Kahului is located in Maui County on the west side of the island of Maui between Wailuku and Lower Paia along Highway 32 near the West Maui Forest Reserve and the Pacific Ocean.Kahului is heart of Maui, and the only deep water port for the island. This is where the major cruise and container ships come in, the main airport, Kahului Airport is located here also. Kahului has great variety in shopping and services, but lacks the variety of fine restaurants that Lahaina has, although some of the local dining favorites reside here. There are few hotels and resorts in Kahului, there is however, a new golf course. There are four major shopping malls with the largest being the Kaahumanu Mall.Most of 'industrial' Maui is located in Kahului. It is here where one of the main power plants is located, most of Maui's service oriented businesses, and the greatest variety in shopping. Everything from small local stores, catering to residents, to large discount stores such as K-Mart and Costco. Kahului has grown a lot in the past few years, unfortunately the infrastructure has not. As a result traffic is congested most of the working day. The traffic can be especially heavy while exiting the Kahului Airport area. Rush hour traffic is especially bad, both in the afternoons and evenings, traffic from Paia and Upcountry bottleneck at the intersection of Dairy Road and Hana Highway. Allow a little extra time for travelling through this area of Maui.