Archive for the ‘Weekly Websites’ Category

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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.

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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 »

Weekly Websites – Coming Soon

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

Laptop on the LanaiLast week, we launched a new weekly series here at the blog that cover our travel traditions. This week, I’m also setting the stage for another new series, the Weekly Website series.

Back in August, I shared a little glimpse of how I like to keep tabs on Maui when I’m on home the mainland. In that post, I also  spoke to the websites and blogs that we follow regularly, and how you can find details about those in our (still growing) Reviews section. But there are some really great sites and blogs out there that I follow, and just having a little paragraph about each can’t really do them justice.

So, starting next week, I’m going to make a commitment to feature one of the sites or blogs from that list here at the blog, and give others the opprotunity to talk story and share their thoughts as well. This will give me more room to detail out what I like about each site or blog, share some of my favorite and most recommended posts from each, and give our readers a better feel for why they should check them out. 

There’s Still More to Come
The more and more I’m online reading about Maui, and Hawaii in general, the more I stumble across so many great sites.  It’s really hard to keep up sometimes, so taking the opportunity to feature a different site each week will encourage me to stay on top of things. :)  As an example, one blog that I recently discovered and added to the Blogs list is A Maui Blog.  This blog, written by Liza, features many different aspects of life on Maui, as her and her family have experienced over the last 15 years.  There are some great posts about local events and other happenings on the Valley Isle, and a lot of great photos, too.

I’ll have more on A Maui Blog in a future edition of our Weekly Websites series, but don’t wait until then, check it out now.

Have a Website or Blog?
If you have a website or a blog that covers the magic of Maui or any of the Hawaiian islands, we’d love to see it.  Just contact us with the details or look me up on Twitter and drop me a line there. 

Also, if you have comments or thoughts on our own website, do please take a minute to share them with us. You can do so in our Talk Story section. We really love hearing from everyone.

Mahalo.
– Kris

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