Water feature
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Eighty feet of water beside the road south of Hāna, and the only serious Maui waterfall you can see without leaving the car.
Wailua Falls drops around 80 feet off a mossy basalt wall into a rock pool a few metres from the edge of Highway 31, and it is visible through the windscreen as you come around the bend. That is the whole proposition, and it is a better one than it sounds. On an island where the largest waterfalls are in helicopter-only country and the best walkable one is four miles round trip, a genuinely tall fall reachable without leaving the tarmac is unusual.
It sits just past mile marker 45, south of Hāna town, on the stretch where the Hāna Highway has become Piʻilani Highway and the mile markers count down towards Kīpahulu. That location matters more than the fall itself does: day-trippers who turn around at Hāna never see it. Everyone continuing to the Pīpīwai Trail passes it, usually about seven minutes before they reach the park.
The setting is a narrow, steep-sided gulch smothered in ferns and hala, with the water landing in a shallow pool that drains under a one-lane bridge. Because the gulch is deep and the vegetation is heavy, the falls sit in shade much of the day, which is why so many photographs of it look flat and green. That is the accurate version, not a failed one.
Parking is the problem. The pull-out is on the ocean side just past the falls, it holds a handful of cars, and the approach is a blind curve into a single-lane bridge. Stopping on the bridge to take a photograph is the specific thing that causes trouble here, for local traffic and for everyone behind you.
There are usually a couple of roadside vendors in the lay-by selling fruit, banana bread, shave ice and crafts. Cash only, and intermittent. There are no restrooms.
A short, steep, frequently muddy path drops to the base of the falls. It is slippery, unmaintained, and busier with people scrambling than the pool is worth.
Drive the Hāna Highway to Hāna town, then continue south on Highway 31. The mile markers count down from Hāna: the falls are just past mile marker 45, roughly fifteen minutes south of town and about seven minutes short of the Kīpahulu Visitor Center at marker 42.
Pass the waterfall, then pull into the small lay-by on the ocean side. There is space for only a handful of cars. Do not stop on the one-lane bridge — the approach is blind in both directions and this is an active local road to Kīpahulu and Kaupō.
If the lay-by is full, continue to Kīpahulu and catch the falls on the return leg, when it is usually clear.
Any standard rental car handles this section; the paved road continues comfortably to the national park. It is the stretch beyond Kīpahulu that most rental agreements exclude.
Two separate mix-ups send visitors to the wrong island or the wrong mile marker.
Wailua Falls, Kauaʻi. The wide double-drop waterfall from the opening titles of Fantasy Island is on Kauaʻi, off Māʻalo Road north of Līhuʻe, and it is roughly twice the height of the Maui one. If someone has shown you a photograph of two parallel columns of water falling into a broad green amphitheatre, that is the Kauaʻi fall. Maui's Wailua is a single drop into a tight gulch.
Wailua village, Maui. There is a Wailua on the north side of the Hāna road, around mile markers 18 and 19 on Route 360 — a small Hawaiian community with taro fields, the Wailua Valley State Wayside overlook and Coral Miracle Church. It is 27 miles and well over an hour from the waterfall. Satnav entries for "Wailua, Maui" frequently point there.
The waterfall is on Highway 31, just past mile marker 45, south of Hāna. The markers descend on that road: you pass 48, then 46, then the falls, then eventually 42 for the national park at Kīpahulu. If your mile markers are going up, you are on the wrong side of Hāna.
The name itself is common across the islands — wai lua, two waters — which is a large part of why the confusion persists.
The lay-by is on the makai side, just past the falls, and it takes only a handful of vehicles. Drive past the waterfall first, then pull in. Trying to stop as you see it means stopping short of or on the bridge.
Do not stop on the one-lane bridge. It is the single worst habit at this site. The bridge has no sightline from either approach, local traffic uses this road to get to Kīpahulu and Kaupō, and a stationary rental car on it is both a hazard and the thing residents complain about most on the south road.
If the lay-by is full, carry on to Kīpahulu, do the Pīpīwai Trail, and catch the falls on the way back north. It is seven minutes up the road and it will almost certainly be empty by then.
Crossing the road on foot deserves the same caution. Traffic comes out of the curve with no warning, and visitors step out while looking at the waterfall rather than the road.
Vendors set up in the lay-by when they feel like it — fruit, banana bread, shave ice, shell and wood crafts. It is cash only and there is no signal. If you want to buy something on this road, small notes are the enabler.
There are no restrooms here. The nearest are in Hāna behind you or at the Kīpahulu Visitor Center ahead.
A short unofficial path leads down from the lay-by end of the bridge to the pool at the base. It is perhaps five minutes, it is steep, it is usually muddy, and the last few metres are on wet rounded boulders.
Whether it is worth it depends on the day.
For most visitors the honest answer is to look at it from the road, take two minutes rather than twenty, and spend the time saved at Kīpahulu. The falls read better from the roadside than they do from the pool anyway, because you can see the full drop.
For photographs: the gulch is shaded and green, so overcast is kinder than sun. Include the road edge or the bridge rail for scale if you want the height to register. Keep the lens covered on the approach — spray carries further than it looks.
Operators run these trips past Wailua Falls, or stop there as part of a longer route. We list what the booking data supports — not everything that mentions the name.
Booking through these earns us a commission from Viator. You pay the same, and payment did not decide what is listed.
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Just past mile marker 45 on Highway 31, about fifteen minutes south of Hāna town and seven minutes before the Kīpahulu Visitor Center. The mile markers count down on that road, so if yours are increasing you are on the wrong side of Hāna. It is not at Wailua village, which is a separate place around mile markers 18 and 19 on the north side of the Hāna road, more than an hour away.
No. That is Wailua Falls on Kauaʻi, off Māʻalo Road north of Līhuʻe, a wide double drop roughly twice the height of the Maui one. Maui's Wailua Falls is a single fall of about 80 feet into a narrow fern-covered gulch beside the road south of Hāna. The name is common across the Hawaiian islands, which is why the two get confused constantly in search results and satnav entries.
There is a pool at the base and people do get in, reached by a short steep muddy path from the lay-by. It is reasonable in dry conditions and a bad idea after rain, when the flow triples and the rocks turn treacherous. Falling rock beneath a wet wall is a real hazard, and leptospirosis applies to every freshwater pool on Maui — no open cuts, head above water, rinse off afterwards. Most visitors are better off looking from the road.
No, and that is the whole point of it. The fall is visible from the road as you come around the bend, and from the small lay-by just past it, with no walking required. On an island where Maui's tallest waterfalls need a helicopter and the best walkable one is a four-mile round trip, a proper 80-foot fall from a car window is genuinely unusual. Drive past it first, then pull in — do not stop on the one-lane bridge.
