Epic Round The World Trip Adventures! Stunning Photos & Articles - A fascinating gap year travel journal covering every stop of their journey.

West Maui - Hawaii
Gap Year Travel Journal

(22nd June - 10th August) Maui, Hawaii - West Shore
The west coast backs onto the leeward side of the West Maui Mountains and is generally drier and more arid as a result. It is also hot, hot, hot here because there's less wind - the main tourist town here is Lahaina but there are loads of huge resorts along this section of coast. Mike did some snorkeling at several locations along this coast and his favourite was at Honolua Bay - the water was very clear with big shoals right in the bay. Although he didn't see any turtles, he did see the bizarre unicorn fish here, see photo of fish with a long nose! There are some beautiful beaches along this stretch and we spent time at Ka'anapali (backed by resorts like the Sheraton) and Napili (smaller and more intimate). West Maui is surfing central, you can drop in the water anywhere along this stretch of coast and are more or less guaranteed to catch a few waves. Lahaina appears to be the main place tourists go if they fancy a few surf lessons. We've seen loads of people paddle-boarding out in Maui (see piccie of a surfer with a paddle!) - it's really taken off as the latest sport to be seen doing. We managed to route out a few great eating houses in Lahaina aswell: you must go to the beachside restaurant Pacific'o if in town, (see pic of Mike looking very happy after a good nosh up there). We were also impressed with Tony Romas with another great view of the ocean - Mike loved their ribs and claimed the meat literally leapt off the bone! On the drive to Lahaina from Paia we passed the Maui Ocean Centre which Mike thought was well worth a visit. He got quite excited about seeing a tiger shark in the main tank, as we'd never seen one in real life before! And to think he is probably windsurfing over these fearsome creatures most days he's wavesailing on the outer reef - too scarey (see pic).