Happy Thursday, everyone! It’s good to be back in action! We spent last week on a Maui vacation and it was glorious and much needed. We don’t take many vacations besides to see family, so this was a really fun and relaxing week. Seeing as my husband and I work 24/7, I don’t think either of us realized how much we needed a little breather, though we both worked some anyway, it was still nice to be doing that with an ocean view! 🙂 I grew up going to Maui every summer, so this Maui vacation was like coming home to me. I walked into our old hotel and got all teary just thinking of my grandparents and family and all the wonderful years we spent there. It was surprising how emotional it made me, but it was just so nice to be back and share it with my people.
MAUI VACATION RECAP
Maui Vacation – Where to Stay:
We stayed at The Ritz Carlton Kapalua, which was great, but there are really tons of great hotel options in Maui. They have Marriott, Westin, Hyatt, to name a few large hotel chains and more.
We tried to stay near our hotel for the most part. Our vacation plans were mainly to rest, relax, snorkel, swim and just be together. Our kids love the beach and to body board and boogie board, so we spent many hours doing just that! We snorkeled and saw tons of fish and sea turtles and Teddy and Mr. Fancy even saw two huge (6ft or longer) reef sharks! Needless to say, I was thrilled to have been finished snorkeling at that point. Ha! Teddy thought it was the coolest thing. The turtles come right up to you. I actually put my face down into the water and boom, one appeared right in front of me! It was so close that it scared me! Ha! They are the sweetest creatures. They just swim around with the people! That’s actually one of the things I remember the most from being a kid! They would be everywhere!
Maui Vacation – Where to Eat:
A few restaurants that I would recommend, all our family friendly!!
All restaurants inside our hotel were good.
The breakfast was our favorite. It’s delicious and the kids loved it!
The Burger Shack A great lunch option, overlooking the water. We usually ate there if we had been down at the beach!
The Pool Bar- We loved the fish tacos, the pork nachos and the pork tacos. It was a great place for lunch or dinner. They also serve this menu at the pool, so you can order it right from your chair, if you don’t want to go sit at the outdoor tables.
Plantation House- This is one of my favorites. Sadly, they had a mechanical issue and closed for a few days that we were there.
Merriman’s- This was one of our favorite dinners. The view is amazing and the food is incredible. I highly suggest making a reservation, as they are usually extremely busy. *great romantic date night spot if you utilize the hotel kids’ clubs or have a babysitter
The Sea House- this is delicious for all meals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are great and the view is beautiful. They typically seat the window tables around 5 or 5:30pm, so to get a full fledge view, definitely make a reservation earlier. You can request a window table on open table, but they don’t always accommodate.
Kimo’s- This is another favorite. In my opinion, they also have the best Mai Tai around. It’s really that good! They have lots of fish options, but also the prime rib is to die for! The view is amazing if you can get an outside table. It’s family friendly, but again, so busy, I’d suggest a reservation for sure!
Sansei- came highly recommended for sushi. Our kids aren’t sushi people, so if we had more days on the island, we would’ve checked it out. Next time for sure!
Taverna- We actually canceled our reservation for here and had room service because our kids were so exhausted from the beach! That being said, it came highly recommended. My friend Victoria that I met in maui, said it was the best lasagna! Definitely one to check to for a break from all the seafood.
Dollie’s- this is one of the best pizza places. Note, they do not have gluten free options at this point, so keep that in mind when going there if you’re GF.
Maui Vacation – Luau
A luau is not always necessary, but the kids LOVE them. Maui has a few different luau options. I grew up going to a small and intimate luau, but I’ve also been to luaus at the larger hotels, Marriott, Hyatt, etc and all are great! I booked our luau pretty last minute and we decided to try the Feast of LeLe Luau. It was wonderful. They serve you meals from each location that the dances are from. It was definitely are more intimate type of luau. You are seated with just your party and it’s right on the beach. The sunset was amazing. The food was great! The dancing was awesome. The service was impeccable. Our waiters were amazing! SO friendly and so accommodating. I highly recommend this luau. They offer professional photos too for a price! I usually always take advantage of these photos. They are great keepsakes!
Something else we did on this trip was family photos. I must admit, the last you want to do on vacation is get dressed up for pictures, but listen, I am so glad we did this. How can you not use the beautiful backdrop that is Maui? I used Flytographer and booked a sweet girl through them. You can get $25 off your session using my link or my code. We did the hour session and in my opinion, an hour is more than enough time to capture a family. Anything longer and kids and husbands start to get cranky. We did a sunset shoot, so we started 6:15. It was truly a beautiful time of day and everyone said how painless and fun it actually was! The kids got to play on the beach and we took pictures! It went by really fast! I highly recommend trying out this company if you are traveling and want photos done! We had a great first experience with them. Even funnier, I actually didn’t even outfit plan until we arrived in Maui. And truthfully, it was less stressful that way! Thankfully we had coordinating looks and Teddy insisted on wearing one of his hawaiian print shirts, so I had to incorporate that! Ha! If you are planning to use this service in Maui, we shot with Taena and she was wonderful, but they had lots of photographers to chose from, based on my desired date and location. Keep in mind, you can use this service all over. See their website for details and be sure to use my link to book to receive $25 off. It helps!
We did plan to parasail, but after arriving, we just decided to skip it this trip. Teddy is already looking forward to going next time. We did not take a snorkel trip because we had amazing snorkeling right in the next bay over from us. Surf lessons is another thing we may try when the kids are a tad older and possibly zip lining. Again, though, we really plan a beach vacation for relaxation, so our main goal is lots of beach time and pool time, which we definitely achieved on this trip!
The time change is always tough. It’s 5 hours for us. We arrived around 2pm Hawaii time. Which meant we left our house at 11pm the night before Hawaii time. The first night, we all passed out exhausted around 7:30, but kids were up for the day around 5 and 6, so it worked out well to do that timing! But, we did try to immediately get on their time zone, which helped, but the first day or two, they are a tad tired because of the time difference. Parents, too! I think arriving the time we did, helped with that though.The only options to get home are red eye flights which are always tough. Thankfully our kids slept about 6-7 hours and then we arrived home around 9 am. We all went to bed around 7:30 and 8pm that night and it helps to get back Texas time. Reagan was up at her normal time, around 7:30, but Teddy slept till 10:15! He was exhausted! I’m not an expert on the time changes, but these are things that worked for us!
All in all, we had a wonderful trip. Don’t let these pictures fool you though, we had our fair share of tantrums, fighting and more. Anytime you travel with kids, it’s always an adventure, but I wouldn’t change it for anything! I’m truly blessed to have been able to spend this week with my family. We truly had the best time, met lots of great people (Hi Nikki, Emily and Victoria and your crews!) and just had so much fun! We already can’t wait to go back!!
Shop our Maui vacation looks:
Reagan: DRESS
My husband and I stayed there in the summer of 2016 and had a blast! We loved the pools and the beach, the food, the service, and the lovely hotel. We would definitely stay there again when next in Maui. One thing to note, it does rain a little more on that end of the island but the area is so much less congested than Lahaina, so that’s a plus for us! Looks like you had a wonderful time!