2005 - PWA Hawaii Pro

If possible, fly directly to Maui; doing so can save you a 2-hour layover in Honolulu and another plane ride. If you're headed for Molokai or Lanai, you'll have to connect through Honolulu.

If you think of the island of Maui as the shape of a head and shoulders of a person, you'll probably arrive on its neck, at Kahului Airport.

At press time, six airlines fly directly from the U.S. mainland to Kahului: United Airlines (tel. 800/241-6522; www.ual.com) offers daily nonstop flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles; Aloha Airlines (tel. 800/367-5250; www.alohaair.com) has nonstop service from Kahului, Maui to Burbank, California (closer to downtown Los Angeles than Los Angles International Airport), Orange County, California, and Phoenix, Arizona. International travelers can use Aloha's service from Vancouver, BC. Hawaiian Airlines (tel. 800/367-5320; www.hawaiianair.com) has direct flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle; American Airlines (tel. 800/433-7300; www.aa.com) flies direct from Los Angeles and San Jose; Delta Airlines (tel. 800/221-1212; www.delta.com) offers direct flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles; and American Trans Air (tel. 800/435-9282; www.ata.com) has direct flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix.

The other carriers -- including Continental (tel. 800/525-0280; www.continental.com), which offers nonstop service from Newark to Honolulu, and Northwest Airlines (tel. 800/225-2525; www.nwa.com), which has a daily nonstop from Detroit -- fly to Honolulu, where you'll have to pick up an interisland flight to Maui. (The airlines listed in the paragraph above also offer many more flights to Honolulu from additional cities on the mainland.) Both Aloha Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines offer jet service from Honolulu.

Landing at Kahului Airport-- If there's a long wait at baggage claim, step over to the state-operated Visitor Information Center, where you can pick up brochures and the latest issue of This Week Maui, which features great regional maps of the islands, and ask about island activities. After collecting your bags from the poky, automated carousels, step out, take a deep breath, proceed to the curbside rental-car pickup area, and wait for the appropriate rental-agency shuttle van to take you a half mile away to the rental-car checkout desk.

If you're not renting a car, the cheapest way to get to your hotel is SpeediShuttle (tel. 808/875-8070; www.speedishuttle.com), which can take you between Kahului Airport and all the major resorts between 5am and 11pm daily. Rates vary, but figure on $30 for one to Wailea (one-way); $41 one-way to Kaanapali and $57 one-way to Kapalua. Be sure to call before your flight to arrange pickup.

You'll see taxis outside the airport terminal, but note that they are quite expensive -- expect to spend around $60 to $75 for a ride from Kahului to Kaanapali and $50 from the airport to Wailea.

If possible, avoid landing on Maui between 3 and 6pm, when the working stiffs on Maui are "pau work" (finished with work) and a major traffic jam occurs at the first intersection.

Avoiding Kahului -- If you're planning to stay at any of the hotels in Kapalua or at the Kaanapali resorts, you might consider flying Island Air (tel. 800/323-3345; www.islandair.com) from Honolulu to Kapalua-West Maui Airport. From this airport, it's only a 10- to 15-minute drive to most hotels in West Maui, as opposed to an hour from Kahului. Pacific Wings (tel. 888/873-0877 or 808/575-4546; fax 808/873-7920; www.pacificwings.com) flies eight-passenger, twin-engine Cessna 402C aircraft into tiny Hana Airport, and also flies into Kahului.

Interisland Flights--Don't expect to jump a ferry between any of the Hawaiian islands. Today, everyone island-hops by plane. Before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, there used to be flights between Honolulu and Maui almost every 20 minutes of every day from just before sunrise to well after sunset.

Those days are gone. There are fewer and fewer interisland flights, so be sure to book your interisland connection from Honolulu to Maui in advance.

Aloha Airlines (tel. 800/367-5250 or 808/244-9071; www.alohaair.com) is the state's largest provider of interisland air transport service. It offers 15 regularly scheduled daily jet flights a day from Honolulu to Maui on their all-jet fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft. Aloha's sibling company, Island Air (tel. 800/323-3345 or 808/484-2222; www.islandair.com), operates deHavilland DASH-8 and DASH-6 turboprop aircraft and serves Hawaii's small interisland airports on Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, with flights connecting them to Oahu.

Hawaiian Airlines (tel. 800/367-5320 or 808/871-6132; www.hawaiianair.com) is Hawaii's other interisland airline featuring jet planes.

A newcomer on the interisland commuter scene is Kahului-based Pacific Wings (tel. 888/873-0877 or 808/575-4546; www.pacificwings.com), which flies eight-passenger, twin-engine Cessna 402C aircraft. It currently offers flights between Kahului and Hana, Molokai, Lanai, and Honolulu.

This and more information can be found at www.frommers.com/destinations/maui/0015020009.html