Oahu or Maui island
If you’re planning on visiting Hawaii and looking to either Oahu or Maui, how do you decide which island is worth visiting? It’s good to try different islands to get different viewpoints and enjoying the difference but if your time is limited and want to know what the best attractions and feastures of each place, we share the best each island has to offer for you to decide.
You’ll get more information on how to decide between Oahu and Maui below for you to come up with the best Hawaii vacation.
Overall outlook on which island to choose
Choose Oahu for more urban and city lifestyle, shopping/dining. If you love entertainment, bar hopping or nightlife, then Oahu offers the best choices. Also the variety of choices from budget to more luxury stays give more choices.
ChooseThe Maui if your looking for more outdoor activities, resort lifestyle, romantic experiences. You’ll definitely find a combination of fantastic experiences but Maui does come with a price and will cost more on your pocketbook.
Choose Oahu for the following:
The most urban and densely populated island, Oahu with Honolulu as the capital city is the major hub to all of Hawaii. With over a million citizens, you’ll find so many more services, shopping/dining and variety of choices and services. Oahu gets the majority of visitors to the islands due to the many choices, more flights to the city and a tourist hub in Waikiki that concentrates on pure tourism to this zone.
Waikiki and Honolulu cater to the bulk of visitors to Hawaii with a bustling and tropical lifestyle with great weather , beaches, dining/entertainment venues along with resort, outdoor lifestyle and cultural/historical treasures to visit.
You can spend time visiting Chinatown, the only royal palace in the USA, Pearl Harbor or take a fun sunset cruise with tropical drinks and pupus(appetizers) with amazing coastine views and sunset to boot.
Oahu offers a lot of choices and something for all age groups and also budget to luxury and even resort lifestlyles like the west side and Ko’olina resort areas.
A road trip around the island showcases the more lush and slower lifestyle despite the urban metropolitan lifestyle and typical traffic that happens. But you can also choose public transportation and not have to have a rental car to get around different parts of the island.
I would choose Oahu for the variety of choices, price points and urban to more slower island lifestyle and gives you more bang for the buck in visiting Hawaii.
Check out these other posts to visiting Oahu
Family friendly beaches in Oahu
Free or cheap things to do in Oahu
Best restaurants to eat in Honolulu
Choose Maui for the following:
Everyone loves visiting Maui and the total Maui No Ka Oi vibe and lifestyle. It truly feels like paradise here in Maui with a more relaxed lifestyle and no pretense. When most people envision and visit to Maui – it all delivers from gorgeous beaches, fun resorts, amazing dining and sunset venues, outdoor adventures and a more relaxed and slower lifestyle.
Maui tends to be the second most visited island in Hawaii after Oahu which receives the bulk of flights and tourists on the islands.
Check out these other posts to visiting Maui
Things to do around Kahalui Maui
Best beaches to visit around Maui
Best snorkeling spots around Maui
Things to do in Paia and Haiku now
Oahu or Maui for best beaches
So which island offers the best beaches for that perfect beach day on the islands? Both have unique and fun beaches to explore around the islands with unique and fun beaches to explore
Oahu has beautiful beaches that are popular hang out spots, resort oriented beaches and isolated and quiet beaches to discover all around the island. There’s over 125 beautiful beaches to choose from.
Maui has over 30 miles of mostly golden sandy beaches that are many top beaches, resort areas, snorkeling with beaches and beaches with full scale amenities.
Overall – In termers of the amount of beaches, amenities and locations, Maui beaches are better and more accessible than Oahu beaches.
Oahu or Maui for rich history and culture
Oahu and Maui have a rich history and many cultural treasures to go out and explore, educate and experience a unique experience on the island.
Maui offers visits to historical sites like the historic sites at Iao Valley, Haleakala National park and even the quiet historic towns of Wailuku and Paia.. Lahaina contained many treasures that burned to the ground unfortunately so many historic sites were lost.
Oahu offers many historical treasures from Chinatown, Pearl Harbor, The Iolani palace, and many historic areas in downtown honolulu with its many historic sites, museums and many locations around the island like Dole Plantation, Haleiwa, the Mormon Temple, Valley of the Temples, even the hike to Diamond Head Crater is filled with historic sites and views to offer visitors.
Overall – Oahu has so much history and many cultural treasures to offer and visiting around the island. You’ll find more sites to visit on Oahu if you’re looking for more cultural knowledge, learning and history.
Oahu or Maui for outdoor adventures and activities
Each island offers a variety of outdoor activities and adventures to choose from to be outdoors and explore a tropical experience on the island.
Oahu is full out beaches, water adventures, hiking, road trips and many activities geared to many interests.
Maui caters to adventure and outdoor activities based on interests from snorkeling, surfing, wind surfing and a variety of water sports to more inland activities covering hiking, biking, road tripping that gives plenty of options to be more active and enjoy time outside on the island
Overall – Maui offers many choices to connect with nature, water fun or other outdoor activities to cater to most interests on the island.
Oahu or Maui for entertainment and nightlife choices
Each island offers a variety of venues and fun nightlife options unique to each destination. You’ll have plenty of choices from luau, happy hours, free Hawaiian cultural activities and dining options.
Maui offers resort choices that feature entertainment, dining and hang out venues that are fun and more low key.
Oahu offers plenty of choices from Waikiki, Ko’olina to the many different towns around the island to hang out and participate with local venues and events
Overall – Oahu offers more choices overall because of the large population size and the variety of events and offerings that cater to a larger urban population.
Oahu or Maui for the best activities
Oahu offers a variety of activities that range from water sports and recreation, around the island tours, cruises and dining cruise experiences, helicopter rides and a variety of other sports, recreation and venues that offer exciting tours.
Maui offers a lot of activities also that cater to tourism related activities that covers luau, island tours, helicopter tours, water sports and recreational activities. These outfitters cater to all different aspects of outdoor and indoor fun and recreation all around the island.
Overall – Maui offers the best of activities that cater to tourism and different tours and recreational activities. You’ll find so many different tourism publications that showcase all of these opportunities.
Oahu vs Maui: Resorts
If a sprawling, luxury, tropical resort is your thing, you’re in luck. Both islands have beautiful resorts that will have you lounging in style. But, the resorts aren’t created equal. Maui resorts are generally better, though they are usually significantly more expensive.
The majority of Oahu resorts are found in Waikiki, which offers a beautiful, white sand beach and bustling nightlife. But, the downside is that Waikiki is much more crowded than the resort areas on Maui. Space on the beach comes at a premium, even in front of the nicest resorts.
On Maui, you have more space so the resorts are much more sprawling (think, large grass lawns, and plenty of room to roam). They also are generally located on some of the most spectacular beaches on the island. Maui has fantastic family resorts that are sure to make memories from your family vacation last a lifetime!
Overall – Maui really excels in the resort lifestyle with beaches, shopping, dining and hotels that cater to visitors looking for that resort lifestyl.
Oahu vs Maui: Cost
A trip to Hawaii is never cheap. Prices have gone up significantly since 2019 (read our breakdown of how much a trip to Hawaii will cost), it’s going to be an expensive trip. If you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck out of your vacation, learn how to book your trip almost completely free by using points!
That said, prices differ from island to island. We did a full cost analysis using data from the Hawaii Tourism Authority and found that Oahu is the cheapest island to visit and Maui is the most expensive. In fact, for a one-week vacation, Oahu comes in 30% cheaper than Maui.
Of course, you can find cheap places to stay on Maui and expensive places to stay on Oahu. But comparing apples to apples, Oahu offers lower prices.
Winner for cost: Oahu – with more opportunities for budget minded individuals that range a gamut of experiences, housing, dining venues and recreational activities, Oahu is a better option.
Oahu vs Maui: Hiking
Oahu has developed a lot of outdoor recreation and activities for its own residents and tourist to enjoy all around the island. You can hike up Diamond Head, visit the many pillbox hikes with amazing views, hike to waterfalls and even explore some inspiring ridges, lush tropical jungles and gardens and even ocean front hikes. The options are vast to being outdoors and hiking at the same time.
Maui has plenty of outdoor options to include visiting Haleakala National Park, Iao Valley State Park and the many beach parks with beautiful walking venues that connect the parks together. You can hike to many places that are popular to more remote locations that are relatively easy to drive to and enjoy.
Overall – Oahu has more and better developed hiking opportunities that cater to both local crowds and visitors to the island where you can discover so many different parts of the island and being outdoors.
Conclusion to Oahu vs Maui vacation
We try to detail most of the main areas of visiting each island and overall, deciding which island makes the most sense for you depends on the type of vacation you are interested in having in Hawaii. We detail most of the various options for you to decide.
Conclusion
Thanks for checking out this post on Oahu vs Maui. Hope the post was informative and a must-read article – if so please do share it with any of the social media buttons around the page. Thanks for visiting This Hawaii Life.com, we appreciate your checking out the site.
0 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks