A Trick to Scouting Your Maui Vacation Spot

For all you vacationers planning your first trip to Maui, here's something you probably haven't thought of. Use Google Maps Street View to scout out your vacation spot.

These days it's easy to find information about whichever place you'd like to visit. There are blogs, pictures, information pages and more. But it is important to understand that this information is almost never presented with objectivity. Whoever made it available is presenting the information from their own point of view, reflecting their feelings subtly, or in some cases, not so subtly. Many are in fact trying to sell you something. The beauty of Google Maps is that the visual information provided is strictly unbiased.

Here on Maui, we have many little roads that lie along some of our most incredible beaches and other sites of extreme beauty. Google Maps shows it to you like it is, right from the road. Those of you who also prefer to be familiar with your surroundings can do the test run of a drive from one place to another using this feature. You could see the trip from the airport in Kahului to a Maui vacation rental condo in Kaanapali, for example.

Short description on how to use Street View: In Google Maps, you can drag your map to Maui or type it in. Zoom as much as necessary (buttons are + and - signs on the left). Above the zoom bar, you will see the little orange icon of a man. Drag this over the part of the map you have selected. I recommend dragging it to the map only when you can still see all the edges of the island. That way you can see which parts have Street View first. Fortunately the primary vacation areas have been mapped pretty thoroughly. Note the little dotted circle under the man icon as you drag it. That circle outlines the spot where you will end up.

Test run: Type in "Front Street, Lahaina" to Google Maps. Zoom in and drag the man icon to the nearest road. If you've placed the icon at an oceanfront spot, I recommend scrolling over the water. You will see a transparent pane with a magnifying glass. You can double-click to zoom in. At the top left you can zoom out again by clicking the "-" sign. In the top right, you will often see little thumbnails of user photos which you can explore. Obviously you can click the arrows that lie on the line in the middle of the street to move back and forth.

The rest, we'll leave up to you! Keep in mind that where accommodations are concerned, although the view from the street is nice, the view facing the beach is always much nicer!

As for where you might like to stay on your vacation, have a look at the Whaler on Kaanapali Beach, the lovely Puamana resort, or perhaps the Kaanapali Royal. You may also like to have a look at our Maui vacation rental specials. We can offer a wide variety of Maui condo rentals and vacation rental homes. We hope to see you soon! Mahalo for reading this week and if you have any questions, call (800) 676-4112!