Ho'aloha Park — Attraction in Maui

While this is a public park, it may not seem like it on the façade due to two permanent structures occupying the land and inventory of canoes laying all over the place. I'm not sure how or why a canoe club ended up here but it is what it is!

THE PARK: Hoaloha Park is about two acres in size, with a sandy beach and very protected waters as it sits in a bay shielded by Kahului Harbor and a manmade peninsula. Grassy areas are expansive and stretch from the Maui Seaside Hotel border on the west end to the former Chart House and Hideaway Restaurant (still vacant building) to the east. While there are facilities such as restrooms, it's not available to the public as they're inside of the canoe club's buildings. Being literally next to Kahului Harbor, I wouldn't suggest swimming here as the amount of ship traffic simply pollutes the waters. Come canoe season, they sometimes hold regatta races here and the area gets infested with people and cars.

There are however, some positives to this beach especially on the west end near the hotels where you can perch with a great view of the cruise ships coming in and out of port on certain days. And, because the beach isn't "beach-worthy" especially in the eyes of tourists, it's always empty! There aren't any sunset or neighbor island views, but that's the trade-off. I've been known to crack open a few and participate in the ship-watching activity myself, lol. It's a quiet place too as the highways are set back a nice distance. While there are nicer beaches on Maui, how often can you have one all to yourself?

OVERALL: You're not missing out on much. Find...

Nice water access with lots of older guys and their wives. Some youth fishing with their families as they hang out under the shade trees. There are 2 rock walls that have some smaller fish once you get a little further out Paddle boarders with sails also take off from this area. Seems very calm for elders to navigate the water with ease. Pretty shells and even a penny that was water bound for awhile was found on shore. Please bring a bag to remove walked in plastic as well as some shore debris. Let us leave it better for our children that we found...

Nice little park that is mainly used for the consistent winds. Not the prettiest of all beaches because of the industrialized areas surrounding it, this beach makes a perfect spot for wind sports like wind surfing. Almost everyone in the water is doing some variant of wind sports so you don't have to watch out for swimmers. If you want to learn these kind of activities, this is a great place also because there lots of friendly people here who will share...