Maui

The leeward west or south — Wailea and Mākena in the south, Kāʻanapali and Kapalua in the west. Kihei and Wailea take only 10 to 15 inches of rain a year while the windward slopes take many times that. The south is the calmer, newer resort strip; the west is older and closer to the mountains and the ferry.

Yes. Entering the summit between 3am and 7am requires a reservation on Recreation.gov — $1 per vehicle, non-refundable — released exactly 60 days ahead at 7am Hawaiʻi time, with a smaller batch 48 hours out. Park entry is a separate $30 per vehicle for three days. Sunset at the summit requires no reservation.

With a driver, yes; self-driving to tick it off, no. It runs roughly 64 miles with more than 600 curves and around 60 one-lane bridges, and the value is in the stops rather than the destination — which is where self-drivers run out of patience and parking.

Humpbacks are in Hawaiian waters from November to April, peaking January through March and densest in February. The Maui Nui basin between Maui, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi draws roughly three-quarters of the North Pacific population each winter. It coincides with peak resort season.

Partly. Front Street reopened to vehicles between Pāpalaua and Shaw on 1 August 2026, and several restaurants are serving again, but the historic commercial core stays behind construction fencing and is not open to general visitor access. Kāʻanapali and Kapalua are operating normally.

Lānaʻi, because it is the only island reachable from Maui by sea — the ferry runs Māʻalaea to Mānele in about an hour and fifteen minutes, three round trips a day. Kauai is the other pairing if you want landscape and silence against Maui's resorts and dining.

For most travelers to Maui, yes: Haleakalā at sunset gives the same 10,023-foot summit view without the reservation lottery and without the pre-dawn cold. Sunset needs no reservation at all, the air is warmer, and the crater turns copper as the light leaves. The summit is genuinely cold before dawn, which is why sunset is the version Forest Travel books more often.

The way to see Maui's humpbacks privately is on a boat that answers to you rather than to a departure board, in the sheltered water between Maui, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi. February is the densest month of the season, and the Maui Nui basin draws roughly three-quarters of the North Pacific humpback population each winter, so a private boat in the middle of the basin that month puts you where the whales are.

On the Road to Hāna, a private driver who knows the bridges turns roughly 64 miles, more than 600 curves and around 60 one-lane bridges into the day rather than an ordeal. The stops are the point, so the driver reaches the waterfalls before the vans arrive and times the return to miss the queue, which is exactly where self-drivers run out of patience and parking.