Maui County, Hawaiʻi
A 10,023-foot summit you can drive to but need a permit to see at dawn, sixty-four miles of one-lane bridges to Hāna, and a channel shallow and warm enough to hold the densest concentration of humpback whales in Hawaiʻi every winter. Here is how to spend the days you have.
UnsplashToday
Kahului's forecast is not Hāna's and neither is the summit's. Air and water temperature, the marine picture for the Molokini crossing, UV at sea level, and what it is doing at 10,000 feet before dawn.
78°
Partly cloudy · feels like 82°
TodayHigh 79° · Low 68°
Sunrise 6:13 AMSunset 6:22 PM
Rain is likely most of the day — a good day for the rainy-day list.
Updated
Full forecast and tidesEarly morning, 7 AM – 12 PM
Rain is likely most of the day — a good day for the rainy-day list.
Outdoor comfort98 out of 100 · Excellent
Sweet spot around 9 AM at 75°F.
Keep an indoor option in reserve — the rest of the day is unsettled.
Updated
BoatingFair
Seas near 2.6 ft and 15 mph of wind — fine offshore in a big hull, unpleasant in a small one.
SwimmingGood
Water at 83°F, surf around 2.6 ft. Comfortable for a long swim.
SnorkelingFair
Chop near 2.6 ft stirs sand and cuts visibility. Pick a lee shore.
FishingGood
Seas 2.6 ft with 15 mph of wind. Comfortable nearshore, workable offshore.
Updated
Places
A summit above the cloud layer, a black-sand cove at Waiʻānapanapa, the valley where the Battle of Kepaniwai was fought, and the beaches that are worth the drive from wherever you are staying.
Park
A 10,023-foot volcano with a reservation system at the gate and a second district four hours away on the far side of the island.
3–8 hoursAround $30 per private vehicle, valid three days and covering both districts. Sunrise entry needs a separate $1 reservation.
Historic site
A green spire 1,200 feet above the valley floor, in a place Hawaiians remember as a battlefield rather than a viewpoint.
0.5–1.5 hoursNon-residents pay a per-vehicle parking fee plus a per-person entry fee, both booked in advance. Hawaiʻi residents with state ID are free.
Park
Black basalt sand, freshwater caves and an ancient coastal trail, three miles before Hāna — and you cannot get in without booking ahead.
1–2.5 hoursNon-residents pay per-vehicle parking plus a per-person entry fee, both by advance reservation. Hawaiʻi residents with state ID are free.
Nature preserve
A sunken crescent of volcanic rock three miles offshore, with water clear enough to see the bottom from the deck.
4–6 hoursNo entry fee to the conservation district itself; access is entirely through paid boat charters, which on Maui sit at the premium end of the market.
Beach
Three miles of public sand, a lava headland called Puʻu Kekaʻa, and free beach parking the resorts are legally required to keep.
2–7 hoursFree. Public beach access and the mandated resort stalls cost nothing; Whalers Village charges for parking with validation.
Beach
Maui's wave-sailing arena, watched from a clifftop lookout, where green sea turtles drag themselves onto the sand most afternoons.
0.5–2 hoursFree. Both the beach park and the clifftop lookout are free to enter and free to park at.
Beach
Two-thirds of a mile of undeveloped gold sand backed by a cinder cone, with a shorebreak that puts people in hospital every year.
1.5–5 hoursBeach access is free; non-residents pay to park at the state park kiosks.
Trail
Four miles through a banyan, a boardwalk bamboo forest and two stream bridges, ending under a 400-foot waterfall.
2.5–5 hoursCovered by the Haleakalā National Park entrance fee, around $30 per vehicle and valid three days across both districts.
Start here
Sunrise on the crater rim, a morning boat to Molokini, the whole Hāna road, an afternoon upcountry at Kula. Four or five of these is a good Maui week. Ten is a bad one.
Things to do
Haleakalā is the reason Maui has the shape it does. The eastern three quarters of the island is one shield volcano, and its summit at Puʻu ʻUlaʻula…
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Things to do
The Hāna Highway is not the road to a place. It is the place. Highway 36 becomes Highway 360 a few miles past Pāʻia, and from there it runs roughly…
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Things to do
Molokini is a crescent of rock sitting in open water in the ʻAlalākeiki Channel, about three miles off the Mākena coast and about eight miles from…
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The stretch of water between Maui, Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi and Kahoʻolawe is the reason humpback whales are the thing Maui is best at. That basin, Maui…
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Things to do
Drive twenty-five minutes uphill from Kahului and Maui stops being a beach. The Haleakalā Highway climbs through the old cane land into pasture, the…
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Maui has reef on three sides and each side has a different season. That single sentence explains most of the disappointment visitors report about…
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Who it suits
Maui is an excellent family island with two conspicuous exceptions, and it saves a lot of disappointment to name them first. Sunrise at Haleakalā…
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Things to do
Maui has one heliport, and it is at Kahului Airport. Every tour flight on this island leaves from there, which simplifies planning enormously and…
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Budget
Maui has the most expensive activity market in this network and one of the better free ones, which is a stranger combination than it sounds. The…
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Things to do
Maui's waterfalls are concentrated on one side of the island for a simple reason. Trade winds push moist air against the eastern slope of Haleakalā…
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Book it
Maui runs the most expensive tour inventory in our network, with a median price several times what a comparable trip costs elsewhere. We say what the money buys — departure harbour, group size, morning or afternoon water, and whether the cheaper option is the same experience.
Some links below go to Viator, our booking partner. We earn a commission on bookings made through them — at no extra cost to you, and with no influence on what we recommend.
Why we chose it
A first-wave departure from Māʻalaea, on the mooring before the fleet arrives, with a second stop at the Mākena turtle shoreline. Look for a boat with shade, a toilet and crew in the water rather than on the rail, and check the advertised water time rather than the trip length. The difference between the 7am and the 10am boat is visibility you can measure.
Short term availability
West Maui Half Day Snorkel from Ka’anapali Beach (opens in a new tab)
Your West Maui Snorkel adventure departs from Kaanapali Beach. Along the way keep your eyes open for Hawaiian spinner dolphins, bottle…
4 hours
Prices checked
Why we chose it
The large power catamarans solve the parts of this day that go wrong with kids: a toilet, real shade, a galley, flotation vests and a stable hull for the channel crossing. Many carry a slide and a floating platform, which buys you the twenty minutes when a seven-year-old is done with snorkelling but the boat is not done with the mooring.
Short term availability
Maui Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini and Turtle Town (opens in a new tab)
Visit Maui’s famous snorkeling and diving destinations Molokini Crater and Turtle Town (or Coral Gardens) on a snorkeling catamaran…
5–6 hours
Prices checked
This season
Humpbacks from December, the last of them in April, southern swell on the south shore in summer, the warmest and clearest water of the year in September and October, and red-flag fire weather on the leeward slopes when the trades blow hard.
September and October are Maui's quietest weeks and, for most people who are not tied to a school calendar, its best. The ocean is at its warmest of the year, around eighty degrees, Molokini visibility is usually at its peak, and you can walk onto a snorkel boat that would have been sold out in July.
Coastal highs hold near ninety through September and ease into the mid-eighties by November. Lodging and activity rates drop until Thanksgiving week, which spikes hard and briefly and then releases again into early December.
The trade-off is hurricane season, which runs through the end of November in the central Pacific. Direct hits on Maui are rare. What is not rare is a system passing a few hundred miles south, closing harbours and cancelling boats for two or three days with perfectly blue sky overhead, so take the refundable booking. Upcountry is at its best now: the coffee and lavender farms at Kula, the tasting room at ʻUlupalakua, and evenings cool enough that Makawao feels like the paniolo town it actually is.
Things to do
Maui dives better than its reputation suggests, and the reason is volcanic. The island's leeward coast is young lava that fell into deep water, so…
Things to do
Molokini is a crescent of rock sitting in open water in the ʻAlalākeiki Channel, about three miles off the Mākena coast and about eight miles from…
Things to do
Drive twenty-five minutes uphill from Kahului and Maui stops being a beach. The Haleakalā Highway climbs through the old cane land into pasture, the…
Things to do
Haleakalā is the reason Maui has the shape it does. The eastern three quarters of the island is one shield volcano, and its summit at Puʻu ʻUlaʻula…
Who it suits
Maui's romantic reputation is not manufactured, but it is badly distributed. The things that sell it, sunset sails, luaus, a walk on Kāʻanapali, are…
Index
Twenty-six ways into the island, from a dawn permit on the crater rim to a wet-afternoon plan for when the windward side decides to rain on your Hāna day.
About us
We name the harbour a boat leaves from, we say when a reservation is the thing standing between you and the view, and we tell you when we could not confirm a price. On West Maui we follow what residents and the county have asked visitors to do, and we re-check that before every update. Where a booking earns us a commission, the link says so.
We are a small editorial team that covers Maui and nowhere else on this site. Everything here — the descriptions, the comparisons, the reasons one boat suits a family of six better than another — is written by us. Nothing on this page is an operator’s marketing copy reprinted as if it were ours.
We name what costs money and roughly how much, we say when a car park fills by mid-morning, and we say when a boat only runs between April and October. Where we have not been able to confirm a price or an opening time ourselves, we say that too rather than guessing — hours and fees change seasonally, so check before you travel.
Our news items are assembled from verified sources and are labelled where they were machine drafted; every one is checked against the source before it is published. Our editorial standards page sets out the whole method, including how we correct an error once we know about it.
Last updated — the date an editor last went through this page end to end.
Who you are with
A family with a seven-year-old who will not last six hours in a car, two people with one big night in the budget, and anybody looking for what this island gives away for nothing. Different Mauis.
Travelling with kids
Who it suits
Maui is an excellent family island with two conspicuous exceptions, and it saves a lot of disappointment to name them first. Sunrise at Haleakalā…
Two of you
Who it suits
Maui's romantic reputation is not manufactured, but it is badly distributed. The things that sell it, sunset sails, luaus, a walk on Kāʻanapali, are…
Spending nothing
Budget
Maui has the most expensive activity market in this network and one of the better free ones, which is a stranger combination than it sounds. The…
When the windward side wins
Who it suits
The most useful thing to know about rain on Maui is that it is a map problem rather than a calendar problem. The trade winds come out of the…
Where things are
Which departures leave Māʻalaea and which leave Lahaina, where the state parks need a reservation before you drive there, and which beach pull-offs have no facilities and no lot at all.
Every place shown on this map is also listed below as a link, grouped by area.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
News
Park and road closures, reservation-system changes, harbour and operator updates, and West Maui recovery news from the county. Short items, dated, and checked against a primary source before we post them.
Travel alert
Direct hits are rare. Near misses that bring surf, rain and flight disruption are not, and they cluster in the back half of the season.
Travel alert
Around 1,500 people live along the Hāna Highway and drive it to work. The convention at the bridges is simple, it works, and visitors routinely break it.
Travel alert
Hawaiʻi restricts the sale of oxybenzone and octinoxate. Maui County goes further and reaches the bottle in your beach bag.
Travel alert
Two of Maui's best-known state parks require non-residents to hold a reservation booked in advance. Turning up without one means turning around.
Last updated . We date every item so you can tell how old the information is.
Guides
How the Haleakalā reservation actually works, what a Hāna day looks like hour by hour, which snorkel spots are worth a rental car, and how to visit West Maui in a way its residents have asked for.
Guide
The trade winds decide this, not the guidebooks. Almost every good snorkelling site on Maui is excellent at eight in the morning and mediocre by two in the afternoon.
10 min readDana Whitfield
Guide
Water in the morning, land in the afternoon, and the three reservations booked before you fly. Order the week that way and Maui stops feeling like a driving holiday.
11 min readMarcus Reyes
Guide
On Maui the family variable is water. Some of these beaches are a bathtub and one of them has sent more people to hospital with spinal injuries than any beach in the state.
10 min readKealoha Nakamura
Guide
A timed reservation is required for every vehicle entering the summit between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m., and the good dates go in minutes. Here is how the system works, and when to skip it.
9 min readDana Whitfield
Guide
Sixty-four miles, around 600 curves and 59 bridges, most of them one lane. The road is the destination, and the people who live along it are the reason to drive it well.
10 min readKealoha Nakamura
Guide
Maui is bigger than the map suggests and three of its headline sites now need a reservation booked before you leave home. Get those two things right and the rest of the week arranges itself.
10 min readKealoha Nakamura
Last updated . Guides are revisited when prices, hours or access change.
Keep in touch
One email a week, built around the thing you have to book two months out: what is open, what has closed, which reservations have changed, and where the whales are. Nothing else.
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