1 day stay in Maui

[Edachang]

I am arriving Maui at 8am by cruise on May 2, 2019 and have rent a car from Enterprise Car Rental for 1 day.  Is there any good and must see places for a 1-day itinerary?  Thanks.

 

 

[cb at sea]

You can drive most of the island in a day....I'd recommend a guidebook, to see what interests YOU the most!  You cannot, for instance, do the Road to Hana and anything else in one day.....Maui is a beautiful place....get familiar with it, before you decide HOW to spend your short time there!  We spent 10 days, and still didn't see everything!

[KeepCalmBearOn]

It depends on what your interests are.

 

Lahaina is the former capital of the islands and an old whaling town. There is lots interesting there.

 

Up Country is cattle country and not something people think of when they think of Hawaii. You can drive to the top of Haleakala (the tallest mountain in the world, base to tip) and hit some of the Up Country towns.

 

Paia is a nice little town.

 

I am not a fan of the Road To Hana. Others love it.

[Edachang]

So, do you think renting a car is a good idea or a day spending in town is enough?

[CruiserBruce]

Renting a car is a great idea, and discussed here almost daily.  Are you docking in Kahalui (not much to do close by, so wondering town isn't really an option), or tendering into Lahaina, where wondering the town could be a great idea.

[KimA75]

We just did the road to Hana and loved it.  You could do at least part of it and still get an amazing experience.  Do some research on it.  I don’t know what time you have to be back on board.  Just make sure you keep an eye on the time.

[pink845]

We will be overnighting on our cruise and will be renting a car the first day.  We plan on driving to Haleakala.  The last time we were there we took a tour with Princess to Haleakala and did not really have much time to spend there.  The ride back and forth took some time (a lot of switchbacks at least 20) and then they took us for lunch (not really very good), a waste of my time but I was a novice and now my husband and I will be renting at car and doing it ourselves. The view is fabulous up there in the clouds.  The second day, we will taxi over to the beach at Kaanapali and then end back up in Lahaina town.  Lots of shops and little restaurants.    I am so looking forward to it.  The only downside is when we booked this cruise we were supposed to overnight in Kauai as well but RCCL changed the itinerary to include only one day in Kauai.  A downer.

[KimA75]

7 hours ago, pink845 said:

We plan on driving to Haleakala

If you plan far enough ahead you can do this on your second day and get a reservation to watch the sunrise there.  We did that about a week ago and it was breath taking.

[pink845]

The sunrise would be great.  But in the event that we run into any issues on the return from Haleakala, we will forgo the sunrise and head up to the top on our first day in port.  Then we can ditch the car for the night and the following day we can go to the beaches of at Kanaapali.    We are planning on spending a few days in Maui as we travel to Australia later in 2020 so we will do the sunrise at that time.    Good suggestion however.

[Silver Sweethearts]

2 hours ago, pink845 said:

The sunrise would be great.  But in the event that we run into any issues on the return from Haleakala, we will forgo the sunrise and head up to the top on our first day in port. 

 

Just curious what sort of issues you are thinking about?