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When I was in my 20s and knew everything, I thought Hawaii was where boring white people went on vacation.
It was just so obvious. It could only appeal to people who liked golf, ugh, and staying in highrise condominiums and jogging on the beach.
It was not, clearly, for fascinating and intriguing people like me, who liked to wander off the beaten path in Cuba or go trekking in Thailand. I was a traveller, not a tourist.
This conviction may have been rooted in my 鈥�70s-era childhood, when the tiki-tiki theme was all the rage. My junior-high best friend went to Hawaii with her family, and when they got back, her dad built a tiki bar in the basement, with lots of wicker and buxom plastic hula-girl dolls and a palm-tree mural on the wall.
Reading a beautifully descriptive essay by novelist Barbara Kingsolver about hiking in Maui鈥檚 Haleakala Crater hammered the first fine cracks into my long-held disdain for Hawaii. Then I saw an article about camping on the Big Island: $100 a day to rent a fully-equipped Westfalia, official vehicle of the traveller, not the tourist. Eating from roadside food stands, camping on beautiful white-sand beaches 鈥� this was a compromise I could live with ... at least, until three rained-out camping trips in sa国际传媒 last summer, a seemingly endless round of fetching water, cooking, washing dishes and taking kids to the outhouse.
Who wanted to work that hard, especially with a five-year-old and 6 1/2-year-old? The idea of a 鈥渧acation鈥� was starting to sound a lot better.
By then, I鈥檇 already indoctrinated my children on the wonders of Hawaii, so I came up with a compromise: We would go, but we would rent a condo so at least we鈥檇 have running water and a bathroom. I didn鈥檛 want a highrise, however 鈥� the kids needed free and easy access to the outdoors.
And I wanted to be able to walk places 鈥� I knew a rental car was pretty much required, but I didn鈥檛 want to be stuck in a resort zone where you could only get anywhere by car.
A friend and Hawaii veteran recommended the Napili Bay area of West Maui for its low-rise accommodation and beautiful beach, so I got online and started researching.
I booked the cheapest place in the area: Napili Village, a small, family-run two-storey complex built in 1967 with a ground-floor one-bedroom suite for $149 a night. Not Mexico cheap but Maui cheap, and not much more than the Westfalia plus camping fees. It wasn鈥檛 on the water, but the beach was a one-minute walk down a trail, and it had a pool, too. When I read a complaint online that you could hear roosters from the house across the street cockadoodledoing every morning, I was sold. It was almost like being a real traveller.
It turned out to be an ideal base for our island explorations, part of a string of small, two-storey resorts on the ocean side of the road, with semi-rural homes across the street (home of the rooster and a seemingly permanent garage sale) stretching north to the golf-green grounds of the massive Kapalua Resort. Unlike the long, open stretches of beach at Kaanapali to the south, the white-sand beach in Napili Bay is a perfect crescent, largely protected on the north side from the larger swells, so we didn鈥檛 have to worry about the kids being sucked out to sea on a vaccuum-like undertow.
The swimming is great and you can even snorkel in the bay, although you鈥檙e better off heading next door to Kapalua Beach, a five-minute walk away, where we saw an incredible variety of tropical fish, along with turtles. At one point, my husband rigged up a little raft with the five-year-old on a boogie board with a fish-watching window, the 6 1/2-year-old tied in to a pool noodle and wearing snorkel gear, and him in the middle holding both as they tootled around the bay. Who needs a $400 snorkel trip? Who needs lifejackets? Well, actually, we did. Not bringing lifejackets for the kids was a bit of an oversight, especially with that undertow.
Maui ain鈥檛 cheap 鈥� the grocery-store prices alone are enough to make a grown woman weep 鈥� but there are ways to keep to a reasonable budget. We ate most of our meals in the condo, where there was a communal barbecue. My husband even bought a Hawaiian 鈥渟ling鈥� to spear fish in our bay 鈥� much to the surprise and possibly horror of people peacefully communing with nature while snorkeling around him.
Regulars tell you to shop at Costco near the airport, but we鈥檙e not members and the idea wasn鈥檛 that appealing, anyway. Instead, we bought our food at Safeway in nearby Lahaina, where taking 30 seconds to fill out a 鈥渃lub鈥� membership brings prices down to a reasonable level 鈥� at least, reasonable to someone used to Victoria food prices. Mainland Americans were still in a state of shock.
Roadside food stands in our area were thin on the ground, unfortunately 鈥攁 couple of banana-bread booths and some fruit stalls was all we saw.
We ate out about half a dozen times 鈥� mostly at pizza and Mexican joints. We discovered that if you get there before 5:30 p.m., many places have early-bird deals, so we didn鈥檛 usually spend more than $40 for a meal for four. We did have one splurge that cost twice that, at the upscale Kapalua Resort鈥檚 Pineapple Grill.
As for kid-friendly activities, we gravitated to those that were free or inexpensive. That meant no luau, at almost $350 for a family of four. Snorkeling trips were too pricey, as were submarine tours ($270 for all of us). But we did sign up for a discount two-hour whale-watching trip from Ma鈥檃laea, south of Lahaina, with the Pacific Whale Foundation for around $50 total.
The boats are required to stay 100 yards away from the whales but as the naturalist on board said, the whales don鈥檛 read the rules. We had a humpback mother, calf and male escort surface about 15 metres from our boat, and pretty much stick close by for at least half an hour. The on-board naturalists were great with the kids, letting them drop audio equipment into the water so we could hear whale song.
The guide told us humpbacks come to the waters around Hawaii from Alaska to breed and have their calves, but don鈥檛 feed while they鈥檙e there. Asked why, he said 鈥渢oo expensive.鈥� Actually, the clear blue waters are as nutrient-poor as the local potato and macaroni salad, unlike our sa国际传媒 waters.
We considered making the at least six-hour round trip to Hana, a popular coastal route with lots of waterfall hikes, but decided against it, since our kids typically announce 鈥淚 have a tummyache鈥� 12.3 seconds into any road trip. We could have given them Gravol but they would have slept through the whole thing 鈥� not a terrible option, on reconsideration.
But there were plenty of other things to do 鈥� historic Lahaina was a short drive away, and though some dismiss it as a tourist trap, it has its charms, including a must-see banyan tree planted in 1873 whose roots have spawned so many new trunks, it shades most of the two-acre Courthouse Square where it stands. In the courthouse, you can read descriptions of Lahaina in the heady days of whaling, as recorded by a former Lahaina postmaster who arrived in the mid-1800s. There鈥檚 also an old jail, Hale Pa鈥檃hao, that鈥檚 fun to visit 鈥� and sounds like it might have been fun even when it was a jail: regular meals and daily co-ed mingling on the leafy-green grounds.
You can spend an evening strolling down Front Street at sunset just enjoying the buzz and parade of boomer couples in resort wear without spending a dime at Cheeseburger in Paradise. (You may have to shell out $5 for an ice cream, though.)
There are also plenty of hikes, including a 2.8-kilometre coastal path that runs from Kapalua Beach north to D.T. Fleming beach (named for a Honolua Ranch manager in the early part of the last century) through some spectacular coastline that runs the gamut from pristine, palm-tree-lined, golf-course-green resort grounds to a boardwalk alongside jagged cliffs with a view of crashing waves below. You can include a stop at the Honolua Store 鈥� a former pineapple-plantation-company store built in 1929 that鈥檚 part of the Kapalua Resort 鈥� for breakfast or lunch from a reasonably priced buffet counter, and eat on the covered porch.
Farther north, along the sinuous and spectacular coastal Highway 30 鈥� with green shrub- and tree-covered hills rising on one side and sheer cliffs and surf below on the other 鈥� there are numerous places to pull over and hike. We did one hike to the impressive Nakalele blowhole, another through a tropical forest where hens run wild with their baby chicks to Honolua Bay, a popular snorkeling spot.
On that trail, the kids found a hanging vine where they could happily play Tarzan for a while 鈥� if they knew who the heck Tarzan was. (On the advice of a friend, incidentally, we rented a 2004 Nissan Sentra from a place called Kihei Rent a Car, which picks you up from the airport and takes you to their lot. We wanted something older for two reasons: It was cheaper 鈥� $400 all in for two weeks 鈥� and we wouldn鈥檛 have to worry about dings or break-ins at remote sites, since it wasn鈥檛 so obviously a tourist car. The car exceeded our expectations, however: When I opened the glove compartment, the door came off in my hands. Same thing with an inside door handle. Other than that, it did the trick 鈥� and the staff was great.)
We even stumbled upon labyrinths twice: once at a rocky point near the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, not far from a stretch of green space that covers an ancient burial ground 鈥� initially intended to be the site of the hotel 鈥� the other on an emerald-green hillside near the blowhole. While we were walking the first labyrinth, the skies opened up and it started to pour, so we took refuge under a tree, where we were startled by the most perfect rainbow I鈥檇 ever seen. It was like something out of a child鈥檚 drawing, a clear arc of colour beginning and ending in the ocean in front of us.
With us were old friends who had coincidentally booked a stay at Napili Village that partially coincided with ours. Ironically, I鈥檇 always considered them the ultimate 鈥渢ravellers,鈥� not tourists 鈥� after all, they鈥檇 once spent the better part of a month on a remote Nicaraguan island. He did kayak guiding in Baja for years. They bring thermarests, not golf clubs, on holiday.
Now they鈥檙e regular Maui visitors, since scoring a great deal several years ago. 鈥淚 was really resistant at first,鈥� said our kayak-guide friend. 鈥淏ut we ended up having the best time.鈥�
Is it possible to be a traveller, not just a tourist, in Hawaii? Absolutely 鈥� and we didn鈥檛 do a fraction of what we could have in the short two weeks we were there. We never watched sunrise from the Haleakala crater or did the road to Hana or snorkeled at Molokai or visited the 鈥渃owboy town鈥� Makawao, all of which were on my to-do list.
I guess we鈥檒l just have to go back.
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If you go:
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Getting there: Air sa国际传媒 and Westjet fly from Vancouver to Maui鈥檚 Kahalui Airport, about an hour鈥檚 drive from Napili Bay, as do several other airlines.
Where to stay: Napili Village 鈥� Studios and one-bedrooms available with partial ocean or pool views, kitchens and air-conditioning. Coin-operated laundry. Rates $99-$154 a night. 1-800-336-2185. napilivillage.com
For a more upscale option, try The Mauian on Napili Bay next door 鈥� 44 studio and hotel rooms in three two-story buildings, with a pool in the centre. No TVs, stereos or phones. Rates $196-$315 a night. 1-800-367-5034. mauian.com
Transportation: Kihei Rent A Car. 1-800-251-5288. kiheirentacar.com
Whale-watching: Pacific Whale Foundation. pacificwhale.org
More information: I found the Maui Revealed guidebook an invaluable source of information
