Kahului, Maui, USA

Find adventure in every direction from Kahului, your entrée to “the Valley Isle.” The town’s location along Maui’s northcentral coast offers easy access to legendary North Shore beaches like the windsurfing meccas of Ho’okipa and Kahana. Admire them while following the 64-mile-long, serpentine Hana Highway, ranked among the world’s most scenic drives. Head inland to Īao Valley State Park and its iconic Īao Needle, a 1,200-foot-high emerald spire rising from the lush valley floor and often shrouded in clouds. (Īao translates as “cloud supreme.”) Maui’s west coast is home to historic Lahaina, former capital of Hawaii and whaling boomtown that inspired Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick. Browse the art galleries and shops along charming Front Street before going eye-to-eye with a humpback at the Maui Ocean Center, the largest tropical aquarium in the Western Hemisphere. East Maui is dominated by Haleakala, a 10,023-foot-high dormant volcano the forms more than two-thirds of the entire island. Its namesake national park is a designated International Biosphere Reserve that protects fragile Hawaiian ecosystems and their endemic flora and fauna, including more than 100 endangered species.