Summer availability is moving. The 7-night and 14-night stays are the ones that make the half-plan approach really click. Anything shorter and you're tempted to over-schedule out of fear of "missing something." Anything longer, and missing something stops being a fear at all.

May, June, and September are the sweet spots for workation stays. Weather is good, peak summer crowds aren't there yet (or have just left), and rates are lower than the absolute peak weeks.

Here's the thing most first-time visitors don't realize: Maui doesn't have one sunset. It has four or five, depending on where you are. Each side of the island gets a different version. Knowing which one is yours is the difference between catching the show and missing it.

Mother's Day is coming up. The flowers are nice. The brunch is nice. But if you've been watching her run the family for the last twelve months, the thing she actually needs is the one thing nobody thinks to give her.

The markets run year-round, but summer is peak season for tropical fruit. Mango season hits in June and July, and the upcountry vendors bring varieties you've never seen on the mainland. Lychee shows up in May and June. Starfruit, dragon fruit, and apple bananas are available most of the year but are at their best in the warm months.

Maui's best snorkeling isn't all offshore. Some of the most rewarding spots are right along the coast, accessible from shore, free, and almost always less crowded than the boat destinations. Here are the ones our guests come back raving about, organized by where you're staying.

Here's what the return guests figured out, the ones who come back every year and travel lighter each time: a condo stay is not a hotel stay. And a condo stay in Maui is barely a "getting dressed" situation at all.

You're at the beach. It's 83 degrees. The sky is blue. Then you notice a cloud drifting over Haleakala, and within twenty minutes, a warm shower rolls through. The drops are fat and soft. The air smells like plumeria and wet earth. The kids run around in it because it's warm enough to be fun instead of miserable.