Westin Maui Resort And Spa Review – Unsponsored!
I flew to Hawaii to cheer for my mom at IRONMAN World Champs in Kona, and then my sister Cara and I were like.. "as long as we flew all the way here, let's experience a bit more of Hawaii!"
So after the IRONMAN race we hopped on a 30 minute flight over to Maui for a few days there.
Now, this was my very first time to go to ANY island of Hawaii, and it was a bit overwhelming to pick! And then once we settled on Maui, there were so many regions and beaches and resorts to choose from.
It seems like EVERY resort has mixed reviews online (depending on the date of stay, renovations, expectations, etc.)
So here's my brutally honest review of the Westin Maui Resort & Spa - totally unsponsored!
My Honest Thoughts On The Maui Westin Resort
My sister and I booked this trip as a tag-on to our trip to Kona to watch our mom compete at IRONMAN world champs. Spectating an IRONMAN race isn't very relaxing, so we were very ready for a few days of complete and total relaxation!
The rideshare from the Maui airport to the Westin Maui Resort & Spa was about 45 minutes ($80 or so). You'll drive through these lush golf course grounds to the entrance of the resort, and we were dropped off and walked into this gorgeous open-air lobby with ponds and flamingos and beautiful foliage. So pretty!
The Westin Maui underwent a big renovation a couple years ago (2024 maybe?) so all of the rooms felt fresh and new. It's a 2-tower resort with 7 swimming pools, ocean front access, and multiple restaurants.
Since Cara and I knew we'd mostly be down at the pool/beach, we saved some $$ and booked a mountain-view room instead of an ocean-view room.
And let me tell you...the view was GORGEOUS! I was so pleasantly surprised! Sometimes the "non-prime" view room looks out over a parking lot or something ugly. But our room had a stunning view of the lush golf course and the gorgeous mountains in the distance.
If you're booking this resort for a honeymoon or romantic getaway with your partner, it could definitely be worth it to splurge on an ocean-view room.
But if you're booking a girlfriends trip, family trip with kids, or sisters getaway (like I did!), I'm here to tell you that the mountain-view room was lovely. And then we soaked up all the ocean views during the days at the pool and evenings at the restaurants.
Another thing I loved about this resort is that it's right next to Whalers Village and other high-end resorts, so there are lots of other dining and bar options that are walkable from the resort. You could dine at a different ocean-front resort every evening and never have to take an Uber!
The pools were gorgeous! I love that they put the adults-only pool and bar pretty high up, so it had a great view of the ocean and a peaceful, quiet atmosphere.
The hot tub at the adults-only pool was quite literally the best hot tub of my life! It had a sandy floor and an infinity edge, and it was SO gorgeous in the evenings to hot tub with a view of the ocean. OMG bliss.
I also love that all of the pools had waterfall features. I'm a kid at heart and loved swimming underwater in the waterfalls and getting my hair wet.
The family pool was SO fun, too! My kids weren't with me on this trip, but I took a few pics to share with y'all. There are two water slides, some fun playground water features, a giant waterfall, and a nice shallow baby-friendly area.
Ok, probably my worst photography ever. But that's because I was there on a kids-free trip to RELAX!!!
And that's exactly what I did.
Recap Of My Stay At The Maui Westin Resort & Spa
Right when Cara and I checked in, we immediately hit up happy hour at Hale Moʻolelo, the open-air casual restaurant by the pools.
Vacation mode unlocked! Poke nachos and mai tais, CHECK! They had a live musician performing in the afternoon, and the sound of all the water features at the resorts was so lovely.
We checked into our room and immediately changed into swimsuits to head down to the pools and ocean!
I love that the oceanfront access was literally RIGHT there. Like, there's a little sidewalk between the resort and the sand, but you can get from the pools to the beach in like 15 seconds.
And then there's a shower and a foot-washing station to get all the sand off whenever you want to come back to the resort.
We spent the afternoon reading books by the pool, sipping cocktails, and swimming in the ocean. We had 7:30 reservations for dinner, so we were able to swim in the ocean while the sun was setting and let me tell you - GORGEOUS.
I loved being on the island of Maui! It was really fun to be able to see a few of the other islands in the distance.
The water temp was perfect, the sand was soft, the air cooled down a bit at night. 5-stars for you, Maui.
We got cleaned up for dinner and walked next door to our reservations at...
Leilani's On The Beach. It was absolutely wonderful!! I had freshly caught sesame-crusted ahi steak and Cara ordered the garlic shrimp pasta. Both SO good!
The next morning I woke up and made myself a pour over. There is a Starbucks at the resort on the ground floor, but I like to bring my own coffee set-up so I can indulge in a good cup, so I made myself my coffee in the room and headed down to the gym to knock out my run.
The gym was the only part of the Maui Westin Resort & Spa that I'll give a bad review. There was NO AIR-CONDITIONING!
I'm training for a marathon so I had a 12-mile run to knock out, and it legitimately felt like I was running in a sauna. I have never sweat so much in my life!
There were 2 or 3 fans running in there, but it was no match for the humidity in that room. Holy moly. Proud of myself for finishing that run, but it wasn't fun!
Thankfully the rest of the day was just this! Coffee and a book by the pool with a view of the ocean.
And this: pizza and local craft beer at Monkeypod Kitchen.
And this: floating around in the ocean!
After a full day of alternating between beach and pool, lots of cocktails and conversations with my sis, and a few pages read of my book, we both got cleaned up for dinner...
At Ulu Kitchen! OMG, I loved this meal and restaurant experience even more than the night before at Leilani's!
Ulu Kitchen is the high-end restaurant at the Westin. They really focus on sourcing locally and sustainably, so we enjoyed some of the best seafood of my life.
The coconut shrimp was a favorite. Instead of a typical candy-coated crunchy shrimp, this was fried to a delicious crispy texture but then served in a coconut curry lime-y sauce. Very tangy and citrus-forward and rich in coconut flavor. Delicious!
The next morning we had a few more hours for relaxing by the pool. (Ha! Are you catching that we both REALLY wanted a super relaxing trip? We did nothing and it was wonderful!)
Ha, we did go down the water slide a few times and it was a BLAST. I need to come back here with my kids sometime soon!
At check-out time we had no problem booking a Lyft to take us back to the airport in time. It was a really easy, fun trip!
Now, as someone who has not been to Hawaii before, I was a bit rattled by how long it took me to recover from the jet lag. I'm in CST, and there are no direct flights from Maui - Austin, so I had a red eye with a layover in San Francisco. I landed at 6 am in Austin absolutely exhausted and it took about 4-5 days until I felt "normal" again.
Not a big deal every once in a while, but I don't think Hawaii would be a trip I'd want to take every single year simply because of the time change and annoyance of red eye flights!
Would I Stay At The Westin Maui Again?
Absolutely YES! In fact, I was mentally planning future trips with both my husband and with my entire family the whole time I was there.
I thought everything was so nice and clean, modern, and pretty. I liked the open-air lobby concept, and the rooms were very comfortable.
The restaurants were good, too! I'm not used to dining at the restaurant at the resort - I'm usually the foodie who goes out exploring for something fun and local. But with the purpose of this trip to relax as much as possible, I went with the easy option of dining on-site and I was so pleasantly surprised. I'd dine at Ulu Kitchen again and again!
I didn't book any spa treatments, so I can't speak to the quality of that. And I'll say that the only negative experience of the entire resort stay was the HOT and humid gym. Typically I wouldn't prioritize a workout on a relaxing getaway, it's just that I'm in the middle of a marathon training block right now so I had to get it done. But I really wish they had AC in the gym!
Overall, I highly recommend this place for a girls trip, a honeymoon, or even a family getaway. Loved my stay at the Westin Maui.
