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We’ve traveled to Maui many times and have never had a less than wonderful trip.  Our first trip to Maui found us in Wailea at the old Marriott Renaissance Hotel in Wailea.  Ooooooh, that was nice!  However, Marriott shut that down for a couple of years to refurbish.  It is now Wailea Beach Marriott Resort and Spa.  The location is wonderful with fantastic snorkeling right off the beach in front of the hotel.  We have not stayed at the new property yet but would love to hear from people who have.

While that property was closed, we discovered the Grand Wailea Resort and Spa which is a Hilton Waldorf Astoria property.  We have now been guests there 3 times and been in a different building each time.  We don’t think there are any bad rooms there.  The hotel prides itself on its ambiance, excellent service to the guests, its Spa Grande, which was voted one of the top 10 spas in the United States by Conde Nast Traveller Magazine, and then our personal favorite: the fantastic pools. 

 This is an awesome resort for couples who want a romantic getaway or destination wedding.  Grand Wailea has wedding chapel that is one of the most beautiful and intimate we’ve ever seen.   Their wedding coordinators will make all the arrangements for the couple as well as the wedding party and guests. Couples posing for pictures on the beach or around the beautifully landscaped grounds of this resort are always a good sign that romance is in the air here.   

The Hibiscus Pool is just for adults (we think that is too boring!) and then there is the super fantastic wowie-Maui Wailea Canyon Activity Pool.  It hosts the world’s only water elevator.  The water slides are for all ages and we’ve tried them all.  It’s not weird to see grandparents and grandchildren together slip sliding away into the lazy river.  There’s also a rope swing into another pool!  Infants and toddlers love the sandy bottom wading pool.  But that water elevator is the best! We’ve taken movies of us getting splashed by the waterfall inside as we travel to the upper level.  The fantastic finish of the movie is always a good movie taken while squeeling down the twisty, turny slide at the top.  It could be a You Tube classic!

In our opinion, the best restaurant in the area is Joe’s Bar and Grill.  It is on the property of the Wailea Tennis Club.  We’ve been there many times and have never had anything less than an A++ meal.  The bar is owned by Joe Gannon, husband of renowned chef and restauranteur Beverly Gannon. She’s the owner of the Hali’imaile General Store. Joe  always greets his guests and tends the bar.  You need to park up the hill from the restaurant but Joe has a golf cart meet you and drive you down to the front door.  Very nice service!  This is where we learned to love Lava Flows.  We are convinced that Joe makes the best ones on the island.  Can anyone dispute this? Joe and Beverly are strictly gourmet chefs extraordinaire!

We have become very familiar with 3 of the Hawaiian islands:  Oahu, Big Island, and Maui.  Our son and his wife are currently vacationing in Kauai at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort so we’ll bug them for the good, bad, and ugly.  From their phone calls back home ,I think there won’t be many “ugly” stories! They’ve already said it is their new favorite island.

Oahu is a great place to visit, but we think it is best for just 2 or 3 days and then take an interisland hop over to one of the less busy islands.  Airfares from the mainland are sometimes cheaper if you fly to Honolulu and then take an interisland flight to another of Hawaii’s relaxing playgrounds. Honolulu is a big city with all that goes with it.  We’ve stayed right on Waikiki Beach at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.  Excellent hotel! If you’re there on a Friday night, plan to be on the beach for the fireworks  It is so cool to be lying on the sand with the warm ocean breeze and see the fireworks out over the ocean.  This hotel gets our highest rating.  It has a great location, fantastic amenities onsite, and terrific service.

Of course the absolute “must see and experience” while in Honolulu is the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.  If you have a rental car you can certainly drive to the tour location on your own.  Be advised that you MUST get there very, very early in the morning because a line begins forming just after 6:30AM. It is first come, first served.  We decided to take a Roberts Hawaii tour to the Memorial because we’d heard that the tour buses have their own line and they get first preference.  Our guide was amazing.  We drove through the Punchbowl and downtown Honolulu. He was so full of history and presented it in such a way that we loved every minute of that tour.  We did not opt to tour the Polynesian Cultural Center because we wanted to save some of our time for the beach and relaxation.  We’ll catch that on our next trip!  Since that first trip to Hawaii, there’ve been 10 others and we’ve got our next trip booked for August 12-20! A trip to Oahu is not complete without a snorkel trip to Hanauma Bay (again, go early in the morning because it does get very crowded) and also a drive up the the North Shore to watch some of the world’s best surfers.  The biggest surf waves are in the winter, and then there are some baby waves around in the summer that ”regular” people can play in.

Before any trip to Hawaii, be sure to check out the latest edition of Hawaii for Dummies. This book is packed full of great information about where to go, how to get there. lessons learned, and prices to expect. Go to travel sites like Expedia.  No matter where you eat, food is expensive in Hawaii.  Even if you are staying somewhere where you can do your own cooking, plan on big bucks to purchase food in a grocery store.  No matter what the cost is however, a visit or many visits, to Hawaii will be on the top of your list of dream vacations.

Bellagio Casino and Hotel

Anyone been to Vegas lately?  There are fantastic room deals all over Vegas now.  Any of the travel sites we suggest (Expedia, Hotwire, or the hotels direct) will show you some very low rates, particularly on weeknights.  If you don’t see a rate you like, call the hotel directly and ask for a lower rate!  They’re trying to fill the rooms and will often make a special deal just for you.

We noticed on our last trip that the majority of the slots in all the casinos we went to are now penny slots, multi-coin variety.  Watch out!  You can lose a lot of money very fast.  Remember when you used to think spending 3 quarters or 5 nickels per pull was a lot?  It sure is easy to spend up to 250 pennies per pull now.  Granted, we found some machines that were tons of fun and I must say I won more money on the penny slots than I’ve won on any of the other slots.    The Wynn’s penny Monopoly slots were fantastic payouts!  Bellagio has some great Reel Money, Deal or No Deal, and Goldfish slots…all penny slots.  We didn’t see anyone winning on the old Wheel of Fortune slots.

In our opinion, Bellagio still has the best Blackjack tables.  They still have 2 $5 BJ tables that are that amount 24/7.  Look for the handicap table just inside the casino from the registration area.  It is open for 4 non-handicap players anytime and always saves 2 spots for wheelchair players.  The other $5 table is in the pit just past the casino cashier cage.

We’ve always played blackjack using the basic blackjack strategy and have done very well, particularly at the Bellagio.  Consistency is the key, however.  We play at the automatic/constant shuffle machines for the most part.  Six decks with no chance to count cards.  For those of us who are honest players, it keeps the field even!