What To See In Maui With Kids

Road To Hana - Amazing!

Now that Southwest flies to Hawaii, you might want to head to Maui especially if you have the companion pass. 
And Hawaii doesn't have to be expensive even in the popular summer months. 
We spent more than a week in Maui for almost FREE. That's right. Here's how we did it and what we did while we were there. We are a family of 5, but for this trip, we just took our 8-year-old.

The other two kids went on separate trips with family. 

Since Southwest didn't fly to Maui yet, we booked 3 round trip tickets on American Airlines with miles. 25,000 points each. Easy. 

Then we booked an airbnb.com for 3 nights in Kihei. If you use my link, you will get a $40 credit on your first airbnb reservation. There are tons of available rentals and since there were only 3 of us, we booked a one bedroom, one bathroom with full kitchen across from the beach. The unit had a pool too. Very convenient. Safeway Supermarket was down the street so we ate most of our meals at home. We did dine at Coconut's Fish Cafe in Kihei and had probably the best fish tacos ever. And we are from San Diego so that says a lot.

Coconut's in Kihei, Maui - Yummy fish tacos

We took a full day and drove the Road To Hana. This is something we would never do with all 3 kids, but with just 1 it was totally doable. My advice start early like 6am. It is a long drive and day. Think like 12 hours long kind of a day. Bring changes of clothes, towels, snacks, couple pairs of shoes and check out the FREE app tours on itunes or android. They will talk you through the drive and tell you exactly where to stop and where to skip. Be sure to pick up some banana bread along the way.

While in Kihei, we took a one day snorkeling trip to Molokini. We like to spend money on experiences and then use miles/points for travel and hotels. Snorkeling was a bit cloudy as it was very windy that day, but enjoyable. 

Snorkeling in Molokini

After a few nights in Kihei, we moved to Kanapali. Both my husband and I opened Chase Hyatt credit cards so we each had FREE nights at any Hyatt. We cashed them in for 4 nights at the Hyatt Kanapali (Category 5 hotel with rooms starting at 20,000 points per night). Usually you have to pay for parking, but the machine was broken so Hyatt comped our parking for all 4 nights too. Nice. 
The current deal for the World Of Hyatt credit card is 25,000 points with a $3,000 minimum spend and a $95 annual fee which is not waived. So that would get you 1 free night at the Hyatt Kaanapali and if you and your spouse opened the cards, you would get two. But Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio. So if you open the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, you will get 50,000 bonus points for a $4,000 minimum spend and the $95 annual fee is waived the first year. This gets you two nights at the Hyatt Kaanapali plus if you and your spouse each open the card, you get 4 nights FREE. Much better deal! 

Hotels at Kanapali

While staying at the Hyatt, we drove to Lahaina for breakfast, a bit farther north is a nice hike to the geyser and of course, Ululani's for shaved ice. 

Great breakfast place in Lahaina

Nice walk in northern Maui to see the geyser

Otherwise, we just hung at the Hyatt, enjoyed the activities and the beach. The problem with the big hotels is that you are captive to the high prices in the restaurants. We utilized the happy hour at the Hyatt for dinner one night and stocked the in room fridge with sandwich makings and breakfast items. We also attended the luau one night which included dinner. Expensive, but our daughter had never attended a luau so it was totally worth it.

Hyatt Kanapali offers bird visits, daily crafts, penguin and koi feeding

Our favorite, shaved ice at Ulelanis

Remember to ask for the coconut ice cream under the shaved ice. YUM!