8 Maui Hotels on the Beach | Plan the Beach Vacation of a Lifetime

A traditional Hawaiian lei greeting at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea invites arriving guests to relax into island time at one of Maui’s most luxurious properties. Steps away from the golden sand and deep blue waters of Wailea Beach, the resort also offers three saltwater pools (including an adults-only “Serenity Pool”), where attendants pass complimentary treats every hour, spritz you with Evian water and hand out cucumber slices to lay on your eyelids, and even clean your sunglasses.

If you want an upgrade from one of the resort’s 67 complimentary poolside cabanas, you can rent one of six luxury cabanas with a flatscreen TV equipped with wireless headsets, internet access, couch seating and oversized lounge chairs, ceiling fans, safe, and a mini-fridge stocked with champagne.

Rooms come with an oversized marble bathroom, private lanai, and Nespresso machine, while airy suites offer a living space you can configure to meet your family’s needs, a second guest bathroom, and an outdoor living area with daybeds and chairs.

If you’re looking to relax with a massage, facial, or just a luxurious soak, the Spa Grande at the Grand Wailea Resort is the ultimate place to indulge. With 40 treatment rooms in a 50,000-square-foot space, it’s the largest spa in Hawaii. In addition to an array of treatments, the spa features a “hydrotherapy circuit,” a sprawling floor of soaking options, including a bubbling Roman tub, massaging waterfalls, jet showers, Japanese furo, cold plunge pool, and individual aromatherapy mineral baths.

Outside, the resort’s extensive network of pools and water activities appeals to families, with a 262-foot “lava tube” slide, and a 25,000-square-foot activity pool featuring nine separate swimming areas on different levels, connected by water slides, a whitewater rapids slide, and a lazy river, as well as a Tarzan pool with a rope swing, waterfalls, and a water elevator.

At the Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort, you can upgrade your stay by renting one of six private villas—the 3,400-square-foot oceanfront villa features three bedrooms, gourmet kitchen, and private outdoor space with your own grill and plunge pool.

Experience a traditional Hawaiian luau with the Feast at Mokapu, a dinner and interactive show featuring dancers and storytellers who share Polynesian culture, history, and myth, along with a meal of favorite island dishes and unlimited craft cocktails.

Along with traditional amenities like pool towels and free wifi, the resort’s $48 resort fee covers an array of included services like unlimited use of GoPro cameras, outrigger canoe excursions, access to the resort’s snorkel gear, guided sunset meditations, hula and coconut husking lessons, mixology classes, stargazing, and a 45-minute beach portrait session.

Located on 23 acres fronting the white sands of three-mile-long Kaanapali Beach, the Sheraton Maui Resort and Spa invites guests to cool off with a 142-yard lagoon pool, a sprawling oasis of swimming holes linked by lava-rock waterways, a lazy river, and a waterslide. Grown-ups can relax in a poolside cabana or floating beanbag lounge chair, while a children’s pool offers shallower water for little ones to explore.

Steps away from the pool, Kaanapali’s Black Rock is a natural outcropping that provides a stunning backdrop to the resort’s traditional cliff dive ceremony, held nightly at sunset. By day, guests can plunge from the rock into a sparkling blue sea, or snorkel with the colorful schools of reef fish and graceful sea turtles that gather in the area.

There are plenty of activities to keep you busy—and moving—at Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club, a family-friendly timeshare resort. In addition to swimming at Kaanapali Beach or one of the resort’s three pools, you can rent boards for surfing, take a yoga or water aerobics class at the fitness center, play squash, or enjoy a game of tennis on a lighted outdoor court.

A children’s zone offers crafts, videos, and board games, and ukulele lessons, as well as a supervised camp to keep little ones engaged, while the whole family can enjoy activities like bocce ball and basketball at clubTHRIVE. At the end of the day, you can relax and unwind in the resort’s whirlpool spa, which is open to 11 p.m.

“Maui” and “penguins” are two words you may not have expected to put together, but that’s exactly what you’ll find at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa, a 20-acre resort on Kaanapali Beach. The resort’s seven resident penguins enjoy a place of honor in the hotel’s lush atrium lobby, and a daily feeding at 9:30 a.m. includes a chance to learn about the birds and watch them swim for their breakfast, after which children will have a chance to feed the hotel’s koi fish.

Maui is one of the world’s top destinations for astronomy, and a rooftop stargazing program offers guests a guided tour of the night sky. A special “Romance Tour” at 10 p.m. includes sparkling wine and chocolate strawberries.

The hotel’s 775 oceanfront rooms and 31 luxury suites each come with a private lanai, while club floor rooms offer access to an exclusive lounge that is stocked throughout the day with fresh fruit and coffee, continental breakfast, snacks, and a dinner salad bar and buffet.

If West Maui’s touristy Kaanapali Beach is too crowded for you, head another 15 minutes down the road to Napili. With 44 recently updated units originally built in the 1950s, The Mauian offers nostalgic Hawaiian hospitality in an intimate setting overlooking a protected white-sand bay.

The hotel’s airy rooms open onto private lanais with views of the ocean or the two-acre gardened property. Notably, rooms are not equipped with televisions, stereos, or phones, in keeping with the resort’s quiet, “unplugged” ambiance (although a breezy lounge room offers a television and VCR/DVD player, along with books, board games, movies, and snacks).

With a fully equipped kitchen in each room, as well as three poolside gas barbecues, guests have the flexibility to eat family style. A weekly “Sunset Aloha Party” offers a chance to mix and mingle while enjoying live entertainment.

For travelers who really want to escape Maui’s tourist scene—and get away from civilization entirely—the Hotel Travaasa in remote Hana, Maui, offers the ultimate getaway. Located at the furthest end of the island, and accessible only by the Hana Highway, a spectacular, famously narrow and curvy drive that threads along the jungled eastern coast of the island, the village of Hana offers a taste of old Hawaii.

At the Travaasa, private bungalows and suites are cooled by ocean breezes, while expansive lanais open onto sweeping panoramic views. With little to do in terms of entertainment in tiny Hana town, the resort offers a variety of experiences like horseback riding, bamboo pole fishing, walks along the area’s rugged coastline, and smoothie-making classes.

If spending time in Hana isn’t relaxing enough, the resort’s award-winning spa offers an array of massage and skin treatments, as well as steam rooms, a cold plunge pool, and an outdoor lava-rock whirlpool overlooking Hana Bay.