maui bound
By annemarie on January 5, 2010 | Filed Under faces & places, guest bloggers
When yoyomama reader Jennifer Falloon contacted me about sharing the tale of her family’s trip to Maui with a 10-month-old I thought it would be perfect for this time of year when many of us are lucky enough to beat the gloom and head to warmer climes. If you have any stories or advice you’d like to share with our readers let me know!
Travelling with a young one doesn’t have to be hard!
In October of 2009 my husband and I decided we needed a getaway. We wanted to go somewhere that felt like home, but wasn’t home…aka nice warm weather with beautiful beaches. My only hold back was how were we going to get on the plane with all the baby stuff. Our daughter was 10-months-old and I couldn’t imagine traveling with a stroller, car seat, high chair, other baby accessories, toys, beach accessories, etc. Not to mention clothes for the family.
Well we found it! We settled on Keihi, Maui. Our home for the week, a lovely fully furnished condo with a pool and only a five minute walk to the beach (Kamaole Beach 3). Our suite had all the amenities of home, plus coolers for the beach, snorkel gear, pool noodles, life jackets, boogie boards, beach umbrellas and beach towels. On top of all that, the owner had a play pen in the suite for us to use! Here is the listing we used. The condo complex was wonderful. Each block of condos had a BBQ available, plus the pool had a larger BBQ area that you could rent from the front office.
After we found our home away from home, I did a little research and found a fantastic baby equipment company, Akamai Mothers. We rented a high chair, stroller, car seat, hiking backpack and a beach tent for our daughter to nap in, while we soaked up the sun. They met us at the airport and gave us the car seat and the rest of our rented baby gear was waiting at our condo when we got there. The reverse happened when we left. Akamai Mothers picked up our gear at our condo and then met us at the airport to pick up the car seat. They were reasonably priced and easy to deal with.
We did a little touring around as well and hit the Maui Ocean Center in Wailuku. The aquarium has the fantastic glass tunnel that you can walk through and see everything from Sharks to Stingrays swimming all around you. We spend almost an hour in there watching everything pass us by. We also did the drive and hike to Haleakala National Park in Makawao. We did this trip mid day and despite the hot temperatures at sea level, up top it was cold. Some of the tourist books we read suggested that this trip be done early enough to see the sun rise, but after talking to some locals we decided the sun rises were nicer from our local beach. Apparently some of the time it is so socked in with clouds that there really isn’t much of a sun rise to be seen.
So we spent a week in Keihi with three suitcases – one for my husband, one for me and one for my daughter but I don’t believe it would have been possible without these two great businesses. We loved Maui and will definitely go back!
