Trip Journal entry for Monday, February 23rd.
After a day of treasure hunting, we rediscovered so much in the evening.
Welcome to the Hotel Hana-Maui
I’m picking up here where I left off in our last entry about our day driving along the Road to Hana. It was roughly 4pm at this point, and after being in the car for most of the day, we were ready to check-in and relax. As part of our trip planning this year, I mentioned that we had decided to stay overnight in Hana at the Hotel Hana-Maui. Not shortly after posting that, I received a lot of great feedback from folks on Twitter about the resort. I’m happy to report that it was pretty much all true.
While we had visited the Hotel Hana-Maui last year for lunch during our most recent visit to Hana, we didn’t get to walk around that much. We didn’t think it would be too hard to find considering Hana is such a small town, but we were surprised to see signs for the hotel scattered about here and there. What we discovered was that the hotel and its cottages actually occupies something like 60+ acres of land. That was pretty impressive, but it was really only the beginning.
After checking in, we were greeted by the concierge with two very beautiful and fragrant leis, juice, and warm, damp hand towels to, as he put it, “wash the road off our hands.” That was a such a really neat gesture. Next up was the bellhop that gave us a 15 minute tour of the grounds at the hotel before we made it to our cottage. He was very laid back and yet had so much great information about the history of the resort and the area around it. Everything down to the local kids playing basketball at the park next to the community center nearby.
The Cottage
Like all other resorts and accommodations on the islands, we were able to take advantage of one of the specials at the hotel and booked ourselves a nice Sea Ranch Cottage. While it wasn’t looking directly over the ocean like we had in Ka’anapali, I think you’d agree that the view from our patio area was still rather nice.
The cottage itself was equally amazing. Although lacking modern wizardry such as a television, cell phone reception, alarm clocks, and other gadgets we’ve all grown to rely on, to call these cottages luxurious would be an understatement. Rather than go into all the gorgeous amenities and try to describe in words (failing miserably), here are a few photos.
It was so peaceful. It truly was a shame we were only staying for the night, because we could have easily enjoyed 2-3 days there just unwinding and relaxing. Cindy, for one, would have jumped at the chance to check out the spa there, and even though I would have been completely disconnected from everything, I wouldn’t have had a thing to complain about.
Time For Dinner
After unpacking what we had brought with us for the night, we spent a little time just soaking up the tranquility. We were starting to get rather hungry, and freshened up for dinner. The dining room, where we had lunch last year, wasn’t open until 6pm. Since we were somewhat early, we were one of the first to be seated and were shown to a great table near on the outer patio area. It was only starting to get dark by now, and since we were in no hurry at all, we watched the skies turn from a fading blue to the dark, night sky.
Dinner was wonderful, and because our reservation included a generous dining credit, it ended up being on the house. I mentioned we were one of the first ones for dinner, and by the time we were all finished, the dining room was mostly full. It was a good thing we were early, because as we walked out, we felt really out of place with the hotel’s other guests. The price scale factor aside, there were a lot of retirees and older guests that had obviously grown accustomed to this type of luxury and lifestyle. That made us feel pretty out of place, but it didn’t bother us.
The After Dinner Stroll
Since the land for the hotel is so large and the cottages are rather generously spaced, we had a nice walk back to the cottage after dinner. It was a good thing I had mostly paid attention to the bellhop during our welcome tour because you could easily get lost there at night. You could tell it was “winter” because the air was still rather chilly. This being the second week of our trip, however, we were already prepared and had changed before dinner into something a little more warmer.
Being on this side of the island for the evening, I noticed the sky wasn’t clear enough to see too many stars as I had hoped. I’m not entirely sure if that’s the norm or if it was just cloudier than usual that day, but again it didn’t really matter. After about a ten minute stroll, we made it back to the cottage and didn’t spend too much more time outdoors. Earlier on, Cindy had spied the nice soaking tub in our cottage with all the bath salts and other compliments from the Honua Spa at the hotel. She certainly had to take advantage of that before calling it a night.
The Sun Rises In The East
One of the many things I was looking forward to with this visit to Hana was seeing the sunrise. That’s one thing you miss out on when you stay in West Maui, although those gorgeous sunsets aren’t too bad, either. Not having an alarm clock in the cottage might have posed a problem had it not been for the cell phone alarm. Even though I set Cindy’s phone to go off with enough time for me to gear up and head out, I still managed to wake up on my own 15 minutes before it went off. Go figure.
It was pretty dark out by the time I was packed and outside. Still too dark to really scout out a spot to catch the horizon, which I hoped to do the evening before had we had more time. I parked myself over by the pool, which was still well lit, and did my best not to get too comfortable as to doze off and miss the whole thing. 
As it started to get a little lighter, I noticed that the pre-dawn sky was rather cloudy. When I headed over to find my spot for the sunrise, it wasn’t looking like the atmosphere was going to cooperate too much.
Still, I was there for more than just photos, as it’s not every day I get to see the sunrise looking out over the ocean. Here’s the view I was enjoying that morning.
The entire experience was so heartwarming, and something I could certainly get used to
some day. As day broke and more of my surroundings started to become visible, I spotted a ranch worker farther out on the other side of the barb wire fence where I had been standing. He was tending to some of the horses, which I hadn’t really noticed until that point. Although we’ve never ridden horses (not counting early childhood), Cindy really likes horses. Had we spent a few days here in Hana, we no doubt would have been visiting the Hana Ranch on one of them.
Leaving So Soon
By the time I strolled back to the cottage, Cindy was already starting to get moving. Again, we didn’t have an alarm clock, yet our bodies still knew when to wake us up. That type of stuff doesn’t happen back home.
While she was getting ready for the day, I began packing and loading the car. There was still quite a bit we wanted to see passed Hana and then along the road back. Also, there had been talks over the weekend of another Maui Tweetup in Paia for later that afternoon. I wasn’t sure if it was still on because I had no connectivity, but we still wanted to try. Since we were up early and had things to do, we skipped a full breakfast were back on the road before long.
