Marc's Blog: trips - Back in Maui 15 Years Later

π 2025-12-08 01:01 in Hawaii, Ntrips, Trips

It had been a while since I had been to Maui. My 2nd trip was around 10 days and had plenty of time to see everything around Hana, do the upcountry, hike Halekala, and plenty of diving around Kihei, but while I had been to Lahaina, which was beautiful at the time, I never stayed there. Updates for this trip:

The road to Hana with a night in Hana was fun to do again. Hana is super expensive to stay at, but thankfully I had some leftover Hyatt points that were put to good use for a night there (Luana Spa where I stayed before was unfortunately not usable to sleep there anymore).

In the past, I regretted not staying a few days in Lahaina. Unfortunately, it's now all burnt down and hasn't recally recovered yet. It will likely take many years to probably not quite get to the level it was at before.

But more unfortunately, Lahaina has become unreasonably expensive. On top of that, they've added punitive parking fees. That's very short sighted as driving away tourists that are supposed to help rebuild after covid and the Lahaina fire and destructions, isn't really going to work (parking 20mn by Dragon's Teeth was $35, parking in the condo complex just north of Laihana, after already paying a lot to stay there, was another $150. WTF?)

The rest of Maui was mostly like it was 15 years ago, so not too many new things outside of Alpacas and Butterfly farm that were fun. However it had more things that you can't do anymore, making things worse, including closing seven sacred pools, mostly closing venus pools and removing the only legal parking spots that were there. They also force reservations that have to be made the day before for black sand beach or you get denied access. They also prevented access to the end waterfall at the end of the Pipiwi trail (with a fine if you continue to the end, which I did anyway), and even the Io Needle also needed advance booking and timeslots to be allowed in when it was half empty. All bad changes in the end, not impressed.

The one thing that improved was the backroad from Hana to up country had significantly improved and can't be considered unsafe in any way. It was trivial to drive this time around. And the private road from upcountry to Waimea, also known as the Oprah road, is unfortunately private property so you have to drive around.

With that out of the way, let's go through the pictures. We arrived later in the evening:

Day 1 & 2: Hana Loop

The road to Hana is still fun and Eden's Garden is still an enjoyable stop. Stayed close to the start of the road to be ahead and got up early-ish to make the most of the shorter winter days:

glad to be back

peacocks are the local chickens

Did I mention the ducks were hungry, hilarious how they wag their tail when they are happy

the mini doves were parked on the bird seed box :)

plenty :)

Then the garden tour:

After a good time there, back on the road:

triple waterfall

they were ready for tourists :)

Then I went back to Kahanu Gardens which do close early (15:00):

But unfortunately the Hana lava tube next door was closed:

So there was a bit of leftover time to check out the airport and nearby chocolate places:

And finally was able to go back to black sand beach which is now a bitch to go to as they require timed reservations that have to be done the day before and you can't get in before your timeslot. Sigh...

very nice lava hike by the beach

wonderful cave in the rocks a 20mn hike away from black sand beach. A real gem and totally unmarked

beautiful beam of light

Lots of cats on the trail going south:

Then there was enough time to check out red sand beach, which thankfully still had its access path intact:

monk seal sleeping

Then there was just enough time to check in the Hyatt Hana, which was beautiful:

The next morning, we continued the loop, starting with a few beaches:

I went to venus pools, but they "nicely" blocked all the legal parking spots and I was warned that the water may not be clean or save anymore (Bacteria):

A few more nice views on the way:

Until seven sacred pools:

sadly it was forbidden to go down now :-/

and forbidden to go in the pools, sigh...

From there, I did the Pipiwai trail again, which is beautiful, but now you were not supposed to do the end bit. I still did, but it's sad...

Bamboo forest again:

the bamboos clacking in the wind were coo

And then after all the hiking, this... WTF?!?

from far

and close once you go past the sign

the waterfall was still very nice, but sad you had to break the law to get there

bonus rainbow

Then back on the road to finish the south loop:

straight road :)

haha

The drive took a bit more than 1h, enough time to go see Maui Wine:

And still just enough time to get to Kula Botanical Garden which closes early:

And then it was time to drive up to Haleakala to enjoy it a bit before sunset:

local birds

of course they were hungry :)

Then more time to wait for sunset:

still a very cool view

Then a long drive down behind a slow car that was blocking everyone, all the way to Kihei took around 1h30 but got there eventually.

The Pineapple plantation was interesting:

interesting to see how pineapples are hand harvested

Next door was a fluffy bunny and alpaca farm, that was fun:

Alpacas are so cute:

And not too far still was Surfing Goat Dairy I had been too years back and was fun to see again:

the small goats were funny to watch

The next day, went to Iao Valley which was nice for 30mn, but just that:

Another small botanical gardens:

On the way back, went to Maui Ocean Center (clickme):

On the way to Lahaina, stopped at the the butterfly farm, which was very enjoyable:

praying mantis

Got lucky enough to see some wild Nene:

Then, went up to Dragon's Teeth, which is now sadly behind an overpriced parking lot from the bastards at parklinq, $35 for even a few minutes.

The new place at Kaanapali was very nice, but Kaanapali Royal had a ridiculously priced parking lot ($150 when you already paid to stay there), so I cannot recommend them. That's very silly, I hope they get the clue that this is not ok.