Maui on a budget

Best free attractions

Maui's free list is not a consolation prize for a cash-strapped visitor; it is where the island keeps its actual character. The paid attractions get the brochures, but the crater rim, the leeward beach, the arboretum in the rainforest, and the courthouse banyan in Lahaina are the places locals walk their kids and their out-of-town cousins through. What follows is 8 addresses that cost nothing to enter, spread from the 20.6575 latitude of Makena in the south to the 20.8931 of Kahului's Nui gardens in the north, and from the 156.0383 longitude of Hana's Kahanu Garden in the east to the 156.6775 of Lahaina's banyan in the west. Skip the paid luaus and the resort snorkel packages for a day; the island has enough public ground to keep an honest traveller busy from first light to last. Bring water, a hat, and shoes you don't mind salting.