Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Maui

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are looking for a guidebook to Maui that has substantial information regarding restaurants and the hidden treasures of Maui, look elsewhere! One of the major activities on Maui is a snorkel trip to Molokini, an underground volcanic crater. This book had a small paragraph on Molokini, but failed to recommend (or even list) any companies offering the boat trip. We had to do this leg work on our own.
Also, while I understand that there are thousands of restaurants in Maui and a book could not possibly list them all, this book listed maybe 5 restaurants in each area of Maui - just a very small fraction. Very rarely did the book recommend against eating somewhere - everything was sugar coated to the point where one would think that all the restaurants in Maui are great (not true!).
The book did get 3 stars for providing basic descriptions and maps. I would not use this book if you are looking for any sort of recommendations on where to spend your time in Maui, etc.

The descriptions of Hawaii (and in this case Maui) in the Lonely Planet guidebooks is far and away the best available.

Frankly I'd recommend the Lonely Planet Hawaii instead. This book doesn't really add that much info beyond the LP Hawaii, I suppose the only reason to get this book is if you have no intention of going near any of the other Islands. But in my experience plans change, and on one trip we added a side trip to Molokai at the last minute (a 30 minute flight), after reading about it in the Hawaii guidebook.

Having said that, this is a good book, and if you are flying direct to Maui & home again this book is a bit cheaper and lighter that the Hawaii guide. Either way, you should be taking one of the LP guides with you.

Some useful details and guides, but overall it lacks the fine detail I was looking for. It seemed to gloss over some great places, and give unecessary information about some pretty bland things. It would be a decent addition to other books about Maui.

I liked the contemporary approach in this guidebook.. It blows the pedantic Maui Revealed right out of the water. The reviews were very honest and the cute hotels were clean and reasonably priced. We met many similarly interested people along the way. Sara Benson can write!

The basics were were here but it didn't bite off what Lonely Planet usually is famous for. Pretty bland coverage for such a colourful place.

I used this book quite a bit when I traveled to Maui in Sept 2007. The book is designed to be full of information, so the pictures are few. It contains sections on each area of Maui with maps and information on: beaches, entertainment, things to avoid, places to stay, restaurants, shopping, activities and sights. Most entries contained a short paragraph or two on each item (for example, a beach entry would explain what you might find there, how busy it is, what it is suited for, and how to get there). I found much of the information very useful in planning activities and giving us a starting point to find restaurants. I did find a hotel on my own, however, and although it was fabulous it was not listed in the guidebook.

There is also a section in the front about some possible itineraries for checking out Maui and nearby islands, depending on how long your trip is and your interests (Island Hopping, Essential Maui, Ocean Adventure, etc). This gave me a good idea what I could do in my time on the island and some of the best activities in each location.

My one complaint about the book was its recommendation for taking the Kahekili Highway. The description made it sound like it wasn't such a bad drive and had lots of wonderful sights. Well, I would NOT recommend this drive - there is a reason that the road does not show up on tourist maps! It is a one-lane highway with two-way traffic and a steep cliff dropoff on one side (sometimes without a guard-rail!) and is very dangerous, in my opinion. It has hairpin curves around cliffs where you cannot see if anyone is coming, which is definitely a problem when you are on a one-lane road barely clinging to the edge of a cliff. There were places where I wasn't sure how two vehicles were supposed to pass each other. If you think the "Road to Hana" is even mildly challenging, then the Kahekili Highway is definitely not for you! I could not understand a guidebook recommending this drive without a strong note of caution. (There were locals who have never even heard of this drive!)

Otherwise, I found the rest of the information fairly accurate and useful. Since it has such a wealth of information (and I probably referred to it more often than the other Maui guidebooks I had) I would recommend it as a good starting point, but would caution readers to use common sense when taking some of the advice contained within it.