This week, our Operations Manager, Carlos, shares the strange story of his accidental Hawaii Honeymoon… Enjoy!

It all started with a search for cheap flights to Hawaii while sitting on a couch in a friend’s living room. There happened to be a good deal for a round-trip flight from LA to Maui, and minutes later a group of 6 of us were weeks away from what would become my pre-wedding honeymoon trip.

I had visited Hawaii (Honolulu) once before and enjoyed it very much, but decided that next time I would try and visit a different island, ideally a less touristy destination. Maui was the perfect fit.

We divided our stay on the island into 2 locations:  the South section of the Island in Kihei, and the West section of the island to Lahaina. The goal was to explore as much as possible during our stay.

Kihei (4 days)

Our stay in Kehei was great. Being on the southern section of the island proved to be very advantageous for the activities that required more driving and/or early wake up calls. We were able to check out more secluded beaches that were located closer to the southern tip of the island. It was easy access to the Road to Hanna, a beautiful yet sometimes scary, single lane-bridge crossings, cliff edged, blind corner drive; well worth the work it takes to drive as we saw beautiful sights that could only be accessed by driving the road. It’s a good spot to start your 2:30am drive up to the highest point on the island, the Haleakala Volcano, to see a beautiful sunrise, and in my opinion an even more astonishing clear night sky. If you get to the top of the volcano early enough so that it is still dark enough you will be treated to one of the clearest and most astonishing night skies anyone could experience.

Lahaina (5 days)

After Kihei, we moved Northwest to Lahaina. Lahaina is the more developed side of the island, and had its own set of advantages. Snorkeling and lazy beach days were definitely the norm. There were also more dining options than in Kihei. Luaus are abundant in Lahaina, and we attended a very nice one (with all-you-can-drink Mai Tais, of course.) Overall, Lahaina was a more relaxing, do-as-you-please part of the trip, and a nice change from the early wake up calls and lots of driving during the southern part of the trip. Dividing Maui into 2 sections was a great choice. We were able to do everything we wanted and check out almost every section of the island while still getting time to relax and enjoy the island casually.

Soon after coming back from our trip to Maui, my then girlfriend and I got engaged, and 1 month later we were married. Even after trying to keep the wedding relatively small, the cost drained our savings, so we could not afford to take a traditional post-wedding honeymoon. Instead of feeling bad about it, we decided to classify our trip to Maui as our “pre wedding-honeymoon” – even though we a) didn’t know we were on it at the time and b) went with 4 other people!