Maui County Condominiums Database

Maui was a restless god whose creative power and playfulness were legendary throughout the Pacific. It is said he pulled the Hawaiian Islands from the sea while fishing, that he snared the sun as it raced across the sky and ordered it to slow down. It seems fitting that the island bearing Maui's name should be associated with both creative power and playfulness.

The island that provided challenging surf, perilous jumping cliffs and steep ti-leaf slides for Hawaiian royalty has in recent years become a playground of another sort. The world's best windsurfers now hoist their bright sails at Kahana, Maalaea and Hookipa. The island's golfers and tennis players enjoy facilities unmatched in the Pacific. And broad beaches with five star resorts now cater to a new royalty - the world's wealthiest and most discriminating vacationers.

Sunny Lahaina has figured in island history for more than 300 years. Favored first by royalty, then by whalers and missionaries, Lahaina today is one of the world's playgrounds. Arts, tourism, and agriculture make up the diversified economic base that is West Maui today. Art galleries abound in Lahaina and up the West Maui coastline, and visitors and residents not only can admire the paintings and sculptures, but oftentimes, can meet and talk with the talented artists themselves. Art, in the form of jewelry, graces the most casual attires, and world-famous Hawaiian musicians play their beautiful tunes at beachfront concerts.

Tourists can choose to stay in simple bed and breakfasts in Lahaina, resort hotels in Kaanapali, condominiums in Honokowai, Kahana, or Napili, or really get away from it all in the resort hotels in Kapalua at the end of West Maui. Lahaina's harbor remains the center of boating activity that takes visitors whale watching, snorkeling and diving, parasailing, sportfishing, and on ferry trips to Lanai and Molokai. Among West Maui's assets are its vast, "calm lee" and clear views of other nearby islands. Lanai lies on a flat blue sea nine miles from Lahaina.

Some of Hawaii's most scenic and challenging holes of golf are to be found amid Kapalua. Golfers play on golf courses that start the season for both the senior and junior circuits of the PGA tours. Even if you're no Jack Nicklaus, you're still treated to sensational ocean and mountain views, with rainbows at no extra charge. Sports enthusiasts can attend the annual Maui Invitational, where nationally ranked college basketball teams play to an intimate crowd of less than 3,000 spectators. Lahaina in the evening becomes an entertainment hotspot for young daytime surfers and sun worshippers, and annual events such as its Halloween costume contest confirm its reputation as the party capital of Maui.

Although Pioneer Mill has now closed, sugar cane still grows in West Maui, and pineapple fields still must be harvested. Coffee now has taken over several old sugar cane fields and the Kaanapali coffee harvested there rivals its Kona cousin for taste and quality. Maui farmers and agribusiness's continue to look to diversify their agriculture base and find the niche markets that will allow them to make a profit from West Maui’s rich soil.

More than half of the estimated 17,000 residents live in Lahaina, as they did in ancient times, many taking advantage of easy access to fishing, sailing, surfing, shopping and nightlife. West Maui continues to grow, especially north of Lahaina, and new developments and roads will draw it ever closer to becoming a self-sustaining community apart from the rest of Maui. Wealthy people gravitate to West Maui, but with its unlimited supplies of richly colored rainbows and landscapes, no one living there can ever be considered poor.

Maui’s youngest and fastest growing community is the South Maui “gold coast” sun belt. South Maui offers the best of what people come to visit Maui for - sunshine, beaches, ocean activities, and a wide variety of accommodations. Until 40 years ago this hot, dry, remote, dusty, mesquite-lined stretch of coast was considered to be suitable mainly for fishing and camping. It had a single dirt road, a few fishing people, some Haleakala Ranch cowboys, two small stores, and a gas pump. When 1959 brought statehood, Maui landowners started sketching resort plans for the island’s sun-baked leeward coasts. But while Kaanapali’s growth was planned carefully on a 25 year timetable, South Maui grew explosively. In a single decade, a hundred condominiums, hotels, mini-malls, car lots, burger stands and curio shops rose along its shoreline. The South Maui boom continues today as the community grows away from the beaches up the gentle leeward flank of Haleakala. South Maui may one day rival Honolulu as Hawaii’s largest urban area.

South Maui averages less than six inches of precipitation annually, so the chances of having a sunny day here are better than most places in Hawaii. Beaches feature soft sand, washed by waves that are usually calmer than other island locations, and clear visibility for snorkelers and divers. Maalaea Harbor is home to the fishing, sailing, and tour boats that take thousands of visitors to view whales and other sea life. While not physically a part of South Maui, half-submerged Molokini Island is a major feature. Snorkel and dive cruises from Maalaea and Kihei small-boat harbors transport thousands of visitors to the clear waters of Molokini’s lagoon for undersea viewing. Maalaea is also home to a world class aquarium for those who prefer to view their marine life from land. The hotel resorts at Wailea and Makena host international dignitaries and celebrities and the rich and famous get their every need pampered at these choice locations. For the budget-conscious traveler, or the family that needs more homelike accommodations, there are condominiums of every shape and size, many of them either fronting the ocean, offering an ocean view, or just steps away from the shoreline.

The Maui Research and Technology Park, which hosts one of the largest supercomputers in the world, makes this area the state’s center for high technology business development. Retirees love the relative dryness of the area, and have settled in many of the condominiums close to the beaches. Young families move here to send their children to the state’s newest elementary school and soon construction will begin on a new charter high school, connected to the supercomputer at the technology park facility.

Population estimates of South Maui range from about 15,000 to more than double that number during the high tourist season. Residents and tourists enjoy ocean activities such as sailing and fishing, kayaking and canoeing, diving and snorkeling, and surfing the windsurfing. At the end of a busy day, most restaurants and watering holes are a short walk or drive away. Many of the condominiums have private lanais from which to view picturesque sunsets for those who want to dine “at home”.

Azeka Place Shopping Centers I and II serve as South Maui’s most extensive retail area located in the heart of Kihei. Most other shopping centers and restaurants line up along South Kihei Road, although construction is underway for Piilani Shopping Center, which will house the largest Safeway in the state, and The Shops at Wailea, which will be home to many shops also found along Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Attire may be casual, but the dining is exotic in its variety here, anything from Hawaiian plate lunches to Midwestern-style ribs to fine dining at five star restaurants, and everything in between, including the usual band of nationally recognized fast food franchises.

Ancient Hawaiians referred to Wailuku at a “broad plain where councils are held”. Flanking the older city of Wailuku are the pineapple fields and macadamia nut orchards. Today Wailuku serves at the seat of government, hosting all federal, state, and county offices, as well as district and state courts. Residential communities, both new and old, surround the official structures, and it is hard to find the dividing line where Wailuku ends and Kahului begins. Many people place the boundary near Maui Memorial Medical Center, the island’s principal hospital and emergency center. Near this dividing line is the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, an outstanding facility for the performing arts, and envy of many Mainland communities three times Maui’s size. Maui Community College (MCC), a two year college connected with the University of Hawaii system, is located in Kahului. MCC offers classes and training for the beginning students, returning graduates, or adults continuing their education, from associate degrees to masters degrees.

Kahului, as the major port of Maui, and the site of its primary airport, serves as its business and shopping center. With Kaahumanu Center, Maui Marketplace, Costco, K-Mart, Maui Mall and Kahului Shopping Center, as well as many nearby shops, visitors and residents could shop for an entire week, and never take in any other sightseeing. Kahului residents have a short walk or drive to their favorite shopping sites.

Everyone who visits Maui arrives in Kahului first, and anyone who does business on Maui will need to spend some time in Wailuku obtaining necessary permits and licenses to make a living here. These two facts, coupled with the geographically central nature of this area, make it a natural gathering place, and the population center of the island, with nearly 40,000 residents living in Wailuku and Kahului. For those who want communities that more closely resemble suburban, small town communities on the Mainland, complete with easy access to health care facilities, a performing arts center, and a community college for continuing education or training, Central Maui may be an ideal place to settle. Residents there still enjoy the benefits of a tropical climate and remain just a short drive away from many of Maui’s island pleasures.

Driving toward East Maui, visitors first arrive in Paia. This fast-growing, young community hosts international surfing and windsurfing amateurs and professionals, and annual competitions are held at nearby Hookipa Beach Park. A slower and more rural setting can be found Upcountry in Haiku and Makawao, where paniolo still ride the pasture lands, herd the cattle, and compete in annual rodeos. Aches and pains from a day of rough outdoor activity can be refreshed from a growing community of New Age alternative health practitioners in Makawao and Paia, selling organic supplements, crystals, massages, and psychic readings.

Pukalani continues to grow as a community, reflecting a more suburban lifestyle. Kula remains an agricultural community with its world-renowned onions, strawberries, and its famous Kula greens. “Gentlemen estates” continue to pop up around the area, where owners harvest only the cool weather and spectacular views.

For a taste of Old Hawaii, visitors and residents drive farther east toward Hana, where the isolation and tropical rain forest climate tends to keep the area green and less-developed. While it may get a bit too wet at times to enjoy on a daily basis, visitors and residents know that the variety of scenery and hiking, horseback riding, and camping opportunities for the outdoor enthusiasts can be found nowhere else on Maui. The 80-year old Hana “Highway”, snakes along the cliffs above Honomanu Bay. Skirting steep gorges and clinging to cliff faces, the road twists more than 50 miles and has 56 bridges, 600 curves, and numerous roadside swimming holes and waterfalls. The land, green in all shades, rises steeply into cool gray clouds. Pierced by sharp ridges, the clouds rain down into forests of ohia, bamboo, monkeypod and hala and pelt the wide leaves of taro, banana and tree-climbing monstera.

East/Upcountry Maui offers everything from suburban bedroom communities, to rural pastures and farmland, to “get away from it all” natural surroundings, similar to those enjoyed by early Hawaiians. The hard part comes not from a lack of choice in surroundings, but in having to make a choice about where to live in East/Upcountry Maui. In this region of vast ranches, small farms and storybook villages, the land is green or gold by turns, its rolling pastures striped with darker rows of windbreak trees. Clouds run before the trade winds like galleons under sail, setting off the deep sharp blue of the Upcountry sky. The crisp and clear air affords peerless views of West Maui, Kahoolawe, Lanai, Molokai and, on extraordinary days, Oahu. Few other places in the world command such a panorama.