Shopping

Maui is a shopaholic's dream as well as an arts center, with a large number of resident artists who show their works in dozens of galleries and countless gift shops. Maui is also the queen of specialty products, an agricultural cornucopia that includes Kula onions, upcountry protea, Kaanapali coffee, and many other tasty treats that are shipped worldwide.

As with any popular visitor destination, you'll have to wade through bad art and mountains of trinkets, particularly in Lahaina and Kihei, where touristy boutiques line the streets between rare pockets of treasures. If you shop in south or west Maui, expect to pay resort prices, clear down to a bottle of Evian or sunscreen.

With a well-heeled flourish, the Shops at Wailea, an upscale shopping-and-restaurant complex, opened in south Maui in 2001. The 16-acre complex features more than 50 shops and five restaurants, including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Gap, Banana Republic, and the ever-popular local retailers Martin & MacArthur and Ki'i Gallery. This is resort shopping much in the vein of Whalers Village in Kaanapali, where shopping and restaurant activity is concentrated in a single oceanfront complex.

Don't ignore central Maui, home to some first-rate boutiques. Watch the quaint town of Wailuku, which is poised for a resurgence. It has its own antiques alleys, and a major promenade on Main Street is in the works. The Kaahumanu Center, in neighboring Kahului, is becoming more fashionable by the month.

Upcountry, the boutiques of Makawao are worth seeking out, despite some attitude and high prices. The charm of shopping on Maui has always rested in the small, independent shops and galleries that crop up in surprising places.

Maui's Own: Ocean Vodka -- If you're looking for a souvenir of your fabulous Maui trip to take home, or a unique gift for friends, Maui has its own vodka, called Ocean Vodka. Produced by Hawaii Sea Spirits, this ultrapremium brand is not only USDA certified to contain organic ingredients, but also the water comes from 3,000 feet beneath the ocean off the Kona coast of the Big Island. The deep-sea water is harvested by KOYO USA, producers of MaHaLo Hawaii Deep Sea Water. The desalinated water has become widely popular in Japan, where people swear it has provided beneficial health effects (so far, no scientific studies have backed up this claim). The MaHaLo water is shipped to Maui, where it is blended with organic corn and rye to produce this one-of-a-kind vodka. It's available at restaurants, bars, hotels, and retail shops (for a complete list, see www.oceanvodka.com).

A Creative Way to Spend the Day -- Make a bowl from clay, or paint a premade one, then fire it, and take it home as a unique souvenir of Maui. The Art School at Kapalua (tel. 808/665-0007; www.kapalua.com/recreation/art_school.php), in a charming 1920s plantation building that was part of an old cannery operation, features local and visiting instructors and is open daily for people of all ages and skill levels. Projects, classes, and workshops at this not-for-profit organization highlight creativity in all forms, including photography, figure drawing, ceramics, landscape painting, painting on silk, and the performing arts (ballet, yoga, creative movement, Pilates). Classes are inexpensive. Call the school to see what's scheduled while you're on Maui.

Kahului

Kahului's best shopping is concentrated in two places. Almost all of the shops listed here are at one of the following centers:

The formerly rough-around-the-edges Maui Mall, 70 E. Kaahumanu Ave. (tel. 808/877-7559; www.mauimall.com), is the place of everyday retail, from Longs Drugs and Star Market to Tasaka Guri Guri (the decades-old purveyor of inimitable icy treats that are neither ice cream nor shave ice, but something in between) and Kahului's largest movie theater, a 12-screen megaplex that features current releases as well as art-house films.

Queen Kaahumanu Center, 275 Kaahumanu Ave. (tel. 808/877-3369; www.queenkaahumanucenter.com), a 10-minute drive from the Kahului Airport on Hwy. 32, offers more than 100 shops, restaurants, and theaters. It covers all the bases, from arts and crafts to a Foodland and everything in between: a thriving food court; the island's best beauty supply, Lisa's Beauty Supply & Salon (tel. 808/877-6463), and its sister store for cosmetics, Madison Avenue Day Spa and Boutique (tel. 808/873-0880); mall standards like Sunglass Hut, Radio Shack, and Local Motion (surf- and beachwear); standard department stores like Macy's and Sears; and specialty shops like Sharper Image. Its second-floor Plantation District offers home furnishings, accessories, and gifts.

Edibles -- The Star Market and Longs Drugs in the Maui Mall, Foodland in the Kaahumanu Center, and Safeway at 170 E. Kamehameha Ave. will satisfy your ordinary grocery needs. On Saturday, you may want to check out the Maui Swap Meet .

Down to Earth Natural Foods, 305 Dairy Rd. (tel. 808/877-2661), a health-food staple for many years, has fresh organic produce, a bountiful salad bar, sandwiches and smoothies, vitamins and supplements, fresh-baked goods, snacks, whole grains, and several packed aisles of vegetarian and health foods.

Maui's produce has long been a source of pride for islanders, and Ohana Farmers Market, at the Queen Kaahumanu Center (tel. 808/871-8347), on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, is the place to find a fresh, inexpensive selection of Maui-grown fruit, vegetables, flowers, and plants. Crafts and gourmet foods add to the event.

Wailuku

Located at the gateway to Iao Valley, Wailuku is the county seat, the part of Maui where people live and work. Wailuku's attractive vintage architecture, smattering of antiques shops, and mom-and-pop eateries imbue the town with a down-home charm noticeably absent in Maui's resort areas. The community spirit fuels festivals throughout the year and is slowly attracting new businesses, but Wailuku is still a work in progress. It's a mixed bag -- of course, there's junk, but a stroll along Main and Market streets usually turns up a treasure or two.

Edibles -- Located in the northern section of Wailuku, Takamiya Market, 359 N. Market St. (tel. 808/244-3404), is much loved by local folks and visitors with adventurous palates, who often drive all the way from Kihei to stock up on picnic fare and mouthwatering ethnic foods for sunset gatherings. Unpretentious home-cooked foods from East and West are prepared daily and served on plastic-foam plates. From the chilled-fish counter come fresh sashimi and poke, and among the renowned assortment of prepared foods are mounds of shoyu chicken, tender fried squid, roast pork, kalua pork, laulau, Chinese noodles, fiddlehead ferns, and Western comfort foods, such as corn bread and potato salad. Fresh produce and paper products are also available, but it's the prepared foods and fresh-fish counter that have made Takamiya a household name in central Maui.

Lahaina

Lahaina's merchants and art galleries go all out from 7 to 9pm every Friday, when Art Night brings an extra measure of hospitality and community spirit. The Art Night openings are usually marked with live entertainment and refreshments, plus a livelier-than-usual street scene.

If you're in Lahaina on the second or last Thursday of the month, stroll by the front lawn of the Baldwin Home Museum, 120 Dickenson St. (at Front St.), for a splendid look at the craft of lei making and an opportunity to meet the gregarious seniors of Lahaina. In a program sponsored by AARP, they gather from 10am to 4pm to demonstrate lei making, to sell their floral creations, and, equally important, to socialize.

What was formerly a big, belching pineapple cannery is now a maze of shops and restaurants at the northern end of Lahaina town, known as the Lahaina Cannery Mall, 1221 Honoapiilani Hwy. (tel. 808/661-5304; www.lahainacannerymall.com). Find your way through the T-shirt and sportswear shops to coffee at Starbucks, or follow your nose to Compadres Bar & Grill, where the margaritas flow freely and the Mexican food is tasty. At the recently expanded food court, Compadres Taqueria sells Mexican food to go, while L & L Drive-Inn serves up plate lunches near Greek, pizza, Vietnamese, and Japanese food booths. For film, water, aspirin, groceries, sunscreen, and other things you can't live without, nothing beats Longs Drugs and Safeway (open 24 hr.), two old standbys. Footprints Maui may surprise you with its selection of footwear, everything from running shoes to inexpensive sandals.

The Lahaina Center, 900 Front St. (tel. 808/667-9216; www.lahainacenter.com), is still a work in progress. It's located north of Lahaina's most congested strip, where Front Street begins. Across the street from the center, the sea wall is a much-sought-after front-row seat to the sunset. There's plenty of free validated parking and easy access to more than 30 shops, a salon, restaurants, a nightclub, and a four-plex movie-theater complex. Ruth's Chris Steak House has opened its doors here, and Hard Rock Cafe serves lunch and dinner and offers nighttime live music on weekdays. Among the shopping stops: Hilo Hattie (a dizzying emporium of aloha wear), ABC Discount Store, and a dozen other recreational, dining, and entertainment options.

The conversion of 10,000 square feet of parking space into the re-creation of a traditional Hawaiian village, called Hale Kahiko, is a welcome touch of Hawaiiana at the Lahaina Center. With the commercialization of modern Lahaina, it's easy to forget that it was once the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom and a significant historic site. Hale Kahiko features three main houses, called hale: a sleeping house, the men's dining house, and the crafts house, where women pounded hala (pandanus) strips to weave into mats and baskets. Construction of the houses consumed 10,000 square feet of ohia wood from the island, 20 tons of pili grass, and more than 4 miles of hand-woven coconut sennit for the lashings. Artifacts, weapons, a canoe, and indigenous trees are among the authentic touches in this village; you can take a free guided tour daily between 9am and 6pm.

Kaanapali

I am somewhat disappointed with upscale Whalers Village, 2435 Kaanapali Pkwy. (tel. 808/661-4567; www.whalersvillage.com). Although it offers everything from whale blubber to Prada and Ferragamo, it's short on local shops, and parking at the nearby lot is expensive. The complex is home to the Whalers Village Museum, with its interactive exhibits, 40-foot sperm-whale skeleton, and sand castles on perpetual display, but shoppers come for the designer thrills and beachfront dining. You can find most of the items featured here in the shops in Lahaina and can avoid the parking hassle and the high prices by skipping Whalers Village.

If you do decide to check it out, don't miss my favorite shoe store, Sandal Tree (described below). Martin & MacArthur offers a dizzying array of Hawaii crafts: Hawaiian-quilt cushion covers, jewelry, soaps, books, and a stunning selection of woodwork. The always wonderful Lahaina Printsellers has a selection of antique prints, maps, paintings, and engravings, including 18th- to 20th-century cartography, all of which offer great browsing and gift potential. You can find award-winning Kimo Bean coffee at a kiosk, an expanded Reyn's for aloha wear, and Cinnamon Girl, a hit in Honolulu for its matching mother-daughter clothing. The return of Waldenbooks makes it that much easier to pick up the latest bestseller on the way to the beach. Another mainstay of the village is the busiest ABC store in the state, with everything from suntan lotion to takeout sandwiches to cold beer. Once you've stood under the authentic whale skeleton at the museum, you can blow a bundle at Tiffany, Prada, Chanel, Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, Coach, the Body Shop, or any of the more than 60 shops and restaurants that have sprouted up in this open-air shopping center. Despite obvious efforts to offer more of a balance between Island-made and designer goods, the chain luxury boutiques still dominate. Whalers Village is open daily from 9:30am to 10pm.

Honokawai, Kahana & Napili

Those driving north of Kaanapali toward Kapalua will notice the Honokowai Marketplace, on Lower Honoapiilani Road, only minutes before the Kapalua Airport. It houses restaurants and coffee shops, a dry cleaner, the flagship Star Market, a few clothing stores, and the sprawling Hawaiian Interiors.

Nearby Kahana Gateway is an unimpressive mall built to serve the condominium community that has sprawled along the coastline between Honokowai and Kapalua. If you need women's swimsuits, however, Rainbow Beach Swimwear is a find. It carries a selection of suits for all shapes, at lower-than-resort prices, slashed even further during the frequent sales. Hutton's Fine Jewelry offers high-end jewelry from designers around the country (lots of platinum and diamonds), reflecting discerning taste for those who can afford it. Tahitian black pearls and jade are among Hutton's specialties.

Kihei

Kihei is one long strip of strip malls. Most of the shopping here is concentrated in the Azeka Place Shopping Center on South Kihei Road. Fast foods abound at Azeka, as do tourist-oriented clothing shops like Crazy Shirts. Across the street, Azeka Place II houses several prominent attractions, including the Coffee Store and a cluster of specialty shops with everything from children's clothes to shoes, sunglasses, and swimwear. Also on South Kihei Road is the Kukui Mall, with movie theaters, Waldenbooks, and Whaler's General Store.

Makawao

Besides being a shopper's paradise, Makawao is the home of the island's most prominent arts organization, the Hui No'eau Visual Arts Center, 2841 Baldwin Ave. (tel. 808/572-6560; www.huinoeau.com). Designed in 1917 by C. W. Dickey, one of Hawaii's most prominent architects, the two-story, Mediterranean-style stucco home that houses the center is located on a sprawling 9-acre estate called Kaluanui. A legacy of Maui's prominent kamaaina (old-timers) Harry and Ethel Baldwin, the estate became an arts center in 1976. Visiting artists offer lectures, classes, and demonstrations, all at reasonable prices, in basketry, jewelry making, ceramics, painting, and other media. Classes on Hawaiian art, culture, and history are also available. Call ahead for schedules and details. The exhibits here are drawn from a wide range of disciplines and multicultural sources, and include both contemporary and traditional art from established and emerging artists. The gift shop, featuring many one-of-a-kind works by local artists and artisans, is worth a stop. Hours are Monday through Saturday from 10am to 4pm.

Edibles -- Working folks in Makawao pick up spaghetti and lasagna, sandwiches, salads, and changing specials from the Rodeo General Store, 3661 Baldwin Ave. (tel. 808/572-7841). At the far end of the store is the oenophile's bonanza, a superior wine selection housed in its own temperature-controlled cave.

Down to Earth Natural Foods, 1169 Makawao Ave. (tel. 808/572-1488), always has fresh salads and sandwiches, a full section of organic produce (Kula onions, strawberry papayas, mangoes, and lychees in season), herbs, bulk grains, beauty aids, juices, snacks, tofu, seaweed, soy products, and aisles of vegetarian and health foods. Whether it's a smoothie or a salad, Down to Earth has fresh, healthful vegetarian offerings.

In the more than 6 decades that the T. Komoda Store and Bakery, 3674 Baldwin Ave. (tel. 808/572-7261), has spent in this spot, untold numbers have creaked over the wooden floors to pick up Komoda's famous cream puffs. Old-timers know to come early, before they're sold out. Then the cinnamon rolls, doughnuts, pies, and chocolate cake take over. Pastries are just the beginning: Poi, macadamia-nut candies and cookies, and small bunches of local fruit keep the customers coming.

Fresh Flowers in Kula -- Like anthuriums on the Big Island, proteas are a Maui trademark and an abundant crop on Haleakala's rich volcanic slopes. They also travel well, dry beautifully, and can be shipped worldwide with ease. Among Maui's most prominent sources is Sunrise Protea (tel. 808/876-0200; www.sunriseprotea.com), in Kula. It offers a walk-through garden and gift shops, friendly service, and a larger-than-usual selection. Freshly cut flowers arrive from the fields on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. You can order individual blooms, baskets, arrangements, or wreaths for shipping all over the world. (Next door, the Sunrise Country Market offers fresh local fruits, snacks, and sandwiches, with picnic tables for lingering.)

Proteas of Hawaii (tel. 808/878-2533; www.proteasofhawaii.com), another reliable source, offers regular walking tours of the University of Hawaii Extension Service gardens across the street in Kula.

Outside of Kula, the Saturday-morning Maui Swap Meet is among the best and least expensive places for tropical flowers of every stripe.