Maui '08 Trip Update - Tour Bookings

Well, we're under the two week mark for our upcoming trip, so I thought I'd post a few notes on what we've booked so far.

Boats and Cruises
This is our second year as members of the Pacific Whale Foundation and we are certainly taking advantage of the discounts. We have 3 tours booked with PWF this trip.

4/16/08 - Our first cruise will be a whale watch excursion our of Lahaina. We're well aware that it's almost the end of the whale season, and we don't have too high of hopes of being blown away by an up close encounter, but it will still be fun. After all, that's what telephoto lenses are for.

For the full whale experience, we're going back in Feb '09, right at the height of whale season in Maui.

4/20/08 - Sunday nights in Maui for us mean a dinner cruise, so that's what we have in store this time. This was the same dinner cruise that we booked last year, but because the ship went in for maintenance, we missed out. We hope to have better luck this year.

4/24/08 - Perhaps the saddest of our Maui trip traditions (only because of the timing) is our final night on the island. We reserve that for one last spectacular Maui sunset aboard a sunset cocktail cruise. As much as we don't want to leave, it is perhaps the closest things to a perfect end of a perfect vacation.

Back to Hana
4/15/08 - Since we are bringing along my mother for this trip, we figured it was time to go back to Hana and give her the total island experience. It is also another chance for me to fill up my memory cards with the stunning views of this magical journey. In fact, with the fun that I had creating this photo tour for the Ka'anapali Beachwalk, using my handy GPS travel recorder, doing the same for the magnificent Road to Hana should be even better.

Unfortunately, its no real secret that gas prices on Maui are hurting folks just like the rest of the country (the highest in the country by some reports). On that note, it appears that Roberts Hawaii had to pass some of that onto their guests. When doing the price comparisons for the trip, Roberts was almost twice as much this year for the same tour we did with them two years ago. Its a shame, because we really like them.

This time, we decided to go with Discover Hawaii Tours. It appears to be a bigger tour with more riders than Roberts, which is probably what helps to keep the price down. There are a few nice perks with this tour, but I'll save those specifics until after the tour.

Stars at Night
4/16/08 - After we were blown away by the stars over Maui last year, we couldn't help but to get closer. This year, we booked a Tour of the Stars at the Hyatt Maui Regency. It's a chance to tour the skies with the help of a professional astronomer and their powerful rooftop telescope. In fact, I couldn't wait, and bought myself a pair of Celestron binoculars for the trip.

Live Music
4/19/08 - Now, for the crown jewel of our trip, if there could ever be one. Reserved back in January, we were overjoyed to hear that HAPA was performing at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center while we were going to be on the island. Its going to be incredible.


As if all of this wasn't enough, we still have quite a few more things planned. We'll save that for another post, and we're certainly going to have quite a bit to blog about once we get back.

Mahalo.