Ten thousand feet of Maui, and the good mornings go first.
Which Molokini boat leaves before the wind gets up. Whether the road to Hāna is worth a whole day in a van. Reviews of every tour you can book on Maui.
sea level — the Hāna coastBook these first
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Molokini at first lightMaui Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini and Turtle Town
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · from $159
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The summit before sunriseHaleakala National Park Sunrise Tour
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · from $219
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The whole Hāna road, driven for youSmall-Group Road to Hana Adventure Tour with Pickup & Lunch
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · from $209
A crater at dawn, a sunken caldera by nine, and the road east.
Four bookings a first Maui week gets built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The 3am alarmHaleakala Sunrise Spectacular with Local BreakfastAbove the cloud layer before the sun clears the crater rim. Bring the warm layer nobody packs for Hawaii.
02The morning boatMaui Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini and Turtle TownMolokini fills early and the wind arrives after lunch, so the good departures are the ones that hurt to wake up for.
03The long road eastSmall-Group Road to Hana Adventure Tour with Pickup & LunchSix hundred bends, a black sand beach and a driver who knows which waterfalls have parking. Hand the wheel over.
04The turtle stopTurtle Town Snorkel with Photo and VideoTurtle Town is a lava shelf off the south shore the honu use as a cleaning station. Swim in from the boat, no certification.
Molokini, Turtle Town or a humpback in the channel. Pick the morning.
Everything good out here happens before the trade wind fills in. Four kinds of day on the water, what it costs to get on each one, and which harbour it leaves from.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Maui Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini and Turtle Town
The crater runMā’alaea at seven, a sunken caldera by eight, back before the wind.
Turtle TownA lava shelf off the south shore where the honu come in to be cleaned.
Humpback seasonDecember to April, mothers and calves in the lee of the island.
Sunset sailsOut of Ka’anapali or Mā’alaea, the mountains going pink behind you.
All 66 days on the water →
South shore for the boats, west for the sunsets, upcountry for the cold.
Maui is a figure eight with a volcano at each end, and where you sleep decides what you can book. The resort strip at Kīhei and Wailea, the old harbour town at Lahaina, the rainforest road out to Hāna, and the cattle country in between.
Haleakalā holds the weather down, and the far side of it is rainforest.
The summit road climbs into an alpine desert that sits above the cloud layer, cold enough at dawn to see your breath. Come down the windward side and the same mountain is pouring waterfalls into the sea. These three are the days people book it for.
The Maui days more travellers book than anything else.
Every Maui tour we have reviewed →The island has a handful of experiences it is genuinely known for, and this is them, in the order travellers actually pick them.
1
Maui Pineapple Farm Tour in Haliimaile
Walk Maui’s working pineapple fields, taste Maui Gold at different stages, tour the packing facility, and take home an airport-ready pineapple.
From · $99
Read our review →
2
Small-Group Road to Hana Adventure Tour with Pickup & Lunch
from $209
3
Maui Eco-Raft Tour: Eye-Level Whale or Dolphin Watching – Lahaina
from $85
4
Maui Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini and Turtle Town
from $159
5
Haleakala Sunrise Spectacular with Local Breakfast
from $254
6
Maui Snorkeling Adventure From Ma’alaea Harbor to Molokini
from $185
7
Turtle Town Snorkel with Photo and Video
from $129
8
Road to Hana Adventure Maui Tour with Lunch
from $276
Fifty two miles, six hundred bends, and no reason to hurry any of it.
The highway east leaves Pā’ia through rainforest, crosses fifty nine one-lane bridges and passes waterfalls with room for three cars. Driving it yourself means watching the road instead of the coast, which is why most people hand the wheel over.
Every Hāna day out →
What a day out on Maui actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Maui is not a cheap island and the boats are the reason, but the bottom of the range is not empty either.
Aquarium and garden entries, the audio guides that talk you along the Hāna road, and the odd harbour whale watch.
- 1The Maui Butterfly Farm Tourfrom $49
- 2A Maui Beach Photoshoot in Waileafrom $49
- 3Whale Watch Cruise Aboard the Malolofrom $49
Half-day snorkel boats, the two-hour whale rafts out of Lahaina, surf lessons, farm tours and a luau seat.
Full Molokini mornings, sunrise on the summit with transport, private Hāna vans and every helicopter.
Three things you can only do on Maui.
Beaches and boat trips exist everywhere warm. A drowned volcanic caldera you can swim inside, a summit that clears the weather, and most of the North Pacific humpback population in one channel do not.
Molokini Crater
Three miles off Mākena, half a volcanic cone stands out of the water in a crescent and the flooded half is a marine reserve where visibility regularly runs past a hundred feet. Boats are capped and tied to fixed moorings. The catch is the wind: the crater is exposed, the trades build through the morning, and afternoon departures get moved inshore more often than anyone advertises.
- 1Maui Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini and Turtle Town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,221 reviews
- 2Maui Snorkeling Adventure From Ma’alaea Harbor to Molokini★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,997 reviews
- 3Maui South Coast and Molokini Crater Adventure from Kihei★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,575 reviews
Sunrise on Haleakalā
The summit road climbs from sea level to 10,023 feet in about thirty eight miles, the fastest ascent of its kind anywhere. At the top you stand above the cloud layer looking into a crater floor of red cinder cones. Sunrise entry runs on a reservation system with a hard cap, it is close to freezing at that hour, and the whole thing is over by seven.
- 1Haleakala Sunrise Spectacular with Local Breakfast★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,155 reviews
- 2Haleakala 6 Line Zipline Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 913 reviews
- 3Haleakala Sunrise Best Self-Guided Bike Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 745 reviews
Humpback season
Between December and April most of the North Pacific humpback population moves into the shallow water between Maui, Lāna’i, Moloka’i and Kaho’olawe to calve. The channel is warm, sheltered and under six hundred feet deep, and the whales come close enough that boats cut their engines and wait. Peak is late January to March; a December trip is a gamble.
- 1Maui Eco-Raft Tour: Eye-Level Whale or Dolphin Watching – Lahaina★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,482 reviews
- 2Whale Watching Tour Aboard the Quicksilver★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,280 reviews
- 3Ultimate Whale Watch from Lahaina★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,162 reviews
Four Maui bookings that will not wait for you to land.
Plenty of this island can be sorted from a beach chair the day before. These four run on entry caps, whale calendars and boat manifests that were filled weeks ago.
- 01Haleakala Sunrise Spectacular with Local BreakfastSummit sunrise entry is capped and reserved in advance. Operators hold their allocation; walk-ups do not exist.
- 02Maui Snorkeling Adventure to Molokini and Turtle TownThe crater has a fixed number of moorings and the good boats hold the early ones. Late bookings get an afternoon slot the wind may take away.
- 03Maui Nui Luau at the Sheraton Maui Resort & SpaThe big luau run a few nights a week to a fixed table plan, and the front rows go first. In high season they sell out weeks ahead.
- 04Road to Hana Luxury Limo-Van Tour with Helicopter FlightAircraft carry six and weight is assigned per seat, so the manifest closes early and cannot be stretched.
The wind arrives after lunch and the windward side is always wet.
Two things reshape a Maui day. The trade wind builds through the morning until the channel chops out and the afternoon boats stop being fun, and the windward slope collects rain the leeward resorts never see. Both have the same answer: put the water in the morning and give the afternoon to something inland and dry.
By place — two volcanoes and the isthmus between them
Molokini, the summit, the Hāna road, then the west side: the week almost everybody books.
HaleakalāThe newest Maui tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
The Ultimate Road to Hana Slingshot Adventure from Kihei Maui
Read our review →
Luxury Catamaran Alii Kai Royal Sunset Dinner Cruise
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Haleakala Daytime Self-Guided Express Bike Tour w/ Bike Maui
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Private Round-Trip Transfer: Maui Kahului Airport to Maui Hotels
Read our review →
