Things to do / Travel Guide
Maui
Stargazing
Since there is very little light pollution on Maui, due in no small part to the lack of a large city, it is one of the best places on the planet to look up towards the heavens. From the Haleakala High Altitude Observatory, visitors can peer into the galaxy at night.
Glass-Bottom Boat
A particularly popular activity for visitors to Maui is going out to sea in a glass-bottom boat, where you can “ooh” and “aah” at the close-up view of exotic Hawaiian fish, coral, and lava rock formations.
Whale Watching
Whales can be seen around the Hawaiian islands during the better part of winter, from the end of November through the middle of April. Humpback whales that reside in Alaska in the summer months swim down to the waters off the coast of Maui, in particular, to get away from the frigid waters further north.
Particularly in Maui during the winter and spring months of November-April, you are almost guaranteed to catch glimpses of whales frolicking about in pods while out on a whale watching excursion. Sometimes whales can be caught birthing in the sheltered Au'au Channel. Some whale watching vessels go so far as to drop microphones into the water in order to listen in on what the whales are saying to each other.
Windsurfing
Thanks to consistent breezes and winds, Maui is also famously popular with windsurfers. Near Paia, on the north side of Maui, is Hookipa Beach, a year-round windsurfing mecca that is great for both beginning windsurfers and more advanced ones. Sprecklesville Beach and Kanaha Beach in Kahului are also good sites for beginning windsurfers, as the waters here are much calmer. Most shops that cater to windsurfing enthusiasts are located in Kahului, and rentals start at about $45 a day.
Molokai
As the island of Molokai is home to long stretches of open wilderness, you can also pay a visit to one of the many local Molokai ranches where an instructor can teach you how to rope cattle.
If you love coffee then you'll be pleased to know that the Hawaiian Islands are famous around the world for their coffee crop. It's definitely worth your while to venture out to the Molokai Coffee Plantation, a 500-acre plantation home to hundreds of coffee trees and a coffee processing plant. Visitors to the coffee plantation can take a mule-drawn wagon tour of the outdoor facilities, buy native Molokai-grown coffee in the boutique-like gift shop, or simply enjoy a coffee-flavored treat from the decidedly coffee-inspired menu of the equally-as-inspired-by-coffee café.
For those visitors who are nuts about nuts, a visit to Molokai would be incomplete without a stop at Purdy's Macadamia Nut Farm, a five-acre macadamia nut farm in the island's Ho'olehua district. Visitors to Purdy's Macadamia Nut Farm, which is free to enter, can wander through the macadamia orchard and sample the almost-exclusively-Hawaiian treats along with other macadamia-inspired “wares,” such as macadamia blossom honey with fresh slices of coconut.
Surfing on Maui
Let's talk about surfing; when people think of Maui, or Hawaii for that matter, images of Annette Funicello and those silly Hawaiian surfing movies spring to mind effortlessly; even the Brady Bunch, (all of them including that maid Alice), went surfing while they were in Hawaii. The island of Maui has some breathtakingly spectacular surfing spots. The best time of year to go surfing on the island of Maui is during the winter between the months of November through until the end of March. On the south side of the island of Maui, for instance, is the Maa Laea Pipeline which has some of the world's greatest surfing (“Surfer” magazine has ranked Maa Laea Pipeline in its top ten of world's greatest surfing spots). Lessons for those currently skilled in the art of surfing can be taken at Hookipaa Beach near Paia and the surfing lessons can accommodate pretty much all age- and skill-levels. Most of them come with a guarantee that you will, in fact, be out surfing the ocean's breakers by the end of the lesson.
Hiking on Molokai
Molokai's Kamakou Rainforest is popular for hiking and is, in addition, home to the Pepeopae Trail.
Fun Attractions in Hawaiian Islands of Maui, Molokai and Lanai, including Kahului and Lahaina
Cool-Things-to-Do
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