While we are, of course, very excited about the impending arrival of the newest member of our family, we are not necessarily looking forward to adding an infant to our lives and having our comfortable life routine derailed for 6-12 months. Before this inevitable disruption, we decided to set out for a family vacation, likely our last as a 3-person family. Our destination: A little bit of paradise with a bit of a kitschy 60’s vibe, on the Island of Maui called Napili Beach.
Where is Napili?
Napili Beach is located about 10 miles north of Lahaina on the western side of Maui. According to Wikipedia , Hawaii is the only state in the U.S. without any incorporated cities. Instead, there are five counties, one for each of the major islands, and places like Lahaina and Napili are unincorporated communities called ‘census-designated places’ (the Internet really is amazing). So, anyway, Napili is a census-designated place which, according to legend, passed an ordinance limiting development to buildings that are no taller than a palm tree when they started building condos there in the 60s. As a result, developers since then have largely left the original lava-rock covered, low-slung, concrete complexes alone. There are no high-rise condos and no party bars like you find in Kaanapali or Lahaina just to the south or the mega resorts of Wailea. Napili is just a nice, quiet, family vacation spot…that doesn’t appear to have changed much since Elvis was making movies. You can walk across Napili Bay , and past the half-dozen or so resorts that line it, in about 10 minutes. We stayed at the Outrigger Napili Shores which is on the southern tip of Napili Bay.
Life on Maui
Noah did great on the smooth flight from OC airport, sleeping about half of the flight time. After arriving, we made our first stop at the Super K Mart to pick up our sand toys, a few Matchbox cars, some beach chairs and a case of beer. After checking in to our room, we went to the grocery store and stocked up on foodstuffs for the week. After that, other than a few activities, our days were pretty much as follows: (1) wake up, (2) have breakfast in the room, (3) lug all of our stuff (two giant IKEA bags full) down to the beach, (4) play at the beach (swimming, sand castles, snacks, etc.), (5) go back to room for lunch, (6) take nap, (7) go to pool, wear Noah out, (8) come back to the room and eat dinner, (9) go to bed. Multiply by 5 and shift things around a little here, a little there, add a couple of days of activities, and you pretty much have our vacation. All this activity finally caught up to Noah mid-week when we came back from the boat trip and laid him down for his nap at about 3 p.m. from which he did not awake until 7 a.m. the next morning!!! I’m gald I brough a stack of newspapers and magazines.
Have you Booked your Activities?
One of the nice things about Napili is that you don’t find the over-the-top commercial tourism that you see in some of the more popular spots. As you walk down Front Street in Lahina, for example, you cannot go 10 feet without being sold a tour of some sort or a Luau. Other than the ‘concierge’ at the hotel (who is basically an in-house activities salesperson who can be ignored), Napili is free of that stuff. As crazy as it sounds, we did eventually tire of sitting on the beach all day building sandcastles and we ventured out on a couple of activities. One day, we went on a boat called the ‘Reef Dancer’ which is a ‘mini-sub’. Basically, it is a glass bottom boat where you sit in the keel with windows along either side. They take you out to a reef and divers jump in the water and bring up urchins and other things to look at. It’s a good way to get a quick look at what you see when you snorkel (which Noah is, of course, too young to do). On our last full day in Maui, we went to the Maui Ocean Center , the aquarium in Hawaii. We were not expecting the Maui Ocean Center to be able to eclipse our own, local Aquarium of the Pacific but we were very impressed with the exhibits. There is a GREAT reef exhibit and another very cool turtle exhibit. Of course, it helps too that the center is located right on the water in Ma’alaea Harbor and has a really good restaurant overlooking the harbor where we had lunch. If you find yourself in Maui with an afternoon to kill, definitely find your way to the Maui Ocean Center.
Sneezy and Weezie
As you might imagine, the people-watching was first-class. In addition to a few guys obviously from Europe who should have been given two minutes in the penalty box for unnecessary wearning of Speedos, we nicknamed a couple of folks. First was an older guy who must have sneezed, while sitting in the pool, at least 20 times and, then, after contaminating the water got out and got into the jacuzzi!!! We nicknamed him ‘Sneezy’. Also, the couple visiting from Cincinnati and staying in the room next to us reminded us of the Jeffersons from the sitcom, so we started calling them Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson and we called her ‘Weezie’ (not to their faces, of course). Mostly, the people we met were extremely nice and, other than the few Europeans and the group from Cincinnati, almost everyone else was from Southern or Northern California. It’s amazing that, living where we live, we all climb into airplanes and spend thousands of dollars to fly for five hours to sit in the sun by the beach or the pool!!!
Watch Out for ‘Island Style’ Service on Aloha Airlines
While I have flown Aloha Airlines on several short-hop flights to Las Vegas and Reno without a problem, one of the glitches that we suffered on this trip was the inept customer service of the airline. They offer very convenient direct service from Orange County airport direct to Maui, avoiding LAX and also avoiding plane-changes in Honolulu. The problem is that they do not seem to be able to figure out how to effectively get people into seats on their very nice, new fleet of Boeing 737-700s . Our reservations were canceled for some unknown reason in both directions. Aloha blamed the cancellation on the travel agent that we used, but we were unable to corroborate that story. Also, once on the plane in Orange County, they obviously could not figure out why all the seats were taken because a passenger was trying to get on. So, we were asked, literally like 10 times, whether Noah had a paid seat. Also, their customer service on the telephone, which we had to access A LOT because of the canceled reservations, was very hit-and-miss (e.g., the first time Wendy called the night before we left, the customer service agent said ‘Your reservations have been canceled. Is there anything else I can help you with?’) This may explain why the airline is in bankruptcy !
We’ll be Back!
Overall, we had a wonderful time and it was great to get to spend so much time with Noah before things get crazy in December. We had been to Napili before, even staying in the same resort last November, and until the kids get old enough to want to explore the locations we visit, we’ll probably come right back. It’s relatively easy to get there, it’s a good value for the money and we all have a good time. If you are looking for an 80s style night club and fancy restaurants, Napili is not your place. However, if you want to lay by a picture-postcard quality beach and have some low-key R&R with your family, book your trip now for next year…we’ll see you there!
If you want to see a photo album from our trip, click here.