Maui Bodysurfing

Hello,

We are going to Maui this weekend and are staying at the Grand Wilea. We enjoy bodysurfing and wanted to know which beaches in the area are recommended. It looks like Wilea beach gets some waves periodically.

Thanks

Maui Bodysurfing

I have body surfed at big beach but the waves there are pretty rough and can slam you pretty good. My favorite to body surf is Hamoa Beach on the Road to Hana. Good sized waves that generally rolled instead of broke hard at the end.

Maui Bodysurfing

Swing by a Maui Dive shop (or any other dive shop) and they will be able to tell you what%26#39;s ';running'; that day. My guys have had some good luck at Flemming park on the West side...but that was in the winter.

Cool. Thanks for the help. Hopefully there are some decent waves this weekend.

Have a great trip and pop back and tell us what you found!

Another vote for Fleming Beach. We go there every time we go to Maui, and the body surfing is always good. They have bathroom, showers and lifeguards, too.

Since you%26#39;ll be staying in Wailea, why drive to the west side? Wander out to Big Beach and walk over to the other side - Little Beach. Yea, I know that%26#39;s where they take it all off, but Little Beach has very good body surfing. Check it out, before you drive all the way over to the other side of the island.

Depending on surf conditions..Maui dive shop sent us to Polo Beach (behind Kea Lani..lots of local kids were there that day. Just happened to be having 4 ft surf..

www.hawaiiweathertoday.com check surf conditions.

All listed are good places...but the key is if the waves are up or not. You may go to some of these places and it will look like a lake. Since we are getting closer to summer you will begin seeing more south swell direction. I%26#39;ve generally had good success at Big Beach. The waves are a lot like Balboa in Newport just south of Balboa pier or Crystal Cove if you have ever been there.

Rental Car Fire at Alamo Parking Lot

Per Garden Island News there was a rental car fire at Alamo parking lot and more than one car involved:

http://tinyurl.com/dgtq2l

P.S. Hope not the same person that was involved with the Hummer fire on north shore a few days ago.

Rental Car Fire at Alamo Parking Lot

That is too bad. Hope it doesn%26#39;t hinder someone%26#39;s reservation.

Rental Car Fire at Alamo Parking Lot

Below is link to updated Garden Island News story along with photo:

http://tinyurl.com/cqzasd

Hmmmm.... must have been the Saturn we rented from ALamo in February....

The past week has not been a good one as it relates to fires on Kauai. First the hummer, then the Poipu Kai condo fire, a couple of house fires (one in Puhi and the other in Hanapepe), and now this.

Honeymoon in June

Hi all,

My fiancee and I are considering getting a condo in Kauai for our honeymoon June 15th to the 22nd. It sounds like the north shore will be a better fit for a honeymoon that time of year (crowds, scenery, etc). Does anybody have recomendations for specific places to stay? We%26#39;d like to spend less than $1100 for the week on lodging and would like to be in walking distance of swiming areas and restaurants if possible. I have seen condos in the Princeville area that are in our price range, but I%26#39;m not sure what the locations are like and how close they are to beaches, places to hike, restaurants, and other activities..

Honeymoon in June

If you%26#39;re going in June of this year, you better find a place ASAP as that is high season and most of the best places are probably already rented out.

All the north shore condos are in Princeville, which is on a bluff above the ocean. The only beaches within walking distance, depending on which condo you are at will be Hideaways, Sealodge and Pua Poa Beaches. They all require quite a hike down steep trails, unless you%26#39;re staying at Hanalei Bay Resort, in which case they will shuttle you down to the beach if you want. There are very few restaurants and other activities within walking distance in Princeville. However, you will need a rental car and you are no more than about a 20-25 minute from all the great north shore beaches and about 10 minutes from restaurants and shopping in Hanalei.

Honeymoon in June

If you stay in Princeville you are walking distance to restaurants. There%26#39;s Saffrons in Pali Ke Kua, The Westin%26#39;s Nanea Restaurant, CJ%26#39;s in the shopping center plus others.

You are looking at $150/nt but don%26#39;t forget about taxes and cleaning. It will be closer to $1200.

Desert mentioned Hanalei Bay Resort. You could get a suite or studio at that price. HBR has a lovely sandy bottom lagoon style pool and Puu Poa Beach is below. You might find a Sealodge unit at around that price, but I%26#39;m afraid the better units are probably taken.

Princeville Plantation is a large complex with 2 and 3 bedrooms but on the Alohacondos.com website there are some good deals. I%26#39;m afraid your balcony might be the facing the busy road but these are nice and new. I saw some for $149/nt. I think staying on the North Shore is all about the view and PP doesn%26#39;t have any views. Cliff%26#39;s is another complex in your price range. I hope by June they%26#39;ll be done with the new pool. I think they should be.

If you have seen a few places already maybe you can link them for us and someone can say how they liked it.

Try going on the summitpacific.com website and look at HBR and Sealodge condos. Both are very nice and close to restaurants and shopping, hikes and ocean sports.

VRBO is another good site to rent by owner.

Although jebett is right that you can walk to the restaurants she mentioned, it could be up to as much as a 2 mile walk each way, depending on which restaurant and which condo complex you%26#39;re staying at. And other than a couple of places at the shopping center at the entrance, in general these are generally high priced restaurants.

We%26#39;ve stayed in Princeville several times and love it, but we don%26#39;t plan on walking to eat much. We mostly prefer to cook dinner in the condo and enjoy it on the lanai most night. Just don%26#39;t want anyone to think that Princeville is like Hanalei with lots of restaurants and bars you can walk to. IMO the choices are pretty limited in Princeville itself.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I will find some links today and post them to get opinions. Do you think we%26#39;d be better off staying at Hanalei compared to Princeville?

Hanalei is a fun little town. I would not suggest staying in the only little hotel there. Your options are homes. You could be walking distance to town which is a plus. This is a very popular area to stay during the summer so the good properties are probably taken but worth a look. Here is ads on VRBO. Beware. Pictures can be deceiving. Check them out throughly.

vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/…a2999

I know you said you would like place with in walking distance to restaurants but since it%26#39;s almost May, you might have some trouble with availability. We booked our June condo (we will be there from the 12th-26th) last August. Hanalei Colony Resort is past Hanalei about 20 minutes. It has a nice beach and one restaurant on the premises. You would need to drive back to Hanalei for other restaurants but the location is very nice. Also, they are cutting folks deals. You might want to email them and find out availability and pricing (if this looks nice to you). We are staying there for the last couple of nights of our stay.

www.hcr.com

Another idea if you cannot find lodging on the nrth shore in your price range, try Poipu. It%26#39;s also very nice. The rental agency we use is Parrish Kauai and they have availbility online. (www.ParrishKauai.com)

Good Luck and I hope you find something nice.

Never mind about Parrish. I did a quick scan and they have nothing in June on the SS in your price range except Waikomo Streams Villas. It%26#39;s next to a construction site and I would not recommend that for a honeymoon.

This website also has a nice search engine. www.KauaiVacationRentals.com

Or vrbo.com (as jebett mentioned).

Or Sealodge (http://www.summitpacificinc.com/sealodge.html)

pencil cases with initial

Pool renovations at Marriot Ocean Club

Can anyone tell share your thoughts on the closure of the main pool at the Maui Marriott for repairs until June 2009? Is the construction loud? Does this cause many headaches or is there plenty of room at other pools. I am heading there on April 24th for my honeymoon and do not want any major surprises and would consider changing hotels and or islands if this is going to spoil the enviornment. Please share your thoughts if you%26#39;ve seen or been there recently?

Pool renovations at Marriot Ocean Club

Check back with me in a week. We are going next week, but from what I understand they don%26#39;t start til the 20th, so i might not be much help. but i will try.

Pool renovations at Marriot Ocean Club

Was wondering the same thing. We arent going to Maui until July. However, we are timeshare owners and would love an update on the status of the pool. Anybody?

We were there last week. I%26#39;m just so glad that we were able to get our vacation in prior to the closure. I couldn%26#39;t imagine being there with that beautiful pool closed. Especially since our room overlooked the main pool and ocean. Is your room in the older part of the resort or in the newer condos? The other pools by each of the newer condos are tiny compared to the main pool. Hope someone who%26#39;s currently there see%26#39;s your posts and gives you an update.

We are time share owners who swapped for this Marriott. It took us over a year to get this one....We will be there June 7-14 which I think is the last week before the pool reopens so maybe they will finish early....Anyway, do you know if this Marriott offers a Luau? This is our first visit to Maui and we are celebrating our son%26#39;s graduation from HS. Any information or ideas would be great...

I called the hotel yesterday when I saw the post on TUG about the closure. They said in the post Iread that the pool will be completed by June 15th; however when I called they said it would be done by the 20th. They seemed pretty positive that it would be completed within those dates short of any terrible storms. I was quite upset when I read the post and many who own were complaing that they were not told about this.

We traded our week from Aruba and rented another week from an owner. We won%26#39;t be checking in until June 26th and I do hope it will be completed.

There are other pools at the resort so I suggest you continue to ask others. Try the Marriot Tug board as well and their proerty reviews. Might have to pay a fee for the review section.

www.tugbbs.com/forums/forumdisplay.php鈥?/a>

Sue

also:

We were there last week and didn%26#39;t see any Luau at the hotel. We went to the Old Lahaina Luau which was wonderful. They are more traditional and don%26#39;t do any type of fire tosses. I believe the Hyatt which is the hotel just south of the Marriott offers Luaus.

Enjoy! We sure did!

Thanks for the info.....I will check into the Hyatt Luau. Is there shopping and restaurants within walking distance from the Marriott? One more question...is the Marriott on the rainy side of the island?

The Marriott is on the sunny side! Whalers Village is easily accessible by the walkway along the beach. About a 12 minute walk. There%26#39;s also a trolley that you can take there, but from the trolley schedule there are several stops and would take about 20 minutes. On the last day we walked to the Whaler%26#39;s Village and took the trolley back to the Marriott which is only about a 2 minute ride. The Whalers Village has shops %26amp; restaurants.

We were there last week. The other pools are great. but the thought of all those people in the big pools, venturing over to the other 2 pools. Oh my it will be crowded! Good luck

How are the beaches around the Marriott?

makeup help

I know that taking sand is supposedly bad luck, but...

What about shells found on the beach? I have no interest in bringing home same, or even shells for that matter. However, several people have requested shells as souvenirs. I%26#39;m not a very superstitious person, but I%26#39;d hate to offend anyone by a few shells. =)

I know that taking sand is supposedly bad luck, but...

Ohhh, good question. My Mom asked for a shell too and I didn%26#39;t even think twice about it. Is it bad luck?

Kelly

I know that taking sand is supposedly bad luck, but...

Taking home LAVA is bad luck, offends Pele the Volcano goddess.

Sand ... offends dead ground up coral? I%26#39;ve never heard it%26#39;s bad.

Shells ... I%26#39;ve never had any bad luck, but it%26#39;s not easy to find good intact shells here unless you dive--not great shells, anyway, maybe I find some cowries if I get lucky.

Of course if I am wrong about sand and shells I hope someone who knows better corrects me. Always happy to learn!

Well, i guess technically black sand beaches are actually ground up lava.

We didnt take any sand, rocks, or shells just to be safe. To me, it%26#39;s not really about ';luck'; or the gods or anything, it%26#39;s just trying to be considerate. Hawaii is a beautiful (and small) place that thousands of new people enjoy every day. Now I%26#39;m no ecologist, and I guess one little shell wouldn%26#39;t hurt.... but if everybody started taking hawaii back with them eventually it would make an impact.

If somebody you know really wants one, I%26#39;d say just buy a little novelty shell from ABC.

I agree with post above. Go to ABC store and buy shells etc for gifts. ABC stores also have a cute little gift called beach in a bag. It has sand, shells, and novelties such as little plastic flip flops or fish. I think they are $3.99 if memory serves me right very cute and everyone I brought one to loves them.

Yeah, I was just trying to get the ';bad luck'; part of it straight for mmpierce. People send lava rocks back to the Hawaiian Post Offices from all over the world to try to undo the bad luck ...

ecology and conservation are a different issue from the luck. Anyway, Hawaii isn%26#39;t a good place to find nice shells so the best place to find a shell souvenir is in a shop. People imagine we have beaches strewn with shells, not understanding how beaten up shells get in their trip to the shore. It is not like a truly reef-protected beach area.

We have little tiny shells on the beaches, not anything impressive.

In the Cook Islands, where they have great shells, you have to get a CITES certificate that lists the shells you take out of the country, both found and purchased. This gets presented at customs. In the Cooks, there%26#39;s a limit on coral, none on shells, quite different from here where there%26#39;s so much coral it%26#39;s used to write grafitti.

We chose not to remove anything from the natural environment on our recent trip to Maui. It was not due to any superstition, but in order to preserve things as they were, as the other posters said.

You could always send them a postcard! (or take a cool photo of a shell!) :)

mm, the bad luck lava thing is a myth. However, it does serve to keep everyone from taking lava away, which would be a bad thing. Hmmmm. Come to think of it, I did take some lava sand home to CT years ago, and it was about that time I started getting serious about moving to HI. Madame Pele%26#39;s influence, maybe?

Believe it or not, I find that people are thrilled by the shell lei that you get free from Hilo Hattie or can buy at ABC three for 99 cents. If you go to the Swap Meet in Kahului you%26#39;ll undoubtedly find good souvenir-y stuff, too. I%26#39;ve found cowries at Ho%26#39;okipa, but I understand it%26#39;s not a great place for haoles these days.

To add to the list of other ideas, we sent personalized postcards from the birdman on Front St in Lahaina. He takes your picture with lots of parrots sitting on you, then you come back the next day to pick up the postcards. It%26#39;s semi-expensive, $25 for 15 postcards I think, but everybody we sent them to loved them. It%26#39;s a definite souvenir for the refridgerator!

The bird pics are fantastic!! Great idea you gave! We, too, got bird pics but ours were on the road to Hana in the Garden of Eden.

How often do your friends get to see you with 6 giant parrots on you?! Those are my favorite shots from our trip...well, next to the one of us on the slopes of Haleakala, in which I was perched on my BF%26#39;s shoulders, doing an arabesque on the bike!!

Now, those kind of pics will inspire your friends to visit Maui!

this makes me laugh because I am STILL finding sand in stuff that went to Kaua%26#39;i with us last summer!! My swimsuit still has some sand trapped between the outer and inner layers. Took out our water shoes a few weekends ago - they were filled with Kaua%26#39;i sand. Got out the bag of snorkel gear. Yep. Bag had a good collection of SAND in the bottom. And the sand toys that my children INSISTED on bringing home??? We got those out and found.... chunks of old, smooth coral (bet you thought I was going to say sand)!! Didn%26#39;t even realize they were there! The kids had used them to decorate a sand castle and I guess they got shoved into the bag with everything else!!

What I want to know is, how do I get RID of all the sand!!! ??? LOL!

Hale 'O Kuawa vs. Sealodge F1 vs. Sealodge F4

I got an incredible response to my first post on this site about where to stay in Kauai. Thanks to all of you, we%26#39;re down to three choices about where to stay for our one week visit in August. Now, I%26#39;m hoping you can help us go from three choices to one.

We know the basics about the locations and amenities. I have two main questions. Has anyone stayed in F1 or F4 recently? And if you were staying on the north shore in August for ~$125 a night, which of these three would you choose? Or would you stay somewhere totally different?

Thanks so much. And I promise to pay you all back with a trip report when this is all over.

Hale 'O Kuawa vs. Sealodge F1 vs. Sealodge F4

Although I haven%26#39;t been insideany of those units they all look pretty good for your budget. I%26#39;d probably opt for Sealodge because of the ocean views (we%26#39;re staying in another unit there at the end of May). And personally I wouldn%26#39;t want to be on the first floorso I%26#39;d choose F-4.

Hale 'O Kuawa vs. Sealodge F1 vs. Sealodge F4

We just stayed at Sealodge D8//beautiful views!! Pretty cozy and quiet//didnt see the inside of F bldg//We walked up 2 flights//felt like a little treehouse. Waves crashing all night

We stayed in F-8 a couple of years ago. Just make sure the one you pick faces the ocean. Believe there is one in that building that faces the pool.

Also make sure you get some breezes from the location. Sealodge units (except a very few) don%26#39;t have A/C and in August it can get hot. Read reviews!

Hi,

I have tons of photos of Hale%26#39;O Kuawa. PM me if you need some specifics.

3Chihuahuas

3chis, I%26#39;ve seen your pictures and trip reports. They%26#39;re a great argument for Hale. Especially since there is no evidence on the internet that anyone has ever stayed in either of those Sealodge units.

My bad on my earlier post. I see that F1 and F4 are both ground floor units. I%26#39;d be concerned about privacy. and since Building F sits back from the bluff, the views there won%26#39;t be as good as the other buildings in Sealodge.

Road Closed for Rock removal Kahekili Hwy

County of Maui message that Kahekili Hwy at mile marker 15 Waihale or Hoopii Gulch is closed from 8 til 2 today.

This is the Highway (no way it%26#39;s a highway) that goes past Honolua Bay along the cliffs and ends up in Happy Valled/Wailuku.

So you can not drive around the island on the single lane cliffside road that goes from West Maui to Waihee.

Not sure how far you can drive on the road because I can not see where mile marker 15 is.

Hopefully someone else will post a verbal description or call the County of Maui for a more detail 270-7711