Maui Honeymoon of My dreams!
HOLY SHIT - I’ve never loved life more than when I was in Maui, Hawaii. When I say it was the best week of my life, that is a complete understatement. Hawaii had so much to offer from adventure to relaxation, and it made for the most magical honeymoon ever! I want to share our full itinerary with you, along with link as much as I possibly can from outfits, locations, and more!
Where we stayed: Honua Kai Resort, Hokulani tower #637
DAY ONE
We traveled from Savannah, Georgia to Dallas, Texas (2.5 hour flight) and then from Dallas, Texas to Maui, Hawaii (8 hour flight). I have MAJOR flight anxiety and was very nervous to be on a flight for longer than 3-4 hours, but I am here to say… it wasn’t bad at all! Bring a lot of snacks, and try to get a nap in. We flew out of Dallas in the morning and landed in Hawaii mid afternoon, so you want to be ready to enjoy at least a half a day depending on your flight time!
Once we landed in Hawaii, we got our rental car and drove to our resort. The drive was roughly 40 minutes from the airport to the resort, but the drive is absolutely beautiful! When we got to our resort, we checked in and unpacked a little. We ended up renting a studio condo, which had a full kitchen, balcony with a view of the ocean, and in unit washer / dryer. The resort had its own, private beach, multiple pools, rentals (snorkel stuff, goggles, beach floats / chairs, etc), a cafe with delicious coffee, and a restaurant with some of my favorite meals! We stayed at Honua Kai Resort, our exact unit is linked here.
A few weeks prior I had made us a 7pm reservation the day we landed. We ate at Duke’s Beach House Maui, and it was so freaking good! So good, we ate here FOUR other times while in Maui. We both got a couple of drinks, we ordered the Korean Sticky Ribs as an appetizer, I ordered the Rib & Chicken Plate, Ryley ordered Sautéed Mac Nut & Herb Crusted Fresh Fish, and because they knew we were on our honeymoon, they brought us Hula Pie. Hula Pie is our new favorite dessert. It is a chocolate curst with a mound of vanilla ice cream, topped with macadamia nuts, hot fudge and whip cream.
DAY TWO
Day two was our first full day on the island. I started the day watching the sunrise from the balcony. Nothing beats starting your day with this view. We got ready to go get massages & explore Downtown Lahaina. We got downtown early, and walked the beach and found sea glass! We have been collecting sea glass from Lake Michigan since we started dating, so it was so fun to do together in Maui. We got a couples massage from Mina’s Massage Therapy! I know I sound crazy, but it was my first ever massage. I don’t know why the heck I waited this long!!
After we got massages we went to West Side Bagel & Bakery. It was delicious! I had never had a big bagel sandwich like this and I loved it. You can either create your own or pick from a few options they have. They also had a ton of bakery items like donuts and pastries. After breakfast we went back to the resort & enjoyed the beach and pool.
We had dinner at Kimo’s in Downtown Lahaina. Day two was a day full of firsts, because I also had my first ever fish tacos. Holy shitttttt, I have really been missing out. When we finished dinner we got dessert from Lahaina Gelato where we got Dole Whip. 10/10 recommend if you like pineapple!
DAY THREE
We woke up on the third day and got coffee from a coffee shop close to the resort. Maui had the best coffee I have ever had in my life! We fueled up with this giant banana and macadamia nut muffin and coffees. We hiked the Ohai Loop Trail which was about 1.5 miles in total! This wasn’t a challenging hike, but the views were beautiful! If you aren’t huge into hiking, or just want more of a “challenging walk” this is a great trail for that.
There are a few food trucks parked at the Lahaina Cannery, and we tried them for lunch! I got a brisket burrito and Ry got a Korean BBQ place, if I remember correctly! We hung out at the beach & pool until dinner time.
We went to the Royal Lahaina for a Luau! We wanted to do at least one Luau to get the experience. The one we chose had a buffet dinner, and long rectangle tables. We thought we’d be sitting alone and kind of have more privacy, but that is not the case here! You eat with everyone around you, everyone is in everyones convos, it just was not my cup of tea! The luau itself was a cool experience, but when we go back to Hawaii, I don’t plan on doing it again!
DAY FOUR
We did the hardest hike of the entire trip on day four! The Waihee Ridge Trail was steep, hard as heck, and weirdly fun at the same time! The views were incredible ocean + Hawaiian jungle. It took us a little over over 2 hours and 15 minutes and we hiked 4.25 miles roughly! On average it takes about 3.5 hours to complete, and I can 110% see why. After this hike I told Ryley I want to move as little as possible and I need a snow cone.
We got shaved iced at the Shaved Ice Shop, and went to Lahaina beach to relax. We walked the beach and laid out until dinner time. We went back to the resort, ordered Chinese food for delivery and had a night spent watching Amazon Prime Documentaries, so random lol!
DAY FIVE
We started day five at Slappy Cakes for breakfast! Ryley got the breakfast burrito, I got a pretty boring breakfast and then we split the Elvis pancakes and Macadamia nut bacon. I am not a huge bacon person, but this might have changed me! After breakfast we headed to do a chocolate tour with Maui Chocolate! We booked our chocolate tour here! The trip was full of a ton of information and yummy chocolate samples!
After our tour we went back to the resort and had a pool side lunch from Duke’s! We ordered nachos and split some fish tacos. Best nachos I have ever had and I am a nacho girly. After relaxing at the pool we went to Downtown Lahaina for a walk & local shopping. There are rows of shops after shops. We finished our day relaxing on the beach in Lahaina!
DAY SIX
Day six was another day of hiking! I grabbed a Starbucks before going, and a delicious coffee paired with fresh Hawaiian macadamia nuts.. next level! This hike was a shorter hike but pretty challenging given the path conditions! The path was pretty over grown and you had to cross a stream over 10 times! We hiked through a bamboo forrest, and it was such a cool experience! It took us about 1 hour and 50 minutes to hike a little less than 2 miles!
After our hike we went to Downtown Lahaina and got permanent jewelry! I had been wanting one for over a year, but wanted to wait until after the wedding. I got a cute dainty gold one and Ryley got a silver one! For lunch we ate at Paia Fish Market, and it was SO freaking good. I got a caesar salad with extra chicken and Ry got ahi tuna! After lunch we spent some time at the pool and had some fries and thousand island from Duke’s at the pool.
For dinner we went back to the food trucks, and got one of my favorite meals I had on the entire trip. Sparky’s food truck had a sweet & spicy crispy pineapple chicken! It was incredible! I think I had this meal two or three times on the trip. After dinner we went back to the resort, grabbed a bottle of champagne and celebrated US on the beach! We enjoyed watching the sunset just reflecting on both the wedding and the trip so far!
DAY SEVEN
This was the longest day of the trip! Day seven was the day we did the 1/2 Road to Hana! The Road to Hana is a very very popular tourist attraction with incredible views, beaches, etc! We booked through a company that will take you on a van tour of the Road to Hana. It was nice having a tour guide because he was able to take us and point out some really awesome things! I booked our tour here! It was $170 per person, which is expensive, but worth it for a one time experience. When we go back, I wouldn’t pay that much again for this.
Stop one is Pua'a Ka'a State Park which is full of beautiful waterfalls!
Stop two is Halfway to Hana Banana Bread Shop. Sounds silly, but we stopped at a small little shack on the side of the road for some banana bread and lunch. It was so good!
Stop three is Wai'anapanapa State Park which is the black sand beach! 10/10 this stop alone makes it worth it!
Stop four is Wailua Valley State Wayside Park. This is just a small stop so you can take in the views!
Stop five is Ho'okipa Beach Park. This is the beach we saw all the sea turtles at!
After the tour we went to Downtown Lahaina, ate Paia for lunch (again), and walked around a ton of shops. One of the shops had these random birds, and Ryley was playing with them. Birds freak me out, so I did not touch a single bird. We finished the day with dinner at Duke’s (again).
DAY EIGHT
Our last full day in Maui was filled with so much freaking food! Our day started off with breakfast from Dukes! I got my first breakfast burrito, and it was so freaking good. Ryley and I also split the banana macadamia nut pancakes, which were to die for. For lunch we went to Star Noodle, which I don’t recommend. It was a highly recommended restaurant, but we were not impressed. The service was very slow and it was not busy. Every table was dirty, they would sit you at a dirty table and then after 5+ minutes of sitting at a dirty table, someone would come clean it. The food was all coated in a ton of oil, and it was over $100, which I wasn’t expecting for the quality / amount.
After lunch we got tattoos! We planned to get something that reminded us of Hawaii & our time here. I got a little sea shell, and as I am getting tattooed Ryley shows me his idea. So needless to say, I should probably get a more meaningful tattoo for him too lol! He got our wedding date in roman numerals. After dinner we went back to Duke’s and enjoyed the yummiest last dinner full of fish, caesar salad, mai tais and so much laughter.
DAY NINE
The most depressing day of my life… the day we left Hawaii. Started the day grabbing our last local coffee. I ordered a cookie butter latte from The Coffee Bean and it was my favorite coffee from the trip! It was amazing! We then made the forty-ish minute drive to the airport and flew home. We had a bunch of time to kill since our flight was at 5pm, so we just walked around a shopping center by the airport. We flew directly from Maui, Hawaii to Chicago, Illinois and it was about 7.5 hours. This flight was way worse than the flight there. We couldn’t sleep for the life of us! Although we were so sad to leave Maui, we had been gone for over 18 days, and we were so ready to see the dogs / be home in our own routine!
I cannot wait to plan our trip back! I have been brainstorming for our next trip literally since we got to the airport to leave Hawaii. If you have any questions about our trip to Maui, or want any recommendations, please ask!
xoxo,