Not usually one to rave about Mai Tais (my apologies for any heretical comments made in this post), I succumbed to several on my visit, because, Aloha, Hawaii. At the Montage Resort’s Cane & Canoe restaurant, delicate head-on Kauai prawns were followed by seared local ahi tuna. Though I spent most of my time photographing the resort (as my husband will testify, the more beautiful location, the more intensely I work to capture the space, frustrated that no single image can ever quite distill the sentiment of being there in person), I did find a few quiet moments to relax on the lanei, taking in the sights and sounds and orchid-heavy/ready-to-be-bottled scent of Hawaii.Īs part of a small group of women visiting the resort, we were treated to a range of activities that centered on Maui’s vivid culture and food. From a single vantage point in my suite’s broad lanei, I could see pools and vegetation, sea and clouds, the essence of the tropics in a single blink. Relatively unpopulated, the resort’s 50 units are perched amongst a network of lagoons and palms with the scent of local flowers – hibiscus, white plumeria, orchids and protea – filling the air.

And how could it? Revealed in 3-D splendor, the 24-acre resort was magnetic. I was thankful for a lane closure in the highway which doubled our commute time to Kapalua Bay, allowing me to take in Maui inch by inch, mile by mile.Īs now seems to be customary, my first glimpse of the Montage Kapalua Bay bore no resemblance to the pictures that I’d perused online. It was late afternoon, that time of day when sun and haze comingle, encasing Maui’s verdant mountains with a golden-hued mist.

After a glorious few hours with my nose stuck in a book, basking in the legitimacy of flight-induced work-free indulgence, I touched down in Kahului Airport.

Montage kapalua bay resort hawaii