MAUI · HAWAIʻI
The reef, the volcano, the road to Hāna.
Molokini snorkel trips, sunrise on the Haleakalā summit, humpback season off the west coast, and every curve of the road to Hāna. A guide to the best days out on the Valley Isle.
Only on Maui
Three days that only happen here.
Plenty of islands have a beach and a boat trip. The sunrise crater, the sunken-volcano reef and the long road to Hāna belong to this island alone.
House of the Sun
Sunrise on Haleakalā
Haleakalā means House of the Sun, and the summit road climbs to ten thousand feet where the sun comes up over a sea of cloud filling the crater below. You leave town in the dark, well above the weather, and watch the light pour into a volcanic basin big enough to swallow Manhattan. Mark Twain called the sunrise here the sublimest spectacle he had ever witnessed.
- 1 Maui: Haleakala Sunrise Spectacular with Local Breakfast
- 2 Haleakala 6 Line Zipline Adventure
- 3 Haleakala Sunrise Best Self-Guided Bike Tour
600 curves
The Road to Hāna
The coast road to Hāna runs 64 miles past more than 600 curves and 50-odd one-lane bridges, threading waterfalls, sea cliffs, bamboo forest and black-sand beaches. It is less a drive than a day-long string of stops, which is why most people are happy to let someone else take the wheel.
- 1 Small-Group Road to Hana Adventure Tour with Pickup & Lunch
- 2 Road to Hana Adventure Maui Tour with Lunch
- 3 Maui: Famous Road to Hana Waterfalls and Lunch by Mercedes Van
A sunken crater
Snorkel Molokini
Molokini is a crescent of volcanic rim rising out of the channel between Maui and Kahoʻolawe — a sunken crater you snorkel inside. On a calm morning the visibility runs past 150 feet, the reef wall drops away beneath you, and green sea turtles patrol the Turtle Town ledges on the boat ride back.
- 1 Maui Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini and Turtle Town
- 2 Maui Snorkeling Adventure From Ma’alaea Harbor to Molokini
- 3 Maui: Turtle Town Snorkel with Photo and Video
Start here
The tour most Maui trips begin with.
More travellers book this one than anything else on the island — a good first day out while you find your feet.
The classics
Maui's Most Popular Tours
Molokini, the road to Hāna, the Haleakalā sunrise and the winter whales. The days most people fly to Maui for.
Where to begin
The handful of days a Maui trip is built around.
The road to Hāna, the Molokini reef, the Haleakalā sunrise, the whale boats, the cruises and the flightseeing runs. The big ones, and the best way to do each.
The big drive
How to do the road to Hāna.
It is 64 miles and 600 curves to the far side of the island, so the how matters as much as the if. Three ways to take the road, depending on whether you want to drive it yourself.
Haleakalā
Sunrise from the top of the island.
The summit road climbs from sea level to ten thousand feet in 38 miles, the steepest such climb of any paved road on earth. Get there before dawn and you stand above the clouds while the sun lifts out of the Pacific and floods the crater with colour. Bring every warm layer you packed — it can sit near freezing at the top while the beach bakes below.
Read the guide: the Haleakalā sunrise tours →December to April
When the humpbacks come home.
Every winter, thousands of humpback whales swim down from Alaska to breed and calve in the warm shallow water off Maui. The ʻAuʻau Channel between Maui, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi is the busiest nursery in the islands. Boats out of Lahaina and Māʻalaea put you close to the breaches, and on a quiet day you can hear the males singing through the hull.
See the whale watching trips →The water
Some of the clearest water in the islands.
Maui's leeward reefs sit sheltered in the lee of the West Maui Mountains and Haleakalā, out of the trade-wind swell — which is why the snorkelling is so good. Molokini's crater, the Turtle Town ledges off Kīhei and the coral at Honolua draw masks year-round, and on the calm mornings you can see straight to the bottom forty feet down.
Snorkel & boat trips →After dark
The lūʻau is older than the resorts.
Long before the hotels, the lūʻau was a Hawaiian feast to mark a birth, a harvest or a victory: kālua pig pulled from an underground imu oven, poi and lomi salmon, then hula and chant by torchlight. Maui's run the coast from Lahaina to Wailea, and the best of them still teach the stories behind the dances rather than just the steps.
- 1 Maui Nui Luau at the Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa
- 2 Maui: Te Au Moana Luau at The Wailea Beach Marriott Resort
- 3 Myths of Maui Luau Dinner and Show
By pace
Pick your speed.
Maui runs the whole range. Slow mornings on the reef, the classic big days out, and the full-send stuff for when you want your stomach left up at altitude.
Take it slow
Reef mornings and sunset sails.Molokini snorkel trips, the turtle reefs off Kīhei, and a catamaran out for the sunset and the green flash.
The classics
Big days and long drives.The road to Hāna, the dawn run up Haleakalā, whale boats in winter and a zipline through the forest canopy.
Full send
Doors off, board out.Doors-off flights over the sea cliffs, scuba on the back wall of Molokini, surf lessons off Lahaina and a downhill bike off the summit.
From the air
Half of Maui has no road to it.
The wettest peaks of the West Maui Mountains, the 3,000-foot sea cliffs of Molokaʻi, the waterfalls strung up the Hāna coast — much of the island has no trail and no road, and a helicopter is the only way in. Doors-off flights drop you over green amphitheatres and ribbon falls you will not see any other way.
See all 29 helicopter & air tours →By region
The island, corner by corner.
East for the road to Hāna. South for the reef. Upcountry for the summit. West for the whales. Above it all by air, and across the channel to the neighbour isles.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Snorkel the reef. Watch for whales. Cruise the coast. Fly it from above, chase a waterfall on foot, zip the canopy, or take a surf lesson off the old whaling town.
Plan it
Three days, done right.
First time on Maui? A three-day run that hits the headline days without a wasted morning.
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