I’ve updated the Travel Deals section with new resources for finding great deals on airfare, hotels, and car rentals. Hotwire currently has $14.99 compact car rentals for Honolulu. (Nov 9 – Nov 16 as an example)

Deal Tip: Book the car rentals separately from your vacation package. Car rental rates in a vacation package are typically higher.

The best deal to Hawaii is currently with Pleasant Holidays. There is a 3 night Maui vacation from LAX for $377 per person  after taxes/fees. Double occupancy is required to get the best rates. I tried selecting Monday December 6 as the start date and depart date is Thursday December 9. Make sure you remove the travel protection option from the page, otherwise it’ll be $100 extra.

http://www.pleasantholidays.com/PleasantHolidaysWeb/HTMLPagesDisplay.do?screenName=tz_oct10.html&cid=f11

Hawaiian Airlines has a sale on flights to HNL through June 10, 2010. Sample roundtrip fares in June from LAX to HNL is around $361 after taxes, depending on the departure dates. This is one of the lowest prices of the year.

http://www.hawaiianair.com/specialoffers/pages/inbound-summer.aspx?hacmp=TS_Razorfish_1x1_2010_National_TravelSearch

Pony Express Haleakala Crater
I had a great time with Pony Express Tours. Our guide was knowledgeable and patient with our novice riding skills. http://www.ponyexpresstours.com/ If you love horses, this is a great opportunity to ride for about 2 hours down the crater, eat a nice picnic lunch, and then ride another 2 hours up the crater.

If you go for the morning sunrise, it will be about a ~1 1/2 hour to 2 hour wait before the horses arrive.

From the website:

Ka Moa O Pele
Junction Ride

This ride descends Sliding Sands Trail to the Crater floor 2500 ft. below where a well deserved picnic lunch is served featuring our delicious croissant sandwiches! Round trip is 7.5 awe inspiring miles taking around 4 hours. Prior riding experience is recommended. Check in first at the ranch office, then continue up to the Visitor Center Parking lot just past mile marker 20 to meet your guide. Reservations required.

$182.00 + tax
8:30 AM

Activities
The great thing about Maui is the wide range of activities — whether you like to snorkel, hike, sunbathe, bike, or even shop. Certain activities book early, such as horseback riding and biking down the volcano.

Snorkeling trips
The Kai Kanani was good for $49.88 early morning snorkel including a continental breakfast. They leave from Wailea so its a shorter boatride (less seasick) http://www.kaikanani.com/ Molokini was much better than Turtle Town. Its a good intro. to Molokini if you haven’t been there before. The Kai Kanani offers continental breakfast (muffins/coffee/soft drinks) along with snorkeling equipment. The crew was friendly and we even saw some dolphins along the way to Molokini. I plan on going for the all morning trip next time.

Free Snorkeling
Black Rock is a nice place for beginners since its on a sandy beach. You’ll see a nice variety of fish when you swim towards the “Black Rock” side where coral is still abundant. There is limited parking available next to Whaler’s Village (left side of the shopping center) You can park at the Whaler’s Village for 3 hours with a minimum $10-$15 purchase (ABC store is great for that)

Another good snorkeling spot is Kapalua Beach. Its a little tricky to find though, you have to drive through Kapalua Bay resort in order to reach the small parking lot. Access to the reef is a little more difficult since the beach has a lot of rocky areas along with sand. Stick with the lighter areas (sandy) and you will be able to venture out to the shallow bay. We saw a wider variety of fish here than Black Rock. As for the beach, the sand was very nice. If you aren’t a snorkeler, this beach would be nice place to relax. This beach is rated one of the top 10 beaches in Hawaii, so its definitely earned its rating.

Snorkeling gear:
If you prefer to buy your own gear, Costco has great prices for a full set (mask, snorkel, and fins) for ~$40. They usually have the snorkeling set either by the front entrance or in front of one of the aisles.

Kmart has more variety for snorkeling gear, while Walmart has better prices. If you need a life jacket, Kmart has a good selection.

Anti-fog: You can use baby shampoo mixed with water as an anti-fog for the mask.

Shopping
Maui has various shopping locations around the island. The Queen Ka’ahumanu Center is a typical indoor mall with Macy’s and Sears anchors. Whaler’s Village on West Maui has higher end stores and good restaurants (e.g. Hula Grill) If you are renting a condo, I recommend getting a Safeway shopper card to take advantage of the sales they have. Groceries are pricey! I’ll elaborate more on the shopping experience section soon..

Scrapbooking
If you are a huge scrapbook fan like Daynah, then you need to visit Island Paperie. It has one of the largest selection of Hawaiian scrapbook supplies. They have many different paper designs not found at mainland scrapbook stores.

Photography

Hawaii is a great place to take photos. If you can afford a digital SLR, this would be a good opportunity to get one. The nice part of having a SLR is that you can purchase filters/lenses to optimize your photos.

I highly recommend getting the circular polarizer filter for getting those postcard-esque photos of the ocean. It basically filters out the reflection from the sunlight so you will get clear views of the coral/water underneath the ocean. Another filter I recommend getting is the Natural Density (ND) filter for getting nice portrait photos behind a sunset/etc.

Great photo locations:
1) On the Road to Hana there are several waterfalls (make sure you use a tripod and set the exposure setting to slow)
2) Haleakala volcano. The morning sunrise is a great photo opportunity if the weather conditions cooperate. If its not cloudy, you will have a great view of the island. I would reschedule the visit if its windy or raining.
3) Sunset on the west side of the island.

Dining Under $10 in Maui

Dining in Maui can get quite expensive. Here are some places that I have found where you can get meals for around $10 or less per person. Eating for cheap but good!

Aloha Mixed Plate
If you like Ono or L&L Hawaiian Restaurants in the mainland, you should try Aloha Mixed Plate. The teriyaki katsu was interesting — marinated teriyaki beef in a katsu coating. Its the traditional 2 scoops for rice, macaroni salad, and entree plate. Definitely worth a visit for a lower cost meal in Maui. Aloha Mixed Plate Reviews on Igo

Ko Ko Ichiban Ya
This is a great place to eat local style plate lunch after arriving in Maui. The udon noodles were tasty — chicken, fried shrimp tempura, and egg. They also have excellent unagi (eel) bowls and a wide selection of BBQ plate lunches. Seating is very limited — only 7 or 8 chairs, but you can order everything to-go. Its located at 360 Papa Pl Kahului, HI. If you are driving from the Maui Airport, it will be on the right side on Dairy Road. I’m definitely going back here a few times

Pizza Paradiso
This place has decent pizza for the money. Frommers gave it good reviews, so we decided to check it out. Their specialty pizzas had generous amounts of toppings — I suggest ordering by the slice for variety. Its a place to check out if you are in the Kahana area.

McDonalds
Try the banana pies! Instead of Apple Pies, they have Banana pies at Mc Donalds. Also, they have Fanta fruit punch.

Farmers Markets
There are a number of Farmer’s Markets in Maui. You can get fresh produce at prices lower than the grocery stores. They also have a variety of fresh fruit, coffee, and banana bread.

Safeway
Sign up for the Safeway card while you area in the store. You need to have the card in order to get the discount on the sale items. They have a decent bakery section where you can pick up bagels (baked daily) along with deli items for making sandwiches.

Costco
Its not just the $1.50 hot dog special or the $1.99 pizza.  The Maui Costco has prepared sashimi and poke in the seafood section. This is a great deal — probably enough for 20-30 pieces of high quality tuna sashimi for $15-$20. This is plenty of fish for a few meals. It comes in a package with wasabi and soy sauce included. Also try the fresh Hawaiian fruits (way better than the canned versions in the mainland) 1 gallon of POG is under $5 — passion fruit, orange, and guava juice drink commonly found in Maui. Also, if you like sweet coffee — try the 24 pack of Kona coffee in 12 oz cans for around $12-14. Back in the mainland its about $1 each, so I usually try to get a case when I visit Hawaii.