Hawaii 2022 Trip Recap

The first week of December, 2022, my husband and I hopped on a flight to Maui for a week of rest and relaxation. It had been a few years since we took a proper vacation, and it was extremely nice to focus on “doing nothing” as our goal for the week. When we travel like this, we seek out boredom. Laying on comfortable lounge chairs, chatting about our lives or about nothing in particular while we occasionally read a chapter or two of a juicy fiction novel is the plan. It’s weeks like these that help us reset our priorities and remember when we come home that work isn’t the only important thing in life.

There are two key features for a trip like this that we look for when we’re researching a place to stay. Hawaii made these standards a bit challenging in a couple of areas, but in the end, we figured it out. Here are my top two priorities when searching for a beach vacation resort:

• My husband and I are beach-goers. The pool-side vibe is not usually our preferred option when we’re in a tropical destination. So it is always important to us to research the kinds of beaches we’ll get to encounter on our trip. Hawaii has a lot of rocky beaches, so we did a ton of research to figure out which ones had gorgeous soft sand. Waikiki and Wailea Beaches came up through our searching as some of the best sandy beaches, and we ultimately decided to head to Wailea Beach in Maui.

• We are used to spoiling ourselves, heading to all-inclusive resorts where the food and drinks are easily accessible, never-ending and already paid for. Heading to Hawaii, we knew that wouldn’t necessarily be the case. The restaurants at the resorts tend to be owned and staffed by some of the best chefs in the world. A meal or two there is definitely worth it, but if you’re not looking to take out a loan to afford Michelin-level meals three times a day, then you’ll want to check out what else is available. Lucky for us, the resort we chose was a five minute walk from a grocery store and shopping area with several restaurants. We were able to grab coffee and breakfast for a very reasonable price at the grocery store every morning, which not only saved us quite a few dollars, but also kept us from over-eating all week.

Something new that I learned on this trip was to make sure and research one more crucial element before heading to your destination: Look into any local laws that might affect your stay. Hawaii has recently passed a law that requires all tourists to use Reef-Safe Sunscreen to prevent any unwanted chemicals from getting into their oceans. We had brought our own sunscreen in our luggage, and ended up carrying it all back with us because we couldn’t use it. I also think it would have saved us a little money if we’d brought our own reef-safe sunscreen instead of having to buy it locally. In the future, I will be adding this element to my research list to make sure we’re keeping with the local community’s requests and doing our part to abide by their rules.

If you want to see more about the location we chose and the beach we found, be sure to check out my YouTube video being released this week: https://youtu.be/DmF6JaXL9CU. 

Aloha!