This year is our 25th anniversary; we decided to return to Hawaii where we’d had such a nice trip some years ago. Maui was our favorite so we decided to book there. I reviewed trip reports and found Hawaii is not as well documented as some Caribbean destinations. I reviewed the web sites of various Maui operators and as Maui is relatively large (compared to Cayman Brac, etc. :-) ), decided to book near our lodging near Lahaina. Our LDS owner told me that he’d had good luck with Lahaina divers; some reports also described positive experiences. Their website is informative and allows online dive booking. This worked fine.

We stayed at the Royal Lahaina Resort on the northwest side of the island. Booking was accomplished through Expedia. A nice breakfast buffet was included in the price. The property is an older one but is undergoing a continuing refurb and update to the facilities. There are three lodging options on the property: A modern tower type hotel; a multistory linear motel type facility; and four-plex stand alone cottages. We chose the latter. We found the room to large and comfortable with a nice patio for sitting and gear drying. I’ll say more about the facility (mostly positive) later.

Our air arrangements were made through Southwest and ATA, a Southwest partner. While Delta/Comair listed some cheaper flights, we’d found our frequent bookings with Southwest to be the best air travel experience we’ve had in recent years. We weren’t disappointed. Flights left on time and arrived early on all legs of our travel. Our luggage and gear arrived without incident or delay in both directions. Southwest’s use of 737’s on all routes instead of much smaller regional jets contributes to the positive experience. We did take boxed meals in both directions.

The resort is an approximately 45 minute drive from the airport. We rented through Budget and had a good experience. One thing to note about the resort; a “luau” is hosted on the property each night; this, combined with parking lost to construction clutter, created very tight parking from 5 until about 10 each evening. This will improve as the construction trailers are removed on completion of the renovation of the tower facility.

A note about wind. The eastern side of the island bears the brunt of the wind and high sea conditions; the western side is pretty dry with much less wind and much calmer seas.

Beach area behind the Royal Lahaina, west side.	East side surf conditions. Some interesting acrobatics can be observed here.

The Royal Lahaina was undergoing renovation which should be complete now. Rooms were clean and housekeeping was efficient. Avoid (at least based on our one night temporary lodging, the motel style section. We were in a cottage that was very nice. The tower looks like a good property, too. Be aware that there is a public Luau at the RL. This can be noisy and visitors will occupy many of the parking places.

Pretty rainbow. A common occurrence during afternoon thunderstorms	Sunsets were beautiful

Now to the diving. We dove with Lahaina Divers. They use large boats and the size of the diving party can be large. However, Elizabeth and I didn’t find any sign of herding or lack of flexibility in doing a dive the way one wants to. In fact, the divemasters, after an assessment of skills will explicitly outline opportunities for individual exploration of the dive site. Depths were conservative, with 85ft being the preferred maximum. I dove 32% nitrox, Elizabeth, air. Of note was the rental equipment; new, middle of the line Scubapro BC’s and regs. Computers were required. The shop schedules specific dive sites on specific days. Don’t overlook the shallower inshore dive site off the beach. I saw more turtles there than just about the rest of my diving put together. I’ve posted a selection of what we saw.

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Regrettably common Crown of Thorns Star.

One of the great things about Maui is the variety of topside activities.