BIG REVEAL TIME! If you’ve been following for a little while now, you have heard me talk about the summer vacation that we have planned. Well it’s time for the big reveal… We have a trip planned to HAWAII at the end of May with both of our families! With that said, we are keeping a close eye on the travel restrictions and this is all subject to change, BUT this is our plan right now. After being home for over a year, it is time for us to get out and go- and we are PUMPED! So, I thought that it would be fun to share our first trip to Hawaii with you today. Three years ago, Andrew and I honeymooned in Hawaii and is was such a dream. Our families have been dying to go every since. Hope you enjoy seeing the highlights from our trip below!
For our honeymoon, we spent half the week in Maui at the Grand Wailea and the other half of the week on Oahu in downtown Waikiki (Honolulu). Maui is what everyone pictures Hawaii as, a dreamy and beautiful paradise. Honolulu is a true big city. Maui was definitely our favorite by a long shot. However, Oahu is where Pearl Harbor is, which was definitely a must-see for us.
In addition to visiting Pearl Harbor by boat, we also opted for a helicopter tour of Oahu. This was most definitely a highlight of the trip. This is truly the best view of Pearl Harbor. On this helicopter tour, we also saw the North Shore, the hills where Jurassic Park was filmed, and MUCH MORE.
While on Oahu, we also toured the Dole Plantation, drove the entire island, and ate at the revolving restaurant in downtown Waikiki. We may or may not have also visited the mall. We chose to do Oahu on the second half of the trip because there were more adventurous activities to do there and we really needed to relax and decompress on the first half of the trip, and Maui totally fit the bill for that!
We pretty much stayed at the hotel in Wailea the entire time we were on Maui. Aside from visiting a neighboring resort for drinks and dinner, and out to dinner in town, we were just relaxing around the hotel! This was the view on our walk to the other resorts, a long but BEAUTIFUL walk.
There are two things at the Grand Wailea that we loved most, the Luau and the breakfast. Complete with a build-your-own omelet station and this mango pineapple salsa that I could literally eat by the spoonful. It’s true what they say- pineapples are ten times better in Hawaii.
It was such an incredible trip and we are so excited to share our favorite places with our families this time, and most especially- Peyton! The plane ride is NOT going to be easy, but we know she will have a blast with both sides of the family all together. We have hotels booked on Maui and Oahu right now, but it looks like due to COVID travel restrictions, we will be choosing only one island to stay on the entire time. Things are ever-changing in this COVID world, but we are excited to get back to vacationing and living a (somewhat) normal life!
Do you have any vacations planned this summer!? By the way, if you have any tips for traveling that distance with a toddler, PLEASE leave them in the comments below!