Kihei is located on Maui's popular South Shore, one of the best beach destinations in the Hawaiian Islands.

More specifically, the most beautiful beaches lie further south in Wailea-Makena, but Kihei is more of a classic town with full tourist facilities and the usual shops, supermarkets and services that Wailea lacks.

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Tourist Centre

Kihei's village center serves as the main tourist base for all of South Maui. In addition to the large Safeway hypermarket, you can shop for supplies at several other supermarkets, clothing and beach gear stores, but it's also home to snorkeling or diving equipment rentals, as well as several local agencies offering snorkeling boat tours.

All of these services can be found together in a small, compact centre consisting of just a few streets. Everything can be conveniently reached on foot within 15 minutes.

Beaches in Kihei

The town of Kihei lies entirely along the coastline and effectively has a single sandy beach over 6 km long.

However, this is very narrow for most of its length and widens out at Kamaole Beach Park in the south of the resort where Kihei slowly turns into the upmarket resort of Wailea-Makena with much nicer beaches.

Because the beaches in Kihei are much quieter, you have a good chance of spotting turtles resting on land. They can be spotted practically all along the coast, mostly around midday when they bask in the sun.

Accommodation

Compared to Wailea-Makena, Kihei offers noticeably cheaper accommodation, although prices rarely drop below 147 eur per night in a 2-bed room.

Here are some tips for the cheapest apartments in Kihei, but for best availability, book ideally 4-6 months in advance. All accommodations are within 150 meters of the beach.

Kihei Akahi - Apartments 154 eur per night/2 pers.
Kihei Kai Nani 170 - apartment i pod 139 eur per night/2 pers.
Nani Kai Hale - one of the best rated apartments, prices around 0 eur 0 eur per night/2 pers.

How to get there

Kihei is perfectly accessible by car from all parts of Maui. For example, it takes about 30 minutes to get here from the Kahului Airport on Highway 311 after a 19 mile drive.

Kihei can also be reached from Kahului once an hour by bus line 10 "Kihei Islander", while the Maui Ocean Center theme park is also reached by bus 15 "Kihei Villager" once an hour. For bus information, visit mauicounty.gov.