Maui has its own charm, distinct from the other islands. I might describe it as containing elements of Oahu and the Big Island: Maui has beautiful beaches and gorgeous resorts like Oahu, but is bigger in land mass and less dense, with more volcanoes and tropical forests like the Big Island (but probably not as lush as Kauai). There were taller mountains and more of them than in Oahu, and a really big one was there to greet us as our plane descended onto the island. I noticed during my time there that it felt considerably hotter than Oahu during the day, but considerably cooler at night.

The sunsets here are beautiful. In my opinion you can’t go wrong with any of the beaches. We went to Cove Beach Park and Charley Young Beach which were right down the block from our place in Kihei. At Cove Beach Park, the waves were pretty sizable, so we brought bodyboards out there. At Charley Young Beach, just before the sunset, everyone stood up to observe the gorgeous sunset, especially in the fleeting moments when the sun hid behind the clouds and exuded rays out from behind the clouds.

The stars are also amazingly clear here — you don’t get nearly as much light pollution as in Oahu. My mom, who is way more knowledgeable about stars and constellations, showed me Scorpio — big and clear in the night sky facing south — and the three stars that made a large triangle facing north — one was a lyre, another was the tail of a swan, and the third was an eagle.

General Tips:

• Bring reef-safe sunscreen (can get it here too) — save the reefs!
• Bring cash (some places only take cash, and there are no mainland banks here, so you would have to do cash back at grocery stores to get cash)
• If you’re renting a car, download the Turo or Hui app — Hui is nice in that you can rent by the hour rather than the full day. There is a bus here but it didn’t seem nearly as robust as in downtown Oahu.
• In general, don’t rely on finding great WiFi or service here. We stayed at a nice (pricey) Airbnb right by the beach, which you would expect to have WiFi, but it was practically nonexistent. Even email would take forever to load. You might have to go to a Starbucks, as I did, if you need decent WiFi. I think this was mainly a problem with our Airbnb, but have a backup plan just in case.

I would recommend spending at least 3 days here, and I group this guide by 3 days of activities that are must-dos in Maui:

The Road to Hana

Haleakala National Park

Lahaina

I also end with my favorite food spots!

ROAD TO HANA

The Road to Hana is a 64.4-mile stretch of road hugging the beautiful coastline of Maui. An uninterrupted car trip takes about 2.5 hours to drive, since the highway is very windy, narrow, and passes over 59 bridges (many of the concrete and steel bridges date back to 1910 and all but one are still in use!), of which 46 are only one lane wide, hence the 25mph or less speed limit the entire way. But you’re going to want all day for the drive since the road goes through lush, tropical rainforest and there are many stops along the way including beautiful waterfalls, hikes, and roadside stands selling banana bread and fresh coconuts.

Since this is an ALL DAY trip, leave as early as you can! Depending on what you want to see, it can take 8-12 hours and you don’t want to be driving at night on these winding roads. I would highly recommend downloading the Gypsy Guide app beforehand — it costs a few dollars but it incorporates GPS so every time we passed a certain point it would start narrating about the particular location we were in, which worked well as there’s very little cell service on the Road to Hana. It also was helpful in suggesting the must-see destinations and alerting you when you were approaching a stop, as the signs on the road are not the clearest. And it provided some informative context and history on the places we were visiting.

We drove through Paia (fill up your gas tank here!) and arrived at the starting point for the Road to Hana by 7.30am, which is not a bad time, though of course we could have started earlier, as we didn’t make it all the way to the end. The roads reminded me of the Pacific Coast Highway — they were also on top of a cliff along the beautiful coastline — but the scenery here was much lusher and more tropical, and the roads were very winding and tortuous, with many one-lane bridges too, so we could rarely go faster than 30mph. Almost every bridge has a waterfall or a stream/river below, including one where people were jumping into the waterfall pool from a rope hanging from the trees — it looked like so much fun, and the water looked so refreshing and inviting. Will have to do it next time!  

Suggested Stops:  

1. Ho’okipa Lookout: I heard the beach has sea turtles, but we just saw the beach from the lookout point, so we saw a chicken and her little chicks instead.
2. Twin Falls: A nice 1.5-mile or so hike among bamboo and tropical forest to reach the upper falls — we came close enough to see the upper falls but didn’t go all the way because it required stepping through water. Get here early in the morning, as parking fills up fast and we saw cars being turned away as we were leaving! 
3. Painted Forest: Not a stop, just a drive-thru, but a cool forest of eucalyptus trees with what looked like brightly colored paint marks on their trunks  
4. Waikamoi Ridge Forest Trail and Overlook: A quick 0.8-mi loop up and down a mountain — not too difficult. It was pretty but maybe don’t stop here if you’re pressed for time and want to make it to the end.  
5. Kaumahina State Wayside Park: Quick stop for a nice view of the coastline and decent bathrooms  
6. Ke’anae Peninsula: Beautiful view of the coastline, with black lava rock formations and tide pools with lots of little fish (at the end of the road if you continue past Aunty Sandy’s).
   1. The Gypsy Guide told us that Aunty Sandy’s has the best banana bread, and probably largely because of the marketing, the line there was quite long, and we were initially skeptical. But I can confirm that it really is worth the wait! Earlier we bought a slice of banana bread for $6 from Garden Café which tasted more like store bought banana bread (though we saw a cute peacock couple and their baby peacock!). Here we got a small loaf for $8, and it was definitely on another level, like homemade bread! We paired it with a fruit smoothie and a chili & rice, which were okay. The banana bread is their real specialty. Fyi they aren’t open on Sundays!
7. Wailua Overlook: Beautiful panoramic view of the ocean and lush hills leading down to the ocean.  
8. 3 Bears – Upper Waikani Falls: Called 3 bears because there’s 3 little waterfalls next to each other. Right by the road so can drive by slowly.    
9. Wainapanapa State Wayside Park: Heard the Black Sand Beach is really beautiful so definitely get reservations in advance if you can. We didn’t get reservations unfortunately but were still able to do the Hana Lava Tube ($15/person for renting a flashlight – cash only!) — a 0.5 mile or so walk inside a cave. The lava tube was created by underground lava rivers (the ceiling is cooled lava, while lava continued to flow through the tunnel — isn’t that cool??) about 960 years ago. We saw lava stalagmites, red rock (indicating the presence of iron), a “chocolate” corridor of stalactites that looked like inverted Hershey kisses. It was a nice cool respite (the temperature ranges between 66-72ºF with a constant 70% humidity) from the humidity and heat above.
10. Hana town: A cute, quiet little town but not much to see. There’s one gas station.
    1. Would’ve liked to see the Kaihalulu Beach (red sand beach) if I had the time: apparently it requires a bit of a walk/light hike, but you can just put it in google maps and go left hugging the coastline.
11. Wailua Falls: right off the highway — a beautiful, tall waterfall   
12. Pipiwai Bamboo Trail: 2.5 hr, 4 mi round trip hike thru bamboo forest to upper and lower falls — it’s recommended to get here by 1pm
13. Oheo Gulch (7 Sacred Pools): Heard the beach here is pretty too.

If I were to do this again I would probably stay in Hana for the night, so you have more time to enjoy all the stops, and the driving takes a toll (especially in the afternoon — I became very sleepy, and the heat did not help!). We also didn’t go swimming at any of the waterfalls, but several people did that and it looked like a lot of fun, not to mention immensely refreshing from the summer heat.

Make sure to bring plenty of cash, as several places only take cash. Also bring bug spray or wear long sleeves — I got several bug bites. And drink a lot of water — it is hot and humid out there, and even though I wasn’t hiking all that much, I still became quite dehydrated just sitting in the car and getting out for all the stops. And there are port-a-potties all around, which aren’t ideal but should at least encourage you to keep drinking water!

HALEAKALA NATIONAL PARK  

Two tips:

1. Bring layers! Having become acclimated to the warm, always-above-70-degree-weather in Hawaii, I forgot that it can get cold here! The entrance to Haleakala National Park is at the top of the mountain (10,000 feet!). It reminded me of the Rocky Mountains up there — cold, biting wind, not much vegetation. I had to buy a long sleeve at the visitor’s center, which I guess will make a good souvenir.
2. Put on lots of sunscreen, and put it on every inch of your skin that is exposed! There is little shade up there, and you are much closer to the blazing sun! In my haste to put on sunscreen I left out a portion of my neck, which turned out to be the one part that probably got the most direct sunlight, and only in the evening when I felt my neck stinging while in the shower did I realize I had a bad sunburn.

We did the main Sliding Sands Trail, which goes down into the expansive crater from the top and then branches out into other trails. We didn’t hike the entire 11 miles, just hiked to the bottom and back up, for a total of about 8 miles. The hike down took us about 1.5 hours and the hike back up took us about 3 hours. The only signs of life were the silversword shrubs (with quite strong stems), other than that it was just black lava rock and sand and the cinder cones within the expansive crater, which actually isn’t a volcanic crater but rather it was formed by erosion, with multiple cinder cones within it. It was a really nice view being on top of the clouds, and the sky was so blue (which made for an even stronger sun!).  

Afterwards we stopped at the summit near the observatories for some gorgeous views of the ocean blending into the sky and the city down below, covered by a layer of white cumulus clouds. On the way back down the mountain, we also stopped briefly at a couple lookout points, but didn’t stay for long because it was so chilly! Back at sea level, it was so nice to open the car door and feel the warm air. 

LAHAINA

Lahaina is a cute town on the west coast of the island that reminded me a little of Martha’s Vineyard. We walked by multiple art galleries with gorgeous photos of the Maui landscape, gift shops selling jewelry, clothes, authentic European posters, etc., and lots of ice cream and gelato and dole whip shops.

• A must-see here is the banyan tree. At first I just saw a big tree in the middle of a small plaza, with multiple trunks making up its trunk base, and thought, well this is nice. I figured it was just the oldest tree in Maui and the largest banyan tree in the U.S. and provided nice shade. Then I realized that all the trees in the plaza were part of the same tree. The slightly smaller trees surrounding it were all connected! That is, it has 16 trunks (it looks like the roots dangling from the branches eventually made it to the ground and become a trunk?!). Now I see why it’s so incredible.

• If you’re craving gelato, Hawaii Gelato has all the flavors you can want.
• Ululani’s Shave Ice: Must try their leche + coconut flavored shave ice with macadamia nut ice cream and azuki beans (red bean), with condensed milk on top. It’s a chain shop so you can find it in other towns too!

Black Rock Beach (near Kaanapali Beach Hotel)

I had read on multiple websites that Black Rock Beach is a must go-to beach for snorkeling, as there are sea turtles and a lot of fish here. We ran into issues finding parking (don’t follow Google Maps, which takes you all the way to the top of the cliff to hotel parking, which isn’t open to the public — instead Google “beach parking” or something like that and you’ll find a parking lot with public access to the beach) and then finding the actual beach itself (again, don’t follow Google Maps, which took us on this long detour and we ended up at a dead end up on the hill again. The beach is actually right where the black cliff rocks are – you might see people cliff jumping into the water).

The waves here were huge! The biggest ones I’ve encountered this summer. It wasn’t nice like Waikiki Beach where you could just jump through them. Here, they came at you so big you were looking up into them, and they pushed and shoved you around (often all the way to shore), and came from multiple sides! I saw zero turtles or fish — in fact, I couldn’t see anything underwater but murky green. Despite the snorkeling disappointment, the nightlife here is fantastic. The area truly felt like an island getaway — you’ve got the huts with the thatched roofs, the acoustic music, the fancy restaurants with torches outside overlooking the ocean, the palm trees, the pools and nice resorts, the outdoor mall boasting luxury clothing stores, and hotels with ocean views and bustling with tourists. It is truly paradise, especially for a romantic couple.  

FOOD

Near the airport: The airport is pretty much in the middle of the island, so in hindsight this would’ve been a good place to stay if you’re planning to explore both sides of the island.

• Tasaka Guri-Guri: froyo/sherbet place that’s only found on Maui!

• Tin Roof: I literally found this on Google Maps but would highly recommend their mochiko chicken. I didn’t find their pork belly to be as good. 

Kihei: We stayed here and this town is apparently known for their good food!

• Sugar Beach Bake Shop: the most amazing malasadas (Portuguese donut). Their ube (purple yam), lilikoi (passionfruit), and coconut cream malasadas are so good — ube is probably my favorite, but the coconut cream has a nice distinct flavor and the lilikoi ones are a little sour but tangy. The yeast dough was so soft and freshly baked, the filling light and sweet, the powdered sugar on top an added plus. The dough itself isn’t sweet, so the filling and powdered sugar give it just the right sweetness. Come before 9am to make sure you get the malasadas before they run out! We had to come back here one more time before leaving Maui. Their macadamia sticky bun is also very good, and I liked their croissants as well.

• Paia Fish Market: come for delicious fish platters. There’s also one in Paia town (and one on Oahu).

• Eskimo Candy: no candy here but a great lunch place for poke bowls and coconut shrimp!

• Sansei Seafood Restaurant: a nice Japanese place. Must try their butterfish (which in Hawaiian is actually “black cod,” which is not actually cod but sablefish), marinated, roasted and drenched in a sake and miso sauce. So tender and tasty. Their sushi is pretty good too.