My husband and I stayed at the Mahana on our honeymoon from Nov 27/09 to Dec 5/09. Neither of us has really travelled outside of Canada before so planning our honeymoon was a bit intimidating, how do you decide on where to stay? Our decision to stay at the Mahana was pretty much soley based on the reviews I read on TripAdvisor. So hopefully this review can help others.

We booked directly through the hotel and were given room #218, a one bedroom condo. When we checked in and walked up to our room (late in the evening after a long flight) and seen a crooked door knock, my heart sank.... until we opened the door and turned on the lights. IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!! Tile floors, granite counter tops, floor to ceiling ocean facing windows, beautiful kitchen the list just goes on. We couldn't have picked a more beauiful room if we tried. The service was great and everyone was smiling.
When we were looking at location the only thing that we really cared about was an ocean front room, and this met out expectations. It was great just waking up and looking out the window to the clean blue water and the sea turtle swimming by!

The beach front was awesome and the views fantastic. With no resturant on site that didn't really bother us at all, there are plenty of places to eat in Lahaina or smaller places across the road within walking distance. We did go to the neighboring hotel for supper on our last day and one thing we noticed was the amount of children at that location. At the Mahana we hardley noticed any children at all (which made the place quite and relaxing for us)

Our tours we booked through Susan (the Expedia travel gal located right in the hotel) who helped us plan our week. We did the trip to watch the sun rise at Haleakala (which we didn't get to see because clouds moved in) but that trip was totally made worth it by our awesome tour guide Koa. We also did some snorkeling to Molokini (which we also didn't get to go too due to rough waters) but the great crew at the Pacific Whale Foundation took us to another location where we seen 6 sea turtles and got to touch an octupus. We were lucky enough to go whale watching (only because the whales came back early this year) and hung out with 3 humpbacks for a while. A lualu was a must and we went to the one at the Hyatt. The food was great, and so were our seats (we just paid for a standard ticket) and the open bar was always enjoyable. The road to Hana... we had every intention of driving it on our own until we booked our tours and thought the tour would be the good choice. Apparently the first part of the trip is called honeymoon alley and the later part of the trip is divorce row. I can now see why, book the tour!!! The driver doesn't get to experience the trip at all, with the 617 hairpin turns their eyes are always on the road (we hope). Plus the guides are awesome and can answer all your questions about history, plants or where to go to eat.

Our honeymoon was absolutly perfect, we can't say enough good things about every aspect of it! I highly recommend #218 at the Mahana for anyone looking for that little piece of Maui paradise!

I’ll start with the things that kept me from rating this hotel a full five star. Wireless internet was spotty and slow. There is no hotel restaurant, just a morning coffee bar (Mahalo coffee guy!). Another minor drawback is that these are privately owned condominiums and each room is appointed differently. Some rooms may be a bit dated.
That’s it. Our suite was phenomenal, over 1400 sq. feet of luxury. Floor to ceiling windows, travertine tile floors, granite counter tops, 3 flat screen TVs, washer/drier, and a full kitchen. On the 7th floor, the ocean front view was spectacular. We spent a great deal of time on the very private lanai which doubled as a second living room. If you have the opportunity to request a room I highly suggest considering 709. The owners did a wonderful job.

Working directly w/the owner who was most cooperative and straight forward made our 16 day visit here excellent, and we plan to return again to this marvelous Mahana condo (#308). We negotiated the price to a level we couldn't pass up. The condo's decor throughout was modern and tasteful. Leftover refrigerator and cabinet goodies from previous guests was a nice surprise and we too left our share. The 3rd floor, palm tree level, was stupendous. Each evening we left the bedroom door which opens onto the Lani open and slept to the sound of the Pacific lapping at the beach just below. Another nice feature here is that on site parking is free while most every property in/near Kaanapali charges daily for parking, often as much as $20 daily. A big plus to us was knowing how quiet this complex is; no noise from people above, below, or on either side as this building was so well constructed. The pool is inviting, yet smallish. One closet is full of beach gear to your use and plenty of beach towels for use as well. The kitchen has all the utensils needed including the all important cork-screw. There is a small library in the condo, mainly paperbacks left from other guests and in that spirit I left a new Vince Flynn novel to be enjoyed. The free use of the well maintained grills nearby is a plus and we did make regular use of them those evenings we dined in. The lobby ATM is convenient. Excellent Chinese food can be had reasonably at Lu Fin on Front St. close to Safeway; it's not fancy or pricey...just great.

Oh, dear. What have I done? I've gone and spoiled myself for life. No hotel room after this will ever measure up, I'm afraid.

Now, it's not a PERFECT place, but the "Con"s are most definitely outweighed by the "Pro"s.

Pros:
(1) 100% OCEANFRONT ROOMS! No paying through the nose for upgrades! Only a few feet of sand from the water! Waves washing up on the shore all night long to soothe you to sleep! And I will NOT apologize for using so many exclamation points!
(2) We stayed in a studio room on the 9th floor, so we had a completely unobstructed view of the ocean. There are a lot of tall palm trees out front, so if this is important to you, ask for the highest room possible. Of course, the tradeoff to this is that you might get a more dated-looking room, which seemed to be the case with us. It definitely wasn't bad, but the ambience was much more 1992 than 2009. But other than the floors (see #2 in Cons), it was clean and pretty. Nice pictures on the walls throughout the unit (though I'm not a fan at all of silk plants, but that's probably just me). Frankly, for the location, we didn't give a hoot that we might have had marble countertops if we settled for a third floor unit.
(3) It's RIGHT ON THE OCEAN. The sound of the waves at night is sooooo soooooooothing. We actually kept our screen door open all night just to hear it (76-degree lows are deceptive to the unaware - it's REALLY breezy in Ka'anapali/Honokowai).
(4) FREE PARKING. w00t! In West Maui - actually, Hawaii in general - you must never, ever take this for granted. After coming in from a weekend in Honolulu (where free parking at a good hotel is nearly impossible), we were soooo grateful for this. (Oh, and be prepared for downtown Lahaina parking fees, and the fines if you're late getting to your car. I've been told it can get uuuuugly.)
(5) Down at the end of Ka'anapali Shores place and across the street, there is a strip mall with a Snorkel Bob's, a few restaurants (mexican, pizza, coffee shop), and a supermarket. Quite nice to stock up on some essentials (although prices are probably a little bit better at KMart or Walmart around Kahului Airport, if that's where you're flying in).
(6) An Expedia Local Expert on staff during most of the day if you put off scheduling all of your excursions until you arrived. We only booked a tour for Road To Hana, but were glad we did because it took us ALL around the island (which you cannot do in your rental car - you have to turn around at Kipahulu and go allllllll the way back around, or else risk making your car company VERY CRANKY).
(7) A pool and hot tub on site. Yes, the pool is relatively small, but it's not bad. And I didn't swim in it anyway; that's what having an OCEANFRONT HOTEL is for. (note: bring reef shoes, as the oceanfloor right in front of the hotel is rough from coral and such)
(8) Friendly front desk staff...most of the time. (The night staff tends to be a tad less enthusiastic, but they're still nice and helpful.)
(9) Only 15 minutes from old Lahainatown, which has some of the best lu'aus, restaurants, sights, and shopping in all of Maui.
(10) A full-size kitchen with an electric stove, dishwasher, fridge, and most importantly a WASHER AND DRYER. Had I known this, I wouldn't have packed nearly so many clothes. Darn it! ;)
(11) ...Have I mentioned that this hotel is TOTALLY OCEANFRONT? And how wonderful the ocean sounds? :)

Cons:
(1) No restaurant on site. However, you can take your room key to the Aston Ka'anapali Shores (a relatively short walk down Ka'anapali Shores Place), eat breakfast there, and charge it to your room at Mahana (as both facilities are Aston-managed). We didn't actually do this, though; we went across the street to Pizza Paradiso for their big-as-your-head breakfast burritos, which can easily be cut in half and stored in your fridge to reheat the other half the next morning when you're dashing off super-early for Haleakala. (note well: there's no food or gas at the Summit - go prepared!). For lunch, we ate on the run, and dinner we were usually in Lahaina. But I know for a lot of people, no on-site restaurant can be a deal-breaker, so thought I'd mention it.
(2) Ceramic tiles in our room were FILTHY. We were there for eight days, and I doubt they were given a proper mopping at all for our entire stay. I'm a person who loves to be barefoot (especially on a hot day on a cool floor), but even from our very first morning, I couldn't walk from the shower to the lanai without the soles of my feet being caked with grit/dirt. GROSS. I swept the floor myself several times a day, and we only made one beach trip (on our second-to-last day) and shook out everything before we went inside, so we weren't bringing THAT much dirt in. I got by with laying damp hand towels throughout the unit and occasionally wiping off my gritty feet on them (or rinsing my feet in the tub and rubbing them on the bathmat). Blech!
(3) Constant renovations going on, sometimes starting as early as 8AM and going until 3PM. Sanding, chopping, nailing, drilling, sawing, UGH! If you're someone who likes to have your lanai open while you take a leisurely mid-morning or early afternoon snooze after you just got back from your 2AM Haleakala sunrise trip...well, don't expect to get any sympathy from the staff. "They have to get work done." Yeah, well, I have to relax and enjoy my vacation, too - I mean, I'm certainly not staying here for free after all! To their credit, they did contact the worker in the next room who was drilling holes in our shared wall to install a mirror in that unit, and verified we wouldn't hear anything more *from that unit* for that week. And these are condos after all (where some actually live here), not hotel rooms...not like it was any less irritating. I suppose the logical solution is then to turn on the A/C and shut the lanai door, but I thought they wanted to try us saving on energy costs? Hmm. Anyway, the construction only seemed to happen during the week, not the weekend. On the other hand...
(4) Parking becomes a bit more of a headache on weekends. I don't know if residents just have more people over, or the weekend we were there was just before Thanksgiving, but we noticed a LOT less parking spots beginning Friday night through Sunday afternoon (we'd arrived the previous Sunday night). We still could find parking, just not as easily. But most of the time, you can find it very easily. And have I mentioned that it's FREE?
(5) The ocean is too loud. Haha, just kidding. Honestly: WHO COMPLAINS ABOUT THE OCEAN BEING TOO LOUD? Isn't that why one elects to get an oceanfront room?! If it bothers you, perhaps you shouldn't stay at an oceanfront location. :)

Two quick tips:
(a) From the road, the sign is only labeled "MAHANA", along with the Ka'anapali Beach Club and Maui Kai. It doesn't say anything about Aston until you get inside - so if your exhausted jet-lagged self driving in the pitch black didn't know this, you might inadvertently end up driving into Aston Ka'anapali Shores in the next driveway and then having to explain to the gatekeeper, "whoops, wrong hotel" and getting a pass out of there. Um, not like we did this or anything. :)
(b) Although the NAME of the hotel says "at Ka'anapali", the hotel is actually just across the north border of Ka'anapali in the town of Honokowai. Just in case your GPS or map directions have a hard time finding it (which, by the way, a GPS is strongly recommended to get anywhere in Hawai'i). The hotel is still considered to be on Ka'anapali Beach.

A downside of staying in West Maui (in general), as opposed to South Maui (i.e. Kihei/Wailea) is that it's a longer drive to Ma'alaea (for snorkeling and the Maui Ocean Center), Kula (for Haleakala), and the road to Hana. You can't probably do snorkeling AND Haleakala AND Hana all in one day, so you're adding on about 20-30 more minutes each way with each excursion that you could be saving yourself staying in South Maui. On the other hand, you're much closer to Lahaina (VERY fun dining/shopping!) and the better lu'aus (South Maui is really NOT known for its lu'aus, if your research hasn't already indicated otherwise). After a lu'au, trust me, you want to be as close to your hotel as possible because you are going to be very tired. Plus, South Maui towns aren't nearly as picturesque. And remember: You're on vacation, and in Hawai'i no less. So stop worrying about the time, and just enjoy the rides and the scenery. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING to have a great vacation.

If we stay in West Maui again, there is no question that we would stay at the Mahana again - even with all the prickly little annoyances. Because at the end of the day, that's all they were. And even with the longer drives aside, as nice and convenient and beautiful as the Mahana is, I would still put up with the commutes to stay here again. It was an absolutely amazing experience staying here, and I'm so glad that we did.