Home/Trails

Explore Maui

Maui Hiking Trails

Maui hiking is absurdly varied: bamboo forest, crater floor, coastal lava, ridgeline cloud forest. Go early, carry water, and you will have most of it nearly to yourself.

0Trails guided
0Easy enough for anyone
0Serious crater hikes
0Feet of Waimoku Falls

You can hike a different ecosystem every day of a Maui week. The Pipiwai bamboo forest feels like another planet, Sliding Sands drops you into a volcano, and Waihee Ridge climbs into cloud forest twenty minutes from a beach.

Island trail rules are simple: start early for cool air and parking, bring more water than seems reasonable, and check conditions after rain — Maui mud is its own difficulty rating. Every page below lists distance, difficulty and the honest version of the parking situation.

01

Out-and-back ridgeline hike · About 45 minutes by car

Waihee Ridge Trail

Four miles, fifteen hundred feet of climb, and the closest most visitors will ever get to the green, folded heart of the West Maui mountains.

Read the full guide →

02

Out-and-back through national park rainforest · About 2.5 hours via the Road to Hana

Pipiwai Trail

A giant banyan, a creaking bamboo cathedral, and a 400-foot waterfall at the end — the best four miles on the Road to Hana, and maybe on Maui.

Read the full guide →

03

Out-and-back into Haleakala crater · About 1 hr 45 min to the summit

Sliding Sands Trail

Walk off the summit rim and into a red-and-ochre world that looks borrowed from Mars — just remember every step down is a steeper step back up at 9,000 feet.

Read the full guide →

04

Easy waterfall walk on private farm land · About 50 minutes by car

Twin Falls

Mile marker two of the Hana Highway: waterfalls you can actually reach, a farm stand worth the stop alone, and your first taste of East Maui jungle.

Read the full guide →

05

Coastal walking path, out-and-back · About 55 minutes by car

Kapalua Coastal Trail

West Maui's easiest great walk — lava points, three beaches, winter whales, and not a single hill worth complaining about.

Read the full guide →

06

Paved oceanfront walking path · About 15 minutes by car

Wailea Beach Path

A mile and a half of paved oceanfront threading five beaches and a billion dollars of resort landscaping — free to everyone, best at sunrise.

Read the full guide →
Inside the bamboo on the Pipiwai Trail — the forest creaks like a ship

07

Historic coastal trail over lava fields · About 30 minutes by car

Hoapili Trail

A two-hundred-year-old royal road across Maui's youngest lava — raw, shadeless, silent, and fifteen minutes from the resort pools of Wailea.

Read the full guide →

08

Historic point-to-point over Kealaloloa Ridge · About 20 minutes to the Maalaea side

Lahaina Pali Trail

The old road over the pali: five steep, sun-blasted miles that pay out in channel views, wind-farm ridgelines and — in winter — whales seen from a thousand feet above them.

Read the full guide →

09

Out-and-back into Haleakala crater · About 1.5 hours by car

Halemauu Trail

The crater's back door: a trail that tiptoes along a cliff face into Haleakala's green northern gap — with an easy overlook version for the altitude-shy.

Read the full guide →

10

Forest loop trail · About 50 minutes by car

Kahakapao Loop

When the beach hits 88 and humid, upcountry Makawao offers this: 5.7 miles of cool, shaded forest loop at 3,000 feet, smelling like eucalyptus and rain.

Read the full guide →

11

Short coastal scramble to a blowhole · About 1 hr 15 min by car

Nakalele Blowhole

A sea geyser at the island's wild northern tip — spectacular, genuinely dangerous up close, and completely safe from exactly where you should stand anyway.

Read the full guide →

More to explore

Explore Maui

Maui Parks
Explore Maui

Maui Beaches
Explore Maui

Maui Restaurants
Plan the trip

Maui Itineraries

Stay With Us

Stay steps from Sugar Beach

Four beachside bungalows in North Kihei, hosted by Megan & Bryan since 2012. 4.9 stars across 421 reviews.

See the bungalows Read 421 guest reviews