My family went a few weeks ago. We stayed in Wailea at the Fairmont. I highly recommend the Fairmont. Fairmont, Andaz, Grand Wailea et al except for the Four Seasons are all about $1k/night. With kids, having 800sqft instead of 400 for a regular room was game changer. Grand Wailea gets a lot of conferences and the Andaz seems more geared towards adults. We met up with some friends in Kaanapali one night and it doesn’t seem nearly as nice as Wailea.

ETA: if you have 6 adults, check out the villas at the Fairmont as opposed to multiple rooms. They are closer to the beach as well. Andaz also has seemingly nice villas.

Highly recommend Blue Water Rafting for snorkeling. Fast, small boats (less than 12 people) makes the experience much more enjoyable. Sadly, Road to Hana is a shell of its former self. So many of the cool spots are no longer accessible that there’s almost nothing left to do besides the black sand beach. For food, book Mamas Fish House in Paia ASAP. If you look at the menu it will seem super expensive (6 people is easily $1k) but anywhere decent especially in a hotel will be close to that and this will be significantly better. For other food, check out random food trucks.

This was our 3rd year in a row going to Hawaii with Kona and Kauai the spots the prior years. Everyone in the family said Kauai>Kona>>>Maui. Maui is very crowded.. I’m not very price conscious on vacations but was surprised how out of touch the price:value is for food. 4 people incl two kids dropping $200 every time you sit down for a meal with blah food kind of sucks. Kauai had great food for reasonable prices everywhere.

I booked using the Amex Fine Hotel program. The 2 free breakfast buffets ($120/day) was nice but the 4p late checkout was amazing considering we had a 7p flight. People who had to check out at 11a with no place to go just hung out in the common areas. We got to have the better part of the day at the beach and pool with plenty of time to shower and pack before checkout.

This post was edited on 4/21/24 at 5:21 pm