The island of Maui consists of two volcanoes with a fertile valley in between, hence its nickname "the Valley Isle".

The westerly volcano is extinct and heavily eroded, while the one to the east is dormant, its last eruption was in the 18th century.

The landscape on Maui is very diverse, from lush tropical rainforests to barren lavafields and dry high mountain country. And of course there are the famous sandy beaches on the western shores.

The Haleakala volcano with its majestic and colorful crater reaches a towering height of more than 3 km.

 

The Kingdom of Maui first only ruled over the western part, but in the 15th century all of Maui came under their control.

After many bloody battles Kamehamea I finally defeated the Maui king in 1795 and went on to establish his Kingdom of Hawai'i.

 

Thanks to Maui's fertile volcanic soil and lush tropical rains, agriculture is an important industry with coffee, macadamia nuts, pineapple and sugarcane.

 

For good reasons tourism is an important industry as well and recently high tech IT companies are on the rise.

 

Maui is one of our all-time favorite vacation destination and we have visited the Valley Isle many times, the last time was in August 2003.