Visiting Maui Respectfully: Lahaina, Culture & the Land

Maui is not a theme park. It’s home to roughly 165,000 residents, a living Native Hawaiian culture, and places that are sacred. The best visitors understand that — and right now, being a good visitor also means understanding what the island has been through. This guide is about traveling here with respect.

Lahaina: what happened, and how to respond

On August 8, 2023, a wind-driven wildfire swept through Lahaina, the historic former capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom on Maui’s west side. It destroyed most of the historic town — including the famous Front Street — and claimed about 100 lives, making it one of the deadliest U.S. wildfires in over a century. Thousands of residents lost homes, businesses, and irreplaceable cultural and historical sites.

Lahaina is rebuilding, and recovery is a long, ongoing process measured in years. As a visitor, the kindest and most useful things you can do are simple:

Don’t treat the burn zone as a sightseeing stop. Do not enter restricted areas, photograph people’s destroyed homes, or “disaster tour.” It is a place of profound loss for the people who live there.
Follow current local guidance on what is open. Conditions and access change over time — defer to official county and community sources, not old blog posts (including this one; confirm before you go).
Do still visit Maui. Tourism is the island’s economic lifeline, and West Maui’s resort areas reopened and need respectful visitors. Staying away entirely hurts the very workers trying to recover. The message from many in the community has been: come, but come with respect.
Spend with locals. Choose locally owned restaurants, shops, guides, and tours; tip well. Your dollars are part of the recovery.

The historic Lahaina banyan tree, planted in 1873, was badly burned but survived and has been carefully nurtured back — a quiet symbol of the town’s resilience.

Respecting Hawaiian culture

Hawaiʻi has a deep, living Indigenous culture. A few ways to honor it:

Learn and use place names with their correct pronunciation, including the ʻokina (glottal stop) and kahakō (macron) — Haleakalā, Waiʻānapanapa, ʻĪao. Getting them right is a sign of respect.
Treat sacred sites as sacred. Heiau (temples), burial sites, and certain valleys and summits are holy. Don’t climb on stone structures, stack rocks, or move anything.
Don’t take rocks, sand, or coral as souvenirs. Leave the ʻāina (land) as you found it.
Honor “kapu” (forbidden) and closure signs — they exist for safety, conservation, or cultural reasons.

Protecting the land and ocean

Reef-safe (mineral) sunscreen only — chemical sunscreens with oxybenzone/octinoxate are banned by law in Hawaiʻi and damage the reef.
Never touch or chase sea turtles (honu) or monk seals — they’re protected; keep at least 10 feet away.
Don’t stand on or touch coral. It’s a living animal and easily killed.
Pack out your trash, stay on trails, and don’t trespass for a photo.

Being a good guest on the road and in town

Drive with patience and aloha — let locals pass, yield at one-lane bridges, and don’t block driveways (see Getting Around Maui).
Book only legal, permitted accommodations. Illegal vacation rentals strain housing for residents; Maui has been tightening the rules.
Be present, not extractive. A little humility — listening, learning, spending locally — goes a long way.

The simple version

Come to Maui. Spend your money with local people. Stay out of the places that are grieving or sacred. Take care of the land and the animals. Learn a few words and names. Drive kindly. If you do those things, you’ll be the kind of visitor Maui actually welcomes — and you’ll have a better trip for it.

Ready to plan? Start with where to stay and build your days on the trip planner.