Bike It Maui offers one tour — summit to the sea — on four wheels and two. Pickup is in the very early hours at your lodging or cruise ship for the van trip to the Haleakala summit for sunrise. Dress warmly in layers for that experience. For the bike trip, you’ll be transported to the staging area just outside...

Rental cars come with almost every Maui vacation package. You’ll need a car to get from the airport to our condo or hotel – about a 45 to 1 hour drive in most cases. If you stay at one of the large resorts there will be restaurants, shops and other attractions within walking distance, but almost everyone wants to explore...

It takes moxie to develop a drive-through garden along one of the world’s most beautiful jungle stretches, but folks here have done a fine job. They also provided a needed break from the one-way bridges and incessant curves on the Road to Hana. The garden has several parking spots, almost impossible to find on the road. Picnic tables and trails...

Halawa Park covers the flat area on East Moloka‘i, where the Halawa Valley opens to the ocean, and has two beaches of gray sand. The larger one is soft sand, and the smaller, bisected with Halawa Stream, is rockier. The shore slopes gently from the beach to deep water and makes for excellent swimming in the summer. Winter waves roll...

This company offers a different style for biking down Haleakala. Tours leave from the store in Haiku and now it’s offering pickup from hotels or cruise ships. You’re taken to the summit for sunrise,  and then down to the staging area at 6,500 feet just outside the park entrance. You’ll get your bike here, but instead of riding in a...

Haleakala, the dormant volcano that last erupted about 1790, makes up the southern and eastern portion of Maui. The national park covers the crater and a good bit of the slopes. Another portion extends to the sea at Kipahulu. They could be different planets. The 10,000-foot summit is an arid lava desert set within the crater. The rare silversword is...

Hana Lava Tube, sometimes poetically called Ka‘eleku Caverns, is Maui’s the only underground lava chamber open to the public. In an ancient eruption, flowing lava hardened on top but kept flowing below. Eventually the molten flow stopped, leaving a tube. Hawaiian earth is riddled with lava tubes. A visit here starts with a detailed briefing, showing you a schematic of...

If you spend your vacation at Ka‘anapali Beach or in a Kihei condo you’ll never believe that Maui has hidden spots. It has many, and all you have to do is drive or hike a bit and you’ll find them. In some cases, they’re right in town, such as Baby Beach in Lahaina. Or in midst of resorts, like Sea...

You get to choose with Island Star Excursions, bot the itinerary and the activity. The company runs the beautiful Island Star, a 57-foot sailing yacht that can accommodate 20 on deck. You may climb aboard for half- and full-day trips. Or you may charter the yacht and plan a custom itinerary. People propose or get married on this vessel on...

A trip to Kalaupapa Nat. Historical Park is the defining Moloka‘i experience for many people. Hawaiian residents who suffered from leprosy or Hansen’s disease were banished to this peninsula from 1866 to 1969. A few of them are still alive and have chosen to stay, though sulfa drugs now control the disease. Kalaupapa visitors experience a double dose of awe....

Think of Kihei as a long narrow strip with two roads running its length. The mauka (inland) one, Pi‘ilani Highway offers the quick way to get from Ma‘alaea to Wailea. A few shopping malls line the road. South Kihei Road runs along the shore and serves as Kihei’s “main street.” On the makai (ocean) side the road, the shoreline dips...

For many people, Kipahulu is the end of the road on Maui. Certainly, car rental companies don’t want you to drive beyond Kipahulu on the island’s southeastern coast. And most people hesitate to take the cliff-hugging sometimes unpaved road that completes the drive around Haleakala. But press on a few miles beyond Hana on the famed drive.  Don’t expect to...

Kula, set in the cool sweet air of Haleakala foothills, is all about flowers and onions. Two of Maui’s botanical gardens are there — Enchanting Floral Gardens and Kula Botanical Garden. And between the gardens strung out on Kula and Haleakala Highway, you’ll find numerous flower stands where growers set out plate size protea and bird of paradise blossoms. Pick...

Lana‘i is back to its luxurious self with the re-opening of Four Seasons Resort Manele Bay after a multi-million dollar renovation.  But you don’t need to spend the night a pricey room. Lana‘i is an easy day trip from Maui for a round of golf, snorkeling at beautiful Hulopo‘e Beach, hiking the Munro Trail or exploring— petroglyphs,  a shipwreck, unusual...

The scope of Bindu Media’s Maui section takes in Maui, the main vacation island, but also Lana‘i and Moloka‘i. All of them, with Molokini and Kaho‘olawe, are considered Maui Nui — or greater Maui. Looking at the big picture, they were once a single land mass. They are all part of Maui County, and have one mayor and a county...

If you have no idea where lilikoi, guava, papaya or pineapple come from or how they look growing in an orchard or a field, Maui Tropical Plantation is the place to go. It’s a demonstration 60-acre farm where you will ride in the Tropical Tram past tidy plots of coconut, sugarcane, macadamia nuts, coffee, ginger and several tropical fruits. These...

Yes, there is pineapple wine on Maui. It comes from MauiWine, which produces semi-sweet Maui Blanc or Maui Splash, best saved for dessert. These vintages come from the juice of crushed Maui Gold pineapple grown at Hali‘imaile. Founded in 1974 as Tedeschi Vineyards, the winery property reaches back more than 100 years when King David Kalakaua came to visit what...

You can’t get lost on Moloka‘i. Just one road (Hi 460 and HI 450) spans the 38-mile island west to east. If you pick up your car at the airport, you’ll see a sign reading, “Slow down, you’re on Molokai.” That says it all. Then head to the west end and sleepy Maunaloa town, where the Big Wind Kite Factory...

Molokini, a curved sliver of an island 2.5 miles off South Maui, is a partially submerged volcano crater . It’s become  a welcoming habitat for reef fish and marine and bird life. Boats moor at fixed buoys within the crater in this conservation district. This limits the number of boats, though some people still think it’s too many. The best time...

The tasting at ONO Organic Farms morfs into a tropical feast right out of the Garden of Eden. A Boerner family member will likely greet you behind a table laden with jackfruit, lilikoi, guava, starfruit, soursop, ice cream bananas, sapote and half a dozen varieties of mango. The display looks like an over-the-top Gauguin still life. You’ll learn about raising...