The Wednesday Night Hula Show at South Maui Gardens in Kihei is one of my favorite new(er) recommendations on Maui. 

If you’re semi interested in a luau but not 100% sold on the price tag (a lot of resort luaus are pushing $300 PER PERSON now!!), this is a GREAT option. 

Hula Show at South Maui Gardens

South Maui Gardens is a nursery/event space close to the Cove Beach Park with a beautiful outdoor venue that’s home to a food truck park…and a hula show on Wednesday evenings. 

The entertainment lasts from 5-7 PM and features live music plus an hour long show with dances from across the Pacific Islands (including Samoan fire knife dancing). 

The venue is open seating and while they have some mats, benches, and picnic tables, they encourage you to bring your own beach chairs or blankets to set up camp on the lawn. 

Tickets to the show are about $100/person and sometimes they have a 25% discount available online. Also, certain times of the year they add a Sunday night show option as well. 

There are dozens of food trucks on site, but the shining star is Kitoko. Their truck is at South Maui Gardens full time, but during the Wednesday night hula show, they have a special menu. 

I LOVED the crispy pork belly with okinawan sweet potato gnocchi. 

Honestly, I LOVE this whole concept so much. 

You get to see a full quality production without paying a premium for mediocre food and drinks. $100/person is a pretty good deal for 2 hours of entertainment and the flexibility to do whatever you want for food…have dinner somewhere else before or after, share something from a food truck, go all out and have a feast!

And not having to sit at a table and make small talk with strangers is a big bonus for me ; )

Seriously, I have been to a LOT of luaus and even at the best of the best, the food is…mediocre. But I was blown away with the food at Kitoko plus there are dozens of other food trucks all serving up yummy, fresh food. And it’s just a much more customizable experience than you’ll find at a buffet. 

Granted, this isn’t the big fancy resort experience. You’re not going to get leis, see them pull the pig out of the ground, and have the whole party atmosphere, but I think it’s a really good fit for a lot of travelers. 

Find more info here. 

P.S. One of the reasons I’m able to travel to Hawaii so often is by using credit card points. And right now my go to travel card has a GREAT limited time sign up offer.

If you sign up for this Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you’ll get 100K bonus points to use on travel. 

These are my favorite kind of travel points because they’re so flexible. You could…

Transfer them to Southwest or United to book round trip tickets to Hawaii.

Transfer them to Hyatt to book a stay at the Andaz Maui (such a great luxury resort!)

Transfer them to Marriott for a stay at one of my favorites like the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, Royal Hawaiian, or Ritz Carlton Turtle Bay. 

Or book a hotel through the Chase travel portal with a cash value of $1250. 
The 100K bonus point offer is just for a limited time, so if you’re looking for the best travel card, sign up >> here.

P.P.S. Here’s one more really important thing you need to know before your Hawaii trip…

You’ve got your airfare, hotel, rental car and your big activities booked, so you should be good to go, right? Wrong!

Travel is BOOMING in Hawaii and a lot of state and national parks have instituted reservation systems at some of the island’s most popular spots to help manage the crowds and make things a little more sustainable. 

That means that there are now over half a dozen sites (beaches, trailheads, etc.) that require advance reservations. And some sell out well before you arrive on the island so you really need to have some sort of a plan. 

I recently saw somebody in a Hawaii travel group post in a panic that they didn’t know they had to make reservations for things in advance…they thought they could just show up and “go with the flow.” I was tempted to say, well, “as long as the flow doesn’t take you somewhere that requires reservations, you can!” ; )

But I don’t want YOU to be that person, so I’ve pulled together a list of all the places you need to reserve entry in advance (plus all the details on booking windows, price, links, etc.) and a handful of popular tourist hotspots that book out really far in advance too. 
Get that info >> HERE