First day in Maui

We woke up early this morning – surprise – surprise – with the six hour time change, and to the squawking of what sounded like hundreds of birds fluttering from the palm trees just outside our lania. Looking out to the beautiful landscaped grounds, the ocean waves, and gentle sounds of nature was nothing short of spectacular! While we got in late last night, we couldn’t appreciate the view as it was dark. We quickly got dressed and headed down to breakfast in the open-air restaurant at the hotel, taking a couple of pics on the way.

The breakfast buffet was delicious with fresh fruits, hot items, parfaits, breads, juices, and Kona coffee.

After breakfast we walked about the massive property here at the Waldorf Grand Wailea, getting both exercise and taking photos of this magnificent resort. They even had their own wedding chapel on-site!

While we didn’t go in the pool just yet, we did walk around the pool area, complete with an adult pool, huge main pool with slide, waterfalls, cave, and even a swim up bar! We will definitely use that later!

The Grand Wailea sits oceanfront along a beautiful stretch of beach, and is located next door to the Four Seasons, with a nice walking/jogging trail leading to it along the ocean’s edge. We walked over to the Four Seasons, as we want to have their breakfast buffet one morning, as well as dinner at Spaggo’s one night. We walked around the pool area a bit as well as inside the lobby areas. Compared to the Grand Wailea, the Four Seasons was much more subdued. The Four Seasons Maui was quite a bit different than the Four Seasons in Orlando which had many more activities and appeared to be more ‘kid-friendly’. This resort appeared to me more for adults with a quiet ‘let me relax type feel’, vs an action packed pool hopping resort with lots of activities to keep you and the kids busy. Both were wonderful, but each had a distinctly different feel to it.

There was also an incredible section next to the Four Seasons of residences; condo/townhouse type accommodations that looked to be luxury living at its finest. Talk about a prime location – ocean front and close enough to walk to fine restaurants and lounges, golf, beaches and sunset views – what a life!

After checking the menu at Spago at the Four Season’s we agreed to try it one night of our stay, but did not confirm a date or time yet.

We next took a drive towards Makena Beach, and went past there to see the Lava Fields. DOS had been there only once or twice, but as he hold me, it was something not to be missed. We drove past the Makena Beach parks, and ended up going down a narrow 2 lane (sometimes one lane) highway towards the Lava Fields. The Lava Fields were pretty deserted except for an occasional vehicle or two, so we could drive thru at our leisure, stopping at pull-offs along the way. The Lava Fields are from the eruptions of Mt. Haleakala over the last 300 years and are truly amazing to see. From a distance, the Lava Fields look like rich, fertile soil; perhaps just recently raked over by a farm machine. Up close, however, the Lava Fields are made up of volcanic rocks- literally millions of them spread across miles of wide open land. Quiet an interesting (and free!) site to see, it’s a quick drive from the Wailea and Kihei areas of Maui.

After visiting the Lava Fields, we went back to the Grand Wailea Resort and relaxed for a while before heading to dinner. Tonight we went to the outdoor and mostly covered waterfront restaurant ‘Humuhumunukunukupaus’s at the resort. Shown here, DOS was checking out the menu earlier in the day. While neither one of us couple pronounce it, the restaurant offered great ‘Hawaiian’-type food in a romantic outdoor setting, lit with tiki lights.

We had a nice dinner at the ‘H’ restaurant., which reminded us of the Polynesian Resort at Disneyworld. Compliments to Disney, this was the real Hawaiian version. Even the menus were fancy with a ‘wood’ like decor.