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Weekly Website: Maui Online Guide

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
Aloha, and welcome to the this week’s installment of our Weekly Website series.
Today’s site is another one that I’ve been following for almost a year now, and is devoted solely to Maui. Even though the site is currently on hiatus after a recent, and very nice, site redesign, there is still a lot of good information to be found here.
Maui Online Guide – A Visitors Guide to Maui and the Islands of Hawaii
Maui Online Guide is actually one in a series of websites owned and operated by David and Vana Boyd as a publication of Sugar Beach Enterprises. Don’t let that “Enterprises” name on the about page get you thinking this is some marketing or corporate site. Maui Online Guide has a very personal feel to it, almost as if you’re talking story with someone about Maui that you’ve known for years.
Features
When you first visit the home page of Maui Online Guide, you see a giant Google Map of Maui County with a lot of markers on it. Each marker represents a different entry posted on the blog, and shows the location mentioned in the article. Just about every blog post has a location and map associated with it, which is a nice way to learn about different parts of the island. We personally like this for the Beaches category, since we’re always looking for new beaches to visit and like to know where to find them.
If you find the article map on the home page too cluttered or not very easy to navigate, the list of categories and the search box on the right-hand sidebar make it very simple to find what you’re looking foor. If you want to start browsing through the most recent entries, you can go right to the site’s blog.
Categories
There are a few categories on the site that we find especially helpful. The first, which I eluded to above, is the Beaches category. It features 11 different beaches on Maui, many of which we haven’t yet visited and aren’t mentioned very much anywhere else. Each beach article features photos, a map, written directions and a list of facilities that you’ll find there. Very helpful.
The next category I wanted to share with you is the News category, which may be the category with the most entries in it. Many of my favorite posts (listed below) from Maui Online Guide are of news stories that I first found here and not as headlines on the regular news sites. Sharing those lesser known news stories partially inspired us to create our own News Articles section.
The Postcards category is the last one I wanted to mention. It was a feature named Postcards from Paradise, and accepted picturesque photos from the site’s readers. This section was only started a few months before the site went dormant, so you won’t find too many entires. But of the ones that are there, the Mountains and Whales photo is by far our favorite.
Favorite Posts
As part of this week’s review, below are the favorite posts that I’ve enjoyed reading on the blog at Maui Online Guide. 

If you have thoughts on this review or on Maui Online Guide, please share them with us here. We send David and Vana our best wishes on their current endeavours and, as fellow fans of Maui, hope they get a chance to return to the Valley Isle in the near future.
Be sure to stay tuned next week for another edition in our Weekly Websites series.
Mahalo.
The Weekly Website Series here at our blog showcases various websites and blogs that we like to frequent, as well as recommend to others. There are so many Maui and Hawaii focused sites out there, it might seem a little intimidating at first. By featuring sites that we us ourselves and have found very helpful and engaging, we hope to introduce others to the very best out there.

To follow along with future editions of our Weekly Website Series, be sure to subscribe to our blog feed to get the latest posts and updates. We already have a bit of a queue, but if you haven’t seen one of your favorites yet, you can contact us or send me a note on Twitter.

Posted in Blogs, Weekly Websites | No Comments »

Weekly Website: Go Visit Hawaii – Hawaii Travel Guide

Friday, December 19th, 2008
Aloha, and welcome to the first installment in our Weekly Website series.
Ever since launching our own website in Sept. ’07, there has really been one blog that has set the bar for us in terms of content, community, and contribution to the space on the web that is devoted to all things Hawaii. It seems only fitting that this site be the first in our new series.
Go Visit Hawaii – Hawaii Travel Guide
Go Visit Hawaii is, without question, the site I recommend the most when people ask me about visiting Hawaii. The driving force behind GVH is editor and Hawaii blogger Sheila Beal, who’s been sharing the Aloha spirit online for over two years now. A repeat Trip Coach at Budget Travel and always providing so much helpful information, new readers are often surprised to learn that she doesn’t actually live in Hawaii. She had us fooled at first, too.
Features
One of the first things you notice about Go Visit Hawaii when browsing through the site is that it covers such a wide range of information, yet does so in a way that’s very easy to navigate. Depending on what you’re looking for, you can start by looking at one of the different Hawaii Vacation Guides, which are broken down by the four major islands.  Not sure which one(s) are right for you, browse them all and find out. Still can’t decide? Maybe a few (or a lot) of photos will help. Those that know us know that we love photos from Hawaii.
Once you have an island or two in mind, say Maui, for example, there are sub-categories for what to see and do, where to eat, and even deals that are out there from time to time. Once you find every thing you need to know about your islands of choice, head over to the popular General Hawaii category. There you’ll find interesting things about Hawaii that even repeat visitors like ourselves didn’t know at first.
Community
Any blogger will tell you that a blog with tons of content and maybe the best writers in the world won’t mean much without readership and community. Well, Go Visit Hawaii has one of the friendliest and active communities that I’ve enjoyed participating in, whether Hawaii-related or not. At the time of this post, there have been over 2,500 responses posted on topics at GVH, which for a blog that is 2 years old is very respectable. The different folks and Hawaii fans that I have met at GVH come from all over the place, whether from the islands themselves to across the mainland and even the snowy neighbors to our north all share their feedback and experiences visiting Hawaii, it’s often been termed a “support group” for some of us.
And Sheila herself is very active in responses from her reader, which is very key to fostering such a successful community. As a fellow blogger, I respect that tremendously.
Favorite Posts
Since I’ve been reading Go Visit Hawaii for over a year now, I have come across so many great articles that it’s hard to remember them all.  I only recently started sharing my favorites in an effort to keep track of what I read online, but I’d thought I’d share a few here that have stuck with me the most.

So, if you haven’t discovered Go Visit Hawaii yet, I hope you find this review helpful. After browsing through the site, we have a feeling that you’ll find the information you’re looking for and will be joining in the discussions before you know it.
If you have thoughts on this review or on Go Visit Hawaii, please feel free to share them with us here. Also, be sure to stay tuned next week for another edition of Weekly Websites.
Mahalo.
The Weekly Website Series here at our blog showcases various websites and blogs that we like to frequent, as well as recommend to others. There are so many Maui and Hawaii focused sites out there, it might seem a little intimidating at first. By featuring sites that we us ourselves and have found very helpful and engaging, we hope to introduce others to the very best out there.

To follow along with future editions of our Weekly Website Series, be sure to subscribe to our blog feed to get the latest posts and updates. We already have a bit of a queue, but if you haven’t seen one of your favorites yet, you can contact us or send me a note on Twitter.

Posted in Blogs, Weekly Websites | 4 Comments »

Answers to your Hawaii Questions

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

Aloha,

I wanted to pass on a great opprotunity for those of you out there who have a trip scheduled to Hawaii, or are thinking of planning one, to get your questions answered by a Hawaii travel expert.
Fellow Hawaii blogger and friend of the site, Sheila Beal, will be answering your questions as part of Budget Travel’s Trip Coach column on November 25th.  Sheila is the driving force behind the popular, independant Hawaii Travel blog, GoVisitHawaii.com, and has been helping her readers (myself included) with all kinds of great advice, from where to go, what to eat, what to pack, and much, much more.
Questions needs to be submitted in advance, so be sure read here for all the details and get yours in the queue.  Can’t wait until the 25th?  Be sure to check out Sheila’s blog or one of our other favorites for tons of helpful information as well.
Mahalo.

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Posted in Blogs | 1 Comment »

Keeping Tabs on Maui

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

Not many people will argue that RSS Feeds and the adoption of personalized portals like iGoogle have drastically changed way we receive content of our choosing on a daily basis, and for the better.

I have just recently finished adding a Blogs page to the site here in the Reviews section to highlight the different blogs I check in on every day as part of my morning routine. As shown here, I created my own Hawaii Blog tab (hence the pun in the post title in case you missed it) using iGoogle to get all of my Hawaii and Maui content delivered right to me when I want it.

There are details about each blog in the Reviews section, but I wanted to share the links to the RSS feeds themselves straight from the tab in iGoogle.

While I rarely ever get enough time to read all the posts that I’d like to, nor post as much as I would like to either, these blogs help me get my fill of Maui and the islands whenever I need a little pick-me-up or a distraction. These blogs, as well as various news stories and feeds, help me to keep in touch with what’s happening in Maui just as if I was living there today.

So, if I’ve found your blog and liked it enough to list it here and check it regularly, great job on sharing the Aloha spirit with the blogosphere and keep up the great work. If you have a blog or know of a blog that I haven’t mentioned, share it here and I’d love to take a look. You can never have too many feeds of Maui. :)

Oh, and by the way, our blog has a feed, too. Would you like to subscribe?

Posted in Blogs, Site Updates | 2 Comments »

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