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This was one of the first trips where Augustine recognized it was truly so amazing and thanked us for it. That’s a lot for a four year old to comprehend and express. On the first night, while our room service dinner was being set up on our lanai, and the sky was turning bright pinks and purples, she whispered in my ear “this is wonderful”. I have a lot of perks with my job but this moment I’ll never forget. We were all so happy and it was a much needed vacation for the whole family. But don’t just take my word for it, Augustine is here to show and tell. (wink wink!)
Hey guys! It’s Augustine! I’ve just recently learned to spell and write my name (hey, it’s a really long name, okay!) so I’m thrilled to take over the blog to chat about our recent trip to Maui.
If we’ve met in person you know that I LOVE the beach. I could build sand castles all day long, and I’m a pretty good boogie boarder, especially when my grandpa pushes me on waves. You can imagine my excitement when I learned we were going to Hawaii and then especially Maui. You’ve seen Moana, right? Well, I know all the words and the songs and I have the shell necklace that I wear all the time because the ocean and I are best friends. While Rapunzel is my favorite princess at the moment, Moana is a very close 2nd. She gets to do all the really cool things like fight off little pirates, meet a DemiGod, float around the ocean, and save the world. While my mom told me our Maui trip might be a little less dramatic, I was stoked to visit for the first time.
Quick stats:
- Direct flights: Hawaiian Airlines from Los Angeles
- Where we stayed: Fairmont Kea Lani, in a King one bedroom, ocean view suite
- How long was the trip: 4 days, 3 nights
- Rental car needed? We did rent a car because we wanted to do the Road to Hana, but once we arrived at Kea Lani we didn’t take the car out of Valet the whole trip because the resort really has it all.
My mom will probably go into a lot more detail but here goes: I loaded up my iPad for the flight with all the best movies and watched a few before taking a little nap on the plane. I wanted to be well rested.
We rented our car (did you know all the license plates have rainbows on them?! My favorite!) and drove to Wailea (say that three times fast!) to the Fairmont Kea Lani for four nights of playing with just my mom and dad. My mom and dad are really cool and we love to play together.
My mom packed my bags and she packed all these matching clothes for me and her- it’s my favorite to match my mom. My dad packed my flamingo float, too. We went on a crab hunt, did tons of arts and crafts (I’m really good with glue sticks, btw) and even learned the ukulele and hula. Every night we would watch the sunset on our lanai (that’s fancy for patio). The sunset is always different – I learned that on this trip! – and sometimes it would be purple and sometimes pink and sometimes just orange and blue. How cool is that? The Fairmont Kea Lani definitely had the best sunsets I’ve ever seen. We also had so much pool time, and while I wanted to go down the slide, I was a little scared so I just watched my dad do it over and over again. I tried snorkeling but I’m not too sure about that, although I do love my mask so maybe I’ll try it again next time. Overall it was just the best trip ever and I am already planning my trip back.
Here’s a list of my favorite things I did, complete with all the first time experiences:
- First lei making: Verdict: I’m a natural, I loved it!
- First Sandman / snowman sand castle contest: Verdict: Loved it but not extremely helpful If I’m being honest.
- First Crab hunt: Verdict: Loved it, wish I could do this every night.
- First mani/pedi: Verdict: Loved it and my nails and toes are still looking fabulous with my purple paint. The Willow Stream Spa is so beautiful and the staff so friendly. My mom wants to go back and do one of the open-air massages. Can you imagine how relaxing that would be to hear the ocean in the background?
- First Snorkel Experience: Verdict: Didn’t Love it but I want to try it again.
- First sunset viewing on the lanai: Loved it!
- First cabana experience: Verdict: Amazing! The cooler full of drinks specific to my taste was so cool. We really enjoyed having a central spot to escape to throughout the day.
Jade (Augustine’s mom) here with some final tips and notes:
Sign up for the Accor loyalty program. They have amazing deals sent via email throughout the year and they cover a lot of dates you’ve probably want to visit. They also track your preferences (room type, etc) and can reserve those for you once you book.
We stayed in the one bedroom suite, with huge windows and open doors leading out to a huge lanai. The suite was perfect for our family, allowing us each space for spread out and relax plus a huge bathroom with soaking tub and walk-in shower. While we normally never order room service, we did twice on this trip to take advice of dining on the lanai. She loved it and it allowed her to go play in the room when she was done eating. We could easily watch her playing but still relax watching the sunset.
One of the best parts about the Kea Lani is that all of these activities are included with your stay. Everyday there are different activities and we loved breaking up the pool and beach time with these fun adventures. It felt like summer camp, even for the adults, and I’d highly suggest getting the calendar and plotting out your stay with those activities sprinkled throughout.
The dining is incredible at Kea Lani(seriously we didn’t leave the resort at all for 4 days!) and we loved all the options. Ko was our favorite (Bob could have eaten there for every meal and been a very happy man). The breakfast buffet offered unique breads every day (like mango and nut) and juices plus different Hawaiian fruits and dishes you can’t get anywhere else. We loved having this option every morning as an easy way to get up and start the day.
For flights, we loved taking the early bird flight on Thursday and getting to the resort by noon, and same with our flight out; we flew out late on our last day so we have a good day at the resort before we took off (meaning Augustine slept the whole way home!). This allowed us to have full adventure days on our travel days- can’t really say that about many places we travel to.
Tips for next time:
Road to Hana– while we did drive it, we didn’t stop at all the stops because Augustine was napping or got car sick. Next time I’ll be prepared with Dramamine and plan out the route better- stopping many more times to break up the curvy drive.
Sunrise at Haleakala – While we could take a 4 year old up there before sunrise, I’m not sure she’d totally get the beauty. This seems like something we’d wait to do until she is older.
Holidays at Kea Lani: So many things to do during the holidays at the Kea Lani. Read our full post here.
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