highly overrated (personal view based on 2 drives). But if u have free time, it’s not bad to drive if once. :slight_smile:. Some nice waterfalls. If u go, and if u can, drive around the backside back to town. Some rental car agreement won’t allow it. It’s beautiful scenery.

The sunrise at Haleakala. Also highly overrated and cloudy most days. But on ur first morning if u have severe jet lag it’s not a bad thing to do. I think u need to reserve a spot now. Do that ASAP it fills up. (Not sure if open now)

Food is a bit touristy. I find mamas fish house to be mediocre at best but that’s high controversial :wink:
Definitely food quality is not as high as Oahu.

I think once u pass the covid stuff, local things are open. A friend went recently to Maui and said it was fine. Masks etc of course.

Oh. And to me a Luau is not a “Hawaiian experience”. It’s a tourist experience for people visiting Hawaii. Highly skippable. :slight_smile:

(Ive been to Hawaii a bunch of times. Been to all the islands etc. happy to answer other Qs and look forward to hearing about ur trip!)

Some great recommendations, thanks Mark. While I’ve been to HI many times, this will be the first trip with the kids (7 and 9) hence the more touristy type activities on the agenda for this trip. Agree that Luaus are mostly geared towards tourists but I’m sure the kids will get a kick out of it. We had originally booked the luau at the Andaz when we were booked for 2020, but they’ve since juiced up their pricing considerably and I’m not interested in spending $1k for the 4 of us.

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Ahhh yes… kids will love it… Dance along with the dancers etc… awesome. have a great time!

Pacific Whale also does really nice snorkeling tours on the sail catamaran to Honolua Bay. We did that and really enjoyed it.

While not a luau specifically, we also liked the Feast at Lele, which encompasses other Polynesian islands: https://www.feastatlele.com/

And Lahaina Grill is the best place we ate on our trip.

Similar situation, cancelled last spring break last minute, rescheduled multiple times, cancelled each, including this spring break. Not so concerned about amenities, but not willing to risk quarantining on my vacation and don’t want to deal with the testing hassle. We have tentatively rescheduled for June. Our neighbors were there in November, had a great time, but part of the family had to quarantine while waiting for results since they all came back at different times (this was before you had to have the negative test before flying out).

If you don’t have a recent negative test result, will be subject to the state’s mandatory 10-day mandatory self-quarantine. Otherwise I know people there now and they are enjoying the restaurants, golf courses and other activities. You won’t get the “full” experience anywhere you travel until things normalize, but will still have fun!

I just got back from a 3.5 week stay to our maui house and the island was throughly enjoyable. Very quiet tourist wise but the island is functioning at a very normal level even with the recent reductions in capacity for dining. (30% and party of 5 max). We were able to get in no problem at all of our favorite spots except Lahaina Grill which is set to open mid Feb. Whale watching was going out of both harbors and I saw boats out at molokini so assume diving was a go as well. We did our COVID tests through carbon health which has sites in LA dedicated to travel testing and guarantees results by 2PM next day for $170. Went to the location on Sunset and worked great for us. In and out in 5 minutes right at our appointment time. We did night at the Hotel Wailea as well and everything was functioning as normal other than the obvious masks. I’m not sure about the luau but Feast at Lele is a great option for both kids and adults if they are open. Make sure you do the state health survey 24 before your trip as they will need the QR code set when completed to make it out of the airport. Be prepared for a wait to get out of the airport unless you fly Alaska which worked out a deal where their passengers get a pass. It took us about 45 minutes to get through

Daughter and SIL live on Oahu. Just spoke with her the other day – other than Kauai, things are pretty OK for travel. Kauai still has a 14-day quarantine requirement.

Very timely thread for me.

We are planning a trip to Maui early June (family of five, kids 15, 10, and 9) and have a VRBO booked in Wailea. We want to do two nights at a hotel (for pool and other stuff for the kids) and was looking at Grand Wailea (where we have stayed before) or the Marriott Wailea (have not stayed there, but would need to get two rooms, whereas at Grand Wailea, they have a suite that will sleep all five). Thoughts on those two or other suggestions? Does not need to be in Wailea and can be as far north as Kaanapali.

Also, when booking flights, thoughts about buying flight insurance?

We’ll be flying out of LAX, likely American.

Thanks in advance!

Tom

Tom,
My favorite places in Kaanapali are Honua Kai (1,2,3 BR units) and Westin Ocean Villas/Nanea - excellent for families. All right on the beach, lots of hot tubs for kids. [highfive.gif]

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Thanks Dan.

Will look into those. Love the Hula Grill.

Lahaina is also a possibility if any good options out there.

If you are going to Wailea, we LOVE the Wailea Beach Villas for our family of 7. It’s next to the Grand Wailea, great units without all the people

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Thanks Jerry.

Will look at those as well.

We are staying at the Wailea Beach Resort (fka Marriott Wailea) in March and can report back on how it went

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Thanks David.

These last two nights for us are really about the kids (and yours are similar age to my two younger ones), so would really be interested to hear what your kids thought about the place.

Our boys loved the slides and pools at Grand Wailea, although the pools can get crowded, but guessing will be better in terms of crowds, even in June.