My eldest overcame her fear of the water this summer. My youngest overcame her fear of dogs.
But my husband and I made the most progress this summer as we overcame our fear of flying with small children.
We’ve taken short trips by car, but it had been a while since we’d spent time on an airplane with both kids. Smalls was much smaller— just 10 months. We went back east for the holidays and we haven’t been back since.
But we had a feeling that travel would be easier with the kids now 3 and 6. (It was!) And we figured if we chose a tropical locale we wouldn’t have to pack much more than bathing suits and flip flops. (We didn’t!) This is how we ended up in Maui.
And despite a little vomit driving to the top of Haleakala, it was a huge success.
We rented a condo on VRBO in Ma’alaea Bay. 2 bedrooms, 2 floors. Steps from the most kid-friendly beach on the island. Here’s our view. Oh, and this easy Hawaiian vacation was also incredibly economical– $140 night.
We played in a natural lava pool and tickled starfish. I didn’t worry about huge waves sweeping the kids away. We were also within walking distance of/short drive to the Maui Ocean Center, Ma’alaea Harbor, Maui Golf and Sports Park and a slew of restaurants and shops.
One of my favorite features of the condo was that it had two floors. One for us, one for them. (At least until 5am when they piled into bed with us.) There was also this long desk with plenty of room for crafting. They spent each morning here before we headed to the Ma’alaea General Store for coffee and muffins.
I’m crafty, but I’ve never been a scrapbooker. Still, we couldn’t resist visiting the Island Paperie to see what it was all about. Apparently, it’s the the world’s only island-themed scrapbooking store. Bigs got a scrapbook… but instead of buying a bunch of stickers and papers, we used all the brochures we had accumulated.
In the afternoons we hit the Maui Ocean Center and Maui Golf and Sports Park. Both are in Ma’alaea Bay within walking distance from our condo. We bought week passes to the Maui Ocean Center because we knew we’d be there a few times.
They had really funny fish.
Bumper boats at the Maui Golf and Sports Park.
The perfect end to the day was attending a traditional Hawaiian luau on the beach. At the Royal Lahaina Luau we enjoyed a fantastic hour of crafting ti-leaf bracelets and getting Maori tribal face-painting before the show began. Oh, and we saw the only rainbow of our trip.
I had been to Maui before but never as a family of 4. I was nervous about the location I’d chosen– it was not a crowded area, not a big resort and I’d never stayed there before. We often made our own food. We were our own concierge. WE were the Kids Club. But staying in centrally-located Ma’alaea Bay was pivotal in making our vacation super easy. It was a very intimate, stress-free family vacation– exactly what we needed.
For more on our easy Hawaiian vacation read part 2 and Drums of the Pacific.
