Hawaii Trip (Maui) #3-4: Cinnamon Roll Place, a Secret Beach, Travel Home and Final Impressions

We decided to keep the final two days more low key at the tail end what turned out to be pretty busy trip. Despite that, we still found some cool new areas to explore, restaurants to try, and things to do.

Cinnamon Roll Place

We began Wednesday looking for a spot to eat a late breakfast, and Meghann found a place literally called, “Cinnamon Roll Place”. It was about an hour drive from the hotel, and turned out to be a little hole in the wall inside a sketchy strip mall.

We went inside and ordered four cinnamon rolls, each with frosting which was an add-on topping for some reason. They looked delicious, and were served in a little box. With all of the outdoor tables taken, we had the girls sit in the back of the Jeep while we ate in the parking lot. The cinnamon rolls were DELICIOUS and quickly gone. After we finished eating, the girls went into the general store next door to grab some waters before heading off to our next stop. Vivi brought in a water bottle and received dirty looks from the lady working there the entire time. Meanwhile I tried to stop by the outdoor bathrooms which were locked the entire time we were there – likely due to the large homeless camp right behind the building. Definitely did not feel the safest here!

Pa’ako Beach (aka Hidden Cove)

After cinnamon rolls, we looked at beach options in Wailea. The map showed nearby a “Big Beach”, “Little Beach” and “Pa’ako (Secret Cove)”. Yelp reviews indicated that Little Beach was “clothing optional”, and as hilariously chaotic as it could have been to show up there on a family vacation, I couldn’t resist the allure of a secret cove. So, off to Pa’ako we went!

Finding Pa’ako Beach itself was a bit tricky – it’s located between two private homes, and to even get there you have to walk down an incredibly narrow pathway that’s hard to spot. We got lucky and saw it on the first pass, and parked on the street right next to the walkway.

After making our way down the walkway, there was a small climb down onto the sand, with the surf coming almost all the way up to the entrance. The beach itself was very small and also not that busy. There was just one family of ~8 or so, and a couple off in the corner. The beach was broken apart into two sections split by rocks in the middle. The left side was almost a small wave pool, with huge waves crashing against the rocks. The right side was more calm, but rockier with a few tide pools to climb up to.

After spending a few hours at the beach, we headed back to the hotel to clean up and have some quick downtime before dinner.

Rest of the Evening

We had dinner reservations at Hula Grill Kaanapali, which was in a nicer area called Whaler’s Village. The area had several resorts nearby as well as high-end shopping and lots of dining options. We enjoyed Hula Grill on Oahu on our last two trips to Hawaii, and wanted to check out the one on Maui.

Overall the restaurant was mostly the same, which was a good thing! We had a great ocean view and were seated outside by the boardwalk. Their Housemade Focaccia is top tier, served with a delicious chili pepper dip. I had the Macadamia Crusted Mahi Mahi, and the girls all had steaks. This was one of our better dinner experiences we had during the trip, and I got another delicious piece of Hula Pie.

After dinner, we walked through a few shops and decided to head back to the hotel. We were all pretty tired and called it a night on the early side.

Final Day and Traveling Home

With our flight out being after 9pm, we managed secure late checkout extending our stay until 4pm. Needed given our luggage and Jeep with the open back. We decided to grab a final lunch at Duke’s, and then hang out around the hotel pool / beach.

We were going to start off on the beach, but all of the chairs/umbrellas were taken so we opted for poolside instead. I had brought down our last couple beers in the fridge for the beach, but ended up drinking them by the pool. I brought one over to Meghann, who immediately was approached by a not-so-thrilled pool waitress telling her she couldn’t have it there. Apparently I was OK drinking them in the second row away from the pool though.

After a bit we headed down to the beach, with Sage and I swimming out as far as we could while Meg and Vivi stayed back on the beach. We all got rinsed off, headed back to the room to clean up and start packing.

The trip home was fairly uneventful – we grabbed dinner in the airport at Sammy’s, which was a decent Sammy Hagar restaurant. We flight started with a screaming baby behind us, which fortunately calmed down after a bit so we could try to get some rest on the redeye.

Maui Final Thoughts

I always leave Hawaii doing the same thing – googling real estate and imaging moving there full time! I liked Maui a bit more than Oahu, being less developed and feeling more remote. Meghann preferred Oahu – mostly due to the intense wind across Maui and all of the driving.

We discussed our favorite / least favorite parts of the trip on the last night, and we all agreed that the Haleakala Volcano sunrise was the highlight of the trip – and likely that of all of our Hawaii trips to date. It was truly a unique and memorable experience. Our least favorite part differed – Meghann disliked the wind/Monkeypod restaurant, I disliked the dinner at Plantation House, and the girls disliked the cold at the top of the volcano while we waited for sunrise.

Overall – a beautiful place to visit! Very happy with the accommodations and everything we did throughout. Looking forward to our next one – signing off for now!