Hawaiian Honeymoon - Maui Part 1

Oh man – so excited to finally start sharing our Hawaiian Honeymoon with all of you! As far as a honeymoon goes, I couldn’t imagine a better one! We spent one week on Maui and one week on Kauai!

 

Our wedding was on May 5^th and we decided to stay in town on the 6^th. I am really glad we did because we were able to visit with some out of our of town family that were around for the weekend and recoup from the wedding. We flew out early morning on the 7^th! I have never been on a plane that long so that was a new experience for me. We flew during the day so we both didn’t really sleep (plus we were really excited about being on our honeymoon). We marathon watched Game of Thrones, read, reminisced about the wedding and just enjoyed each others company.

 

 

 

We landed in Maui around 1:00pm Hawaiian time (7:00pm Massachusetts time) and our plan was to stay awake until 8 or 9pm to help us adjust to jetlag. We picked up our Jeep and drove out to out AirBnB.

 

 We had decided to stay in AirBnB's in Maui because of the price. I really wanted an ocean view room and to get that in a nice hotel, the prices were ridiculous. Instead we stayed in two different condos (on different parts of the island) right on the ocean. This was the BEST decision. The two locations were beautiful, the AirBnBs were clean and comfy and they were totally way more affordable than a hotel. We did stay in a hotel on Kauai which I will talk more about when I get to that islands recap!

  

Look at this view from our balcony! 

 

 

My sister got us these shirts for my bridal shower and we both wore them on the place!

 

 

We took a walk on the beach and then decided to go explore for some food. Our first AirBnB was on Kilhea, the west coast of Maui!!

 

 

We ate dinner at Da Kitchen and got some classic Hawaiian dishes to eat! #AllThePorkAndAhi

 

  By the time dinner was over we were exhausted. We got back to our room just in time to catch our first Hawaiian sunset and call it a night! 

  

The next day we had big plans! We wanted to start our honeymoon with a bang and for us that meant a snorkeling trip and luau! 

For the snorkeling trip we wanted to take one of the boats to Molokini Crater, which is a crescent moon shaped island west of Maui. Some of the best snorkeling is Hawaii is supposed to be out here!

 

 

We took a high powered speed boat which was so much fun! The water was rough the day we went out and since this boat was designed for jumping waves, we were the only boat that was able to go out!

 

 We were soaked before we even made it to Molokini!! Thank goodness for our GoPro Hero 6!! 

 

The snorkeling was AWESOME! The water was so crystal clear! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We snorkeled inside the crater and then we snorkeled the backside which had a steep cliff down deep into the ocean! The water was sooo blue here!

 

I love this photo of Ryan snorkeling!!

 

 After snorkeling the crater, we went to Turtle Town and snorkeled there! We saw so many sea turtles! This was the number one thing I wanted to see in Hawaii and it was so amazing getting to check this off the list first thing! It is illegal to touch a sea turtle since they are endangered, but they don't really know that so they will swim right up to you and you have to maneuver around them! It was amazing! We probably say 3 while we were swimming around.

 

 

 

 

We snorkeled for close to 5 hours. The boat tour fed us breakfast and lunch which was great. I am pretty confident it was called Red Line Cruises or Red Line Snorkeling. I would recommend it completely! 

After the snorkeling trip we decided to explore some of the west coast beaches. We drove down to Big Beach and Little Beach and it was so picturesque. 

 

To get to Little Beach you have to climb over this cliff/hill. It is secluded and beautiful.... oh and also a nude beach (which is why I don't have very many photos of it)! We got down to Little Beach and there was this big sea turtle just lounging on the beach! Turtle #4 and all before 2:00pm! So what you don't see is that on the other side of the camera is a bunch of naked people also taking pictures of the turtle LOL

 

 

 

 

After our beach adventures we got ready for the Luau!! We wanted a traditional Luau (where you sit on the floor and eat a pig roast) so we did the Old Lahaina Luau. 

We had a BLAST at the Luau! We were still on a high for being in Hawaii and our epic first morning. 

In a classic Luau they cook the pig underground. See that pile of dirt?! That is the pig roasting!

 

 

When I made the reservation I told them we were on our honeymoon and they put us in the first row! Seriously- if you go on your honeymoon to Hawaii - make sure you tell everyone! We got free drinks, desserts, great seats and cool experiences the whole two weeks just because we let our reservations know up front!!  

We ate dinner buffet style (so good) and then the dances started! 

 The first full day in Maui, Hawaii was completely jam packed and totally magical! 

Make sure to come back and check out Part 2!