Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Kihei Road. This is Maui's best
family vacation bargain. Budget
travelers swarm like sun-seeking
geckos over the eight sandy beaches
along this scalloped, condo-packed,
7-mile stretch of coast. Kihei is nei-
ther charming nor quaint; what it
lacks in aesthetics, though, it more
than makes up for in sunshine,
affordability, and convenience.
WAILEA
This manicured
oasis of multimillion-dollar resort
hotels lines 2 miles of palm-fringed
gold coast—sort of Beverly Hills by
the sea, except California never had
it so good: warm, clear water full of
tropical fish; year-round golden
sunshine and clear blue skies; and
hedonistic pleasure palaces on
1,500 acres of black-lava shore
indented by five beautiful beaches.
MAKENA
Suddenly, the road
enters raw wilderness. After Wailea's
overdone density, the thorny land-
scape is a welcome relief. Although
beautiful, this is an end-of-the-road
kind of place: It's a long drive from
Makena to anywhere on Maui. If
you're looking for an activity-filled
family vacation, you might want to
try somewhere else, or you'll spend
most of your vacation in the car.
But if you want a quiet, relaxing
respite, where the biggest trip of the
day is from your bed to the beach,
Makena is the place.
Upcountry Maui
After a few days at the beach, you'll
probably take notice of the 10,000-
foot mountain in the middle of
Maui. The slopes of Haleakala
(“House of the Sun”) are home to
cowboys, growers, and other coun-
try people who wave back as you
drive by. They're all up here enjoy-
ing the crisp air, emerald pastures,
eucalyptus, and flower farms of this
tropical Olympus—there's even a
misty California redwood grove.
You can see a thousand tropical
sunsets reflected in the windows of
houses old and new, strung along a
road that runs like a loose hound
from Makawao to Kula, where the
road leads up to the crater and
Haleakala National Park
.
MAKAWAO
Until recently,
this small, two-street upcountry
town was little more than a post
office, a gas station, a feed store, a
bakery, and a restaurant/bar serving
the cowboys and farmers living in the
surrounding community; the hitch-
ing posts outside storefronts really
were used to tie up horses. As the
population of Maui started expand-
ing in the 1970s, a health-food store
sprang up, followed by boutiques, a
chiropractic clinic, and a host of
health-conscious restaurants. The
result is an eclectic amalgam of old
paniolo Hawaii and the baby-
boomer trends of transplanted main-
landers.
Hui No'Eau Visual Arts
Center
, Hawaii's premier arts
collective, is definitely worth a peek.
KULA
A feeling of pastoral
remoteness prevails in this upcoun-
try community of old flower farms,
humble cottages, and new suburban
ranch houses with million-dollar
views that take in the ocean, the
isthmus, the West Maui Mountains
and, at night, the lights that run
along the gold coast like a string of
pearls, from Maalaea to Puu Olai.
Everything flourishes at a cool
3,000 feet (bring a jacket), just
below the cloud line, along a wind-
ing road on the way up to
Haleakala National Park.
East Maui
ON THE ROAD TO HANA
When old sugar towns die, they
usually fade away in rust and red
dirt. Not
Paia
. The tangled
spaghetti of electrical, phone, and
cable wires hanging overhead sym-
bolizes the town's ability to adapt to
the times—it may look messy, but
it works. Here, trendy restaurants,
eclectic boutiques, and high-tech
