Best South Maui Beaches
You don’t have long on your Maui vacation so don’t spend your time at a sub par beach, go straight to the best ones. This blog will be covering the best beaches in South Maui, so the Makena, Wailea, and Kihei area.
1. Makena State Park (Big Beach, Little Beach, Oneuli Beach)
Makena State Park arguably holds the best beaches in Maui within its borders.
Big Beach
If you’re looking for a beautiful beach to hang out on with plenty of space Big Beach is your place. There’s not great snorkeling and if you aren’t careful when entering the water the shore break may take you down, so just plan on soaking in the sun and the view here.
Little Beach
Little Beach is frequented by nudist but a beautiful beach nonetheless. If you’re comfortable with this then this beach is much more friendly to swim in and has an amazing sunset view. To get here, after walking onto Big beach, head up north to the edge of the cinder cone. there’s a path up and over the small cliff to Littles.
Oneuli Beach
Oneuli Beach can often be overlooked as it is the first gate into Makena State Park and has a dirt road so it doesn’t look inviting to those just driving by. However this beach is the only black sand beach you can go to without going to Hana and is a great place to escape the crowds and has great intermediate to advanced snorkeling.
2. Wailea Beach
This jewel sits positioned between the Grand Wailea and Andaz Resorts, however don’t let that deter you if you aren’t staying at these resorts, there’s plenty of public parking as required by law. Often recognized as one of America’s best beaches, it’s a great place for your beach day. The water is usually crystal clear, the sand is very clean, there’s gentle enough waves for boogie boarding, and the snorkeling at either end of the beach is very good before the wind kicks up.
There’s plenty of other great beaches on the island, so once you’ve seen these make sure to go check out the other ones as this list covers the absolute best in just South Maui. Mahalo.
