Is Maui Less Crowded Then Kauai?

I just got back from my trip to Maui where my wife and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We were lucky to stay in Maui villa which we got from Hawaiian Beach Rentals. The one mistake we made booking the trip was renting a car from Advantage (don’t do this or you will be sorry). In the future, we will always rent from one of the established brands. I recommend getting your discount Hawaii car rental from Summit Pacific.

We really enjoyed Paia, a great little town. As well as Lahaina (sometimes being a tourist is fun) and Hana where we did an amazing hike through a bamboo forest to a huge waterfall in the Haleakala National Park along the PiPiWai trail. We were thinking about doing the 7 pools hike, but that trail was way too crowded for our tastes.

Speaking of crowded, one thing I noticed while on Maui was that there seemed to be less of a crowd then on Kauai. Before all you Kauai residents go nuts reading that last sentence, let me explain. I know Maui has a population of around 120,000, roughly twice as many people on Kauai, but they also have a lot more space.

Considering that Maui is much larger then Kauai, they are building in other places then just the coastline, and there infrastructure is much better, it just feels like there are less people.

Now I’m not saying we should start building homes in the upper valleys of Princeville, or to put a road through the center of the Kauai. But is there way to make Kauai feel less crowded? Is there a way to stop the growth of our population or at least slow it down?