Aloha Surf Hostel

You know a place is special when every time you go back you feel at home. Great location, beautiful town with lots of shops and restaurants. The beach is just a walk away! Parking is available if you rent a car and they do free tours. The tour guides are awesome. They are knowledgeable and make an experience (even set up a hammock at the beach for a couple that were on their honeymoon). The hostel itself is for sure the best on the island (I’ve been to a few). Nice house, multiple showers and toilets and a great shared kitchen. The housekeeping team keeps the place clean and truly were so sweet. Checking in was easy, if you arrive early they’ll hold your stuff and same if you have a later flight. The receptionists were so helpful and kind. But overall the staff as a whole make the experience. They made it a point to include the guests and really all made the place feel welcoming. Every time I’m there connecting with them makes my trip. If you are searching for a place to stay, especially as a solo traveler, Aloha Surf is it.

Stayed 6 nights and had a truly great time. This hotel is incredibly clean. As other reviewers have said, there may be the occasional cockroach but this is based more on location rather than effort. Staff collectively thoroughly clean the whole premises on a daily basis. Beds were incredibly soft however. I met a great group of friends as a solo traveller and took advantage of the stellar tours offered by Jared and Stef. Make sure to tip these guys. Overall staying here made my trip in Maui.

Overall: wonderful would stay again, there was one aspect that made me incredibly uncomfortable despite having directly addressed it multiple times. ***there is one very drunk and abrasive man who works there that was consistently, even after direct requests to stop and being told it was inappropriate, attempting to solicit my partner for sex. It started playful and demure and quickly ramped up to a straight on proposition. He made us both so wildly uncomfortable with these pushy advances that we would not stay again if he was there. This is the only extreme aspect of the experience but I wanted to make it known because SA is a common concern as travelers and for someone with access to EVERY room key to be so overwhelming it felt really sketchy. Had my partner been a small womxn unwilling to speak up it could have gone very differently. Even other travelers were uncomfortable and vocalized it. On we go! Pros: -Jared was a wonderful guide for the day trips -day tour is awesome, very accommodating -location can’t be beat -clean, tidy, better than expected -held luggage after checkout but before our flight, Teagan was incredibly kind and helpful -the grocery store nearby has such delicious prepared foods! -other travelers were fun and considerate. At one point we were playing a game in the common area and the people staying nearby felt comfortable enough to ask us to quiet down which, in my opinion, speaks to the overall quality of the experience the hostel curates. Cons: -our food was taken from a sealed, marked bag in the community fridge our first night -no pancakes in the morning (if there was a time window we were not made aware of it on our initial check-in tour) -no coffee/tea in the morning, the machines existed but had a note not to mess with it -paper thin walls (earplugs make it not a problem, along with requesting quiet from loud people, but for those who mind it is very easy to hear others) -fewer tours than advertised, due to the fires but just so you know. Jared DOES recommend and Facilitate options on days without tours -we were not made aware of checkout time during checkin so they kept my key deposit Had a great time, if you can advocate for yourself and your safety and don’t mind an aggressively drunk dude give it a go. You won’t regret staying at Aloha Surf Hostel!

TLDR: I won't stay there again EVER. Pros: 1) walkable to Paia town that has some a lot of good food/drink options. 2) a lot of street parking 3) quiet and laid back 4) clean Cons: 1) One my second day, when I returned to the dorm in the evening after a day at beach, I didn't find any of my stuff there. Upon asking the front desk, I was told that they just put all of my stuff in a plastic basket because they want me to move to a different room because apparently they had over booked. They didn't care to call or text me about it before touching my stuff. And the guy at the reception wasn't apologetic about it at all. I didn't feel safe leaving my valuables in the hostel after that. So I moved all my valuables to my rental car. 2) No lockers in the dorms 3) Only two sockets in a room with 4 beds 4) Bit too pricey for the kind of accommodation being offered *) Not a con for the hostel itself, but I'd recommend staying in Lahaina over Paia in general.

You know a place is special when every time you go back you feel at home. Great location, beautiful town with lots of shops and restaurants. The beach is just a walk away! Parking is available if you rent a car and they do free tours. The tour guides are awesome. They are knowledgeable and make an experience (even set up a hammock at the beach for a couple that were on their honeymoon). The hostel itself is for sure the best on the island (I’ve been to a few). Nice house, multiple showers and toilets and a great shared kitchen. The housekeeping team keeps the place clean and truly were so sweet. Checking in was easy, if you arrive early they’ll hold your stuff and same if you have a later flight. The receptionists were so helpful and kind. But overall the staff as a whole make the experience. They made it a point to include the guests and really all made the place feel welcoming. Every time I’m there connecting with them makes my trip. If you are searching for a place to stay, especially as a solo traveler, Aloha Surf is it.