Janine

This is definitely a great place to visit, especially on a family vacation. On the weekdays the beach is not crowded at all and besides that there are loads of other things you can do there. It’s definitely worth the time and the small fee to get into the park. A must for any tourist in Miami-a huge contrast to the hustle of South Beach-and a must for any Miami native—a great place to unwind and forget that you live in a city!

Forget the malls and the free shuttles to K-Mart and Wal-Mart and all the other marts they can stick a syllable in front of-the Swap Meet is like New York’s China Town without the police raids and secret door/room locations that in order to reach you need to find a Chinese person who will lead you past a bouncer, up a flight of endless stairs, past massage parlors, beauty salons, sewing rooms (where they make the counterfeit merchandise?) and finally into a small room crowded with women feeling and groping for Coach and Prada purses located somewhere above Canal Street. No-this swap meet is outdoors in tents in the Aloha Stadium parking lot completely encircling the stadium itself. The stadium is not much to look at and neither are the tents-it’s what’s inside the tents that counts and worth looking at. The selection of items here is amazing. Everything that I saw priced more expensively in other touristic locations was priced much more cheaply here. Even non-Hawaiian merchandise is up for sale, and don’t leave home or visit this swap meet without your bartering skills. A carved mask-20 dollars you say-I’m not interested. Within seconds the “manager” came down to $12. I could have had it for 8, I’m sure…but there was no more room in our carry-ons (our luggage was already checked-in at the Honolulu Airport for our flight later that afternoon). As things were going this last day (and final hours of our stay in Hawaii) we had to buy a bag (at 10 dollars) to act as an extra carry-on for all the items we bought at the swap meet. One thing I should mention-it was hot and not as breezy as some of the other islands like Maui. We did have some snow cones (which were ok, not great though)-carrying some water with you is a must and arriving early is another. Overall-buy the majority of your souvenirs and gifts here and save time and money!

Once we climbed the numerous steps up to the observation point we took in the sights and the cooling breeze and stared up at the massive rock formation. Lots of nice pictures to take there and lots of fresh air to breathe in and enjoy. Allergies were only a distant memory for me. Great place…

The Norwegian ship, Pride of Aloha, does not open their photo department while at port, which sucks-but do not fear, Maui Mall is near and within walking distance (albeit through a pretty grungy port-the run-down windows do make nice photo ops though…). Also, walking is a good idea since the transportation at this port is lacking and almost always required a taxi at about $7.50/$8.00 for the two big malls there. Anyways, this mall is open-air (as most places seem to be in hot locations) there is a constant strong breeze in Maui, but the architecture doesn’t allow for much wind flow in the shady areas. The stores offer some variety, but nothing completely original. Long’s Drugs is a great place to buy a memory card for your digital camera and pick up some discounted 100% Kona Coffee on sale—yey!

There are four Starbucks (as of 11 July 2007) in Kahului. This is the one I visited and since the person who uploaded the photo didn’t specify which it is a pic of, and since it looks like the one I went to, I added the address and the phone #. And I think it is worth visiting just because the one cup of Iced Chocolate Mocha I had there was pretty good, but I didn’t see a bathroom inside which was bad—you had to go out into the mall for that.

If you want to visit a mall with a Macy’s, a Starbuck’s, a Game Stop, this is the place. It is partially open-air mall with normal “mall” stores. Some kiosks offer nice Hawaiian items, but the place is too commercial to haggle or find anything completely unique. The prices are also not any better than prices on the mainland. So, I don’t recommend going just because it’s not anything different than someone might find at home.

My family and I went to see the production of ‘Ulalena there. The theatre looks pretty plain from the outside, but inside the production values emanate. The stage moves, the curtains are utilized in intelligent ways, the “band,” or more accurately, the emotive music makers are located on the top right side of the theatre next to the audience. You only see them if you want to, but you should take some time away from the beauty on stage to see the physicality used in making music with traditional Hawaiian instruments. The lighting, is more than regular lighting and the acrobatics are not overdone…everything is subtle on its own, but together almost overpowering. It is a great production—a must-see!

Well, technically I haven’t ever been here… I sailed by it on a cruise. But I was so enthralled, so mystified, so awed by what I saw that I needed to add it to places I’ve been, but made sure to add that I want to go back. Next time I go I plan to backpack the trails and visit one of those secluded beaches. My family and I hauled some deck chairs (well my fiancee Tony did) to deck 6 of the Norwegian Pride of Aloha and sat there for hours as we sailed by. We talked, took pictures, and were mesmerized by the view. It was probably some of the most breathtaking sites we saw during our Hawaii cruise!

It’s worth visiting if you are going to Billie Swamp Safari…or if you live there, or know someone who does, I guess. Don’t speed there! My boyfriend and I got pulled over!

This is a great place to spend the day: there are walking trails on a boardwalk over the water, airboat rides (the absolute funnest thing), swamp buggie rides (this would be great to get around Miami traffic!), shows, animal enclosures, and you can even spend a night in a Chickee for about $35 (I didn’t do that, but I plan to soon!). There are a bunch of other things to do that I haven’t mentioned… for more details visit the official website: http://www.seminoletribe.com/safari/

Other things I did that day… ate alligator (soooo yummy! Tastes like a mix between chicken and fish) and fed an ostrich (hurt my hand, but great).

The drive there is part of the fun…but here is a piece of advice. Do NOT speed through Clewiston, which is the Indian reservation. Once you start to see houses, make sure to slow down to the appropriate speed limit. My boyfriend and I got pulled over =(