The Maui Beach Tour continues with Wailea Beach in South Maui. Our fabulous host, Meghan Clair, guides us along the beach and shares her insights about this magnificent location. Meghan also provides driving directions and a quick overview of Wailea Beach Park facilities. Grab a mai tai, sit back, and watch our video tour!Snorkeling
Nestled along the coast with a backdrop of the Grand Wailea Resort & Spa and the Four Seasons Resort Wailea, the stunning Wailea Beach offers a wonderful snorkeling experience. It offers a fine brown sand beach that gradually and gently slopes seaward almost 30 feet before you encounter depths above your waist.
This is a great snorkel place for young children and adults alike, and is particularly suited for beginning snorkelers. It’s also an ideal place to boogie-board or just paddle around with a mask. If you need to rent a snorkel, mask and fins --- there is a rental stand on the Grand Wailea property.
The best area to snorkel is to the left, as you face the ocean toward the picturesque West Maui Mountains. Stay along the coral reef stretching out to your left, and after you pass through the cloudy, sandy waters being churned with small waves you’ll see a wide variety of reef life and small fish.
Early in the morning is the best time to snorkel Wailea Beach, with calm and clear water persistent until just after the noon hour. Late afternoon tides often kick-up around 1pm, so experience Wailea Beach as early as you can – even though you’re on vacation.
About 60 feet from the water’s edge, look for a small cove with a tiny sandy beach. While being careful, snorkel into the cove and sit on the beach for a moment. It’s a view you won’t easily forget!
Continue along the coral reef system out past the point – there is excellent 25 foot visibility and you’ll see a wide variety of individual brain corals. Green giant sea turtles (Honu) are most often spotted just around this corner and along the reef system stretching southward. While you’ll loose sight of the resorts, you’re still only a short distance from land.
As you float above an abundance of lemon yellow Butterfly fish and black-and-white Kihikihi Idol fish, notice the large, red pencil litchin packed in crevices of the reef. They’ll be some of the largest and brightest you’ll ever see while snorkeling.
The middle part of the beach area is also good for casual snorkeling, but you won’t see the marine life that’s available along the left-side peninsula jutting outward into the ocean. Also, further down to the right-side of the beach area is not known for clear snorkeling.
After 2pm, the waves often increase in size and force, and the water is murky until snorkeling further out into the ocean. Watch for changing tide conditions, but Wailea Beach is not known for strong undercurrents so you will be fine as long as you have fins.
Wailea Beach Park is open to the public (as are all beaches in Hawai’i) and there is a nice parking area with restroom and shower facilities. A sign along Alanui Drive points you to the public area, but there is often a shortage of open parking spots.
Suggestions For Wailea Beach:
* Snorkel early in the morning. Between 8am and noon are the best hours to snorkel with good visibility and marine life.
* Stay close to the shoreline until you’re comfortable breathing through the mask and snorkel. Don’t get further out until you’re relaxed and confident.
* Lastly, stay with your snorkel buddy or someone else snorkeling nearby. The area is popular with both tourists and locals, and there’s normally someone snorkeling around the edge of the furthermost point.
Bonus:
Walk along the upper walkway toward the south and you’ll see an wide, inspiring view of Wailea Beach Park. Walk further and you’ll see a rugged coastline with spectacular views of the West Maui Mountains (notice the wind turbines) and the tuff volcano named Molokini.