Maui: Friendly, Quirky, and Full of Soul

Shopping: Ching Store, founded in 1939, is one of Maui's last family-owned plantation general stores--meaning it was open when plantations were the mainstay of the economy. It has a full shelf of cans of Spam (Hawaii consumes an extraordinary amount of the pork product). Rodeo General Store is a good place to overhear gossip and pick up local produce, including strong Kula-grown coffee.

Nightlife: Casanova, a modest Italian restaurant, morphs into Maui's most happening nightspot, jammed with sun-kissed surfers and nubile hippie chicks. Ladies' Night is the hot ticket (guys pay a $10 cover).

Frolickers at the Sunday-night party on Little Beach (Michael Weschler) [enlarge photo] MAY 2006 ISSUE • Table of Contents • Maui: Friendly, Quirky, and Full of Soul • Secret Hotels of Bali • 25 Reasons We Love Oaxaca • Family Travel: Guide to Summer Vacations • Road Trip: Nevada • 40 Best Vacations

Lodging

Food

Activities

Shopping

Nightlife

Paia and Haiku

Since the '80s, athletes from South America and Europe have flocked to Maui's north shore, so don't be surprised if you overhear conversations in Portuguese, Spanish, and French. Both Paia and Haiku have hippie roots tempered by an influx of new money; the result is a global village with hearty, healthy restaurants and everything from tattoo parlors to boutiques selling $200 bikinis.

Lodging: Haiku Plantation Inn is a historic home turned B&B five minutes from the best north shore beaches. It offers lomi lomi massages and other healing remedies, including a ceremony in which you drink a tea infused with kava, a mildly stimulating root Hawaiians call awa. While Mama's Fish House is famous for serving the best food on Maui in a Polynesian-style tiki mansion right on the beach (entrées start at $32), most folks don't know that Mama's also rents stylish beach cottages, including five one-bedrooms with kitchens and patios. Alas, staying there gets you no discount on dinner.

Food: Hawaiians favor fatty, salty foods, which makes a health-food store like Mana Foods so welcome. The Paia Fish Market, a casual place to see and be seen, offers a tasty, satisfying mahi taco plate with home fries, coleslaw, or Cajun rice for $11. Colleen's is a cavernous café in the same complex as Studio Maui (see below), popular for post-yoga chat-and-chai.

Activities: The galvanizing event of the winter, drawing hundreds of spectators into the pineapple fields to watch with binoculars, is tow-in surfing at Jaws--a 40-foot-plus wave made famous by extreme surfer Laird Hamilton and movies like Riding Giants and Step Into Liquid. Beginners and experienced surfers alike rave about feeling safe with lessons from identical twins Tide and Kiva Rivers, who own Rivers to the Sea. The waves at Hookipa Beach Park are a bit more manageable (at least from April to October), and those who simply hope to take a dip should head for Baldwin Beach Park, adjacent to Paia's skateboard park, or Baby Beach, a mellow bay. Yoga aficionados will want to pose with former Hewlett-Packard executive Jennifer Lynn at Studio Maui, a state-of-the-art yoga studio that can accommodate up to 110 participants. Locals (ahem) can buy two classes and get one free--otherwise, it's $12 a pop.

Shopping: When Argentinean designer and Haiku resident Tamara Catz was asked if an awareness of fashion was growing on Maui, she replied, "Yes--people are starting to wear shoes." The dresses at her boutique average around $180, but there are worthwhile seasonal sales in the store and on her website.

Nightlife: Charley's is a honky-tonk joint dedicated to patron saint and local resident Willie Nelson. On occasion, Big Willie does sing here, though it's generally only announced the day before--and tickets go in an hour.

Lodging

Food

Activities

Shopping

Huelo and Hana

The pretty and difficult two-hour drive that separates lush Hana from the rest of the island has protected it from rapid development. Hana is also where you'll find the largest population of blood Hawaiians outside the island of Molokai. Almost all are employed by some branch of the Hana Ranch, next door to the four-star Hotel Hana-Maui. Forty miles away, Hana's closest neighboring town, Huelo, is the new frontier for travelers who don't mind unpaved roads and a little rain.

Lodging: On cliffs overlooking the ocean, Hale Akua Shangri-La is an intimate New Age-y retreat. Some rooms have shared baths, and the grounds (including a saltwater pool and two Jacuzzis) are clothing-optional. If you can bear that, it's quite a deal. Also worth a look is the Hana Hale Malamalama Inn, where the coolest room is the Treehouse Cottage. For romance, it's tough to top the private cliff-top yurt at the Luana Spa Retreat. Massages start at $75.

Food: Prepare for the long drive on the road to Hana (the Hana Highway) by stopping at Maui Grown Market. Pick up a picnic lunch and you'll have the option of borrowing a sweet dog for the day. (Dogs have right of refusal.) Once in Hana, your dining options are limited. Go to Tutu's snack bar for the tasty breakfast sandwich or the taro burger, and the Hana Ranch Restaurant's take-out window for hot plates, including a filling one of shoyu chicken with macaroni salad and rice.

Activities: Hamoa Beach has something for everyone--a wide black-sand beach for sunning, two breaks for surfing (experienced riders only), and maybe the best break for body boarding and bodysurfing on the entire island. More enriching is a visit to Kahanu Garden, site of the massive and well-preserved ancient Hawaiian temple known as Piilanihale Heiau.

Shopping: Hasegawa General Store, one of the island's oldest plantation stores, stocks dusty, offbeat souvenirs, such as an Instant Immersion Hawaiian language CD ($10); Noni tea, a Hawaiian cure-all ($6.50); and coconut candy made in Hana ($3).

Nightlife: There's free Hawaiian music from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Thursdays through Sundays, inside the Paniolo Lounge at the Hotel Hana-Maui. Keeping it real is important. But there's nothing wrong with an occasional taste of the luxe life--or a really good mai tai.

Lodging

Food

Activities

Shopping

Nightlife