Maui is one the top spots in the Hawaiian Islands, with many stunning resorts and lush scenery. Maui is called the valley island because there are two big mountains separated by a central valley.

Along with Kauaʻi, we thought Maui would be a great choice since there is so much to see and do. It’s true that it’s more commercial than Kauaʻi but it’s still a lush paradise and you can easily spend a week on Maui exploring.

Getting there

Maui is well-connected and has a bigger airport than Kauaʻi. We took a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Kauaʻi and landed around 11 am. It’s very easy to hop around the Hawaiian Islands and I would highly recommend doing so.

Map

Below is a map of Maui and the many places we visited. Feel free to zoom in on parts of the map!

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Kahului

I’ll start with Kahului because this is the center of the island and the jumping off point. Kahului is the biggest city on Maui but it’s not where tourists stay as it’s truly a larger city. So if you go to Maui, you’ll probably pass through here but that’s about it.

We actually ate two really good meals in Kahului, one was a cheap local place called Tin Roof, that we picked up on our way back from the “Road to Hana.” The other was, 808 on Main, when we were about to leave Maui and head back home. I do have to say if you’re looking for a cheap meal, you can probably find it in Kahului but most likely you’re not going to travel here just to eat.

ʻĪao Valley State Park

From Kahului the ʻĪao Valley is 15 minutes away. Right from the airport, this is the first place we traveled to as it was also the easiest. We couldn’t really check into our hotel so might as well tour the local area first.

For me ʻĪao Valley is nothing special. Yes it it’s green and has a needle-looking rock but that’s really about it. Do yourself a favor and go but try not to pay to get in. A lot of people park on the road right before the entrance, either because it was really busy or just don’t want to pay. We got confused and parked there anyways and we ended up not having to pay.

It was only a little hike up to the viewing platform and that was it. So we probably spent 20 minutes here and then moved on to the next sight.

Northwest Coast

Because we had time to kill we drove from the ʻĪao Valley and headed northwest, around the island until we eventually got to Lahaina. This actually isn’t a well-traveled area, and yes tourists travel here but I can also understand why some don’t bother.

In the beginning of the route the Kahehili Highway is a full road but as we got more into the journey, the road became very tight. There were a few moments when it was literally a cliff with one room for one car with two-way traffic. It was a little stressful but it was only some sections of the road until the road eventually widen. The drive was beautiful and many scenic points but something we only need to do once.

Nakalele Blowhole

At the end of this treacherous road there is a blowhole that anybody can hike down to see closer. We didn’t bother to hike all the way down the cliffs, I mean the path was pretty far. Also they said that you could risk slipping or falling into the blowhole and getting hurt. And really to us it was exciting for a few minutes and then time to hit the road south to Lahaina. From here we found a lot of huge resorts but not really a city or even restaurants until we got closer to Lahaina.

Lahaina

On Maui’s dry side there is the city of Lahaina and the surrounding resort cities. Majority of tourists to Maui stay on this side of the island as it has the calmer weather. We stayed here too, or specifically in Kāʻanapali, just north of Lahaina.

We loved our Homeaway condo. We had an amazing view of the ocean with Molokaʻi and Lanaʻi in the backdrop. We paid around 300 dollars a night which sadly is about the going rate for a hotel in Hawaiʻi. And it is possible to pay less but I think the point of a vacation to Hawaiʻi is to splurge for a view.

Our area had a few restaurants but more importantly it had a grocery store right across the street. Eating in Hawaiʻi is just expensive. You could easily spend 75 dollars for a lunch for 2 so we decided to make our own lunch occasionally.

In Lahaina downtown there is plenty of shopping and restaurants to take part in. We went back to Lahaina a couple of days, either to walk around or have something to eat. In the resort areas there weren’t actually that many choices for restaurants. I can definitely recommend the Lahaina Fish Company in downtown Lahaina. It has free parking if you’re taking a car and has an amazing view of the ocean.

Lahaina also has many wooden crafts on the streets and it’s worth a visit to see the Banyan tree in the middle of Lahaina. I’m not even sure how old the tree is but once you see how many roots and other tree’s it has made; it’s pretty amazing.

Koholā Brewery

About 2 minutes from downtown Lahaina there is the the Koholā Brewery that really doesn’t look like a place customers should be. The actual brewery sells beer out of a warehouse and sells all types of local beer. It’s something worth considering if you’re in downtown Lahaina. The guy that owns it has some chairs set up with board games while you sip your beer!

Whale Watching

From the Lahaina docks it’s possible to take all kind of boat tours. I signed Roman up for a whale watching boat tour for his birthday and we could have not picked a better day. We ended up having the perfect morning out on the water as the water was super calm and no wind.

Not only the weather, the whales actually jumped for us. We saw at least 10 whales, some with babies, some tail slapping, some jumping and some males fighting. It was truly a memorable experience and I recorded most of our tour. We even heard what whales sound like when the “sing” to each other from a device that our tour operator stuck in the water.

Mt Haleakalā

On the other side of the island from Lahaina there is the famous Mt. Haleakalā. It’s a dormant volcano and it’s possible to drive all the way to the summit. We had to reserve a date and time to watch the sunrise, as is the tradition for tourists but after 7 am anybody can go up.

From Lahaina the drive to Mt. Haleakalā is long, around 2 hours to reach the summit. It is worth it but we also went on a day that ended up being cloudy. So waking up at 3 in the morning to go watch a sunrise maybe extreme for most people.

The problem is just that though. It’s usually cloudy at the top of Mt. Haleakalā and you may only have a clear view lasting minutes. There is no way to judge what will happen so we went hoping we would get a great view. We only saw glimpses of the sunrise though and that’s okay.

For me the cool part about Mt. Haleakalā is that you are in fact higher up than the clouds for much of the time. In a bizarre feeling it really does feel like you’re driving on clouds, especially when coming down the mountain.

When we finished our morning on the mountain we ate at the Kula Lodge that’s on the road back down and it was actually pretty good. There is also the nearby Lavender Farm, which we did on our last day in Maui and we somewhat liked it. It did smell great but it was only semi interesting.

Road to Hana

One of the last touristy things we did was drive one morning on the Road to Hana. We never actually completed the journey since we just felt like we had seen most of it on the first part of the trek. We did stop in at the Garden of Eden Arboretum, which was kind of cool.

This part of the island is very wet and lush so it’s known for growing more tropical plants as well as beautiful waterfalls. To be honest even by 8 in the morning the area was packed and so it made less fun. We couldn’t even find parking at most of the waterfalls we came across. For me this is not a must attraction to do.

Hanging out in Kāʻanapali

A lot of the time we just enjoyed our condo and had fun walking on the local beaches. Hawaiʻi is not know for its wide beaches but the backdrop, the huge waves and the access to a lot of amenities make up for that. Having eating options nearby we could easily walk to eat if we needed to.

We spent a lot of our time on our lanai playing Civ’s, drinking coffee, beer or rum. Hearing the waves crash behind us, it was nice to relax to the view every night. For us, part of what made the vacation fun was that we didn’t have to do something all the time.

Review of Maui

Maui is truly a tourist paradise and unlike Kauaʻi, it’s more developed with more options to do things. What I really loved about Maui was the ease of access to get to some of the most scenic parts of the island.

And on calm days we really saw much of the Hawaiian Islands from one spot. While we were out whale watching it was possible to see 5 of the other islands. Pretty cool experience in itself.

Some of the highlights of Maui was definitely the whale watching. It’s pretty common to have thousands of whales just off the coast of Lahaina and all we had to do was book a tour to see them. We got lucky with the day we went since the weather was so calm and the waves were non-existent. On top of that the whales decided to jump for us and that was amazing.

The only negative I can say about Maui is that it is expensive to do anything and that’s true of all the Hawaiian Islands. Eating out is expensive, hotels are very expensive, and excursions are very expensive. So it’s a bit of a downer to want to do something but you have to choose, if you have a budget. Also activities are booked up months in advance so we had to be on top of what we wanted to do before we got to Hawaiʻi.

Because Maui is more touristy, there is a bit more traffic than Kauaʻi and although it isn’t bumper to bumper, it’s just better to prepare for that. Lahaina can get quite busy, especially on a cruise day but it didn’t ruin any part of our trip.