Maui Black Sand Beach

It was a resounding ‘YES’ to see my honeymoon itinerary for the gorgeous island of Maui and if you’ve been following along you might remember seeing this lil’ vacay on my instagram circa 2022, and if you are new here, welcome! I am a wedding photographer who loves any excuse to travel and bring my camera along! While researching romantic getaways my husband and I each had one thing that was most important to us; for me that was relaxation. For Jay, that was activities. I wanted white sand beaches, piƱa coladas, and sunshine while my husband wanted adventures, hikes, and daytime excursions. It turns out Maui is the best of both worlds! So let’s get into it, all the magical places we explored over our seven day honeymoon on the beautiful Maui, HI!

Map of Maui, HI
Map of Maui

Day 1

We flew into Kahului Airport and rented a car for our trip since we knew we’d want to make day trips to other parts of the island. The second we checked in to our resort (The Marriott Maui Ocean Club) in Lahaina we sat on the lawn, sipped tropical drinks, and napped. We explored the long walkway to the beach that connects to all of the other resorts and loops around to Kaanapali Beach a 3 mile stretch of white sand and gorgeous blue waters, making it one of America’s most famous beaches. If you watch the water long enough you will see little sea turtles poke their heads above the water as they swim by. It seriously never got old. We watched the sun sink below the water and had a very yummy dinner at Monkeypod (one of the numerous restaurants along Whaler’s Village) and their Monkeypod Mai Tai and Key lime pie were so good.

Day 2

My considerate new husband knew we would be tired from travels & post wedding in general, and he booked us a cabana for the entire day through Marriott, which also comes with a Cabana boy (or in our case, John the lovely man from STL who we instantly bonded with because of his Cardinals hat) and he brought us all the tropical drinks we could ever want while we literally napped, read on our kindles, and did not move all day long lol. It was glorious.

Day 3

We got up early to overcast skies and a mild tropical storm that had caused a power outage throughout the resort in the night. So instead of sticking around we packed up our hiking gear and made our way to the Northern-most tip of the island to hike the Acid Warzone Trail to the Nakalele Blowhole. This was an easy, relaxed trail along the cliffs with beautiful views of the lava rocks and it really felt like being on another planet. The blowhole goes off every few minutes with the waves and the spray throws rainbows around! There were also lots of local vendors with tents set up along the roadside and we got some banana bread for our after-hike breakfast. It was overcast & we both forgot to apply sunscreen which was a HUGE mistake. Pro tip: always always wear sunscreen in Hawaii. For dinner we went to downtown Lahaina to Pacific’o on the Beach and enjoyed their beautiful ocean views and handcrafted cocktails. 10/10 recommend!

Day 4

We booked a morning scuba dive with Banyan tree divers who are a husband & wife company and have been divers for 20+ years. They were extremely knowledgeable, trained us all the hand motions to communicate underwater and safety tips, educated us on the different species we would be seeing on our dive, and a history of the landmarks along the way. It was my first time ever diving and I absolutely LOVED it. It was a highlight of the trip for us and I’d recommend it to anyone visiting Maui. It was truly magical. The green sea turtles (or ‘Honu’) swim so close that you often have to move out of their way so they don’t bump into you, we saw a lot of Humuhumunukunukuapua’aĀ (Hawaii state fish) an octopus, a moray eel, and even a reef shark. SO COOL. And our lovely dive instructor took some really great photos & videos throughout.

Day 5

We relaxed all morning (the way Jay would run down to the pool and get us chairs and Starbucks at literally 7AM every morning, vacayJay doesn’t mess around) and did a 3.5 hour sunset Catamaran tour with Sail Maui. It was cool to see the island from the water and the vibes were vibey, but of all our excursions this was our least favorite. Totally worth it if you have a free night but not a must in my opinion.

Day 6

We took this whole day to drive along the famous Road to Hana (or Hana Highway), which is a literal 64 mile stretch of routes 36 and 360 with over 600 switchbacks and numerous bridges over waterfalls, it’s rated one of the most beautiful drives in the world, but is not for the fainthearted. The road is extremely narrow, the bridges are skinny, and the guardrails are doing absolutely nothing to prevent you from careening off a cliff that is sometimes thousands of feet above sea level. All of that said, it’s totally worth it and you should do it haha. And don’t just take if from me, read up on all the stops from some of the blogs and guides that we looked up. We got up before the sun to make the drive over to the opposite side of the island and to give us a head start to beat the traffic of local’s morning commute and tourists. I highly recommend getting an early start, the road can get congested easily. We used GyPSy Guide which is a location based audio tour that connects to your google maps so that while you reach certain attractions the audio will play according to exactly where you are! It was so cool and handy, there were stops we would have never known about otherwise like small independent vendors selling local foods at certain locations along the route. It also gave the history of the road and facts on the different landmarks. We chose to drive the Road to Hana “backwards” which saved some time since we were driving opposite to the flow of traffic. Lots of the attractions were a quick ‘pull over and look’ like the beautiful rainbow eucalyptus trees.

Black Sand Beach

Our first real stop along the way was Honokalani the Black Sand Beach located inside Waianapanapa State Park. You do need a reservation for this, which you can book here. The black sand is so unique, the water is so turquoise and sparkly, and it was just really beautiful. One of my favorite stops on this route.

Pipiwai Trail

Our next big stop along the Road to Hana was the Pipiwai Trail which is a 3.4 mile out and back through a dense bamboo forest, over numerous small pools and waterfalls, out into a large rainforest basin at the bottom of the famous 400 foot Waimoku falls. This part of the island is a rainforest which means 1000% humidity and heavy rainfall. We got soaked numerous times so remember to pack accordingly! We had towels and a change of clothes packed in our car that we were very grateful for after this muddy hike.

Our last big stop was Hamoa Beach which is listed as one the most scenic beaches in Hawaii. We swam here and relaxed on the sand for a little and then headed into the small town of Hana for our lunch and to grab some snacks from their farmers market for the drive back to our resort on the opposite side of the island. We listened to a Hana playlist on Spotify and took in the views, truly sights I will never forget and the photos unfortunately do not do it justice. On our way back to the resort we stopped to grab dinner from Tin Roof (owned by two-time Top Chef finalist Sheldon Simeon) and it was so yummy. Highly recommend if you want some take-out.

Day 7

Our last full day in Maui we relaxed in the resort pools, and explored Kaanapali beach and swam as the sun dipped below the water which was one of the most magical swims of my life. For our last dinner in Maui we went to Mala Ocean Tavern, which was very yummy!

Maui sunset
Maui sunset

We love you Maui, Mahalo & hope to see you again someday!! Thanks for reading, and if you are curious about my photography head over to my homepage and if you want to follow along for more adventures check out my instagram! xoxo

7-Day Maui Honeymoon Itinerary

Destination Photographer, Travel Guide, Travel Photography