Maui, Hawaii

Maui, Hawaii

AKA Paradise

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Writing this is giving me holiday blues already, if you are reading this and are going to do Camp America, GO TO HAWAII while you have the chance! The white sand beaches with warm crystal clear waters are breath taking and I'm pretty sure Max and I spent 90% of our time in the sea. The markets and shops are little and quirky and everything is in such close proximity so super easy to travel the whole island. 

Transport

The island has a bus service 'Maui Bus' which costs just $4 a day and the routes cover a large part of the island. However, to get to the less built up places such as waterfalls and mountains then you would have to hire a care (which is not easy when under the age of 25) or hitch hike. Hitch hiking in Hawaii is nothing like hitch hiking in the UK, it is generally safe and something a lot of travellers do on the islands to get around. Also, if you have large suitcases/bags, you cannot take them onto the bus, so I suggest the best way to travel to and from the airport is using Uber rather than a taxi as it is a lot cheaper.

Twin Falls

Twin Falls was my absolute favourite place on the island and should definitely be on everyone's bucket list! It is a hike through a forest, walking through mud, over gigantic tree roots and wading through streams to finally get to the most beautiful waterfall with a natural pool (the pics on this page just don't do it justice). The water is a lot colder than the sea, but so refreshing after the humid trek. We then spent around 2 hours, swimming, sunbathing and chatting to others around the waterfall. After the walk back to the start of the hike we stopped at the little snack hut run by the family who own the land. They had the cutest little fruit stand and sold drinks, fruit and homemade cakes. Max and I had a giant coconut each and considering I am not normally a fan of coconut water this tasted of heaven! To get to Twin Falls we got the bus to the closest town (Paia), found a coffee shop that had free WiFi and ordered an Uber to Twin Falls. Coming back wasn't so easy and we hadn't really considered how we would get back to our hotel. With there being no WiFi anywhere near Twin Falls (our phones didn't work in the US) we had to resort to hitch hiking. We felt a bit anxious at first standing at the side of the road with our thumbs out, hoping that a crazy person wouldn't pick us up! But after about 10 minutes a cute old lady with her dog picked us up and dropped us back at Paia.

Paia Town

Paia was one of mine and Max's favourite little towns to walk around with organic supermarkets, cute cafe's with WiFi and right next to a white sandy beach. Known for it's wind surfing it is a great place for those who enjoy water sport. Although Max and I did not go wind surfing, he spent hours on end playing in the sea like a child whilst I sunbathed with an Acai bowl. This town is also where I got my first ever tattoo and 100% recommend the tattooist at Hula Girl Tattoo.   

Queen Ka'ahumanu Center

This is the centre town of the island and most of the bus changes happen here so it is very likely if you visit Maui you will at least pass through. Although a lot more busy than the smaller towns and no decent beaches, it is the best place for shopping as the mall has a few mainstream shops, food places and supermarkets. 

The Costs

Buying food, toiletries, drinks etc is so so expensive in pretty much every shop you go in, even the farmers markets which we were told would be relatively cheap. The best place to go to is the only Walmart on the island, although still more expensive than other Walmart's in the US it was the cheapest place for food on the island. Max and I were on a tight budget and ended up living on rice, tuna and porridge (kind of gross but meant we could afford activities whilst we were there). On the other hand, our hotel was surprisingly good priced with the most amazing location, right on the seafront of a gorgeous row of white beaches. It also had a pool but we didn't use it as the sea is amazing to swim in. The hotel is Maui Banyan Vacation Club in Kihei.

Snorkelling

On the beach outside our hotel we saw people on a snorkel tour super close to the shore. Not wanting to pay the price of the tour and after seeing where the best spots were we brought some cheap goggles from a close by shop and went to the spot ourselves. We couldn't believe just how many beautiful fish were swimming so close to us. After hearing how big the turtles are in Hawaii we really wanted to encounter one, so booked a 2 for 1 boat snorkel trip with Boss Frogs (they have pretty good deals for a range of activities). The trip was awesome, a great way to socialise with other travellers and see the amazing underwater world, and just 5 minutes before the trip was over we actually saw a massive turtle!