Most of the humpback whales that visit Hawaiʻi end up in the ʻAuʻau Channel, the shallow water between west Maui, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi. High season is January to March, and February is usually the peak. Whale-watch tours start in mid-December.
Book a boat tour, or a kayak whale watch that leaves from Wailea or Mākena. To stay on land, watch from McGregor Point or Papawai Scenic Lookout near Māʻalaea. Aim for January or February if your dates are flexible. From 2022 to 2025, Pacific Whale Foundation’s Great Whale Count, a shore count on Maui, recorded about 40% as many whales in late March as in February.
Table of contents
- When is the best time to go whale watching on Maui?
- Why is Maui the Best island for Whale Watching?
- What’s the Best Way to See the Whales on Maui?
- Which Whale Watching Boat Tours on Maui Are Best?
- DIY Whale Watching tips: How to See the Whales Without a Tour
- Humpback Whale 101: how many come to Hawaiʻi, and when
This 15-minute video shows highlights from a 2022 whale watching trip on Maui, filmed by @Dolphindronedom on YouTube.
When is the best time to go whale watching on Maui?
The best time to go whale watching on Maui is January and February. Tours start in mid-December, there are still sightings in early April, and by late April they are rare. February is usually the peak: by late March, Pacific Whale Foundation’s Great Whale Count finds about 40% as many whales as in February (2022 to 2025).
The timing shifts a little from year to year, because ocean temperatures and the food supply affect when the whales arrive and leave.
Your odds of seeing whales on Maui, by month:
| Month | Probability of seeing whales |
|---|---|
| January | High |
| February | High |
| March | High (early March) to Medium (late March) |
| April | Medium (early April) to Low (late April) |
| May | Very low |
| June to October | None: the humpbacks are feeding in Alaska |
| November | Low |
| December | Medium (whale watching tours start mid-December) |
What the Maui counts show: in 2024, the count’s volunteers at 11 Maui shore sites counted 821 whales in late January, 948 in late February and 367 in late March, all between 8 a.m. and noon. The same whale can be counted more than once, so compare the months with each other rather than reading them as a headcount. The figures come from the count’s results, compiled at sanctuaryoceancount.org.
Good to know: your odds of seeing whales go up on a tour whose guides follow the latest sighting reports.
Why is Maui the Best Island for Whale Watching?
Maui is the best island for whale watching because most of the whales that visit Hawaiʻi end up in the shallow ʻAuʻau Channel off its west side. On the map below, the ʻAuʻau Channel is the darkest water.
In season, you can watch whales off Maui’s western and southern shores breaching, slapping their tails and blowing at the surface. On a boat tour, the guides explain the migration, and some crews lower a hydrophone so you can hear the whales underwater.
The gray is whale density at sea from the 1993 to 2003 aerial surveys, darkest in the ʻAuʻau Channel off Maui’s west side. The panel shows Pacific Whale Foundation’s Great Whale Count: the total whales counted on one morning at about 11 Maui shore sites, averaged over 2024 to 2026: 739 in January, 866 in February, 272 in March. The dots are the sanctuary’s shore counts on the other islands. Compiled by sanctuaryoceancount.org; aerial survey data courtesy of Joseph R. Mobley Jr.
Season by season, Maui’s count and the sanctuary’s shore counts on the other islands show the same pattern: both dipped around 2018 to 2021 and were higher again by 2024 and 2025.
Top: the sanctuary’s shore counts on Hawaiʻi Island, Oʻahu and Kauaʻi, whales per 15-minute scan per season. Bottom: Pacific Whale Foundation’s Great Whale Count on Maui, whales counted per season (orange from season summaries, gray summed from per-count cards). Different methods: compare the shapes, not the heights. Compiled by sanctuaryoceancount.org.
What’s the Best Way to See the Whales on Maui?
The best way to see the whales on Maui is to take a whale watching boat tour.
You can see plenty of whales from shore if you pick the right spot. On a boat you get closer to them, with a guide explaining what you see and views back to Maui and the other islands from the water.
Which Whale Watching Boat Tours on Maui Are Best?
Start by choosing the size of the boat.
Larger boats vs. smaller boats: what’s the difference?
Larger boats have refreshments and bathrooms, room to move around the deck and a better long-distance view. They’re also more stable, so pick one if you get seasick.
Smaller boats carry small groups and have no bathroom or bar. You sit closer to the water when whales show up, and the ride is bumpier.
A humpback whale breaches the surface.
Maui Whale Watching Tour recommendations
Pacific Whale Foundation runs the bigger boats and Sail Maui runs mid-sized sailing ships. For a small group, Captain Steve’s Rafting goes out on pontoon boats.
Saltwater Sail With the Whales on Maui
Maui is the place to see humpback whales! Set sail in the Hawaiian tradewinds and join the Captain and Crew in keeping a look out for humpback whales
from:
$90
What is a suggested tour?Our suggested tours are hand-picked tours that receive consistent good reviews, give back to the community, and work hard to minimize their impact on the environment. Read more about these tours on our website.You can also book kayak whale watching tours, such as this private kayak whale watch by Paddle On! Maui that departs from Wailea, or this 4-hour kayak whale watch by Aloha Kayaks, which meets at Mākena Landing.
Before booking, decide whether you need a bathroom and a bar on board, and compare prices across tours.
Where the boats go, and where they leave from
From a boat in the ʻAuʻau Channel you can see across to Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe and Molokini Crater, and back to the West Maui Mountains and the 10,000-foot Haleakalā volcano.
Pacific Whale Foundation’s cruises leave from Māʻalaea Harbor. Lāhainā Harbor reopened in December 2025 to permitted tour boats, daylight hours only, while it’s rebuilt after the 2023 fire. Sail Maui runs whale sails from both harbors.
DIY Whale Watching: How to See the Whales Without a Tour
Seeing whales from shore is easier on Maui than on the other islands, because so many of them winter off its west and south shores. Watch from the Maui beaches in Wailea, Kīhei or Lāhainā and you have a high chance of seeing whales offshore.
For a little height above the water, try these spots:
- Wailea Oceanside Path: This path runs along the low cliffs between the Wailea resorts, and from that little extra height you can see well out into the channel.
- Kāʻanapali Beach Walking Path: This beach path is flat but runs slightly above the shoreline, with a clear view across the channel to the offshore islands.
- McGregor Point Lookout: This lookout is right around the corner from Māʻalaea, and it’s one of the Great Whale Count’s shore sites.
- Papawai Scenic Lookout: This lookout is right next to McGregor Point.
Humpback whale breaching off the west Maui coast. Photo by Steve Wrzeszczynski (website) on Unsplash
Whale exhibits on Maui, and how to join the Great Whale Count
We also recommend the Humpback Whale Sanctuary Visitor Center in Kīhei (Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., closed on federal holidays) and the Maui Ocean Center (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Both have exhibits on humpback whales and the ocean around Maui.
To count whales yourself, volunteer for Pacific Whale Foundation’s Great Whale Count. Volunteers watch from 11 shore sites, including McGregor Point and the sanctuary visitor center, from 8 a.m. to noon on January 30, February 27 and March 27, 2027. Registration opens December 14, 2026. Each counter registers separately, and each site has room for a limited number of people.
The sanctuary visitor center in Kīhei, on Maui’s south shore, has exhibits on the marine environment, and in winter you can sometimes see humpbacks breaching offshore. Credit: Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) / Tor Johnson
Humpback whale 101: how many come to Hawaiʻi, and when
The first humpbacks reach Hawaiʻi in November and a few stay into May, but whale watching on Maui runs from mid-December, when the tours start, to early April.
About 12,300 humpbacks wintered in Hawaiʻi in 2021, down from about 18,700 in 2013, according to a 2024 population study by Cheeseman and colleagues in Royal Society Open Science. The drop followed the 2014 to 2016 marine heatwave in the North Pacific. Those figures cover the whole state.
The whales that come to Hawaiʻi are humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), and most are the size of a school bus. Commercial whaling nearly wiped them out in the last century, and they are now protected. In the mid-19th century, Lāhainā was the capital of the whaling industry.
The humpback whales you will see in Hawaiʻi make the 3,000-mile trip between Alaska, their feeding grounds, and Hawaiʻi, their birthing place, each year. Our humpback whale 101 guide explains why they migrate, what their surface acrobatics mean and how they sing.
Related: Big Island whale watching, with free shore spots and Kona boats, and 6 whale watching tips for Hawaiʻi.