Aston at the Maui Banyan Condo

My wife, my teenager and me arrived one Friday night a few minutes past eleven. Sadly reception closes at that hour. Even if two guys were inside, nobody looked at us. Nobody gave us any direction and stayed outside to call our tour operator... In a metter of 10 minutes a security man on charge told us to take the phone outside to talk at a call center. And we did, the lady made us open a safe and found inside an envelope. Inside direction to go to our suite. “Well done” I said, but then he keys didn’t work... So I went back to the phone. Another lady answered, controlled and told me the room was not 203 but 205. Back again to my family hoping this time is the right one: no, the 205 room doesn’t exist. Now I’m upset. I called the call center once again, explained to another girl what happened. She said she would check what happened and call me back. It was 1 am. I called again and again. Nothing happened. I told my family to prepare to sleep in the car. But when our hope was about to vanish, something came true. The security man finally had his boss’ ok to let us enter the room 203. At 2 am!!! The room was comfortable but old fashioned. Bathroom little but the suite was large. Noisy air conditioning directly from the ‘70 (conditioning was on all day long and turned off at night but we used fan to sleep). At this moment you probably asked yourself what was ok... well directly in front of the resort you find Kamaole beach II, one of the best in Kihei. Let’s think about this. Nevertheless Maui was a great holiday. We didn’t let Aston ruin our vacation. Please consider to arrive before 11pm if you choose Aston Maui Banyan.

We do not like Condos, but in Maui, in Kihei they are about your only real option unless you stay in a splurge hotel. The room we had (310a) was small, but tastefully decorated in an albeit bland way. We were a little surprised because we thought we had a room with a kitchenette, but that is locked away in the rest of room 310. Check that if you are counting on such. Car parking is onsite (but you only get to use unreserved spots on a first come first served basis), as are good swimming pools. Wifi worked well, but a noisy through the wall old style AC unit was obnoxious to the point we turned it off - but without a ceiling fan it got a bit clammy overnight. The beach is right over the road as there are good restaurants a short walk or drive away. This part of Kihei has lots of life (unlike nearby walled off Wailea), and that is Kihei's saving grace - despite the bland condos...

We stayed here for 10 days in the middle of June. We had a one bedroom condo with two bathrooms. The room was spacious and clean. We had a kitchenette which was a great way to save money and take a break from eating out. The grounds were maintained and the location was amazing. You are walking distance to many restaurants and beaches. The staff were friendly. I recommend booking excursions with the Expedia rep in the lobby, he was super nice and helpful. I would definitely recommend staying here if you are planning to visit Maui.

We stayed in a Deluxe, 2 bedroom with partial ocean view for 6 nights. The property grounds were attractive & well maintained. The staff was pleasant & although we didn’t have but one request for a clean blanket to replace the stained one in our room, provided us with good & friendly service. The request for the blanket was NOT met in a timely manner. However, with a fresh coat of paint & better insect/ pest control in the rooms, the rooms would be much, much more pleasant to stay in. The bathroom & kitchen had very tiny crawling insects even though they came in and sprayed at our request one day while we were out. We also had a very large spider in our bedroom that we couldn’t catch on the last night of our 6 night stay. Although the rooms overall seemed clean, the glass sliding doors & other vertical surfaces & mirrors had fingerprints, indicating to me that the rooms aren’t thoroughly cleaned. No attention to detail when it came to cleaning these things. They could rate 4 stars if they took care of the above. However, I’d rate them between a 2.5-3 at best.

Pros: We booked a one bedroom for one night here while waiting to get onto our timeshare resort. They upgraded us to a deluxe 1-bedroom with a kitchen. The double shower was nice, but it was in the extra bathroom, not the master bedroom (thAt had a tub and shower.). All the utensils, dishes, soaps, shampoos, detergents and towels we needed were supplied. Coffee, sugar and creamer was also in the unit. Even plastic storage containers. The unit was nice and clean, and the air conditioner worked well. They even gave us a complementary box of macadamia nut chocolates. The desk personnel were very accommodating and friendly and check in was streamlined. We also got a card for unlimited DVD movies. They had a small but not crowded pool, but we didn’t have time to use it. It is in nice location with lots of shops and a grocery store within a mile or two. Foodland, the local grocery store, had fairly reasonable prices considering it is Hawaii. We just took advantage of their sales. Just be sure to sign up for their rewards card, A very simple process. Also I learned that on Thursday’s they give senior citizens a 5% discount. Make sure to bring your own grocery bags or you get charged. However you get 5 cents back for using your own. Now the cons: We had issues converting from Cable TV to the DVD source. They use a game boy device and since we are senior citizens, it was difficult to figure out. A maintenance worker had to come up and show us, but his English wasn’t too good and we still had a hard time with it. The outlets in the bedroom were minimal. Only on one side of the bed, and there were no USB ports for phones and other devices. We also had an issue with ants, so I kept all food and supplements in plastic ware and ziplock bags. This seems to be a universal problem in Hawaii as we had ants in our Big Island condo as well. Just make sure you bring lots of ziplock bags for food. Even for your medications. Overall, it was a very nice place