Jacquette Family Travels: Last Minute Maui

Day 2

Honolua Bay
Kapalua Bay
Ka'anapali Beach
Whale Watching

Today we thought we would take in the beaches on the West side of the island. We heard there was good snorkeling and great beaches, and it's a little bit of a drive, so to see it all, we did some beach hopping and started at Honolua Bay. We drove a little past it so in our turnaround we stumbled upon a surfers road and decided to check it out. That brought us to this line of cars and a look at a ton of surfers below. Our first indication that the conditions might not be right for snorkeling at Honolua Bay.

Surfers were having a blast.

Honolua Bay

Once we saw where we were supposed to be, we headed back and parked.

The sign at the parking area

The trail to Honolua Bay was really beautiful. There were so many different kinds of beautiful old trees!

But we got there and the waves were big and the water was brown, so "no good for snorkel." We did, however see the prettiest rainbow.

Rather than waste any time here, we decided to push off to the next beach, Kapalua Beach. Conde Nast rated it as the “Best Beach in the World,” and the Travel Channel declared it the “Best Beach in America” in 1991. I have to say, it was pretty great. Even though it was just around the corner from Honolua Bay, because it was sheltered, the waves were not as bad and didn't stir up the ground. The sand was super soft and the coral was just off the shore, so we we could walk in and up to it easily. And the coral was the best I've ever seen. The water was super clear, so we could see all the way through the coral to it's various layers and all of it's colors. So pretty, but we had no underwater camera to capture it. There were fish, not as great as that spot in Kuai, but were plentiful and weren't scared of us.

Kapalua Beach

After a little snorkel, we moved on to the next beach, Ka'anapali. We decided to have lunch at this adorable little place on the beach first, then checked out Ka'anapli. Jason said this was his favorite so far. It's a nice, wide beach with a lot of shops and restaurants around, so lots to keep you entertained, also, at the end there was a black rock that people were jumping off. We didn't have time for all that because we had to get to our boat for the Whale Watching!

That's the black rock at the end of the beach.

We saw a few breachin (jumping) whales!

We shoved off for our first (and probably only) guided tour. As you may have read, we don't like noodling. (For definition of noodlers click here .) But this was worth it. We opted for a raft tour because they are smaller and can go out further, and we had a captain and whale conservationist with us to help us find them. It was so cool, we saw a few groups and learned so much. (Did you know killer whales are actually dolphins?)