Daniel B.
Yelp
We thought Whalers Village was OK. This is an outdoor shopping mall on Ka'anapali Beach (https://www.yelp.com/biz/kaanapali-beach-lahaina), situated on the west coast of Maui in Lahaina. Like Lahaina in general, Whalers Village is popular, crowded, and touristy.
Overall, this is a pretty generic open-air mall. It contains a mishmash of brands, notably high-end Louis Vuitton, on down to lululemon and Na Hoku (Hawaiian jewelry store brand since 1924), then surf and sun chains like Quiksilver, Sunglass Hut, and Tommy Bahama, on down to local stores. There's an ABC Store here, which is convenient. You can read more about my thoughts on ABC Stores here: https://www.yelp.com/biz/abc-stores-lahaina-16. There's also an escape room business, Maui Escape Rooms.
On the food and beverage side, there are poke and gelato shops as well as beach restaurants, the most popular ones probably being Leilani's on the Beach and Hula Grill. There's also Monkeypod Kitchen by Merriman ("Merriman" refers to chef Peter Merriman, a famous chef in Hawaii). Leilani's and Hula Grill are sister restaurants, members of T S Restaurants in Hawaii and California. For a long time, Hula Grill has been and still is known for its Barefoot Bar, right on Ka'anapali Beach. Hula Grill and Leilani's are Whalers Village's two truly oceanfront restaurants.
I do think it's cool how Whalers Village borders the ocean, especially in a place as naturally beautiful and stunning as Maui. However, if you take the gorgeous setting away, I think Whalers Village effectively amounts to your run-of-the-mill American outdoor mall. It's not bad, but it's not a must-see destination either.
If anyone is from or familiar with Atlanta, where I'm from, my wife said the mix of stores at Whalers Village is generic like that of Atlantic Station. As someone who's invested in Atlantic Station, I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I digress. :)
According to Whalers Village's website, the mall has over 500 parking spaces available at a rate of $3 per 30 minutes. Up to 3 hours of parking is free with validation, so check with your restaurant/retailer for validation. https://www.whalersvillage.com/en/parking/
Whalers Village is within walking distance to many of Lahaina's resorts. We walked from our resort. It's a pleasant and picturesque walk up and down the Ka'anapali Beachwalk.
Whalers Village opened in 1970. It's named after Lahaina's historic whaling industry in the 1800s.