Initial Thoughts: Andaz Maui at Wailea

I was lucky enough to be in Maui two weeks ago thanks to some amazing airfare deals from Alaska Airlines over Black Friday.  Chris and I had the most amazing time and even though it was only for three days and two nights, it was worth it to visit such a beautiful place! I had been to Hawaii before, but not to Maui, and after this trip, it is my favorite island so far (I've also visited the Big Island and Oahu). 

The icing on the cake (or the umbrella in our Mai Tai, if you will) was undoubtedly staying at what Chris and I both agreed is the most beautiful hotel we have ever stayed at - the Andaz Maui at Wailea. The hotel is incredibly beautiful and the decor was just our style - modern and minimalist, but with a bit of Hawaiian inspiration. Not to mention, the views are second to none. The Andaz Maui is located on its own stretch of beach and has views from seemingly every part of the hotel. Possibly the coolest feature of the hotel is the tiered infinity pools which cover 4 levels so that it's easy to get a great view no matter where you've spotted an empty lounge chair.

All of that being said, the hotel is also incredibly expensive and it's one of the few in Hyatt's portfolio that is not available for cash and points stays. This means that you're either going to be paying cash (which can easily be $600/night and up) or full points, which will set you back 25,000/night. As luck would have it, Chris had just finished applying for the Chase Hyatt Visa and received two free night certificates for any Hyatt property in the world, so we chose to use those for our stay here. We got even more lucky when we arrived and were upgraded to a one bedroom partial ocean view suite without even asking. All in all, it was perfection.

Andaz Maui at Wailea Lobby View

Andaz Maui at Wailea Lobby

Andaz Maui at Wailea Andaz Suite Partial Ocean View

Andaz Maui at Wailea Andaz Suite Bedroom

Andaz Maui at Wailea Pool Views

Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort

Beach at Andaz Maui at Wailea

I plan to do a full review eventually, but wanted to share my initial thoughts on the property. Essentially, if you're looking for a place to stay in Maui, I really can't recommend anything more. While we have had issues with not feeling "cool" enough for Andaz properties in the past (see here and here), this one was absolutely perfect. It wasn't too hip or happening for us and really just offered (mostly) great service in a beautiful setting, which was exactly what we wanted. The pool and beach area were excellent and were better and much nicer, in my opinion, than the surrounding hotels that I visited in Wailea, including the Four Seasons, The Grand Wailea, and the Wailea Beach Marriott. I loved the smaller, boutique feel of the Andaz and amazingly, the hotel wasn't incredibly busy while we were visiting, which made it easy to find a great lounge chair by the pool and enjoy the quiet. Admittedly, there were a few things that weren't quite up to par during our stay, which included service in some cases, but the amenities and the resort as a whole more than made up for these issues as far as I was concerned.

Aloha!