Customer Reviews

Maui Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook

5 star:		(132)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I found this guide useful for planning my trip before I left home, mostly because it includes several pictures and fairly good maps. I used it to make a prioritized itinerary for the road to Hana---which stops to make, which hikes to go on, etc. We only had one day for the road to Hana, so we could not make every stop. I thought the guide did a pretty decent job of sorting out the mundane sites from the must see. The maps for the road to Hana are also very useful. We returned from Hana via the South road at night. It was no problem at all. It was certainly more fun than turning around and going back the way we came. The road is a lot less winding, which was nice. It does go up and down a lot, though. There was nothing wrong with the road at all, but you do need to watch out for the cows. There are signs warning you when you get to cattle country. The cow crossings are kind of a give away too. FYI, we made the trip in an economy car.

I am in debt to Maui Revealed for its recommendation to see Warren & Annabelle's, which was great. I would recommend, however, that anyone going to see this hilarious show should go late. An hour and a half killing time and eating snacks before the show was a drag. I suppose the wait might be more entertaining if you plan to get drunk.

When we actually got to Maui, we used Lonely Planet's guide almost exclusively. We started with Maui Revealed, but then we found that Lonely Planet's instructions were considerably more useful than those in Maui Revealed. In fact, with the exception of the road to Hana, the Lonely Planet guide was far superior for everything.

I would recommend getting both guides if you have never been to Maui before. If this is not your first trip and you do not plan to go to Hana, skip Maui Revealed entirely. It simply does not have enough substance to be worth the time reading it. The "revelations" in the book are all regular tourist destinations that appear to have been visited for at least a hundres years. You will never be alone. Everyone has Maui Revealed on their back seat or in their hand. The recommended restaurants are over priced. I had to laugh when I saw long lines of people waiting to get into a hamburger joint or a local dive for lunch. I would suggest trying the restaurants NOT listed in Maui Revealed. I think you will get food that is just as good and avoid rediculous lines. Best meal we had on Maui? Maui Tacos on our Lanai at sunset. Cheap, great food, and our lanai had a better view than any restaurant we saw! Perhaps Maui Revealed mentions Maui Tacos. I wouldn't know. I got the tip from Lonely Planet.

About the 3rd edition of Maui Revealed, I checked out the 2nd edition from the library and read it cover to cover. I then ordered the 3rd edition online from Amazon. After a page-by-page comparison, I was shocked to find that the only difference seems to be that a couple of pictures were changed. This is the saddest "update" I have ever seen in a travel guide. Buy the 2nd edition if you can get it cheap.

Lastly, we saw several signs with messages like, "Contrary to Maui Revealed,please respect our rights. This is private property."

Just returned from Maui. Many items are accurate but the book has some major misses as far as restaurant and entertainment recommendations. Use care.

I've visited Maui a number of times, and I think this is a fine guidebook to the island. It has plenty of excellent maps and some great photos as well. Yes, quite a few other people have this book, so if you try to see some of the sites it recommends, you will not be alone. And yes, some of the places it mentions used to be known mostly by the locals, not the tourists, but that is no reason for keeping information about the place a secret.

There's plenty of good advice on places to stay, places to eat, beaches, and much more. One excellent (roughly 40-page) section is on the road to Hana, and there's plenty of useful material here. Without this book, I wouldn't have known how to get to Nahiku (although in retrospect, I don't think it is quite as special as the book implies). Nor would I have known how to get to the Blue Pool (about a mile West of the turnoff for Wai'anapanapa, you will find 'Ula'ino road, which you take West for about three miles. You'll have to scramble over some rocks, so it's better to wear tennis shoes, not sandals). The Blue Pool, with its gorgeous waterfall, is a nice highlight of the Hana drive, but as this book shows, there are plenty of other waterfalls which are right by the side of the Hana highway.

I recommend this guidebook.

We just went on a trip to Maui and used this guidebook as our reference. It's the best thing you can use for your planning, and in our eyes it gives you sites that no one else unless you know some informative locals will give you. Our friends who are out there frequently were amazed at the things we saw through this book that they never heard off.

Just to start off though take their advice on stopping at Costco. It will save you quite a bit of your hard earned money to spend somewhere else on Maui and trust us. You will spend it. In fact, one local told us they pay more for things grown and made on the island than when they visit the mainland US. That tells me this place is definitely for the tourist but it's a great vacation destination expensive and well worth it.

Now back to the book, The Road to Hana is a good trip but if you get seasick or even get a touch of motion sickness don't go unless you take something. I don't get any of the aforemention afflictions but my future wife was literally wilting in the seat next to me from all the winding turns and narrow bridges. We also suggest a packed lunch and plenty of drinks for the ride. There's a neat eclectic grocery store in Pa'ia right off the main street with good sandwiches. Grab your food and drinks to picnic at one of the secluded waterfalls and enjoy. Finishing up on the Hana trip, you can definitely take your rental vehicle all the way through Hana and back down and around again. The road is bumpy but we didn't find it a problem. Just don't go crashing off the side of the road into a ditch!

As for accomodations, we suggest if you like to eat at the restaurants and want a little something less than quiet stay somewhere near Lahaina or Ka'anapali (Definitely grab a burger at Cheeseburger in Paradise in Lahaina). There's a ton to do around there whereas other more secluded parts of the island do not offer you the same choices in entertainment and dining. Last but not least, take in a nice sunset at a beachside restaurant. We recommend Leilani's On The Beach. It's at Whalers Village in Ka'anapali. The food is good and the view is better! Have fun!!

PS... Try a surfing lesson. We had a blast, and Goofy Foot Surf School had some really good teachers. They guarantee you'll stand up at least once or you will not get out of the water. We're not kidding.

Just returned from a week on Maui and 5 days on Kauai - used these books for both islands. We enjoyed several restaurants on both islands that the authors panned; found several of their "real gems" to be unpleasant experiences; snorkeled on beaches they didn't like and just loved them!; and in general found the books to be useful but not the final word.

We spent one month in Maui this summer. It was a dream come true. This book is, hands down, the best guide to Maui. We had many guidebooks and none of them even came close. You will never see a comment like "this place is a dump" or "the locals like to send the tourists to this murky beach" in a Fodor's guidebook. These guys shoot straight and give you all of the little details (like turn right at the giant bell-shaped rock) about the places that tourists would normally not see. The locals feel that this book has done more bad than good for Maui, as the tourists armed with this book now visit many of the places that were traditionally kept secret. I'm not saying that I agree with commercializing all of the natural beauty of Maui, but the people with this book are given detailed descriptions of how to see things that the average tourist will not hear about in their Fodor's or Dummies guide book.

If you are only buying one book, buy this one.

My family and I used this book on an 11 day trip to Maui (first time). We had a great time largely due to this book. Reviews were generally spot on of hotels and dining spots as well as snorkeling and SCUBA sites and destinations on the road to Hana. I can, however, see why some locals would be a bit angry at the author. Many remote sites described in this book have not been treated as well as they should be. When using this book, please be responsible stewards of the beautiful places on Maui which you would not otherwise be able to find.

Andrew Doughty is the type of traveler you expect to be mouthing off in your living room telling you what to do in Maui. Imagine my surprise when I discovered his intimate knowledge of the island has produced one of the most helpful and personalized of guidebooks anywhere, much less the island paradise. The usual suspects in this genre- Lonely Planet and Rough Guide, in particular - pale in comparison because Doughty offers no-holds-barred opinions on everything from the questionable living conditions at renowned hotels to the suitability of swimming at heavily visited public beaches. It's no wonder that local officials and merchants have been trying to ban his book from unsuspecting tourists, as he unobtrusively expresses his first-hand knowledge of all the experiences to be had on the island from dining to hiking to snorkeling to beachcombing.

For example, he candidly states not to dip your toe in the beaches lining the northern part of Kihei because of the relentless presence of city sewage on the shoreline. Personally I'm grateful for the advice since there are so many beaches to choose from, and any such insider's information helps winnow down the choices easily. Doughty also does a thorough job on describing the big tourist spots such as Haleakala, the road to Hana and snorkeling at Molokini. Each has his descriptive opinions on what to do and what to avoid, and some may surprise, for example, he considers the famous downhill cycling from Haleakala Crater to be overrated and quite dangerous (his niece was traumatically injured on one such innocently-positioned ride).

I followed Doughty's advice on what waterfalls and swimming holes to visit on the way to Hana, the best of which he identifies with "diversion alert" signs in the book. He was absolutely right, as I managed to avoid the crowds at higher profile sights such as the much-ballyhooed Seven Sacred Pools, which was predictably overrun with indifferent tourists. Doughty also includes a thorough dining guide and designates the best ones with an "Ono" symbol. For key sights all over the island, he identifies "real gems" for the highlights to be found. He also included tour company operators he recommends, as well as details on excursions to neighboring islands like Molokai and Lanai. There are a number of helpful maps as well. All in all, I consider this to be the essential guide for a trip to Maui.

If nothing else, you can recoup the price of the book by avoiding the over-priced, under valued restaurants that try to take tourists for a buck in Maui.

We bought two books before we headed off to Maui (another on diving), and we found this one quite helpful. We used it for directions on highways, on hikes, to find beaches, to get to the volcano and know how much it would cost, to find restaurants (on a daily basis), to find shopping...just about everything we did merited a look in the book first. Of course, we could have survived without it, but we would have spent more money and missed some really cool stuff.

A couple of things you might not realize...nearly everyone else visiting the island has this book, too. Therefore, many of the places described as quiet and quaint aren't. Also, we were told that the natives hate this book so much that they are more likely to break into your rental car if they see it on the seat. I'm not sure about that one, but I wouldn't leave it out.

Yes, the book has it's weaknesses, but given the choice, I would definitely pick it up again before heading off to Maui. Aloha!

The depth and quality of content in this guide delighted us for 2 solid weeks on Maui. Excellent reviews on restaurants and lodging, insightful guides to attractions - the exact opposite of the blatantly dishonest and cheaply done Frommer's Maui.

We were steered to Maui Revealed by a local visiting Maine, and we were lucky we got it. A pity we used Frommer's Maui guide to book a week's lousy lodging and visit some cheesy overpriced restaurants!