Adventures in ParaDyess: Maui Favorites
This is the last blog post in my Adventures in ParaDyess: Maui series. In this post I’ll talk about our favorite restaurants and beaches. You can also see our self portraits, my favorite Maui/Lahaina hacks, and my favorite stops on the Road to Hana.
Like I talked about in my Maui/Lahaina hacks post, much of the coast of Maui, at least on the western side, is public property. There are tons of maintained beach parks that are free to park at and visit. Some have bathrooms and showers, some have lifeguards, some just have a parking lot a beach to hang out at. All of the ones we visited were beautiful and I outline some of our favorites and why we like them below.
Honokowai Beach Park: located off of Lower Honoapiilani Road, a few miles north of many of the resorts, this was one of our favorite quiet beaches. It was about a quarter of a mile from our condo so we went there on most days. It is a relatively small sandy beach with a lot of grassy area and trees for shade, as well as picnic tables, a bath house, and a play ground. It’s a short beach, but it’s perfect for families with small children. There is a reef almost completely protecting the shallows so little ones can play safely without waves getting them.
Pohaku Beach Park (aka S turns): located off of Lower Honoapiilani Road, just north of Honokowai Beach. Pohaku has a very small sandy area, a grassy part which is shaded, and some picnic tables. The shallows are relatively calm, but out on the point, many locals surf. At this beach, it seemed like all the locals knew each other. It had a super cool atmosphere and made us feel like we were locals ourselves (though I’m sure they could tell based on our pastiness that we were not LOL).
DT Fleming Beach Park: I read about DT Fleming before we left as being one of the better surfing beaches in the Lahaina area. It is even further north on Route 30, just as it goes from 4 lanes to 2. It’s north of Napili, just before Route 30 turns into a Road to Hana-esque road. Anyway…DT Fleming was great for surfing when we were there. One day the waves were shown online as 9-13 feet and when we got there, they were definitely at least that big. There were lots of locals there surfing and hanging out, as well as plenty of tourists surfing and boogie boarding. They had lifeguards on duty, a bath house, and a shower to rinse yourself off before you get back in your car. There was a burger stand within walking distance in case you wanted to spend the whole day there. It’s a very wide beach with enough sand that you could sit on the beach in the sun or in the shade, whatever suits your fancy.
Lahaina Harbor: The day Ryan rented a surf board from 808 Boards, everyone said Lahaina Harbor was the beach to surf at. It’s located right off of Front Street in downtown Lahaina. So we headed down there to check it out. The waves weren’t huge and there were A LOT of other surfers there. Many surf schools were teaching their students to surf there because it was relatively calm and the waves were small but predictable. The beach was nice and had some trees for shade. The parking said it was for 2 hours only, but we stayed there a little longer and never saw a tow truck or anyone checking to see how long cars had been there. It was a nice, quiet little beach.
Kahekili Beach Park: I talked about Kahekili in my Maui/Lahaina Hacks post
We ate in quite a bit to save money since we went for a two week trip—plus doesn’t eating out get old when you’re doing it every. single. day? But I did a lot of research to choose the restaurants taht we did go to. Here is a list and their links:
Down the Hatch - DTH is a cool little place in an open air mall. You wait in line to order and then sit down and they find you when your food is ready. it was packed when we went, and that was in the height of covid, so be prepared! The food was yummy and well worth the wait.
Thai truck at the Ho’opiilani Food Truck Park - we went to the food truck park on valentine’s day and there were lots of other people there too. All of the trucks sounded delish so we had a hard time choosing but eventually settled on thai food and it didn’t disappoint. You really can’t go wrong with any of the food trucks, though I don’t think. We took our food back to our condo and enjoyed it on our balcony :)
Maui Brewing Company - Delishhhhh food and good beer (at least according to ryan lol). I don’t think you can go wrong with anything you choose there.
808 on Main (near the airport) - we had to check out of our condo by like 11 and had time to kill before getting to the airport so we decided to hit up 808 on main. it was a little hole in the wall place with a super cool atmosphere and good food!
Island Cream Co - SO GOOD. PLEASE GO.
Myths of Maui Luau - can you even go to Hawaii for the first time and not go to a luau? I don’t think so. I did a lot of research about which luau to go to and all that jazz. This is the one I went with and I honestly don’t remember what slanted me toward it. Parking and drinks were included so I think that helped lol. The food was great, the show was great, and they had fire dancing at the end, which was super cool! If you’ve never experienced a luau, i definitely recommend it. If you have, then I think this is something you can skip. Ryan had been to a luau before but I never had so we decided to do it. we weren’t disappointed, but it’s not really something i need to do again if we go back.
Well, there you have it, folks. My round up of our time in maui. It was a great experience, we had lots of fun, and now i’m spoiled and wouldn’t choose to go for less than two weeks lol. If you have two weeks of vacation to burn, i highly recommend it!
Here are the other posts in the series:
Adventures in ParaDyess: Maui, Hawaii