Map of Maui — Maui Island

6 min readDec 11, 2018

Picking a place to stay while visiting Maui can be daunting. Different regions have very different characteristics. The main choices are West Maui, South Maui, Central Maui and Hana. Each has pluses and minuses. Below we sum up the different towns and regions.

WEST MAUI

West Maui — playground of the rich and famous? Those are the words that could have described this area hundreds of years ago when Hawaiian royalty spent considerable time frolicking in West Maui waters and sampling its delights. Today, West Maui serves as a playground for the rest of us. Calm waters, some great beaches, limitless activities and an exciting, dynamic town: West Maui delivers on its legacy of fun.

Lahaina

Lahaina is the only town in all of leeward Maui with a real downtown. If someone told you to meet them in downtown Kihei, you wouldn’t have any idea where they meant. Same goes for Wailea, Kapalua, Ka‘anapali or Napili. Though it’s only 1.5 miles long, downtown Lahaina is well-defined and bursting with things to see and do. Lahaina should be viewed as an event, not a place. You do Lahaina. You go there to eat, shop, walk and gawk.

Ka‘anapali

Ka‘anapali was part of a large sugar plantation when the sugar company’s board met in 1956 and hatched a plan that would soon be repeated around the globe — the master planned destination resort, the first in Hawai‘i. The large landowners had their pick of where to put the resort, and they chose the fantastic Ka‘anapali Beach as their showcase to the world. (If you’d owned the entire island back then, you too, probably would have chosen this beach.) It opened in 1962 and has been admired ever since.

Kapalua

Farther north, Kapalua is an incredibly manicured oasis of green in this wind-swept part of the island. The gardening bill must be immense because no dead leaf goes unpunished.

SOUTH MAUI

Ahh, South Maui. Land of sun and beaches and visions of offshore islands.

Until the mid-1900s, there were few people living in South Maui. Lack of water made it difficult to grow things, and, after all, what else was land good for? Today we know it’s good for growing Hawai‘i’s most important cash crop — visitors! South Maui gets so little rain (many years it may only rain three or four times), and its beaches are so extraordinary that it’s a mecca for anyone looking for a dreamy, dependable tropical vacation.

Kihei

Kihei is the unplanned outcome of South Maui’s explosion of popularity during the 1970s and ’80s. It’s a linear collection of condos and strip malls. While it certainly lacks the old world charm of Lahaina, Kihei doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is — a beach town — where everything is water-related.

Wailea

This is the premier resort area on the island (Kapalua’s and Ka‘anapali’s claims notwithstanding). Expensive resorts line its heavenly beaches. Some, like the Fairmont Kea Lani, are so posh and exotic, you’ll weep when you finally have to go back to the real world. While Kihei was every man for himself development, the Wailea area had a single owner with a single vision: grand, green, groomed and golf.

Ma‘alaea

At the intersection of Hwys 30 and 31, Ma‘alaea was feared and despised by early airborne visitors. Because it was here, where the Kealia Pond now exists, that clueless aviation officials chose to place Maui’s first airport in 1929. (It looked geographically convenient on a map to early planners.) It didn’t last long because this is the windiest spot in Hawai‘i. The scouring wind ensured that the inbound flight experience would be as terrifying as possible.

CENTRAL MAUI

Central Maui is your introduction to the island. You’ll land here. You’ll shop here. You’ll also come through here when you head to Hana, up to the top of Haleakala or after circling West Maui. But with all that exposure, few people come to Central Maui just to see Central Maui. It’s like the Denver Airport of Maui. Everyone passes through, yet few look around.

Kahului

People who live on Maui find themselves coming to Kahului all the time. What do they come for? Malls, movies, restaurants and — most important on an island where things cost a lot — Costco.

Pa‘ia

If you’re heading in the direction of Hana, the last town you’ll visit is Pa‘ia. This town has accomplished something few Hawai‘i towns can claim: It has become an attraction without any attractions other than itself. No great views, no waterfalls, no scenery, no big institutions like an aquarium. Pa‘ia’s sights lie in its character — and characters.

Hana

Hana doesn’t hit you, it seeps into you. Living on Maui, we had driven through Hana many times and thought we knew it well. But it wasn’t until the first time we spent a week in Hana that we truly connected with it. The peace that Hana exudes can only penetrate when you’re here at leisure, not on a mission.

The road to Hana is without question the most famous and desired drive in all Hawai‘i, the crown jewel of driving. It’s been compared to driving through the garden of Eden: a slow, winding road through a lush paradise that you always knew existed — somewhere.

These are all excerpts from our website on towns in West, South, and Central Maui to give you a taste of what’s out there. As you consider where you want to stay — hotel or condo, by the beach or with a mountain view — you might find it intimidating to wade through the vast number of choices. So here’s what we did. We have personally reviewed every resort on Maui. We have exhaustively cataloged all the amenities, formed opinions on what different properties have to offer and created comprehensive reviews. Sure, you can go online and look at reviews by people who have been to one or maybe two resorts. But none of those sources knows them all and can compare one to the other.

Because this information is so exhaustive, there isn’t enough room in our book to include it all. So we have put all of our reviews in our smartphone app, Hawaii Revealed, and made that portion available for free. There you can sort and sift through the resorts in a matter of minutes using our special filters. We also include our own aerial photos, so you’ll know if oceanfront really means oceanfront.

For instance, you might say, I want a hotel in West Maui, on a beach, that’s good for families, has an outdoor lanai, a children’s pool, and takes service animals. Oh, and a swim-up bar would be nice. With the filters in our app, you can cut through the 135 or so resorts and get to exactly what you want by reading our in-depth, brutally honest review. How’s that for cutting through the noise?

More things to find in the app: