The Most Popular Lūʻau on Maui

Photo courtesy of Old Lahaina Lūau.

By Alexandra Mitchell

The Valley Isle definitely offers an impressive selection of some of the best lūʻau in all the Hawaiian Islands.

Within Maui’s lūʻau lineup, guests can choose a venue that caters to their unique lūʻau needs, whether you are a resident or a visitor.

Photo courtesy of Old Lahaina Lūau.

The Old Lahaina Lūʻau is probably one of the most popular lūʻau choices for Maui’s visitors. The opening reception ensures that guests enjoy their flower lei greeting and complimentary mai tai, while being fully engaged by a musical background.

Photo courtesy of Old Lahaina Lūau.

Located oceanfront in West Maui, this lūʻau provides one of the most incredible daily sunset scenes. This venue also offers local arts and crafts for purchase, and a traditional kalua pig unearthing from their imu.

Photo courtesy of Old Lahaina Lūau.

Old Lahaina’s feast is perhaps one of the largest in selection with many crowd pleasers and traditional Hawaiian fare; kalua pig, poi, baked mahi mahi, pulehu steak, chicken long rice, guava glazed chicken, sweet potatoes, stir fried veggies and more.

The salad bar is full of fresh poke, pahole fern salad, island crab salad, fresh fruits and salad greens. The dessert bar is ono with a rotating selection of island treats, juices, teas and coffees, and all guests will surely enjoy the open bar.

Entertainment continues after the meal with the history of hula through a variety of performances, storytelling and chanting, and tales of the first missionaries.

Photo courtesy of Old Lahaina Lūau.

At Feast At Lele, guests can enjoy gourmet food presented by the creators of the original Old Lahaina Lūʻau, owners of Maui’s Pacific’O Restaurant, and menu creations by Executive Chef James McDonald.

Without a doubt, Feast at Lele has been perfectly crafted by the very best in Hawaiian hospitality and Maui restaurant professionals.

The Feast at Lele site location also happens to be the same exact beach where Hawaiian royalty once entertained their guests. There is so much mana (life force energy) here! P.S.–This area of West Maui was also home to the original seat of the Hawaiian monarchy (1820-1845), prior to its permanent move to Honolulu.*

The Legends of Kāʻanapali Lūʻau at Kāʻanapali Beach Resort offers more of an authentic kamaʻāina experience with a traditional lūʻau feast, a larger group atmosphere, beautiful storytelling and traditional Hawaiian hula performances.

This Maui lūʻau begins with a reception and lei greeting, and a chance to shop for locally made island crafts. After a robust sound of the pu (conch shell), guests are directed to enter the festivity area.

The Legends of Kāʻanapali Lūʻau feast offers a traditional Hawaiian lūʻau spread with kalua pig roasted on kiawe firewood as the main entree. The evening performance comes in many phases with a display of Tahitian migration, Polynesian sorcery, stories of the creation of the Hawaiian people, hula dance, a mermaid sighting, and an awesome fire walk ceremony.

For those that are planning to enjoy a Maui lūʻau with children, the Marriott Wailea Lūʻau provides fun Polynesian crafting stations, and interactive crafting stations to learn how to make flower lei, coconut husking, kapa (paper) printing, mini hula dance classes, and ulumaika (a competitive game played with a circular shaped stone and two sticks to test strength). The lūʻau feast at this venue offers a combination of traditional Hawaiian foods and local fare including; imu (earth oven) roasted kalua pig, shoyu chicken, mahi mahi with lemon butter, macaroni salad, garlic fried rice, tossed Kula greens with a papaya seed dressing, pineapple coleslaw, pineapple upside down cake, coconut haupia and many more tasty options.

Drums of the Pacific at the Hyatt Regency in Kāʻanapali is definitely one of the most tribal Polynesian lūʻau in Hawaiʻi. Drums of the Pacific is an expression of many Polynesian cultures including Hawaiʻi, Toga, Samoa, Micronesia, Tahitian and New Zealand’s Maori people.

All guests love this Maui lūʻau for many reasons. The feast is an awesome all-you-can-eat buffet with a creative selection of traditional Hawaiian fare, Hawaiian regional cuisine and options from throughout the Pacific Islands.

There is also an open bar! Drums of the Pacific provides beautiful entertainment with wonderful lighting, Hawaiian hula and traditional Polynesian dance performances, drumming, chanting and a super-cool fire-knife dancing finale.

Mahalo for reading! Have you been to any Maui lūʻau? Which one is your favorite? Let us know about your experiences in the comment section below…