Best kept secret of the islands may be the blue paperback guidebooks with titles like "Maui Revealed" and "The Big Island Revealed", etc. Available everywhere and gives you absolutely UN-PAYOLA sights, bests, and where-to-go's for all occasions and nearly all pocketbooks. Directions to last sandy beach at island's northwestern tip gave me and my timid-swimmer family unparallelled snorkeling at a virtually abandoned beach, shallow water coral heads replete with sponges, anemones, rainbow fish, etc. etc. If you like the madding crowd, don't buy the book. Just follow the muddy footprints.

p.s. Beware the Maui United ticket agents! Developing a rep for punitive "secondary screenings" (grope-searches) if they don't like you. Wrong attitude or expression on your part can getcha frisked. Don't believe it? Wanta bet?

Oh. Yes. They. WILL!