A Tale of Two Hawaiis

Consider: A Hawaiian vacation at one of the world’s great resorts, rich in opulent art (Boteros everywhere you look), verdant flowering topography, amazing swimming pools, a beautiful beach, incredible restaurants, and terrifically comfortable lodgings with commanding views and an amazing array of services.

Or would you prefer a Hawaiian vacation where you encamp on a secluded beach with sweeping views of nothingness and little to do but watch the sun set and wonder how many shooting stars you’ll glimpse that night? A place where you are unlikely to pass two cars on the road in a half-hour, where the natives aren’t particularly sure they like you, where there’s nothing to buy, and even less to do, and the food is probably better at home.

I spent a week this August in both Hawaiis and can vouch that you can have both, just not at once. The first Hawaii is Maui, which remains the easiest Hawaiian island to love. It has more upsides and fewer downsides than its siblings. But love comes at a price: traffic, high prices, and lots of people.

The other Hawaii is Maui’s neighbor—and logical combo for the adventurous tourist—Molokai, arguably a more acquired taste, unless you covet true isolation, informality, and authenticity. On those counts, it rules. Molokai is technically part of Maui County, but the few miles of Pacific that separate it from Maui are symbolically gaping.

Of the islands tourists can visit, Molokai is the most unchanged since statehood and the advent of the jet airplane in 1959. (Its tiny sibling Kahoolawe is uninhabited and Ni’ihau is closed to non-native Hawaiians.) Molokai’s one large resort is shuttered. Its market town, Kaunakakkai, rough and utilitarian.

You can go on a waterfall hike only on Friday and must have a $75 guide. Molokai’s sea cliffs are the world’s highest, but the sea cliff cruise goes only on Saturdays, if you can pull $900 together or five friends to share the cost. Seeing the national park requires an hours-long mule trek or a hike on switchbacks through mule dung. The plumeria plantation, which grows the beautiful flowers that say “Hawaii” in leis and the like, took its sign down because the owner really did not want to show or sell things to visitors, except during his $25 tour at 10 a.m.

I drove every road on Molokai, and all were dotted with signs protesting a plan to construct luxury homes on a tiny corner of land within the privately owned Molokai Ranch, which covers the western 40 percent of the island. SAVE LA’AU, they warned, referring to La’au Point, at Molokai’s southwest end.

Molokai is happy to have you, happy to see your dollars, willing to share its pride in its iconoclasm with you, but it is happiest to bid you farewell and come back soon. Express some interest in buying a $2 million home, well . . . .

Why visit such a place? Two reasons: Molokai is an opportunity to experience native Hawaiian culture, untempered or prettified by the tourism industry, which has irreparably changed Kauai, Lanai, Maui, Oahu, and the island of Hawaii. But also to experience a quiet, relaxed vacation that’s long on charm, informality, and with all of the natural advantages of Hawaii—its marvelous climate, beautiful vistas, beaches, and scenery.

This is a place where people are genuine, where every adult male is an “uncle,” every female an “auntie.” Molokai represents the best effort to retain a Hawaii steeped in traditional values and family culture. And more often than not, you’re treated more like family than a tourist.

Molokai suffers for its intransigence. A far greater percentage of its 7,000 residents are unemployed than on other islands. The young lady who checked me in for my quick flight  from Maui to Molokai then boarded the plane with me. There’s a worker shortage in Maui, and she commutes, because there’s a job shortage on Molokai.

Molokai remains a largely agrarian, subsistence island that has never mattered much to the state’s Anglos. It languished while much of Hawaii boomed and now is home to both longtime residents and those who reject what the rest of Hawaii has become.

One activist told The New York Times last year that tourism had raped the state of its natural resources and left native Hawaiians with nothing but the opportunity “to change the sheets.” That’s an overstatement. But that ethos, which keeps out development to preserve a traditional way of life, also preserves poverty, unemployment, and government dependency.

By the end of my stay in Molokai, however, I was left with a sense that most Hawaiians, much like the American Indians, are living a lifestyle that was imposed on them by Anglo-Saxon culture. I found it hard to begrudge them a place where values are not rooted in industriousness and the pursuit of material goods. If they would rather fly to Honolulu to buy shoes because there isn’t enough economic activity on Molokai to support a shoe store, it should be their prerogative.

Though I have no sense that Molokai really is threatened (who wants a $2 million home on an island that runs out of milk most Mondays?), Molokai is nonetheless worth seeing now. Change is the only constant, and Molokai allows a peek at what Hawaii might have been like without Marriott, United Airlines, Crazy Shirts, and at-pool Evian mists.

But I could not imagine coming to Hawaii without some of that. And that’s where Maui comes in. Maui has the Grand Waliea Resort, probably the most indulgent large resort in the world. A place you must visit once. But Maui also has Haleakala, a dormant volcano where you can hike virtually alone in a cinder cone.

Maui has David Paul’s Lahaina Grill, one of the best restaurants in America. But it also has the hike to Waimoku Falls, the best waterfall hike in the country. And you can experience both in the same day.

Maui has the Tedeschi Vineyards, which makes a nifty sparkling wine, and the road that gets you there traverses enchanting, untouched landscapes under sparkling skies. It’s a Hawaii that both predates the Hawaiians and encompasses all that the tourism visionaries have brought.

So on your next visit, make sure you see the Hawaii of the Hawaiians and the Hawaii of everything else. There’s nothing like getting the full picture.

MAUI’S BEST Stay Grand Wailea Resort—Not necessarily Hawaii’s most upscale or luxurious resort (its size precludes that), though it’s awfully close. The dazzling facility with its spectacular beach, gardens, water slides, river pools, Botero statues, flowers, and marble is open to the trade winds and ocean sounds. This is the Hawaiian resort experience, and if you love it, GWR will sell you a nifty membership that saves regulars a ton on rates, which start around $500 a night for mountain-view rooms, though sales can bring that down by about a third. Wailea, 800-888-6100 Eat David Paul’s Lahaina Grill—The namesake chef is no longer in the kitchen, but this cozy bastion of regional flavors and European technique continues to wow. Lahaina, 808-667-5117 Feast at Lele—The lu’au you don’t want to miss. A nightly show on the Lahaina waterfront incorporates inventive cooking and native pageantry from both Hawaii and its Polynesian neighbors. Lahaina, 866-244-5353 Ferarro’s Bar e Ristorante—This waterfront café offers some of the most creative takes on beach fare to be found on Maui. The premier lunch spot on the island. Four Seasons Resort, Wailea, 808-874-8000 Hali’imaile General Store—Bev Gannon, the heart and culinary soul of Maui, presides over this informal yet stylish country outpost of fresh, wholesome comfort food with a good dose of island flavors. Hali’imaile, 808-572-2666 Do Haleakala National Park—Maui’s volcano has not erupted in decades. The drive to its top traverses 10,000 feet in forty miles and passes through numerous climate zones. Incredible views, staggeringly beautiful hiking, and splendid isolation are yours. Not to mention natural air conditioning. Don’t miss the less trampled HaleManu Trail, the more scenic, but less obvious route into the crater. 808-572-4400 Hike Maui—The longtime leader in guided hiking will show you a side of Maui you won’t soon forget, with expert and informed commentary. Trips are offered to Haleakala, Waimoku Falls, and the lightly touristed West Maui Mountains, and can be customized to your specific needs. 866-324-6284 Makawao—With its galleries, good food, and very little tourist kitsch, this charming town on the slopes of Haleakala is a good place for a midday break. Molokini—It’s a bit crowded, but the snorkeling is usually excellent at this tiny atoll off Maui. We had a great experience with Trilogy, one of many companies that will take you out for the day. 888-225-6284 Spa Grande—Probably the most impressive resort spa in the country, the Grand Wailea’s signature spa offers all the expected perks, including an array of indigenous Hawaiian treatments. The amazing “Termé” of soaking baths and hydrotherapy pools will knock your socks off. 808-875-1234 Waimoku Falls—In the coastal part of Haleakala National Park, this modest hike from O’Heo Gulch to Waimoku Falls, through a bamboo forest to a secluded waterfall, is everyone’s Hawaii fantasy come to life. 808-248-7375

MOLOKAI’S BEST Stay The Lodge at Molokai Ranch—It may be rustic, but it is not worth contemplating any other option on Molokai. The unique and charming twenty-two room lodge (1,200 feet above the coast and a few miles inland) offers spacious and tasteful rooms that are luxurious enough, but not out of character with Molokai. There’s a graceful infinity pool, a convivial bar, and dining room serving stick-to-the-ribs fare. Yoga and healing therapies are also available, as is an eighteen-hole oceanside golf course. The staff are some of the nicest, most familial folks you’ll ever meet. From $200 a night. Maunaloa, 888-627-8082 Beach Village at Molokai Ranch—Down at a secluded small beach, The Ranch operates a group of well-spaced “tentalows” that are nicely outfitted with firm beds, warm blankets, nightstands, and plenty of chairs. Across your private, raised wooden patio is an open-air (to the sky) bathroom and shower. Buffet-style meals are rustic and generous, and there is also a covered guest lounge. The charm factor is very high, but this is still high-end camping—nights are dark, critters crawl, and there’s no A/C. From $161 a night. 888-627-8082 Eat Kualapu’u Cookhouse—The most highly recommended (on Molokai) local restaurant (there are very few) serves full lunches and dinners of American and Hawaiian origin. Kualapu’u, 808-567-9655 Do Cultural Garden Talk—Anakala “Uncle” Pilipo Solatorio educates guests using his Hawaiian cultural garden at the Molokai Ranch Beach Village. He has a deep understanding of Polynesian history and culture and offers examples of the protocols and cultural pathways of life in Hawaii two centuries ago. Maunaloa Halawa Valley Hike—Lawrence Aki leads a Friday hike through restored taro fields to a secluded waterfall on sacred Nature Conservancy land in isolated east Molokai. Aki is a great source of stories and cultural and political context about life on Molokai today. 800-274-9303 Kalaupapa National Historic Park—On a scenic peninsula 2,000 feet down a rugged trail approached on foot or by mule sits the isolated town that remains Hawaii’s leprosy colony for a handful of elderly residents (the disease is now controlled by medication, but they have chosen to live out their lives here). Visitors must take a guided tour (there are none on Sundays), which tells the tragic but ultimately uplifting story of a Belgian priest who brought dignity to people shunned by mainstream society. The best land-based views of the north Molokai sea cliffs are from Kalaupapa. 808-567-6088 Maunaloa—The company town for  Molokai Ranch, Maunaloa is an embraceable tiered community of wooden cottages, The Lodge, a small movie theater, the entertaining Big Wind Kite Factory (kite-flying conditions here are great), and the stellar adjacent Plantation Gallery, the best place to buy gifts on the island.