Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays Travel to Maui
Written: Sep 10 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Convenient, less costly, beautiful hotel location
Cons: hotel is showing age; relatively expensive as compared to other available options
The Bottom Line: We would probably use Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays package again, but choose a less expensive package, or perhaps try to secure a condominium, airfare and car on our own.
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| doffer's Full Review: Maui |
PLEASANT HAWAIIAN HOLIDAYS TOUR PACKAGE--As members of California State Automobile Insurance, we selected a Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays tour package to Maui for August 23-29, 2004. This package included 6 nights at the Embassy Suites on Ka'anapali Beach, Airline via American Travel Airlines (ATA) and a mid-size rental car from Dollar Rent-a-Car. The total cost was approximately $3,400 for 3 people. Since we did not have a lot of time to plan this vacation and we had not been to Maui before, it was really convenient to have someone else plan the details of the trip.
ATA--We caught a direct flight from San Francisco to Maui, which was a time saver. Some flights went first to Honolulu and required a transfer to a plane for Kahului, Maui (add a couple of hours). The flight included an average breakfast meal (e.g., eggs, or pancakes, fruit, juice, etc.) going to Maui and a dinner (e.g., lasagna, or chicken breast, roll, salad, juice, etc.) on the return trip. Also a movie was included on the trip. We were on time both legs of the trip and couldn't ask for any better service.
EMBASSY SUITES, KA'ANAPALI BEACH--The package included an ocean view room (meaning once you step out your balcony you can probably see some part of the ocean in the distance). The room was large, clean and comfortable. Unfortunately, the room was near the elevator shaft, and there was a loud clunking noise coming from elevator shaft as it went up and down. The fire alarm seemed to work well as it went off at 2am on the first night we were there (false alarm). We were transferred to an upgraded room (a timeshare owner's room--deluxe ocean view room), which had a beautiful view of the beach and the gorgeous sunsets. While the room was clean, it would appear that the rooms are showing their age (sagging bedsprings, worn carpets, etc.). The hotel staff are friendly and helpful. The pool is huge (almost an acre) and we spent a some time there and the beach which was just footsteps away. The hotel has a game room (video games, pool table, etc.), but most of the games were out-of-order. The breakfast buffet was excellent (standard fare of eggs, potatoes, pancakes, fruit, etc.). We only tried the Ohanta Grill (located at the Embassy) once; however, it was overpriced and not very good ($50 for a burger, fish chips, chicken strips, fries and sodas). We ate the remainder of our meals in establishments where the locals dine, which was very good and comparatively inexpensive. For example, we would recommend trying "Da Kitchen" in Kahului and Kihei which serves up a great choice of beef teriyaki, kalua pork, chicken katsu, etc. with rice, macaroni salad, or green salad for about $8. There are so many excellent local eating establishments outside of the hotels that should be sampled.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Mar - May
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Epinions.com ID:
doffer
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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