Ka'anapali, Maui's Coastal Playground

(Reprinted from the Maui Convention & Visitor's Bureau)

From its lu'au lawns to its golf tees, Ka'anapali is fit, trim and manicured, a playground for all tastes.

Its hotels line a 3-mile coastline with premier accommodations, gourmet dining rooms, lagoons with swans and flamingos, art treasures in improbable places, and vast landscapes and waterscapes that elicit shrieks of excitement from their mega-pools and thrill slides.

Favored by the Hawaiians of old, Ka'anapali has maintained its playful spirit with the enhancements of modern water sports: catamarans, outrigger canoes, boogie boards, surfboards, snorkel and dive gear, and more.

A Look at Ancient Times

In ancient times, the rulers of Maui savored Ka'anapali as their royal retreat and playground. They liked the perfect stretch of white sand beach, the gentle waves, the ideal weather, and the broad swath of green that swept up the slopes of the rainbow-laced Kahalawai, the West Maui Mountains.

Maui's "royals" surfed, raced their canoes, feasted at lu'au lasting for weeks, and, where the Ka'anapali Golf Courses now blanket the land, they played ulu maika, a form of lawn bowling using stones.

Ka'anapali 's two championship golf courses are open to all. One is the creation of the eminent Robert Trent Jones, Sr., the other designed by Arthur Jack Snyder. The way the courses are laid out, both duffers and pros get a good game. The only problem is whales. If they're jumping offshore in their fantastic gymnastics, nobody seems to make par. The magnificent vistas of sea and mountains are distracting enough to be considered outright hazards on the links.

Ka'anapali was Hawai'i's first master-planned resort and has become a model for resorts around the world. The hotels and condominiums offer the gamut of experiences, from soaring marble lobbies to beachside bungalows.

Lavish Gardens, Beach and Golf

All are planted in a 1,200-acre enclave amid lavish gardens along the beach and golf courses. In the center is Whalers Village, an open air, world-class shopping complex complete with a whaling museum.

The shops, hotels, restaurants, nightlife, activity centers, and golf courses, as well as Lahaina town, are all connected by shuttle transportation.

Children and adults are invariably thrilled by the Lahaina-Ka'anapali and Pacific Railroad, a restored sugarcane train pulled by a vintage steam locomotive. Chugging through the sugar fields between Ka'anapali and Lahaina, it evokes the plantation era of West Maui.

Ka'anapali 's rich history and traditions are honored daily. Every evening at sundown, cliff divers reenact the feat of Maui's revered King Kahekili, who bravely dove from the cliff at Pu'u Keka'a, or Black Rock, into the churning sea.

The Hawaiians of old considered this spot to be the jumping off place for the soul to enter the nether world. Tiki torches are lit along the shore as ancient pahu drums and conch shells call the hula dancers and revelers to the beachside lu'au.

Preserving a Unique Way of Life

To preserve the unique culture and Maui way of life, some Ka'anapali properties have adopted innovative cultural programs that encourage employees to share their heritage with guests. They do this in large and small ways, such as greeting them with genuine aloha, sharing music and family lore, and in colorful programs during Aloha Festivals, Lei Day and Kamehameha Day, in honor of Hawai'i's greatest king.

Even with the amenities that have grown with time, Ka'anapali has retained its core of natural beauty and gracious, royal Hawaiian hospitality - two of the many qualities that made it the choice of kings.