Maui is the most overrated Hawaiian Island
Obviously, we are tourists. So we are explaining this solely from a tourist perspective and not from the lens of locals or culture, but more so from what the island has to offer from an adventure and sightseeing standpoint.
We were SO excited to visit Maui. So many people said they loved Maui, so we thought we would love it too. My mom was actually the only person who told me that Maui was her least favorite island (and she’s been to all of the Hawaiian islands multiple times). Later, we found out that everyone who told us Maui was “amazing”…had actually never been to another Hawaiian island.
We’ve actually talked to many locals who live on other Hawaiian islands as well, and they all felt the same about Maui. They’ll vacation on every other Hawaiian island but never go back to Maui. So we know we aren’t entirely alone in our opinions.
If this is the only Hawaiian island you’ve ever seen, then we get it. It’s so different from the mainland USA, and there is beauty there. But in our humble opinion, after visiting the four main Hawaiian islands that most tourists travel to — Hawaii (the Big Island), Oahu, Kauai, and Maui — our personal opinion is that Maui is the worst of all the islands, and here’s why.
PS — We’ve included vlogs of each of the different of the Hawaiian Islands at the bottom of this blog so you can see actual footage and real time talks of our opinions.
PSS - While the photos throughout this blog are from Maui, read what we have to say more so than the shots. We are full-time content creators and it’s our job to make places look beautiful.
Price
It’s the most expensive island that we experienced. From local boutique hotels (with homeless people on drugs living in the parking lot)…our room was $800 a night and was not that glamorous or fancy. A glass of wine cost $28 at a regular divey-ish bar, and the tiniest side of fries was $17.
Everything felt expensive and overpriced compared to the other islands.
Kauai felt like the next most expensive island, but even then there was some competition that drove down prices, and you could find more affordable options if you wished.
The Big Island (Hawaii) and Oahu we found to be the most budget-friendly.
You could find expensive luxury stays and restaurants, but there were lots of options for all price ranges, whereas we felt Maui lacked that budget diversity.
Driving
The scenic drives in Maui were not so scenic. It’s mostly volcanic rock and not the beautiful tropical drives you’d imagine a paradise being. Also, the island is big and takes a long time to drive around because the highway is more like an infinity sign…making drive time much longer.
The Big Island is obviously a lot of driving too, and the Kona side is much more like Maui with endless volcanic rock — but on the Hilo side and the south and north sides of Hawaii, it’s so lush, beautiful, and scenic that we couldn’t stop looking at the breathtaking views.
Kauai has one road that drives around the entire island, but it’s very beautiful and lush.
Oahu is more developed and has highways and quicker routes to get around the island — but it’s also tropical and beautiful.
Snorkeling
Snorkeling in Maui was underwhelming. We loved snorkeling on the Big Island at places like 2-Step and Captain Cook, or on the North Shore of Oahu (Shark’s Cove and Three Tables). The water clarity wasn’t the best compared to Oahu and the Big Island. Kauai snorkeling isn’t great (because it’s so rainy), but most people go to Kauai for the lush rainforest, jungle, hiking, and Napali Coast views…not the snorkeling.
Beaches
The beaches were okay in Maui but weren’t our favorite. We by far loved the beaches on Oahu (Waimea or Lanikai are our faves). The Big Island has some beautiful magical beaches that are so different: Waipio Valley — a beautiful black sand beach with wild horses, Papakōlea Green Sand Beach, Magic Sands Beach, and Mauna Kea Beach on the Kona side for some beautiful white-sand beaches.
Road to Hana
Treacherous, stressful, takes all day, and is just filled with a bunch of “get out and look” stops. If you love to adventure to your destination and feel like you’ve arrived somewhere magical…this is not it. It’s a bunch of getting out of your car, looking, getting back in, and continuing to drive. Nothing stood out as the most amazing place we’ve seen, and we would absolutely never do the Road to Hana again. You spend more time in your car than actually enjoying a place.
Homelessness
While homelessness is a huge issue in big cities in the USA and across the Hawaiian islands, we’ve never been to a Hawaiian island and felt unsafe.
We are from Los Angeles and very used to being around the homeless population. Waikiki is a big city and has homeless people, but when we were in Maui we actually felt unsafe.
As a female, I didn’t feel safe walking outside to grab a coffee or even go to my car to grab something by myself. People were living in the parking lot of our hotel and on serious drugs, yelling, screaming and punching the air…quite literally everywhere and very frequently.
We saw many people doing crack from their pipe in public place with the police there not doing anything about it. Even when we crossed the street, a homeless guy lunged at my fiancé like he was going to attack him.
While it’s deeply saddening to see, it’s not something you want to deal with while on vacation — especially for the prices you pay to visit Maui. This may have changed since we visited in 2022, but from our experience it was really out of hand.
Haleakala
I will admit this was my favorite part of Maui. The sunset views were amazing, but it is a trek to get to (you’re basically road-tripping to the top of a mountain…well volcano to be exact). And while it was beautiful, it’s not really what you imagine when going to a Hawaiian island — a lot less tropical paradise and more cold mountaintop skyview with a sunset. So all in all… it’s not something we’d go back to
