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Let the world's smartest guide enrich your tripVivid descriptions evoke what makes Maui and Lana`i unique - Local experts show you the special places - Thorough updating keeps you on track - Practical information gives you the tools to explore - Easy-to-use format puts it all at your fingertips
Choose among many hotels and restaurants in all price categoriesStay in posh resorts, verandaed B&Bs, oceanside cottages, and rustic mountain lodges - Dine at surfside grills and seafood houses, cliffside cafés, and local lu`au - Check out hundreds of detailed reviews and learn what's distinctive about each place
Mix and match our itineraries and discover the unexpectedSavvy advice helps you decide where to go and when - Driving and walking tours guide you all over the islands, from the Garden of the Gods to the Hana Highway - Hike in dormant volcanoes, hang glide to the beach,and snorkel through underwater grottoes
Go straight to the facts you need and find all that's newUseful maps and background information - How to get there and get around - When to go - What to pack - Costs, hours, and tips by the thousands
Maui BeachesMaui's beaches win awards for being the best in the world. (Yes, there are awards for beaches.) Those of Wailea and Kapalua lead the pack. Maui residents particularly revere Makena Beach, beyond Wailea -- so much so that they launched a successful grassroots campaign to have it preserved as a state park. Don't expect to find the island ringed with sand; in fact, most of the coastline is dramatically craggy. Beaches tend to be pockets, each one with a personality of its own and that can be completely explored in half a day. The thin, clean strand of Ka`anapali, though, goes on for 7 mi, past resort after resort. Offshore here -- in what's called the Lahaina Roadstead, a protected stretch of sea between Maui and her small sister islands -- yachts, catamarans, and parasail riders drift across brilliant porcelain-blue water. Many of Maui's beaches are a little difficult to spot from the road, especially where homes and hotels have taken up shoreline property. Just remember that you can go to any beach you want. Access to the sea is a sacred trust in Hawaii, preserved from ancient times. Sometimes you have to poke around to find the beach -- then again, maybe those are the ones you want.
Hawaiian Culture and HistoryMaui people like the arts -- like them enough to build the $32 million Maui Arts & Cultural Center, with its well-designed 1,200-seat Castle Theater and its Schaefer International Art Gallery. The island also has one of the oldest community theater groups in the country and one of the highest per capita populations of painters anywhere. Friday night is Art Night in Lahaina, and commercial galleries line Front Street. But many artists have retreated to the Upcountry region, making Makawao their hub. Up here, Hui No'eau Visual Arts Center has been providing classes, studios, and exhibits since the 1930s. The resorts, too, are lined with splendid art collections. Some of these are like museums -- particularly the Grand Wailea and the Hyatt Regency (in Ka'anapali). The hotels also perpetuate Hawaiian culture; the best at this are the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua, and the Ka`anapali Beach Hotel. Maui's curious history and mixed cultures are also interesting; the best way to explore this subject is to tour the small museums -- Baldwin House in Lahaina, Bailey House in Wailuku, the Alexander & Baldwin (A&B) Sugar Museum in Punene, the Hana Cultural Center, and the Ulupalakua Ranch History Room, to name a handful. Or go to the local events, the festivals and benefit concerts, a Japanese o-bon dance or a Portuguese church bazaar. There's always something going on -- check the Maui News on Thursday ("The Scene") and Sunday ("Currents").
DiningOn Maui you can eat a great meal every night for two months without ever dining twice in the same place. The resorts set very high standards, and restaurants that surround them -- in Lahaina particularly, the Kihei/Wailea area, and even Upcountry -- have risen to the challenge. Chefs seem to be competing to create a Hawaii regional or Pacific Rim cuisine, or at least figuring out how to adapt classic cooking styles to the fresh-caught fish, the produce and meats, and the traditional eating styles of Maui. If you're a food explorer, take advantage of the fact that Maui is a cultural mixing bowl. Check out the saimin (noodle soup) shops and the local markets, especially in Wailuku town.
Maui continues to attract fine chefs, several of whom are known for their trendsetting Hawai`i regional cuisine. This growing movement uses fruits and vegetables unique to Hawai`i in classic European or Asian ways -- spawning such dishes as 'ahi (yellowfin tuna) carpaccio, breadfruit soufflé, and papaya cheesecake. Sometimes a touch of California or Mexico is added as well.
Of course, you can find plain old local-style cooking on the Valley Isle -- particularly if you wander into the less-touristy areas of Wailuku or Kahului, for example. Greasy spoons abound; though they are not for the overly fastidious, some of them offer the most authentic local food, or what residents call "plate lunches," for very low prices. A good plate lunch will fulfill your daily requirement of carbohydrates: macaroni salad, two scoops of rice, and an entrée of, say, curry stew, teriyaki beef, or kalua (roasted) pig and cabbage.
Water SportsFor anything that anyone can possibly do that involves water, this is the place. The West Maui vacation coast (from Lahaina to Kapalua) centers on Lahaina Harbor, where you can find boats for snorkeling, scuba diving, deep-sea fishing, whale-watching, sea-kayaking, windsurfing, parasailing, and sunset cocktail partying. At the harbor, you can learn to surf or you can ride a submarine; catch a ferry ride to Lana`i or catch a seat on a fast inflatable and explore all the way around it. The East Maui vacation coast has Maalaea Harbor and the great snorkeling beaches of Kihei and Wailea. If you want to walk through the ocean without getting wet, visit the top-notch new aquarium in Ma'alaea. If you'd rather watch, drive to Ho'okipa, near Pa'ia, for surfers and windsurfers.
Lana`i For decades, Lana`i was known as "the Pineapple Island," with hundreds of acres of fields filled with the golden fruit. Today this 140-square-mi island has been renamed "Hawai`i's Most Secluded Island," and the pineapple fields have given way to sophisticated hotels and guest activities. Once rarely visited, Lanai has now become an integral part of Hawaii's tourism business. Since 1990, Dole Foods Inc., which owns 98% of the island, has opened the luxurious 102-room Lodge at Ko'ele and the 250-room Manele Bay Hotel, plus two championship golf courses. Despite these new additions, Lana`i still remains the smallest, most remote and intimate visitor destination Hawaii.
