Happily, our roving retirement has finally taken us someplace warm. After a brief stop in the Bay Area to swap ski stuff for beach stuff, we arrived in Maui, Hawaii. Our plan is to visit all of the well-known islands in Hawaii over the next few months.
Thanks to all of you who sent us your Hawaii recommendations. We are definitely feeling the pressure to do as much as we can.
Why Hawaii?
Well, why not, who doesn’t want to go to Hawaii? That said, we wanted to go someplace warm that would let in Americans. That narrowed things down quite a bit (not France). Then there is Covid. Since we aren’t eligible for the vaccine yet, we wanted someplace with a low disease rate and good medical care if we did get sick.
We are also fortunate enough to still have a bunch of timeshare weeks. Demand in Hawaii is very low right now, making trades available for those of us brave enough to travel right now. We were actually able to do a timeshare trade for all of our 12-weeks.
Barriers to Entry
In order to travel to Hawaii now, you must take a Covid test within 72 hours of departure. Only certain lab companies are approved but we had no trouble with drive-through testing near the San Jose airport. You are subject to a 10-day quarantine without the test.
In addition, getting to Kauai is even more complicated, with additional tests and quarantine if certain conditions aren’t met. So, we are making Kauai the 3rd island we visit.
Arrival in the Islands
We flew from SFO straight to Kahalui, Maui. Near the check-in counter, we showed our Hawaii Safe application on our phones with our negative Covid test and received a blue wristband. The wristband was our ticket to expedited entry into Hawaii. We didn’t see anything different than usual except maybe a few extra people looking for wristbands when we arrived. Everything went smoothly at the airport and the mask requirements were strictly enforced.
Island Adventures
Our wonderful readers gave us lists of things to do and restaurants with the Maui list being the longest. Mike was originally worried that we would spend too much time just sitting by the pool, so I put target activities on the calendar for every other day. It turns out that with our list, 3 weeks here isn’t enough. As it is, we have had to shuffle things around based on the weather and the daily snorkel report. (Yes, I know these are high-class problems to have.)
Another challenge has been dinner reservations. With the restaurants still at limited capacity, there are a few recommended places that we can’t get into. But rest assured, we will persevere.
Do you have any additional recommendations, they are still happily accepted?
2 comments
Aloha from Jack and Maha
Glad to hear that you got to maui smoothly and will be enjoying the island activities. Wish we could be there.
Your timeshare location looks amazing which one is it?
Enjoy your aloha time there.
The timeshare is The Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas North. Very nice. My only bitch is we had to grab pool loungers by 7:45am. They removed a lot of them to maintain distance, so it was a bit of a precious commodity.