Get the most of Maui at Wailea

Photo Caption: This cutwork piece typifies the Maui Outrigger Resort's affection for traditional Hawaiian art. - Sacramento Bee/Janet Fullwood

WAILEA, Hawaii -- If you have to ask, you can't afford it. Or maybe you can.

The upscale resorts along Maui's Wailea coast are subject to the same economic and seasonal ups and downs as anyplace else in the islands, and if you can visit during the low season, you can probably snag a reasonably affordable deal.

On a recent trip, I sampled two South Maui properties, and I'd return to either in a heartbeat.

The 310-room Maui Prince, just south of Wailea in wonderfully isolated Makena, is a former Aston property built around an open-air atrium lushly landscaped with plants, fountains, waterfalls and streams. To walk through the front entry and into the embrace of the water music is an instantly calming, almost Zenlike experience.

The serene ambience is carried throughout the property with the use of artful landscaping and quiet attention to detail. This is a hotel that seduces you slowly, rather than trying to impress with a lot of flash and dash.

Guest rooms at the Prince open onto outdoor corridors rather than enclosed hallways, and are furnished in a tasteful but understated way. Most have at least partial ocean views, and all have spacious lanais furnished with table and chairs.

In an interesting take on cross-ventilation, doors to the atrium corridors can be propped open and an inner set of louvered doors closed to allow a breeze to flow through. In-room coffee, bottled water and a variety of snacks are complimentary -- a welcome change from the many Hawaii hotels that charge up to $4 a day for in-room brew.

The Prince's swimming pool is on the small side -- but again, serenity is the name of the game here. Maluaka Beach, just beyond the pool area, is long, lovely and uncrowded.

In-house dining choices include Hakone, a highly regarded Japanese restaurant, and the Prince Court, recently honored as the best hotel restaurant on Maui.

At the north end of Wailea, the Outrigger Wailea occupies a prime location on a point of land fronting two beaches. The first resort to be developed in Wailea (in 1976), it recently underwent a $25 million renovation that spruced up guest rooms and added a large, open-air lobby and other features playing up its relationship with the outdoors. The large outrigger canoe near the activities desk is the one that gave this family-owned hotel chain its name. It's part of a large collection of Hawaiian art and artifacts that lend a meaningful sense of place to the property.

While the Outrigger's layout -- 521 rooms in eight buildings -- is a bit confusing, the payoff is a 22-acre site that offers far more outdoor space than any other resort in Wailea. Four nights a week, formal luaus are held on one of those broad, oceanside lawns, drawing several hundred people for an evening of tasteful entertainment and traditional Hawaiian delicacies.

The Outrigger's signature restaurant, Hula Moons, offers contemporary Hawaiian cuisine in a tropical, nostalgic 1930s atmosphere.

Each of the other Wailea resorts has its own distinctive personality, from the over-the-top Grand Wailea to the Moorish lines of the Kea Lani to the quiet charm of the Renaissance and stolidly tasteful Four Seasons.

Most Wailea resorts also house a spa, with the most elaborate of the bunch set to open in January at the Four Seasons. Book a massage in one of the thatched outdoor hales here, and you can enjoy being kneaded with the rhythmic surge of the sea in the background. Heartily recommended, it's enough to make you think you've died and gone to ... Maui.

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Get the most of Maui at Wailea

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