Hawaii: Kihei, Kaanapali: Maui's two sides

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More than a dozen world-class beaches, a majestic volcano crater, top-end resorts, budget bungalows and great eats, from candlelit gourmet spots to fish shacks by the side of the road — no wonder Maui regularly tops travel-magazine reader polls asking Americans to name their favorite tropical-island vacation spot.

Fans of Kauai, such as myself, might quibble with the judgment, but let's give Maui its due.

Only, which Maui?

The Valley Isle has two distinct resort areas — and two distinct camps of supporters. Are you going to Kihei. Or Kaanapali?

Sure, there are other parts of Maui. Paia, with its beautiful windswept coast. The isolated lush paradise of Hana. Workaday Kahului, the place to meet someone other than other tourists. Upcountry, with its protea flower farms spread under the dormant Haleakala volcano.

But most of the 2.5 million visitors who come to Maui each year head for one of two resort strips. At Maalaea, turn right and you're on your way to the lush, manicured, golf-friendly world of Kaanapali and resorts of West Maui.

Turn left, and it's down to funky, friendly Kihei and the sun-drenched South Maui coast, with the island's best continuous stretch of beaches.

When I say Kaanapali vs. Kihei, I'm really talking about West Maui vs. South Maui. Kaanapali and everything north of it, including Kahana and Kapalua, vs. Kihei and everything south — including Wailea and Makena.

Left hanging is where Lahaina fits into the mix. The one-time whaling center is Maui's favorite party town. Some Kaanapali fans claim Lahaina as their own. Kihei supporters say, fine, you can have it.

Kihei

Kihei is special to me. My first long-distance solo vacation, in 1982, was to Maui to visit a high-school buddy who had moved to Maui to become a beach boy for one of the new South Maui resorts.

I slept on his couch, ate at fish stands on South Kihei Road and lolled away a week at "Big Beach." Kaanapali was the "other" place, where the rich old guys in golf slacks and with fat wallets hung out.

A lot of what I liked about Kihei back then is still there today. I can sit scruffy in wet swimming trunks, T-shirt and flip-flops for a fried ahi lunch platter at Alexanders Fish & Chicken & Chips roadside hangout. Or troll for tikis of the angry-faced Hawaiian god Lono and other trinkets in the tacky minimalls.

Just across the road are several beaches: Kamaole Beach Parks No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 — each a beautiful gem that belies its generic name.

Small, moderately priced hotels like the Maui Coast and the Koa Resort have survived the development onslaught. A weeklong stay at either will fill your address book with newfound friends. I even like the massive Kamaole Sands condo development, where it is still possible to get a one-bedroom unit with a kitchen for less than $160 a night.

Kihei's "we don't need no zoning" ambience may not be as easy on the eyes as Kaanapali's, but the crowds at the beach and in the cafes and shops at night are younger, prettier and friendlier than in West Maui. The atmosphere is more casual and the effect on the wallet lighter.

Wailea

If Kihei sounds a bit too Spartan for your tastes, Wailea is just a short drive away. Once this area was just scrub brush and 350-plus days of solid sunshine. It's always hot in South Maui, and vacationers weary of the "liquid sunshine" of more tropical Kaanapali have helped fuel an upmarket boom.

The Four Seasons is in South Maui. A Pacific Cafe, the award-winning restaurant that started out in Kauai, is here, too. I'm ambivalent about a lot of the pomp. During my most recent visit to the Kihei area, I stayed at the top of the over-the-top resorts: The Grand Wailea.

The hotel has a vision of excess whose main concept is "a detached world." The management means this to convey a positive sense of leaving cares behind. But the downside is that the massively overblown resort separates itself from its surroundings. With the hotel's excitingly epic-size water park featuring a 2,000-foot-long "river pool," the nearby beach becomes an afterthought. I'm not a golfer, but friends who are tell me South Maui has matched, and perhaps eclipsed, West Maui as the top golf destination on the island. The Blue Course at Wailea is especially friendly to the higher-par golfer, while the pair of Robert Trent Jones Jr. courses — the Gold Course and the Emerald Course — are more challenging. Two more Robert Trent Jones Jr. courses are in Makena, the North Course and South Course.

Head south of Wailea, toward Puu Olai, the baby cinder cone that was once an offshoot of the mighty Haleakala. The volcano looms somewhere up above the clouds that hang to the east. The road leads through a kiawe-tree thicket to Oneloa Beach, my favorite on the island.

The name means "long sand" in Hawaiian, but it's known locally by its nickname, "Big Beach." And that it is — more than 1,000 yards long and 25 yards wide. Acres of orange-tinged sand where sunbathers can stake out private plots even on the busiest days. The people hiking over a nearby hill are on their way to "Little Beach," Maui's best-known though unofficial nude beach. Going buff on the beach is against the law, but I've never seen any police going over to write tickets for those seeking a lineless tan.

Kaanapali

It took three trips to Maui before I tried out Kaanapali, and to my surprise, it wasn't all golf nuts and riding lawn mowers. I've been back once more and now feel torn in my Maui allegiance.

Driving north from Lahaina, the view across the azure sea takes in the nearby islands. Brown, barren Kahoolawe, the cloud-capped hump of Lanai and the long, low sweep of Molokai. Nowhere else in the 50th state conjures Mark Twain's description of Hawaii as "the loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean."

Kaanapali is, for better or worse, a more orderly world than Kihei. It was built as one master-planned resort community. No wild funky jumble here. Wide manicured lawns front nicely spaced resorts that are hard to tell apart except for the tasteful glow-in-the-dark, belt-high signs that mark the driveways. Is that the Hyatt? Or the Westin? Or the Sheraton?

At the south end is Whaler's Village, a mall with the kind of shops you'd find at any upscale stateside mall — Gucci, Coach, Prada, Versace. Shops that seem more Paris than Polynesia. The Westin has the best swimming pools, the Embassy Suites the best rooms and the Sheraton fronts the best strand of sand. But my top choice is the slightly aged Kaanapali Beach Hotel. It bursts through the cool of Kaanapali with a warm embrace.

The hotel has a more "real" feel than anywhere else at this end of the island. The mostly Hawaiian staff is open and funny.

Unlike other resorts, the room is not the center of life at the Kaanapali Beach Hotel. Visitors, many of them on their fifth or sixth return trip to the resort, head for the outdoor restaurant for moderately priced meals of Hawaiian favorites like fresh ahi tuna steak or sweet pork ribs.

Party in Lahaina

For those seeking noise and crowds, it's just three miles south, back to Lahaina. The port-turned-party-town has rows of bars, cafes and shops that draw huge weekend crowds that bring traffic to a standstill. The sadly no-longer-scruffy Pioneer Inn is celebrating its 100th birthday this year, while David Paul's Lahaina Grill, Gerard's and other cloth-napkin eateries compete for the dinner-hour throngs.

Lahaina harbor has rows of boats selling scuba-diving, snorkeling or just-enjoying-a-sunset-rum-punch cruises. Hotel activity desks can set up any kind of waterborne sport you desire.

Kapalua

Farther north on Highway 30, Kaanapali gives way to Kahana and then Napili. It's a dreamy view — the blue sky, gold beaches, sailboats bobbing on whitecaps with the nearby volcanic islands in the distance. Nothing in Kihei can match it.

Like South Maui, the farther away from the center of the island, the higher rent the district. The Maui Land & Pineapple Co. plantation covered most of Kapalua until the 1970s, when a big chunk was developed into resorts. Today, the somewhat fussy Ritz-Carlton gets the critics' kudos, but the nearby Kapalua Bay Resort boasts what nearly everyone agrees is the best beach in the island. Or at least was.

Kapalua won the first "Best Beach in the United States" competition in 1991, chosen by Stephen Leatherman, a professor at Florida International University, known popularly as "Dr. Beach." Kapalua Beach was also rated tops in the nation by the University of Maryland's Coastal Research Lab.

But as in much of Hawaii, a good thing has to be exploited. When I first came to Kapalua in the early 1980s, the resort edged up against a part of the beach. Wide green lawns circled much of the rest, giving the beach an open, airy feeling. Now concrete rings Kapalua Beach like a gray vise. The resort has expanded across the onetime lawns, using the beach's status as a selling point. Luckily, the Kapalua area still has a few nearly as wonderful beaches nearby. My favorite is D.T. Fleming State Park, a gentle break that is good for families.

Kapalua is also a big-time golf resort, with Mercedes Championships held each year on the Ben Crenshaw-designed Plantation Course. Nearby are two Arnold Palmer-designed links, the Village Course and the Bay Course.

Reputations die hard, but the truth may well be that Kaanapali and Kihei are becoming more alike with the passing years. So where to stay — Kihei or Kaanapali? The only solution: Try both. More than once. You may never decide. But you'll never tire of the investigation.