Enjoying Maui with a toddler

July 5, 2007 4:21 PM

I spent a week this past winter enjoying the sun and the sand, and for the first time with a toddler in tow.

Maui Family Trip (17 photos)

This past winter I finally figured out that I suffer from a bit of the winter blues. After a couple months of staying indoors during barely-above-freezing days, I decided we should take a family trip somewhere warm and nice. I picked out Maui in mid-December because I've always wanted to go there and Hawaiian Airlines recently started doing direct flights from Portland to Maui (in about five hours).

Armed with advice from previous MeFi posts about Maui (including mine) and a copy of the highly recommended Maui Revealed, we booked a trip through Expedia including the flight and a hotel. After going through all the choices, I decided to stay at the Westin Maui mostly because I had a lot of previous stays at Westin hotels and the reviews on Expedia said it was right on the beach.

We left Oregon in the morning with temperatures well below freezing and landed in the afternoon to a balmy Maui day. We grabbed a rental car (a Ford Escape 4x4 that we never took off pavement) and made it out to the western part of the island about 45 minutes later. The hotel was a bit too much of a "resort" (where everything is taken care of for you, people compete for spots around the pool, and you can get mixed drinks delivered to you on the beach sand, which seemed nuts to me) but the room was big and nice.

Traveling with a child wasn't too hard, but I learned a few things. We flew with her carseat so we could use that in the rental car. We requested and got seats in the bulkhead of economy on the flights there and back, which mean tons of legroom for adults and our baby didn't kick the back of someone's seat the whole time. We ended up putting a small hotel crib in the opening hallway of the room while we hung out in the main part of the room or out on the balcony. Eating wasn't too much of a problem since our daughter loves fruit and fruit was plentiful at every meal.

We did the road to Hana, which was a beautiful trip but a brutally long, curvy drive. It was probably 2.5 hours of driving to Hana but felt more like double that, and the trip home seemed to take forever. We spent a day in South Maui where the beaches were fantastic (thanks to the Maui Revealed book). We also explored the western side of the island both north and south of where we stayed and had lovely times at the beaches.

Here are a list of things I learned on the trip:

• I'm not really a resort type person that pays for everything on a tab that gets paid at the end. Next time we'll rent a house or condo or something


• Having a pool was key for our 16 month old that loves to swim. It gave us a way to tire her out at the end of each day, as we took a swim after dinner


• The Maui Revealed book was indispensable. We found great hidden beaches, awesome local food, and scoped out places we'll stay next time, all from the book. It's a popular book but it's better than any travel book I've used on a trip. It never let us down.


• I wish we took the trip with friends so we could have gotten a free babysitting break once or twice during the week. While we had a good time, we were in parent/baby mode everyday and didn't get to enjoy an amazing meal out without the baby. Next time we'll drag a mother-in-law along or coordinate with other parents so we can switch off a couple nights watching kids and have a parents night out.


• If I do the road to Hana again, next time I'll stay in Hana for a night. The trip was too much squirrelly driving for one day (esp. with a baby in the back)


• Maui really is a beautiful laid back place. I went to Oahu about ten years ago and it was like an overcrowded Southern California. Maui really is mellow and relaxed is exactly the kind of vacation I was looking for.

Overall, we had a great time, and next trip I know we'll do even better.

posted by mathowie to Trip Reports (6 comments total)

Did you purchase a...Hat?

[insert dramatic rodentia]
posted by cortex at 3:22 PM on July 6

TravelFilter is great, Matt - many thanks for all the work you've put into it, it shows.
posted by madamjujujive at 8:15 PM on July 9

my mind is hereby blown.
posted by Hat Maui at 6:27 PM on July 30

The condos are really reasonable, especially if you share a two-bedroom with another couple. Much less than the hotels. Generally no beach, but they are oceanside and you have a pool.
posted by smackfu at 9:53 PM on August 1

I went to Maui about the same time you did. I lucked out in that a friend was already there and was staying in a plantation house near Makawao.

I already knew I didn't want a a resort experience or anything to do with crowds or big hotels. I think one key is to not insist on a place on the beach. Maui isn't a huge island to begin with and the drive out to the beach was only 5-10 minutes. The plantation house was gorgeous and spacious and we had gardens and a swimming pool to ourselves.

Also, Makawao is a tiny scenic town with lots of new-agey types walking around (I took the time to get a massage there)

I drove out to Hana too and we took our time stopping along the way. It's definitely not as much fun if its rushed.

I dont know if you made it up to the crater or not. Its a nice drive and very scenic up there. I should say that hiking into the crater is not an easy hike. There was a good ask mefi on this specific topic: search for 'Haleakala'

I did peruse some Maui threads before going but otherwise just winged it, picking places randomly on the Eastern side of the island. I never went to the Western side. We planned to go to South Maui - rangers at Haleakala told us to go there - but we didnt make it due to time constraints.

The park rangers are some of the most extroverted, friendly and chatty folks I have ever met. They're good too at sizing you up and giving you recommendations for things to see/do on the Eastern island based on what they think you really want to do...
posted by vacapinta at 1:00 PM on August 2

Loved Maui. We were there last winter as well, and staying in a rental cottage inland from Haiku town. Not being particularly beach-oriented, we didn't need to have the waves lapping at our doorstep. It was a great central location, rural and quiet with convenient access to decent groceries for those nights when we felt like cooking and restaurants when we didn't. Nthing Maui Revealed as the source of excellent advice.
posted by mumkin at 11:58 AM on March 10