A shopping center filled with luxury stores seemed an unlikely place to hunt for bargains, but the b

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Forget McDonald's and cheap motels. Four-star Maui on a two-star budget was my mission. To up the ante, I zeroed in on West Maui, the island's most expensive resort area, loved for its calm waters, cool trade winds and beaches for snorkeling, surfing, discount car rental seattle swimming and people-watching.
A check on www.biddingfortravel.com showed savvy travelers using Priceline's name-your-own price scheme to score rooms at four-star discount car rental seattle resort hotels for $150 not bad, considering Maui's average daily room rate was $226 last year, the highest of the four major islands. Still, with taxes, discount car rental seattle resort fees and parking fees pushing the average winning bid closer to $200, I decided to look elsewhere.
My heart soared when I saw a one-bedroom condo on Kaanapali beach West Maui's signature discount car rental seattle beach with three miles of white sand and a paved waterside boardwalk for $129 per night on the vacation-rental-by-owner site HomeAway (www.homeaway.com). But an exchange of emails with the owner revealed hidden charges including an $85 cleaning fee.
Then I scored: Among the HomeAway listings was a unit at the family-friendly Napili Village, one of a string of low-rise, 1960s-style resorts in the residential community of Napili, a few miles north of Kaanapali. Available was a newly renovated second-floor studio with an ocean view for $129, including discount car rental seattle taxes, with no extra cleaning or parking fees.
Well-tended gardens surrounded a sparkling, oval-shaped pool ringed by individually owned units. Ours came with a king bed, pullout sofa, TV, dining room, full kitchen and a balcony overlooking discount car rental seattle the pool. It was just my husband, Tom, and me, but the room could easily have slept four, given a handy room divider that made the unit feel more like a one-bedroom than a studio.
Snorkel Bob's, where we rented snorkel gear and boogie boards for $6, half what the big resorts charge. The Kapalua Bay Resort, West Maui's discount car rental seattle ritziest neighborhood, home to the Ritz-Carlton and two world-class golf courses. discount car rental seattle The resort maintains extensive nature trails discount car rental seattle on the former Honolua Ranch and pineapple plantation. By law, Hawaii beaches are open to the public and there are public showers, restrooms and parking at Kapalua beach. The Napili Kai resort, where room rates start at $250 per night. The resort's classy beach-side restaurant on tranquil Napili Bay became our home-away-from home for $7 Hawaiian sweet bread and French toast breakfasts and $5 happy-hour drinks and appetizers.
For the price of a $10 taxi ride (rental-car companies with off-airport offices can't pick you up) I snagged a weekly rate of $239 on an economy car through Enterprise's location two miles from Kahului Airport, versus $472 at the airport. (Prices can be higher in peak season.)
The surprise: With the exception of taking the car on some scenic drives, we left it parked most of the time. Everything we wanted to do was within a short walk or a half-hour ride on the $1 Maui bus, the county operated transit system with 12 routes and hourly service.
A shopping center filled with luxury stores seemed an unlikely place to hunt for bargains, but the bus stops at Whalers Village, a megamall fronting on Kaanapali beach. After a quick look around at the free Whalers Museum, we happy-hour-hopped discount car rental seattle our way along the oceanfront boardwalk, assembling a movable feast of cheap drinks and appetizers at fancy restaurants where dinner for two can run $100 or more.
The best people-watching was at Leilani's, a beach restaurant near the Westin and Hyatt hotels. High hedges block the water views, but the $4 margaritas and five kinds of sliders made for a budget-friendly early dinner.
Most of the restaurants have live bands at happy hour. Whalers Village sponsors free nightly outdoor jazz concerts and dance performances by students from local hula schools, professional and easier on the wallet than the expensive hotel luaus.
We hiked in style along the Kapalua Coastal Trail, a 1.7-mile path that's part of the trail system maintained by the Kapalua Resort Association. The trail skirts sand dunes, a seabird sanctuary, four beaches and ancient burial sites.
Guidebooks often recommend a trip to historic discount car rental seattle Lahaina in the evening to watch the sunset, discount car rental seattle but after making several trips there on the $1 bus, our favorite discount car rental seattle time was morning when the temperatures were cooler and the crowds smaller.
discount car rental seattle Using a free walking-tour map, we explored art galleries, discount car rental seattle small museums and historical sites recalling Lahaina's history as a 19th-century whaling and trading port. Memorable discount car rental seattle were the Wo Hing Museum, a Taoist Chinese temple built in 1912 from a Sears Roebuck kit, and an abandoned prison, where townspeople were once jailed for crimes discount car rental seattle such as "furious discount car rental seattle riding."
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