Maui Shore Diving at Makena Landing

Maui Shore Diving – Makena Landing Overview

Makena Landing Park is located in South Maui near Kihei and Wailea. It’s a dive/snorkel site that can be accessed right from the shore. This area is known by several names : “Five Caves,” “Five Graves,” “Turtle Town,” and of course “Makena Landing.”

With open mouth caverns, lots of lava rock, and a lava tube where the sunlight shines in from an opening in the ceiling, Makena Landing is a great alternative to diving at Lanai Cathedrals.

Makena Landing – A Great Beginner Scuba Site

If you’re a beginner scuba diver like me, Makena Landing is a great dive site option. Until this one, every dive I’ve done has been off of a boat. Entering in right from the shore and slowly descending on our swim to the caves gave me less anxiety than I normally feel at the beginning of each dive, which was a welcome change. The max depth we reached was only 35ft. I’m sure experienced divers would enjoy this dive as well, but as a beginner who still has anxiety about entering the water and diving deep, Maui shore diving at Makena Landing was perfect for this newbie-novice. 🙂

Parking at Makena Landing

There is a small parking lot at Makena Landing Park. Parking is free but there aren’t an abundance of spots, so it’s best to arrive early before the lot fills up.

Facilities at Makena Landing

There are restrooms and showers at Makena Landing, just a short walk from the parking lot.

Diving at Makena Landing : Before you Go

Choosing a Dive Company

There are quite a few scuba dive centers in Maui. We booked a 2-tank dive with Ed Robinson’s Diving Adventures. Kerry was our guide and I couldn’t recommend her enough. She was friendly and patient, and great at spotting and pointing out tiny marine creatures that I probably wouldn’t have noticed on my own (a small eel hiding in the coral, a nudibranch, etc.). While we were getting our gear on in the parking lot I noticed a group of about 6-7 divers with another company getting ready to go out around the same time as us. It was just the three of us (Jim, Kerry and me) in our group which was so much better than being in a larger group.

Best time to Dive Makena Landing

Wherever you are in Maui, snorkeling and diving is best in the morning when the water is calmer and clearer. Your dive guide will probably pick the meeting time (ours was 6:45 AM), but if you’re heading there on your own for some snorkeling, early is still the way to go. The water is better and you’ll get a parking spot!

Getting to Makena Landing

Use the map below to get directions from your location to Makena Landing Park. In case you’re heading there to snorkel without a guide, I added a red arrow to the map to show where you enter the water and the general direction you’ll swim to reach the caves and caverns.

Diving at Makena Landing

Why I chose Makena Landing/5 Caves

Jim and I got SCUBA certified in 2022, but nearly every time we enter the water for a dive, my anxiety kicks in and my brain tells me not to start descending. While I was researching and planning our activities for our trip to Maui, I read a lot about diving the cathedrals off the coast of nearby Lanai–which sounded absolutely amazing. The Lanai Cathedrals are cavern systems of lava rock with openings where the sunlight pierces through–I really wanted to dive there. But in addition to the not-so-appealing 45 minute boat ride from the west side of Maui, I was a bit worried how my pre-dive anxiety would handle the deeper dive.

I had read that dives at Makena Landing/5 Caves is a good alternative to the Lanai Cathedrals, and because it’s a shore dive instead of a boat dive, I figured my anxiety-brain might have an easier time starting the descent in four feet of water rather than right off the boat staring down into 50 foot depths. Though I can’t tell you how it compares to the cathedrals at Lanai, I absolutely loved Maui shore diving at Makena Landing.

Entering the Water at Makena Landing/5 Caves

This was my first-ever shore dive. The small sandy beach is just steps from the parking lot. We entered the water and stopped once we were about chest deep to put on our masks and fins.

From there we swam along the right side until we got to the more interesting caverns/caves and lava tubes.

Marine Life we Saw at Makena Landing/5 Caves

There were quite a few things we saw that we didn’t capture in photos–a manta ray, sea turtle, and too many fish to list. Here are a few animals we captured with the GoPro:

Whitemouth Moray Eel:

Spotted Eagle Ray:

Moorish Idol:

Long-spined Sea Urchin. It might be hard to see in the photo, but when you looked down into its body there were glowing/metallic blue lines–really beautiful!

Yellow Tang:

This flounder was hanging out in the sandy bottom right as we were finishing our dive:

Racoon Butterflyfish:

Spotted boxfish:

This whitetip reef shark was hanging out in one of the caverns we swam in. After the dive Kerry told us it was pregnant.

Smooth mounding coral:

Urchins and cauliflower coral:

These beautiful red slate pencil sea urchins were everywhere in Maui (Maluaka Beach, Olowalu Beach, Ahihi Kinau Natural Area Reserve, and more), including here at Makena Landing/5 Caves:

Wire coral and a nudibranch:

Mini Cathedral Lava Tube at Makena Landing/5 Caves

There were so many amazing sea creatures to see diving at Makena Landing, but the highlight of the dive for me was the “mini cathedral” lava tube we got to swim through:

Exiting the lava tube:

Makena Landing Shore Diving : Overall Thoughts

There was so much diversity of life at this dive site–sea turtles, rays, large and small schools of so many different types of fish, urchins, coral, etc. The caverns and caves were so fun to swim through and explore. The visibility was amazing–probably 50 ft. or more –10/10, highly recommend diving at Makena Landing/5 Caves! 🙂

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