Maui 2026

After spending 5 lovely nights on the Big Island, we flew to Maui. When we originally planned our trip, our main plans for Maui had been to visit Haleakala' national park and thoroughly explore the Road to Hana over multiple days. Unfortunately we weren't able to do either of those things due to road damage from the recent Kona Low storm. We'd arrived on the Big Island just after the storm had passed, so we knew to be prepared for road closures, but the weather was better than originally forecast and we ended up being able to do most of what was on our original itinerary. Maui was the exact opposite. We still had a good time, but I wouldn't have paid the extra cost to visit Maui if I'd realized just how limited we would be.

My hopes were high when we left the Big Island on a gorgeous day. Our flight left on time, and it's only 20 minutes to get from Kona to Kahului gate to gate, but we weren't allowed to land in Maui due to a heavy rain storm. This seemed so weird since the Big Island was perfectly clear and lovely, and they're only about 85 miles apart. We circled for awhile then were told we had to fly back to Kona to refuel. Their main priority was bringing in the larger planes coming from the mainland or internationally, while we were just a small plane that could easily divert back to Kona. We sat in Kona for a long time waiting for an opening to refuel, then had to sit even longer waiting for permission to fly to Maui. They let us fly in once the storm had let up, which ended up being over 3 hours late. Not long after we arrived, it started pouring again and rained hard the rest of the night, so we were lucky to even get into Maui at all. It was much more hectic than we were expecting, but we eventually made it to our hotel. After a rough afternoon, at least we had some pretty posh accommodations. This Hilton Grand Vacations Club resort is only a couple years old and is absolutely stunning! It felt great to go from stress, frustration, whiny kids, and pouring rain into the lap of luxury!

The next day was Sunday, so we attended a 9:00am service at a local ward. Many of the people there were still dealing with flooding in their homes, but they had great attitudes about it. In fact, many of the people at our resort were locals whose insurance was putting them up in a hotel while their homes were repaired. 

It rained during the morning while we were at church, but it cleared up after we got back and had some lunch. We decided to drive as far down the road to Hana as we were allowed to, which wasn't very far. We made a stop at Hoʻokipa Beach to see sea turtles. I hadn't realized there was also an incredible surf there with plenty of surfers enjoying the waves. These waves were solely for surfers. The shore is too rocky and the surf is too big for swimmers. 

Oscar went down the extremely muddy trail to get photos and video of these massive waves crashing into the rocks. The rest of us had already muddied up our shoes and didn't want to risk slipping, so we continued down to the beach to see the sea turtles. 

I'd heard this beach had lots of sea turtles, and this one did not disappoint. There were dozens of them! There was even a little baby one next to its mother. At first they seem to just blend in with all the rocks next to them. If you didn't know they were there you might just drive on past without even realizing they're turtles. 

As we came around to the accessible portion of the beach, we saw a bunch of chickens and a lone sea turtle separated from the big group.

We stayed and stared at the sea turtles for at least 10 minutes. We saw several turtles come in from the ocean to relax on the beach, but it was even more fun to watch one of them slowly make its way back to the water. This didn't happen much because they move so slowly (we saw another one start moving away from the group and back towards the water, but he took a break and was still taking a break when we left). You really feel for the turtle when it finally makes it to the water just to get knocked back over and over again by the waves, but then when it actually makes it to the water it takes off quickly where it's much more in its element. 

Oscar and Tyler made their cursory "duh" video while Allison and I watched the turtles, the waves, and the surfers. We would have stayed longer but we figured we should let other tourists take our spot. Several vehicles were vying for our parking spot as we were driving away.

We drove maybe 10 more minutes down the road to Hana, but we really didn't get much further before reaching the area that was closed to all but local traffic. On our drive back we saw a little fruit market where we picked up a guava shave ice along with mango bread and pineapple bread. We'd intended to buy Lilikoi bread but didn't notice until we were back in the car that it was actually pineapple bread. Fortunately the pineapple bread was really good, but we were disappointed in the mango bread. We couldn't taste mango at all. The primary flavor was cinnamon. If we'd been tasting it blind, we would have thought it was pumpkin bread.

The guava "shave ice" was tasty, but it was definitely a snow cone. They really should switch the name since "snow cones" are more like shaved pieces of ice while "shave ice" is soft and moldable like a ball of snow.

We then went to the Papawai scenic lookout, but that was as far north as we traveled that trip. The north west part of the island received a LOT of rain the previous days, and much of the main roads going north were closed to all but local traffic.

From there we went over to the Maui Ocean Center for the last hour and 10 minutes they were open. We got free admission there thanks to the travel passport that comes with our Denver Museum of Nature and Science membership. Admission is $55 per adult and $45 per child, and we ended up visiting 3 times that week, so it certainly saved us a pretty penny.

The kids really liked seeing the eels. Tyler wanted to make a "duh" video, so I suggested they pretend the eels were saying "duh" every time they opened their mouths.

We then went into the shallow and deep reef exhibits. We saw more angel fish than I've ever seen in any aquarium anywhere. I swear they were in at least 50% of the tanks.

From there we went outside where there's a lovely view of Haleakala as you walk between the exhibits. We saw the sea turtles swimming in their outdoor tank before heading into the open ocean exhibit.

Here's my adorable Allison standing outside the open ocean exhibit.

That evening Oscar and I took a walk around the property and enjoyed a lovely sunset. 

Hawaii sunsets are pretty amazing!

The next day was supposed to be nice, but it ended up pouring until about 2pm. Oscar and I tried going on a drive before the rain got bad to see if there was anything we could see, but there really wasn't. It was absolutely dumping by the time we made it close to a trail I'd plugged into Google Maps, but in that weather it would have been incredibly muddy and slippery, and the little roads to going the last mile or so were full of pot holes. 

The weather did eventually clear up and became really nice that afternoon and evening. I took Allison swimming for a couple hours then we came back and got our showers before Oscar and I went on a sunset dinner cruise. We have a lot of photos from that cruise, so it will get its own post. We opted not to take the kids because we didn't think they'd appreciate it enough to make it worth the cost. Plus the kids were happy enough to just stay at the resort, eat Easy Mac, and play their tablets. 

The next day was gorgeous and Haleakala National Park's website was no longer saying that the park was closed. We took a chance and drove up to it, but sadly, it was still closed. The road to Hana had re-opened, so we drove over towards it, but the weather got progressively worse the closer we got to it. We went from sunny and beautiful to heavy rain just in the brief time we spent driving east. Ultimately we turned around and decided to head back to the west side of the island where the weather was still as lovely as it'd been that morning.

Oscar wanted to go back to the hotel to get shorts since he'd worn pants assuming there were going to be colder temperatures at the high altitude of Haleakala. Allison really wanted the gourmet shave ice we'd seen at the aquarium our previous visit, so Oscar and Tyler dropped us off while they picked up some lunch and went back to the hotel. Allison and I thoroughly enjoyed our shave ice. What made it gourmet was Haupia ice cream underneath the shave ice, POG flavors (passion fruit, orange and guava), and a cheesecake cream topper. It was a delightful cup of pure joy!

We didn't stay too long at the aquarium since the boys came back and wanted to play mini-golf at the nearby Maui Sports park. We did get to see the octopus, though. He'd been extremely well hidden during our previous visit.

We had a fun time golfing and learning about Haleakala. There was an excellent view of Haleakala from the golf course, and there were random facts to learn about it as we went from hole to hole. 

The kids and I also had fun on the Bumper boats, though it would have been even better with more people. 

The kids also enjoyed the bunjee trampolines and the climbing wall.

During our drive that morning the kids had come up with and written down a bunch of silly shave ice flavors.

That afternoon and evening we tried to eat up as much of our food as we could since we wouldn't be able to take it home with us the next day. We had some leftover bacon from breakfast and a bagged Ceasar salad left, so Oscar made me a fancy salad.

The next morning we stayed at the hotel until 10am checkout. I finished up laundry and packed while the boys went down to run on the treadmills at the fitness center. They weren't quite done with their showers when we had to check out, so I took Allison over to the activity center for a few minutes while we waited for them to finish up. I bought us a yummy ice cream sandwich made with chocolate coconut Maui cookies and Haupia ice cream. It was delish! 

From there we went back over to the aquarium where we barely made it in time for the last few minutes of the turtle presentation/feeding. We'd missed the presentations on our previous visits, so we wanted to make sure we got them in on our final day. Our flight didn't leave until nearly 2:00pm, so we still had Wednesday morning to have some fun. 

The best Presentation was in the open ocean exhibit. They had a diver in the tank who had her own microphone and could talk to us somehow.

Allison found some kids to sit with during the presentation. After it was over she told the host everything she knows about aquatic animals. 

There are two huge stingrays in this tank. The female was actually the larger of the two by quite a bit. Most of the animals in this tank are being rehabilitated and returned back to the ocean once they're deemed able to survive on their own.  

After the presentation another diver got in the tank and fed the fish. That was REALLY cool to watch! The big fish on the bottom right has to be fed directly into her mouth due to a jaw injury. She will never leave the aquarium since she can't feed herself and wouldn't be able to survive in the ocean. 

There were also two people doing weavings with coconut leaves for donations. Each of the kids got an angelfish and I got a canoe. 

We then went over to the shallow reef for another presentation.

We saw some eels and part of the presentation at the nursery, then got in one last look at Haleakala before heading to the airport to return our rental car. 

I was lucky enough to get a window seat on our flight back to Kona. My aerial views of Maui were absolutely incredible. I even got a great view of the Haleakala summit.