Maui, Hawaii

    Tag: flights

    New Car Rental Facility at OGG

    Travel

    It’s finally time – time to unveil the new car rental facility at Kahului Airport (OGG) here on Maui! Work began 3 years ago in April 2016 and according to the Maui News article construction is now complete. The new facility is scheduled to open May 15th. It’s been a long time coming.

    Most airports I’ve traveled to have those handy car rental facilities that you walk to directly from the terminal. Currently here on Maui you catch a shuttle which then takes you to an off-site rental car location – it’s just a short 2 minute drive at most. It’s been fine. But on the off chance you can’t get the car you want at your agency, you then have to walk a ways to the next car rental company to see if they have one.

    The new car rental facility is very lovely looking. Honestly, they have added some neat Hawaiian features to the building, I think it looks great. But the best part about the new facility are the two old-style sugar cane train trams that take you from the arrivals area to the new rental car facility. The old sugar cane plantation days may have come and gone here on Maui, but it’s a neat nod to the island’s history. I’ve also seen an old-style clock at the rental car terminal. I just may need to check it out next time I pick up friends/family from the airport.

    By the way, no, you don’t have to take the tram. If you’re going to departures, it’s not that far a walk – just across the street. And you could just walk from arrivals too. In fact, after the long flight, it may feel great to get out and stretch a bit. Depending on the time of day, sleepy kids and amount of luggage you have with you.

    Kahului car rental
    the new ‘sugar cane train’-style tram cars (photo taken in September 2018)

    Maui’s sugar cane history

    Sugar Cane plays a significant role in Maui’s history since it’s commercial introduction to the island in 1848. Several sugar cane plantations and mills popped up around the island. Owners brought in workers from China, Japan, Puerto Rico, Korea, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia and Scandinavia. It was a hard life, but these people settled, started families and their descendants make up a significant portion of the island’s population today. Check out the Maui Sugar Museum across from the last remaining (now abandoned) Sugar Factory in Kahului. The last sugar cane crop was harvested in December 2016.

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    Kahului Airport Car Rental Construction

    Travel

    A few weeks ago I was at Kahului Airport to pick up friends from their mainland trip. If you’ve had to park at the airport in the past year and a half, you will know it’s been a bit of a gong show. Parking has been cut up to 50% percent during the construction of the new car rental facility. Parking has always been a bit tight, but it’s been extreme with people creatively parking where they shouldn’t, making the parking lot even tighter than it should be. The past few weeks it has eased up, as the airport has re-opened former parking spots. Thank goodness!

    What are they doing exactly?

    The car rental facilities at Kahului Airport have always been off-site, with arriving would-be-renters having to catch car rental company specific shuttle buses to get to their rental counters/car pick up locations. In April 2017 construction began on a new joint car rental facility along the airport road just before you get to the terminal. There will be a solar-powered monorail line with carts that continuously run to and from the terminal, shuttling passengers back and forth. Cool, right? We can’t wait for it to be completed!

    Kahului car rentalTwo weeks ago when I was at the airport I got a good shot of one of the new monorail cars which is already parked on the monorail line. Very cool. Unfortunately I have not been able to take a picture (yet) of the new car rental facility – there is just no place to pull over safely and take a picture. But it is looking really good.

    From what I can find online, this project isn’t set to complete until next May, so you’ll have to wait to actually check it all out. But I for one am glad that there is an end in sight for this Kahului Airport construction project.

    Flight Tracker Apps

    By the way, if you are meeting someone at the airport and wondering where their flight is at, or wondering where that plane overhead is going, there are neat flight tracker apps available. I like Flightradar24 on my iPhone (I have the free version with ads). You can search by flight route, or look at certain spots on the global map. It is really cool. Check it out – what flights are tracking to your location right now?

    Kahului Airport
    this was our friends’ arriving flight – showing their flight route. Click on any of the airplanes or even helicopters for more information about them.

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    Frequently asked security questions

    life on Maui

    I thought it might be helpful to address some of your security questions. If you have any others you’d like me to address, or if you have first hand experience with any of these (and better answers), please let me know.

    This post is not to scare you. Maui is a very safe place to visit. But, please use common sense, just as you would at home.

    What do you do with your phone and keys when you go to the beach?

    keawakapu
    I love sunset at the beach!

    Is it safe to just leave them with your towel? Honestly, don’t take anything of value to the beach. If you must bring your phone (I know, it doubles as our camera, book, etc), make sure someone stays with your stuff when you go in the water. Or, pick up a water proof case, either at home or at the ABC store. I know of people who have used ziploc bags to protect their phones when going paddle boarding. Would I? Probably not… If you are staying at one of our condos, we have keyless entry, so it’s just the car key you need to worry about.

    Is it safe to leave valuables in the rental car?

    Would you leave valuables in the car where you live? Probably not. If you must, maybe because you can’t check into the condo til 3 or 4pm or because you have a late flight and couldn’t get a late check-out, place everything in the trunk of the car and do not open the trunk to get things out (in case anyone is casing your vehicle). If you are renting a jeep, there is no trunk, everything is visible (and accessible if it’s a soft-top). In six years of living here, we haven’t had a vehicle break-in, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.

    A few years ago I wrote this post on ‘What to do about late check-out at your condo?‘ Have a read. Did you know, most flights to Canada and a surprising number of flights back to the mainland leave in the evening? Check-out at our condos is at 11 AM.

    Is it safe to leave valuables in the condo?

    Generally yes. But, know that there are others who by necessity have access to the condo. The owner, the property manager (in the case of our condos, we are the owner and property manager), the cleaning lady and the manager of the complex you are staying at (they need to have access in case of emergencies and for the quarterly pest-control treatments). If you are staying at our condos, we have personal safes for you to use (I have an override key should you forget the code or the battery randomly dies). Otherwise, I recommend just placing your valuables in a drawer or at least out of sight. It’s happened a few times where I’ve had to go into one of our ground-floor condos (with guest consent) to repair something, and seen the blinds wide open and laptops, ipads, phones and once even a wallet just laying out. When staying in a ground floor condo especially, please don’t do that. It’s asking for a break-in. At minimum close the blinds when you leave.

    Is it safe to walk at night?

    You may have noticed, it is really dark on Maui at night. Why is this? Power is super expensive here and street lighting isn’t cheap. On the plus side, it makes for some great star viewing. Generally the tourist areas especially are quite safe to be walking at night. But use common sense. I also strongly recommend taking a flashlight. A few years ago I didn’t see the edge of the sidewalk – ouch. I was walking with crutches for over a month.

    All in all, Maui is a pretty safe place to be. But like most places, we also have drug and homeless problems and crimes of opportunity do happen. A little common sense will help you have a great vacation – I’d hate for you to have a negative experience because of something preventable.

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    Westjet Sale and other ways to save!

    Travel

    Our Canadian guests have been taking a bit of a hit with the dollar exchange this year. However, the Canadian dollar has been moving up from its recent low of 69 cents, currently coming in at 77 cents. Yes, I know, it’s nowhere near the glory days from 2008 when we were boasting 1.15, but…

    Here’s a chart of where the dollar has been the past few months – sorry, I can’t find the inverse chart. This one shows how many Canadian dollars you need to buy one US dollar.

    us canada exchange

    In addition to the great news of the dollar exchange rate improving, Westjet has a seat sale on – with rates from Vancouver to Kahului Maui (OGG) starting at $350 – Canadian that is, all taxes in. Perhaps that sweetens a Maui trip a little?

    westjet sale
    Westjet Seat sale

    What are some other ways you can save? A big one is – book directly from the owner! VRBO/Homeaway recently implemented a guest service fee which ranges from 4-10% of the rental (which can amount to $90-$400/booking). Save the fee by contacting me directly through our website. Yes, you can still pay by credit card which offers you protections and gives you points.

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    What’s new flying to Maui?

    Travel

    So what’s new flying to Maui? I’ve come across a couple newsworthy items in the past while:

    Flying to Maui
    Two questions: why did the rooster go to Kahului airport? And, is he pre-checked?

    flying to Maui
    Inter-island Hawaiian Airlines flight at HNL airport, waiting to fly to Maui

    • Air Canada (Rouge) appears to be offering direct flights from Vancouver to Maui in the summer! This is new and might explain why I was able to score flights on Westjet at a much more reasonable rate this year than in the past (gotta love competition)!
    • You can opt for smaller seats and less service (sigh)! Several US carriers are adding ‘economy minus’ or ‘basic economy’ sections to their planes – supposedly to compete better with the discount carriers? The good news is that a regular economy seat is now considered an upgrade! You are no longer sitting in ‘cattle class’. Or maybe you are. (While Delta already has this option, I don’t think they fly their planes to Kahului – yet).
    • A proposed federal law to set minimum airline seats was defeated.

    I have to admit, I will not be taking airlines up on their smaller seat/less service option. At least not on flights to and from Hawaii!

    What is your favorite airline to fly to Maui? My personal favorite is Hawaiian Airlines. Last year we had a great experienec with Alaska Airlines. The happy folks at Westjet make me smile, too. How about you?

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    Westjet sale for our Canadian guests

    Travel

    I just got an email from Westjet announcing their 7 days of Black Friday flight deals….

    Black Friday Sale

    As per their announcement, over 500,000 seats on sale from $99-$399

    Book by:        Nov 30, 2015
    Travel from:  Now to April 30, 2016

    For example, fly Vancouver – Kahului (Maui) December 9-19, 2015 for $384 (Canadian dollars) all taxes in! You know we have that sale at our Palms at Wailea condo, right?

    Planning a Maui trip? Check it out!

     

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    Glimpses of Molokai

    Travel

    When you fly from Maui to Oahu you pass Molokai, a beautiful long and narrow island known for the tallest sea cliffs (3000 ft). It is the 5th largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago and has a population of roughly 8000 (the first settlers arrived in approx 650 AD). Molokai together with Lanai, Kaho’olawe and Molokini (the latter two are uninhabited) is part of Maui County.

    I’ve flown over Molokai a few times, once as part of a Blue Hawaiian helicopter tour (amazing!) and also on route to Oahu with Hawaiian Airlines. The past few times the pilot has flown around the Eastern end, but today he flew along the Southern part of the island and then on to Oahu.

    Here are a few pictures from yesterday’s flight.

    approaching the Western end of Molokai

     

    looking back at the center of Molokai

     

    approaching Oahu with its million+ population

     

    one of the runways at Honolulu airport – loved the color of the water!
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    Premium Economy seats

    Travel

    I came across an interesting article this morning – Is Premium Economy Worth the Extra Cost? It gives a comparison by airline of what is included in the premium economy fare. Some are as basic as it simply being more leg room, others include all sorts of other goodies (like free luggage, drinks etc).

    How do you fly? Do you tough it out in ‘cattle class’ economy? Do you pay extra for the premium economy seat when you book or wait until check-in to see if there’s still seats available to upgrade? Are you one of the elite few who fly first class? (we’re all so jealous!)

    Enjoy the read!

     

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    Updated directions from Kahului Airport to the Highway to Kihei

    Travel
    As you may know, we’ve had a lot of road construction on Maui this past year. Dairy Road has become a bit more complicated with the opening of the first phase of Airport Access Road.
    For now, I would advise to avoid Airport Access road when leaving the airport. It is currently difficult to turn onto the Hana Hwy (by Kmart) because
    the turning lane is too short. It’s easier and less frustrating to just stay on
    Dairy Road. Apparently the second stretch of Airport Road is scheduled to open in January 2016. That remains to be seen.
    Google Maps has been updated to reflect the changes and is very helpful to look at.

     

    When leaving the Kahului Airport,
    you are on the #380 Highway (aka Dairy Road). Stay in the left lane until you
    have passed the Krispy Kreme intersection (do not turn onto #36A).
    Continue on Dairy Road and follow
    it through Kahului.
    Due to some new road construction
    past the fire hall the road will veer left to intersect with the new but not
    complete Airport Access Road. Stay on Dairy Road which becomes Pakaula
    Street it takes you to Home Depot, Walmart and Target. TURN RIGHT after Home Depot onto Ho’okele
    Street. Drive past Target and take your SECOND LEFT where it connects with #311
    (Mokulele Hwy) and head towards Kihei.
    To take the traditional Kihei
    turnoff at Kings Cathedral: Where Dairy Road veers left to intersect with the
    new but not complete Airport Access Road, TURN RIGHT onto Airport Access Road and
    then prepare to TURN LEFT at the next set of lights (#311 Mokulele Hwy or
    Pu’unene Ave). A large church (Kings Cathedral) will be on the left corner. The
    signs will direct you to turn left to go to Kihei.
    Hope this helps!
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    Westjet sale!

    Travel

    Canadian travelers! Are you planning a Maui trip?

    Westjet is currently offering a 20% discount to Westjet Rewards members.

    The Promo code is REW03, Coupon code LTDT7W1

    Book your flights by August 20th, 2015 (9:59pm MT) for travel dates from August 18, 2015 – February 3, 2016.

     

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