5-Day Itinerary for Maui

Below, you’ll find a 5 day itinerary of MUST DO things in Maui, mistakes to avoid & other learning lessons to help you make the most of your trip! This is perfect for a first time visitor looking to try a little bit of everything on the island.

Jump to :

• Is this the right itinerary for you?
• THE Perfect 5 Day Itinerary
• Things to Know Before Your Trip
• What places require a reservation?
• Where to Stay in Maui?
• Airbnb vs. Hotel
• Where to Get Groceries?
• Vegetarian Restaurant Recommendations 
• What food should I try in Maui?

The 5 Day Itinerary for Maui

If you’re in the process of planning your Maui trip, feel free to copy this itinerary or use it for inspiration. In my opinion, 5 days on the actual is the perfect amount of time to cover a little bit of everything & still have time to relax.

Day 0: Travel & Arrival

I’m not counting travel in my 5 day intinerary since you may be travelling from another island or hours away. If you’re flying in from mainland, it’ll probably take you an entire day just to get to Maui & you can plan to arrive at night on Day 0. The Kahului airport is pretty small, so upon arriving, we walked over about 7 minutes to the rental car place and picked up the Jeep Wrangler we pre-booked from Budget Rentals. I highly recommend the Jeep, cause the top comes off & it makes the steep drives a lot better of an experience. Once we got the car, we headed to Dominos in Kahului for dinner because that was the only place that was open & then drove to our airbnb (linked below). It was about an hour drive since we were staying in Napili, West Maui.

Day 1: Exploring West Maui & Sunset in Kihei

BEFORE YOU LEAVE: This is a medium active day so wear something you don’t mind getting a little sweaty in, but want to take pictures in! Before leaving, make sure to get a reservation for Iao Valley State Park around 2pm. 

We started the day off by grabbing breakfast around 7:30 am. If you’re near Napili, grab an iced matcha or your Kona coffee fix at The Coffee Store In Napili & an açai bowl at A A Roots for breakfast. The açai bowls are popular for good reason!

Then, drive over to Kapalua Bay Beach & hike the Kapalua Coastal Trail. This is a very family friendly trail that even my grandma came on & will take you under an hour to complete. 

After the trail, we’re driving over to the Nakalele Blowhole. There’s an optional hike there, but it’s pretty rocky so we skipped it & took some pictures from the parking area.

Then, we head towards Wailuku for lunch & the Iao Valley State Park. You’ve got two options to get there.

• Option One : If you’re feeling really brave, you can take Highway 340 like we did. However, I will warn you it’s is not an easy road to drive at all, lack guard rails in many places & actually no allowed in the contracts of many rental cards. This is the default route that Google Maps shows but option one is not recommended by locals.
• Option 2 (the much safer option): go via HI-30, it takes around the same amount of time as option one. This highway is completely paved with guardrails & a much smoother drive!

For lunch, we stopped at a Thai Food Truck called Thai Esan Maui & the food was delicious (Wailuku in Central Maui). I recommend the Pad Thai & Maui Fried Rice (medium spicy) as well as the thai iced tea.

Then, we headed to the grocery store to get snacks, breakfast & groceries for the next few days (check out the grocery store section below). And ended up back at the airbnb by 4pm to shower & take a break. Around 5:30pm, change into something nice and head back out towards South Maui to watch sunset. Keawakapu Beach or Maui Brewing Co are two great spots to watch from. For dinner, head to South Maui Gardens to grab dinner at one of the many food trucks. Note : many of them close at 8pm so plan accordingly. 

Picking a Tour

There’s a lot of options for snorkel tours in Maui so it comes down to preference. We booked this snorkel tour with Calypso & I can’t say better things about the experience! We were travelling with my parents who have little to no experience swimming, plus I have a history of sea sickness. This boat was a triple decker boat & had trained instructors on board that helped my parents and grandma learn how to snorkel. If you happen to be skilled at snorkelling or snuba, they let you do your own thing too. Snorkeling at Molokini Crater is fun but they also have a whale watching tour if you go in the winter.

It is a little bit pricey, but they include breakfast, lunch, the instructors and gear so it was a worthwhile experience for us! It was my parents’ & grandma’s first time swimming in the ocean and they enjoyed it too.

What We Did on Day Two 

We left at 6:50 am & drove to Ma’alea Harbour where the boat was docked. The check-in time was 7:30 am and the boat left around 8 am. The breakfast was vegetarian friendly but for lunch you need to let them know if you’re vegetarian so they can plan for it! Overall, the food wasn’t anything to write home about but that’s not the point of this tour so bring any extra snacks or meals if you’re picky.

During the tour, we stopped at Molokini Crater & Turtle Town, both offering different marine life experiences so it was a nice contrast. The tour is around 6 hours long and we got back to land at 1 pm. Afterwards, if you’re still hungry, grab lunch. Then, head to Ululani’s Shaved Ice to try the famous Hawaiian Shaved Ice! 

By then, we were exhausted to we headed back to our airbnb to shower & take an afternoon nap. In the evening, you can either head to a beach or relax by the pool with an (optional) glass of wine. Since we were staying in West Maui, we got a magnificent view of the sunset no matter where we were in the evening. For dinner, we cooked a home cooked meal & headed to bed early since tomorrow was gonna be a hectic day.

Day 3 : Road to Hana

BEFORE YOU LEAVE : Some people do Hana in 2 days, but I found 1 day to be more than enough to cover everything comfortably! Make a 12:30pm reservation for Wai’anapanapa State Park (black sand beach) ahead of time.

In the morning, we packed some sandwiches to take for the road & headed out by 6:30 am. Food can be a bit unpredictable on the Road to Hana so I recommend packing or picking up a to-go lunch! Make sure to get Shaka App, buy the Maui Classic Road to Hana guided tour on there and download it offline. The road up is definitely a tricky drive so make sure your group’s best driver is doing the driving.

Plan your start time so that you’re in Paia by 7:30am & start the Shaka App tour once you reach Kahului. It works based on GPS so it auto plays as you reach each spot & makes the Road to Hana a lot more fun. First up, we stopped the Story Maui in Paia for breakfast. I recommend the thin mint matcha, nut butter toast and bagel with cream cheese!

Once you get to the Wai’anapana State Park, pick a picnic bench to enjoy the lunch you packed earlier. After lunch, head down to the Black Sand Beach, hang out for a bit and take pictures inside the sea arch. The Black Sand Beach is a very unique experience & a fun place to take pictures. Afterwards, you can drive down further to the Red Sand Beach & Hana town as well.

Plan to leave from Hana by 4pm because this is NOT a road you wanna be stuck driving in the dark. On the way back, the Shaka App tells you some fun stories to keep you alert on the drive home. You can stop by the Halfway to Hana Stand for a quick snack & more banana bread to take home! Towards the end of the drive, you’ll come across Ho’opika Lookout which has a great view for sunset. You can also head down to Ho’opika Beach & you may catch some sea turtles if you’re lucky.

Head to Kahului for dinner or get takeout on the way to your hotel! It’s a jam packed day but you can’t skip it because one of the most popular things to do on Maui.

NOTE : We skipped the Seven Sacred Pools & Bamboo Forest because it was closed during our visit.

This morning is kind of a pick-your-own nature adventure. You can either go on a hike or make this into a beach day, based on what your group is feeling. We opted for a beach day & headed to Kapalua beach for a couple hours. The water is pretty calm here & we were able to go in pretty deep while being able to touch the bottom. This is a great beach for people of all swimming levels & ages.

Then, we got back home & whipped up some shrimp tacos! There’s so much fresh seafood & gold pineapple at the Hawaii supermarkets so we had to make the most of it. I’ll write out the recipe in the Maui Highlight on my Instagram @eatsbyramya.

After lunch is a great time to fit in an afternoon nap, hang out in the hotel and relax. Around 6pm, change into something cute, grab a beach towel and head to Ka’anapali beach for sunset. Most of the hotels around Ka’anapali beach are required to provide free beach parking so check there first. After sunset, head to Whaler’s village for dinner! Monkeypod Kitchen has delicious Mai Tais & is a nice sit-down place. Maui Poke is also great & has good vegetarian options if you build your own bowls.

Head back home & sleep as early as you can cause tomorrow… you gotta wake up at 2 am.

Day 5 : Haleakala Sunrise

BEFORE YOU LEAVE : you need a reservation for Haleakala National Park Sunrise. It is FREEZING up there & very windy. Pack jackets, layers, long pants and even a blanket if you can (I’m not exaggerating).

Know what you’re getting into…

To make this sunrise, you will need to wake up at 2:30am and drive up a mountain. Before you write it off, I promise you I am not a wake up early and see the sunrise kinda person but this was such a unique experience. Once you get to the top, you’ll on a dormant volcano that is literally be ABOVE the clouds. It was hands down the coolest sunrise I’ve ever seen in my life.

The drive up in the dark is tricky but pretty safe as long as you go slow & take your time. You will climb 10,000 feet in 37 miles, making this the steepest elevation gain drive in the world. We personally drove up ourselves but if that’s not something you feel comfortable doing, you can book a tour with a company like Valley of Isle. 

What We Did on Day 5

Your goal should be to be at the Haleakala Visitor Center one hour BEFORE sunrise. So, if sunrise is at 6 am, you wanna get to the visitor center by 5 am. Put “Haleakala Visitor Center” on the map to figure out how ahead of time you need to start to get there by that time. For us, we had to start at 3 am from Napili to make this happen.

Once you get to the Visitor Center, the best spots to view it are at the railing right next to it or take the small hike up the hill right next to it. The hike is short but can be a bit challenging because your body is still adjusting to the altitude. If you have asthma, I’d skip it.

After the sun was completely out, we hung around for a bit & drove back down because we were pretty tired from waking up so early. You can stop by Kula for breakfast or pick a spot on the way back to your airbnb. We stoped by Caffe Kihei in Lahaina Village & has a pretty big brunch. They have a pretty standard Hawaiian-style diner with all the classic breakfast options & some local favourites. Our favourites were the Ube brew, Macadamia Latte, pancakes with bananas + macadamia and waffles.  The omelettes were also pretty good!

After breakfast, we headed back to our airbnb and knocked out for a couple hours cause were super sleepy & woke up around 3 pm. This was our last day in Hawaii so we took the evening to pack, walk around a bit & head to the grocery store to grab some souvenirs to take home. Times Market is one of the best places to get souvenirs that are reasonably priced.

You can either fly out on the night of day 5 or first thing the next morning!

Things to Know Before Your Trip

• Many of the fancier Maui restaurants are NOT catered towards the kind of vegetarians who don’t like salad. If your family is vegetarian, I listed some recommended vegetarian friendly restaurants I’ve tried & compiled from friends below. I would also recommend going with an airbnb!
• Maui is a tropical fruit oasis. Never in my life have I eaten that much fruit in a span of 5 days. I highly recommend trying the gold pineapple, passion fruit and coconuts any chance you get.
• Grab Mineral Sunscreen that’s NOT in a spray bottle if you plan to go snorkelling. 
• SOME PLACES REQUIRE RESERVATION : Haleakala Sunrise, Iao Valley State Park, the snorkelling tour & Wai’napanapa Park all require reservations. Get those as soon as possible so you can plan your trip around that.
• Do NOT underestimate the sun in Maui. With the reef safe stuff, you need to reapply every hour and really rub it in. 
• Lahaina is still in the process of rebuilding after the fires of 2023. Be respectful & mindful when you’re in the area.
• If you have a waterproof camera or a waterproof phone protector, bring it! A lot of the activities are near water & you’ll want pictures. This is the one I have.
• Please bring motion sickness medicine with you, especially if you’re prone to it like me. The roads are very windy & it gets even the strongest of us. I brought this patch from Amazon & dramamine from Walmart.
• We didn’t cover the north shore in this trip because it’s a bit challenging of a drive & not recommended by most. However, if you want to, you can download the Shaka App and complete Road to Hana as a loop instead of returning back down Hana Hwy.

Things to skip

• Maui Tropical Plantation Tour : the tour is pretty slow and mostly geared towards children, so I personally don’t find it to be worth the money if you’re just travelling with adults. However, they have delicious for at the Mill House restaurant if you want to try that out.

What Places Require a Reservation in Maui?

In this Maui itinerary, you will definitely need to make a reservation for Iao Valley State Park, Calypso Snorkelling Tour, Wai’anapanapa State Park & Haleakala Mountain. As far as restaurants, it’s your call but Monkeypod Kitchen tends to get booked out ahead of time so I’d try to reserve that if you really want to go as well.

Where do I stay in Maui?

Before we get into hotel vs. airbnb, let’s discuss location. As far as places to stay, Maui is split into four main parts: West Maui, Hana + Mountain, South Maui and Central Maui.  In this trip, you’ll be spending about 40% of the time in the Hana + Mountain area, 40% of the time in West Maui and 20% in South Maui. That being said, the entire island is pretty small so no matter where you stay you can go everywhere – it’s just about finding the most optimal location.

I would highly recommend considering West Maui or Central Maui for your stay cause it’s a nicer area and relatively central to everything. Kehei is the most optimal in terms of minimising driving distance, but it’s not as nice of an area. If you stay in Central Maui, Wailea can be a good option! We personally stayed in West Maui & there’s a lot of options near there. Our airbnb was in Napili (about 15 minutes from Lahaina).

Should I stay in an airbnb or a hotel?

This really comes down to the kind of vacation you’re looking for.

• If you plan to mainly eat out, enjoy the local food, spend most of your time outside of your room, then a hotel might be more your vibe! I have many friends who stayed in hotels in Wailea and loved it.
• If you want more flexibility to cook at home, don’t love eating out everyday and might want to spend some time chilling indoors, an airbnb or VRBO may be the way to go. A lot of the airbnbs in West Maui are condo style places that are a part of a community.

We were travelling with my grandma & a part of my family is vegetarian, so we went the airbnb route and it worked out to be better for us. 

Here’s the airbnb we stayed at, it came out to around $1960 for 5 days. It was a condo that has direct access to a semi-private beach shared by the community, a pool and a really good view of sunset. Overall, it was a nice place to stay but it was a bit smaller than it looks in pictures. There’s a bunch of other well rated options in the towns around Lahaina like Ka’anapali as well.

Why are groceries so expensive in Hawaii?

It’s possible you may be shopping at the wrong grocery stores. Safeway is very expensive, so I’d recommended one big Costco trip at the beginning and supplementing with smaller Times Supermarket runs for day to day groceries. During my trip, I noticed Safeway prices were up to 3X higher than Times Supermarket or Foodland.

Even then, groceries tend to be more expensive than what I’m used to in New Jersey. That’s just cause the cost of living in Hawaii is high. As a tourist, you just gotta accept that is the price of visiting Hawaii.

Vegetarian Restaurant Recommendations in Maui

• Thai Esan Maui (thai food truck)
• Cafe Des Amis (mediterranean meets indian food)
• A A Roots (wraps, sandwiches & açai bowls)
• Choice Health Bar (more açai bowls)
• Nirvana (indian food truck)
• Maui Poke (a classic! get the marinated tofu)
• Matteo’s Osteria (they have a vegan menu too)
• Caffe Kihei (brunch) – try the macadamia latte or ube brew
• Ululani’s (shaved ice)
• Thai Food by Pranee (thai food truck)
• The Coffee Store In Napili (pineapple upside down cake, matcha, Kona coffee)

check out the “What should I try” section below for some popular foods you should check out during your trip! most of those are vegetarian too 🙂

Is August a good time to visit Maui?

August is a great time to visit Maui because the weather is till great, but the summer crowds are dwindling down. Maui tends to get really packed in June & July due to summer break making it really hard to get around & find reservations. In August, things finally get more chill so it’s the best time to visit if you want to enjoy some quiet.  

What food should I try in Maui?

One of the many delights of the Hawaiian Islands is its coastal climates, and therefore the tropical foods. While you’re staying on the island of Maui, here’s some food to make time for :

• Poke: this dish is so popular in Hawaii that you’ll find it even in the grocery stores. If you go on any Maui tours, they’ll probably mention some popular spots but I personally went to Maui Poke & loved it.
• Kona Coffee: there are many maui coffee sports that you can try Kona coffee at! Buying a bag to take home can be expensive but you can enjoy the chocolate-cherry notes by grabbing a latte instead
• Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts: while these weren’t invented on Hawaii by any means, these are one of those maui things that you gotta try! Hawaii is known for it’s macadamia nuts making these chocolate covered ones extra delicious.
• Gold Pineapple : SO SO SO SO SO GOOD
• Shaka Pops: they have these really delicious homemade popsicles at all the grocery stores & maui tropical plantation!
• Apple Bananas
• Nalu’s Loco Moco (they have a vegetarian one too!)

If you’re looking for a shorter & cheaper. trip from the East Coast, check out this blog post on Road Trip from New Jersey to Quebec to Montreal in 6 Days.