Recently on Facebook I used the check-in as I waited to pick up Rachel at Midway and my Aunt Pat asked “where are you going?” and I replied, “no where I am picking up Rachel, to which she replied, “Oh I thought you were going to Maui.” Oh what I wouldn’t give to catch a Southwest flight out of this cold and fly off to that beautiful island. If heaven is not like Maui I have no idea what we are in for.

The moment I stepped off the plane in Kahului I knew I was in the spot in which I was supposed to be. The air was sweet, the sun was shining and I was in love. I had already visited the island of Kuai and it was very nice, it is quiet and lush and somewhere on that island, it rains every day so it is very green too. Just what you would think an island would be. But there was something magical about Maui from the very first moment I landed there that I have never forgotten.

It is not a very big island.(728 square miles) We stayed right in the middle of the island in Maalaea wear the airport used to be but it is too windy there for airplanes but it is perfect to spend the day out on the beach or by the pool of the condo that we had rented. You can watch the whales breach with their babies if you are there at the right time of year. (January to March) Staying in the middle of the island you can get to Wailea the richer side of the island in 20 minutes or Lahaina the town like part of the island where the boats dock in 20 minutes. You can also take a small boat out of Lahaina and go to Lani another small island which you can see from Maui for a day trip to see what old Hawaii is like.

We were blessed to have friends that had visited there before us and they gave us all of the secrets of how to go there and have the best possible time as inexpensively as possible. There is nothing cheap about Maui but there are ways to do it less expensively. I do hope to get there again someday I don’t know when that will be but until then let me share those tips with you.

• Sign up for email from Southwest so you can catch the flight specials
• Buy the book Maui Revealed for tips on what to do while you are there. It has the best information on what to do on the island by section of the island. It has saving codes for you and it also has a website that you can go to for even more information. It is reprinted once a year because some lucky person (or persons) gets to travel around Maui and update the book all the time.
• There are condos right in the middle of Maui called Maalea Banyons and they have the absolute best deals on the island. Yes, you will have to make your own breakfast because you are in a condo, so what you are in Maui! What we did was stop at the local Walmart and pick a few items for the room and went out to dinner at night and usually had leftovers for lunch the next day.
• The condos also have useful items in them as well such as towels, and beach mats to keep the sand away and washer and dryers in them so that you can go home with fresh clothes. I loved that!
• One more thing about the condos sometimes you can deal with the owners if you are staying multiple days.
• Do I really have to tell you sunblock, sunblock and more sunblock?