The Maui Prince Hotel, on the island of Maui in Hawaii, is a peaceful luxury hotel with Japanese influences.
The Maui Prince Hotel isn't your typical full - service luxury resort. There are many ways to enjoy Hawaii, and the Maui Prince is a good fit for people traveling without children, and who perhaps want to be left to their own devices. It's of a Japanese design, with architecturally clean lines and the minimalism you'd expect to find therein. Zen gardens and koi ponds are dotted along the indoor-outdoor pathways. Beyond a doubt, the Maui Prince Hotel is the quietest resort in which I've ever vacationed.
As with all hotels in Hawaii, visitors are greeted with a lei and fresh juice. However, an additional touch is that at check-in, visitors are also given oshibori, those little hot washclothes that feel so good after a long trip. First-class treatment is evidenced throughout the hotel. The Japanese influence is also evidenced by one of the in-house restaurants. Hanoke, a Japanese restaurant and sushi bar, is known to have the best sushi on the island.
Four miles south of the luxury resort area of Wailea, this hotel is nested on the beach in Makena. Makena is a little more rugged than the touristy spots that get the most acclaim in Hawaii, probably because of the volcanic rock that is both inland and surrounding all the beaches. The beach sand is soft, of course, but anyone venturing on foot south of the Maui Prince Hotel property would be wise to bring shoes with sturdy soles. The hard, dark grey rocks made short work of my airport flip-flops!
Why venture into this area south of the Maui Prince Hotel, when you can stay and soak up the spa treatments and poolside bars? Well, if you trek a few miles -- or drive, but the rental car companies hate what it does to the tires -- you will reach the 2000 acre (or so) Ahihi-Kinau Natural Reserveand its wonderful tidal pools. Volcanic rock is extremely tough and even the South Pacific has a tough time grinding it into sand. The tidal pools south of Makena, as you can imagine, are therefore as uncloudy as you've likely ever seen. And there's more: Head out early enough in the morning, and you may see a bunch of giant sea turtles basking in the sun. The Ahihi-Kinau Natural Reserve is so remote that these turtles are among the last magnificent creatures to have not yet developed a fear of us human interlopers. Getting so close to these endangered animals, amidst the tangs and angelfish lazing in their tidal pools of jagged dark rock, is truly a magical, otherworldly experience.
Back at the Maui Prince Hotel, there are two challenging golf courses, and a very popular tennis coach. Makena is very close to the volcanic atoll of Molokini, which is a bird island (uninhabitable for humans). There are daily snorkel/scuba boat trips, and the hotel staff is happy to reserve a seat for you on one of the chartered excursions to Molokini. The coral reefs climb almost to the surface along the atoll. Molokini is a very popular snorkel/scuba spot in Maui, and the Maui Prince Hotel is ideally located for a day trip; the boats from Makena get to the dive spots much earlier than boats from towns north of Makena, such as Wailea and Kihei.
As any avid diver or snorkeler can tell you, it's a rarity to have such an accessible reef be so uncrowded for a while. In fact, when our boat arrived, we were the only people there, but when we were getting ready to depart, the leeward side of the island was literally dotted with chartered boats from other hotels!
En route back to the hotel, two humpback whales unexpectedly breached right off the starboard bow. Stunning. The captain said that humpbacks winter in Hawaii, and I think they have the right idea! Our stay at the Maui Prince Hotel ended too soon.
Related, on Suite 101:
Review of the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa
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