I found this guide useful for planning my trip before I left home, mostly because it includes several pictures and fairly good maps. I used it to make a prioritized itinerary for the road to Hana—which stops to make, which hikes to go on, etc. We only had one day for the road to Hana, so we could not make every stop. I thought the guide did a pretty decent job of sorting out the mundane sites from the must see. The maps for the road to Hana are also very useful. We returned from Hana via the South road at night. It was no problem at all. It was certainly more fun than turning around and going back the way we came. The road is a lot less winding, which was nice. It does go up and down a lot, though. There was nothing wrong with the road at all, but you do need to watch out for the cows. There are signs warning you when you get to cattle country. The cow crossings are kind of a give away too. FYI, we made the trip in an economy car.

I am in debt to Maui Revealed for its recommendation to see Warren & Annabelle’s, which was great. I would recommend, however, that anyone going to see this hilarious show should go late. An hour and a half killing time and eating snacks before the show was a drag. I suppose the wait might be more entertaining if you plan to get drunk.

When we actually got to Maui, we used Lonely Planet’s guide almost exclusively. We started with Maui Revealed, but then we found that Lonely Planet’s instructions were considerably more useful than those in Maui Revealed. In fact, with the exception of the road to Hana, the Lonely Planet guide was far superior for everything.

I would recommend getting both guides if you have never been to Maui before. If this is not your first trip and you do not plan to go to Hana, skip Maui Revealed entirely. It simply does not have enough substance to be worth the time reading it. The “revelations” in the book are all regular tourist destinations that appear to have been visited for at least a hundres years. You will never be alone. Everyone has Maui Revealed on their back seat or in their hand. The recommended restaurants are over priced. I had to laugh when I saw long lines of people waiting to get into a hamburger joint or a local dive for lunch. I would suggest trying the restaurants NOT listed in Maui Revealed. I think you will get food that is just as good and avoid rediculous lines. Best meal we had on Maui? Maui Tacos on our Lanai at sunset. Cheap, great food, and our lanai had a better view than any restaurant we saw! Perhaps Maui Revealed mentions Maui Tacos. I wouldn’t know. I got the tip from Lonely Planet.

About the 3rd edition of Maui Revealed, I checked out the 2nd edition from the library and read it cover to cover. I then ordered the 3rd edition online from Amazon. After a page-by-page comparison, I was shocked to find that the only difference seems to be that a couple of pictures were changed. This is the saddest “update” I have ever seen in a travel guide. Buy the 2nd edition if you can get it cheap.

Lastly, we saw several signs with messages like, “Contrary to Maui Revealed,please respect our rights. This is private property.”

I’ve been reading Maui Revealed since the 2nd edition. There are plenty of useful maps, it’s well organized and easy to browse and read, colorful with pleasing typography and many photos, and the author’s writing style is informal. There’s typically little difference between editions, so no need to upgrade if you’re only 1 edition out of date. I don’t rely on this book for restaurant, activity or hotel advice. In the age of online reviews it really doesn’t make sense to listen to a single opinion in that regard. We often travel with kids and grandparents and I need those perspectives too, especially for activities. Instead I rely on urbanspoon for restaurant advice, and tripadvisor for activity and hotel information.

I recommend this book to friends but nowadays tell them to read with caution. The author does well to build your trust in the book. He explains how well he knows the island, how hard he works on the book, and how residents and businesses are at odds with him for “revealing” what he does. The tendency is to trust him implicitly with everything he says because you feel like he’s trying to help you have a great vacation. The danger here is that you defer to his guidance on activities that require caution, and there are many cases where he has a somewhat cavalier attitude.

For example, he highly recommends ultra light flights and goes on about how safe they are. If you’re in the industry you know that they’re actually quite dangerous. He talks about several sites that require going over private property, which I think readers interpret as “the land owner doesn’t care that’s why he’s telling us.”

One example that really stands out is his description of the Nakalele blowhole. He has a full page picture of a couple embracing 20 ft from the blowhole as water jets over them. It looks amazing and so exciting. His only warning: “there’s no guardrail to stop you from shrinking the gene pool should you use bad judgment and fall into the hole….get as close as common sense dictates.” If you look up this attraction on Youtube you’ll see why this place can be so dangerous although it’s not entirely obvious, especially if you don’t understand the ocean. That’s where the Guide book author should step in. The blowhole is given the “real gem” stamp and listed as “the best place to see the ocean explode” and “the best hike” in West Maui, so I’m sure it gets plenty of tourists.

So that’s the whole point of my review. It’s important to use your personal judgment and take responsibility for the safety of your family, and do some extra research about an attraction when needed. We used an iphone app (Maui gps tour guide) on our last trip that did a good job of providing warnings. Perhaps the best thing you can do is talk to island residents at every opportunity.

Speaking of apps, you may be wondering what the difference is between the book and the Maui revealed App. It appears to mirror the book exactly, and add hotel information from the book’s website. There are additional photos too but they’re small for some reason. If you’ve never been to Maui the book is the better choice. It’s much easier to read and browse through to find information. The App allows you to search for things, but it’s out of context, in that it only shows the specific thing you looked for – you can’t see the “pages” before or after the excerpt, and in the book those pages often give information relating to what you’re looking for. For seasoned Maui travelers, the App is probably all you need, to look up odds and ends.

I haven’t tried the Kindle version but this is an example of a book that you need in paper form so that you can page through quickly, and cross reference with maps. Not to mention the photos…

This book was excellent. We loved exploring some of the hidden sights, such as the olivine pools and secluded waterfalls. Based on information from this book and my recent vacation in Maui, here are some of my personal recommendations:

-Definitely do a loop when driving to Hana. Take the regular “road to Hana” to get there and take the back road along the south part of Maui for the drive back. The back road is not bad at all. It has very few unpaved sections and they are well groomed. A 2WD car can easily do it. The back road will offer different views including tons of lava rock. It is important to note that the “road to Hana” is about the journey not the destination. Stop at waterfalls along the way and scenic overlooks. We left at 6am and didn’t get back until after 7pm. There is so much to do along the way.
-On the road to Hana, take a short detour down Nahiku Road as suggested in the book. Keep driving until you get to the end, which is when you reach the ocean. The view is amazing.
-Do not miss the 400ft Waimoku waterfall at Oheo Gulch. The 2 mile hike each way is well worth it.
-Haleakala at sunset is awesome, especially if you do not want to wake up at 3am and deal with the crowds for sunrise. There were very few people at the summit for sunset and we watched the sun set over clouds which was awesome (a ring of clouds almost always forms partway up the mountain, but the summit is usually clear). We stayed to look at the stars once it got dark… we saw a ton of stars!
-Kula Lodge restaurant on the way to Haleakala has great views, but go for lunch because dinner is very expensive.
-The redwood forest hike in Polipoli state park was awesome, however the drive was terrible. 4 miles of bumpy, unkept dirt road. I would recommend an SUV for driving this road.
-Definitely stop at Julia’s, as listed in the book, when driving around the west/north side of Maui. The banana bread is awesome but so are the coconut candies, dried mango and taro chips.
-The book lists a hiking/snorkeling adventure at La Perouse in south Maui, however when we attempted to do this we saw lots of off-limits signs posted by the government, saying you can’t walk in that entire area until July 2010. So instead we snorkeled at the nearby “Dumps,” which was awesome.
-Food recommendations… Ululani’s Shaved Ice in Lahaina and Flatbread Company in Paia.