South Maui Gardens — Attraction in Maui

We went for the Hula show which is [potentially] a good family show. But it is WEIRD. It is advertised as a two hour show, but the first half is listening to two talented musicians play Hawaiian music while the audience looks at an empty stage. The musicians hide behind a panel. The audience kept trying to decide whether to leave or not. We felt like we were being tested for an experiment to test for A.D.D.

THEN there is an intermission. THEN the part of the performance with actual performers begins at 6pm.

The MC is capable, but she seems surprised that the audience isn't in the mood for shooting and hollering after the previous ultra-shy musician routine. She must face this at every show. They explain a few steps in the history of HULA and the performers are very good. The musicians are still hiding. The primary male dance was EXCELLENT. At the end of the show he does a reasonable fire dance. Time to go.

This would be a reasonable show for a $10-$20 admission price, but at $100 there is really no reason to go.

Even the food trucks here (that are run by the same vendors at multiple locations on the island) have inflated prices for the same dishes that they sell elsewhere for much less.

I was looking for a HULA experience that was done by locals and not produced by a large entertainment company, but this event missed the mark by not having a capable director that would sit on the lawn with the customers and watch how when 50% of the show consists of looking at a mostly empty stage while listening to talented musicians with state fright perform really sets the tone for the night. Note that during the first half there were a FEW songs that featured some uninspired solo dancing by some local teenagers, but they packed up and left as soon as their required dance was over.

I am including a photo of what the "musical performance" half of the show...

If you browse the directory on this Google Maps listing, it does not contain the all of the food trucks currently available. For some reason, some of the food trucks use a nearby address, but are clearly inside the garden area. Hopefully, this will be resolved soon. We came here for the food trucks. There are several businesses we tried & enjoyed the food tremendously. We will definitely come back. The garden is setup very nicely with lots of picnic tables for people to sit & enjoy the food. Each time we stop by, there is a lot of people walking around. So I'm glad this place is doing well getting the food traffic. Unfortunately, there is 1 factor that I hope the owners will fix on Google Maps. If you look at each of the food truck listings, they will all say "wheelchair accessible." The entire garden is on gravel, not pavement or any kind of flat surface. Anything on wheels, not just wheelchairs, even strollers, will have a hard time moving around. Also, there are some paths not wide enough to be technically ADA compliant, (4 feet minimum). So this garden is not accessible for...

I used to only go to South Maui Gardens for the aspect of the nursery. I loved buying all my plants there and the staff is always super helpful with giving me advice on what plants would work well at my house and problem solving when one starts to look less than happy. It's so peaceful walking around and you'll see lots of butterflies fluttering by as you shop. Objectively speaking they have the most affordable and prettiest orchids on the island.

Now though, South Maui Gardens has amazing events too! They'll do free community movie night which my husband and I enjoy attending because they've got all the food trucks to purchase amazing food and make an evening out of it. I always see people with kids there having an awesome time as well. Check out Facebook events for updates on the next one, totally worth it and I'm grateful they've created this space for...