Five nights across West and South Maui playing Kapalua's Plantation and Bay courses and Wailea Gold, with Molokini snorkelling and whale watching between rounds.
5 Days
Bucket List Trip
$3500–$6000/person
3
Moderate
This itinerary covers both of Maui's golf corridors across five nights, beginning in Kapalua on the island's northwest coast and moving to Wailea in the south. The two-base approach adds a hotel change mid-trip but eliminates the long commutes that a single-base strategy would require. Kapalua to Wailea is roughly 50 minutes by car, a drive that is scenic enough on the first pass and tedious on the fourth.
Fly into Kahului Airport and drive northwest to Kapalua, a 50- to 60-minute transfer through the sugarcane fields and along the coast. Check into the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua or the Napili Kai Beach Resort, depending on the budget tier.
Morning tee time on the Plantation Course, the centerpiece of the trip. The Coore and Crenshaw design plays 7,596 yards across volcanic ridgelines with elevation changes that exceed 300 feet across the round.
Morning round on the Bay Course, Arnold Palmer's 1975 design that plays along the coastline rather than above it. The par-3 17th, with its tee shot directly over the ocean, is the single most dramatic hole on either Kapalua course, and the winter whale-watching opportunities from the fairways add a dimension that the Plantation Course does not share.
No golf. The morning is allocated to a snorkelling trip to Molokini Crater, departing from Ma'alaea Harbor in South Maui.
Morning tee time on the Wailea Gold Course, Robert Trent Jones Jr.'s more challenging Wailea layout.
Check out and drive to Kahului Airport, a 25- to 35-minute transfer from Wailea. Flights from OGG connect to the mainland throughout the day.
The two-base approach is the recommended strategy despite the mid-trip hotel change. A single base in Kapalua requires a 50-minute drive each way to the Wailea course. A single base in Wailea requires the same commute to the Kapalua courses. Neither option is terrible, but both add 100 minutes of driving on two of the five days. The two-base approach eliminates that driving and allows each portion of the trip to feel rooted in its location rather than anchored to a car.
The three rounds across five nights provide an unhurried pace that leaves room for the non-golf experiences. Hawaii is one of the few golf destinations where adding a fourth round at the expense of a snorkelling trip or a whale watching excursion would be a net negative for the overall trip quality. The island has more to offer than the courses alone, and this itinerary is designed to capture that balance.
$3500–$6000
per person
5 Days
4 nights
3
courses included