Planning a trip to Hawaii? After you decide which island to go to for your trip to Hawaii, it’s time to start planning your itinerary and where to stay! Here are the best resources when planning our own family trip to Maui for finding things to do in Maui, the best places to stay in Maui, itineraries for couples and families, or planning a trip on a budget.
Be sure to check out all 23 posts in my Maui Hawaii – First Trip Travelers Guide!
The Best Maui Trip Planning Books
Maui Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook by Andrew Doughty
Buying a book about Hawaii to help plan your trip to Maui can save you a lot of hours wandering around the web! I always find it helpful to buy at least one good guidebook, and this is one of the best guidebooks I’ve ever read! For example, it’s descriptions of the restaurants where to eat in Maui were very through and always accurate. It’s so thorough, in fact, that it can get a little confusing. Everything sounds great! The author loves all of Maui! But reading this will help orient you.
Then after reading some of the websites (and the Maui series on this blog!) reconfirm any choices you have made in this book and look for tips. If I’d reread their section on the Maui Hyatt Resort, we would have worn protective footwear in the ocean and saved ourselves a lot of pain (in both senses of the word.) You might be tempted with the famous Maui Sunrise Bike tour, but Maui Revealed confirmed my suspicions about exactly what I thought it would be like! Because of that, we had a fantastic daytime tour of the Haleakala summit and crater – without the crowds! – that I’m so glad with didn’t miss.
Mask, Fins, & Snorkel: The Adventure Guide to Maui’s Best Snorkeling by Rich Schieber
After our trip, I came to the conclusion that the best way for a family on Maui to snorkel is to go ahead and take a tour. However, if you want to try snorkeling from shore, then this guide is a must! It’s detailed maps of beaches also helped me decide where to stay in South Maui.
The Best Maui Trip Planning Websites
I always find Trip Advisor essential when planning trip. I spend hours and hours combing through reviews to find the good ones. Let me save you some time! You can benefit from my hours and hours by reading the series about Maui on this blog (start here, with Where to stay in Maui – Hawaii vacation 1) and then double check the information on TripAdvisor. You’re welcome!
There are lots of websites about scuba diving in Hawaii and around Maui, but I only found one good website about snorkeling from Maui, TropicalSnorkeling.com. This site is maintained by a couple who has been snorkeling all over the world, and they have fantastic information. Especially if you want to try snorkeling from shore, you should check out this site.
Hawaii Trip Planning Series on MomBehindtheCurtain.com
Of course I have to include the Maui Hawaii trip series on my own site! I put a lot of hours into these blog posts to give you real information – not just “We got this for free and we had a great time!” which unfortunately I found all to many of when I planned my family trip to Maui. Eventually this series will have 23 blog posts chock full of information. You can read the series from the beginning starting with Where to stay in Maui – Hawaii vacation 1.
Or go to the index, Maui Hawaii – First Trip Travelers Guide
Pinterest is the best place to find blogger’s information for planning your trip to Maui. My Pinterest board about Maui and my Pinterest board about Hawaii, that I started when planning our family trip to Maui, are easy places to start! Older pins from when I was actively planning our trip to Maui are at the bottom of the feeds.
See you at the beach!
