Hawaii Trip - Day 1: Maui Here We Come!

I've been dreaming about this trip for years now.  Ever since Southwest started flying to Hawaii, I've been trying to figure out how we could go.  I made it my mission to save up enough Hilton points to stay for free and save up enough SWA points to fly for free.  After all my hard work, we did just that!  I was able to book 6 nights in Maui at the Hilton Grand Wailea resort and 3 nights in Oahu at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.  I spent months planning our itinerary, trying to find the perfect balance of relaxation and activities.

We kicked off our trip early on Thursday morning with a 7:30 am flight.  We flew into Maui with a layover in Long Beach.  The first leg was just over 3 hours and then our second leg was over 5 and a half hours!  The airport in Long Beach was super small.  We actually exited the plane onto the tarmac.  I've only done that a handful of times!

We arrived in Maui shortly after 1:00 and after a quick Target run, we headed to our hotel, the Hilton Grand Wailea.  Em and I received lei's upon check in and Shawn and Evan got Kukui nuts.  Since Shawn is a Hilton Diamond member he is able to request free upgrades upon check in.  We couldn't have gotten more lucky.  When I reserved the hotel on points, we booked a garden view room.  They not only upgraded us to an Oceanview room, but also to the Napua tower.  This tower was recently renovated and had huge rooms/ bathrooms, but more importantly it came with free access to the Napua lounge.  The lounge offered breakfast, snacks at lunchtime, and apps and cocktails at dinner, all for free!  Normally lounges are places you don't necessarily want to hang out at, but this was the exact opposite.  We loved the lounge and it ended up saving us so much money.  

Of course Evan immediately wanted to go check out the ocean, so he put on his swimsuit and we walked to the ocean and then explored the hotel.  We made a pitstop at the lounge from some drinks/apps too before grabbing some dinner at the quick service restaurant at the hotel.  After dinner we walked down to the beach to watch the sunset.  

After such a long travel day and our bodies being 5 hours ahead, we were all pretty tired this night.  We called it an early night, but were really looking forward to the week ahead.