First, what's your objective? The three "public" regions of Maui have
different characteristics, and even though it's small, traffic will
discourage you from driving to Hellenbach each day.

The west side, Ka'anapali, is high-end glitz, very hot (it means endless
sun), expensive, touristy, and beautiful. Well worth seeing, but a very
pricey place to live and sort of isolated from the "downtown" atmosphere of
the airport and Kihei areas. The windward (airport) side is downtown. 'Nuff
said. Kihei is still very busy, but less "downtown" than the windward side,
with more lodging and dining, less industry. Kihei is expensive, hot, but
has much lower humidity than the rest of the island. The east/Hana side is a
GREAT day trip, but unless things have changed since my previous trips
there, the shoreline is mostly private villas of the super rich. Well worth
the drive, but almost no lodging. Many people prefer "upcountry" lodging, as
it's breezier and cooler than any of those areas. It's accessed from the
general area of the airport.

I've been told the best way to get lodging price breaks is to show up
without reservations, hit the papers and realtors, and offer any place with
vacancies half of what they ask. I've never had the nerve to try it.
Besides, the whole place is so hot to me that I have to have AC there; I
don't LIKE sitting on a chair outdoors watching Leno, sweating like a pig on
a spit. For the same reason I always reserve a white car and take little
clothing -- a few shorts and Tees and a pair of good sandals will pretty
much get me through a few weeks there.

You'll get far more info from any guidebook than we can provide here, but
you need to get going; I imagine lodging gets snapped up 6-12 months in
advance.

I.P.