Trilogy Charters: A Day Trip to Lanai
Written: Apr 11 '01 (Updated Feb 09 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: ocean breezes, flying fish, nice meal, beautiful island
Cons: felt treated like I was a number with a wallet, seasickness
The Bottom Line: While I fell in love with Lanai and would readily return to the island again, I doubt I would use Trilogy Charters.
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| jdhauer's Full Review: Lanai |
When we were researching our Maui trip, we decided to take a charter tour over to the island of Lanai. However, when we were researching, aside from the company websites, there wasn't a lot of information that I could find that told us much about the various charter companies. I hope to rectify that a little for other people who may be considering a Lanai trip. You can see Lanai very easily from Lahaina as it's the island directly in front of you out in the distance. The company we chose was Trilogy Charters and we signed on for the "Discover Lanai" tour. This tour was not inexpensive at $169 + tax per person.
We showed up at 6:30 in the morning to board a power cat (Trilogy III for us) which took about two hours to get over to the island. This is a beautiful boat. The seas are much calmer in the morning and this stretch is considered to be some of the roughest ocean water in the world.
Breakfast is included and it consisted of pineapple juice, Kona coffee, cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit. As we left Lahaina Harbor, we passed a U.S. Navy ship. My husband and I stretched out on the trampoline to ride over and I slept as I was feeling sort of nauseous. I tend to get car sick when I read in the car but normally have no other problems with motion sickness. The highlight of the trip over was when my husband woke me up to tell me about these small birds he kept seeing. The birds turned out to be flying fish!
We arrived on Lanai at the Manele Bay Small Boat Harbor and had a short walk over to Hulopo'e Beach which is a private marine preserve and park. The Trilogy employees told us that their company has been grandfathered in to allow patrons to use the beach. The other companies we looked at supposedly do not have that permission. This area is where you will find the Manele Bay Resort where Bill Gates was married a few years back and he rented out the entire island.
This beach is beautiful and ranks just underneath the Shoal Beach we went to on Anguilla in my opinion. This was just a perfect day! If you want to snorkel, you may bring your own equipment but you are required to wear a life belt around your waist or a life vest. We went with the belts since they were a little less buoyant. As an aside, we found that it was worth every penny to purchase our own masks and snorkels from a local dive shop after our first snorkeling experience. We've used them at least a dozen times since purchase which has more than paid for the rental fees you'd pay on vacation and the quality is much higher than you'll get in an "equipment included" operation. Some other patrons were complaining about leaky masks. We didn't have any of those problems. We did use the company's fins since we don't travel with those. My husband wear a size 13 shoe so bringing fins on vacation would require an extra suitcase!
The company's brochure states that you will receive a guided tour of the marine preserve but that never happened. The waves were a little rough and the water a bit murky for snorkeling but it didn't really matter. We had a wonderful time in the water except that I was getting a little nauseous from the motion of the waves and that had never happened to me before! An employee was there to help guests in and out of the water which was nice for the less experienced swimmers since the waves were breaking very roughly. You could also play volleyball or just sunbathe. There are freshwater showers here to rinse off after being in the water.
For lunch, we enjoyed a Hawaiian barbecue of teriyaki chicken, ginger noodles, peas and fresh pineapple which was all prepared for us by the Trilogy crew.
When lunch was concluded, we were given a choice of continuing to snorkel or to take an island tour. We chose the tour and it was the absolute highlight of the trip. Our guide was named Denora and she was so friendly! She collects turtles and she invited all of us to come visit her at her apartment when we visit her island again. She even gave everyone her apartment number and pointed out exactly how to find it.
Some of the information she told us about Lanai is as follows: There are about 3,000 residents on Lanai and everyone knows everyone else. All of the residents live in Lanai City. The entire island is owned by Castle & Cooke and used to be run by the Dole Pineapple Company. Lanai used to be the world's largest supplier of pineapples but these days, all of that has been farmed out to the Philippines. We learned a lot about the growing cycle of a pineapple. A pineapple plant usually grows for five years. The first year, there is a very big fruit that is very sour so it is thrown away. The second year the fruit is smaller and sweeter. Usually the fruit is too small to be used after the fifth year. They can control exactly how big a pineapple will be by changing the chemistry of the soil it grows in so the fruit will fit exactly into the cans at the canning plant.
We stopped at the Lanai Plantation Store which hosts the only gas station on Lanai with gas selling for about $2.00 a gallon. There are only 29 miles of paved roads on the island so a tank of gas goes a long way.
The police station, jail and courthouse are all in the same building and the jail is basically a little wooden cell attached to the side. They have two restaurants (no McDonalds!) aside from what you can find in the three hotels.
From Lanai City, we drove up to The Lodge at Koele, a beautiful hotel high in the mountains where it is cool and moist. There's no beach up here! The main attraction here is the golf course and they have a mini chipping green laid out exactly the same as the larger course. Golf is big on Lanai with three courses: The Experience at Koele, The Challenge at Manele and the Cavendish free public 9-hole course. Both of us loved our time on Lanai and we'd really like to come back for a longer visit. I think it would help if I learned to play golf! My husband is a golfer and he was visually salivating over the thought of vacationing here in the future.
The trip back on the catamaran was much rougher than on the way over. I really didn't feel well and ended up losing my lunch which was embarrassing. At least I did so in the bathroom and not on deck or over the side. I felt much better and slept the rest of the trip. My husband said that ice cream was served and that the sails went up and the motors went off once we reached Lahaina. He saw this as a marketing ploy in order to advertise the company with their name emblazoned on the sails. T-shirts were sold on board (and pushed emphatically) and you were given free postcards.
My only real complaint has to do with just a perception that I had during our trip. No one was ever rude to us or mean in any way whatsoever, but I felt like I was just a number, not a person. None of the crew ever looked any of the passengers in the eye. The testimonials I read all stated things such as feeling like a "queen for the day", there was "no room for improvement" and the only thing comparable was "first class on the Concorde"! I suspect I was expecting a bit more than just "Here's some breakfast. Take some." The boats are beautiful but aside from our island tour, I never felt welcome but I sure felt that my wallet was!
Were we to travel to Lanai again, we'd either fly in or take the ferry from Lahaina. It's faster, a lot less expensive and we'd be able to set our own schedule.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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jdhauer
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Location: Virginia
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