It’s many years since I was in Hawaii and this trip was very different to the last one I had with my family in 2015. Let’s just say going away with three of my oldest friends had more of a nonstop-talking-and-laughing-and-Mai-Tai element!

We spent the first five days in Maui, staying at Luana Garden Villas (on the west coast of Maui, approx ten minutes drive from the town of Lahaina).

The highlights:

01. Discovering that my favourite snorkeling spot from the 2015 trip, Kahekili (Old Airport Beach) was right on my doorstep this time (above).

02. Lunch at Mama’s Fish House – seventies tiki decor, ocean views and a superb lunch (shrimp wontons; an insanely good tomato salad; Kanpachi with lobster and crab; and their signature dessert, the Polynesian Black Pearl – chocolate mousse with lilikoi cream). And yes, I booked months in advance!

03. A Frank Lloyd Wright surprise in Maui – the King Kamehameha Golf Club. Arthur Miller commissioned Wright to design a house for his wife, Marilyn Monroe, although they divorced soon after and the project was abandoned. The plans remained in Wright’s archives for more than two decades until 1988, when they were reimagined as a golf club in Maui.

The club house is open to the public (although we were the only ones there). The interiors feature all that you expect from Wright including huge lead-light windows, enormous fireplaces and stunning gardens.

04. We hit Lahaina for dinner a couple of nights –  Honu and Mala Ocean Tavern. On the list for next time I go to Maui is Star Noodle (the queues told us everything) and Fleetwood’s (yes, as in Mick Fleetwood). There’s a quaint thing in Maui known as ‘Maui midnight‘ – it’s 9pm, when basically everything shuts, hence not getting to Fleetwood’s for a post-dinner Mai Tai.

05. Snorkeling, snorkeling, snorkeling (all shore entry) – Maluaka Beach; Kahekili Beach; Baby Beach Hangout (it’s called that because it’s literally where all the babies and kids hangout!); and Kapalua, where we swam with turtles, as well as dozens of fish species.

Part two of my show-off post to follow.