Three-mile stretch of golden sand lined with luxury resorts, shopping, and dining, offering snorkeling, cliff diving, and sunset views along Maui’s west coast.

How to Get There

From Kahului, HI (28 mi): Take HI-30 W through Lahaina and turn left onto Kāʻanapali Parkway; follow signs to beach access or resort parking.

Overview

Kaanapali is an area on the island of Maui. Amfac, Inc. started to develop Kaanapali Beach Resort in the 1960s, on mile-long Kaanapali Beach on the western shore of Maui, a couple miles north of the old whaling town of Lahaina. Since that time, many more hotels and condos have been built both on Kaanapali Beach and for several miles up and down the coast, and Lahaina has turned into a tourist shopping area.

Major resort hotels now on Kaanapali Beach (in order from the south end closest to Lahaina to the north end) are the Hyatt Regency Maui (opened in 1980), Maui Marriott (opened 1982, now turned into timeshares), Westin Maui Resort & Spa (originally opened as the Maui Surf in 1971, then rebuilt as the Westin 1987), Kaanapali Beach Hotel (1964), Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa (1963 but completely rebuilt in 1996), Royal Lahaina (1962), and Maui Kaanapali Villas (originally a Hilton when it opened in 1963 and sometime referred to as Hale Kaanapali).

There are also condominium complexes on Kaanapali Beach. Toward Lahaina between the Marriott and the Westin is the Alii. Moving further north on Kaanapali beach between Whalers Village (shopping center) and the Kaanapli Beach Hotel, is the Whaler. On the north side of Kaanapali Beach (north of Black Rock) there are two new complexes. The Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas is a vacation ownership resort, with South Phase opened in September 2003 and North Phase opened in July 2007. The Honua Kai condominium complex is just south of the Aston Mahana condominiums (formerly ResortQuest Hawaii) and Ka'anapali Beach Club.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Kaanapali, Hawaii", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0