Any recommendations?

I've only stayed at the Westin with another trip booked for Sept. The Sheraton will be a little quieter and a little less expensive, but what I like about the Westin is that it is the middle of Kaanapali beach area, right next door to Whalers Village. Very convenient to everything with, I believe, the best beach area. There has been talk of lots of kids at the pool area. That will depend on the time of year. We only travel at the end of Sept. for Hawaii and has never been an issue anywhere we have gone. When do you plan to go? Join the Starwood Preferred Quest Club (free) and you'll rack up points that help in upgrades. Just being a member upgraded us 2 years ago since we had just joined 3 months before we arrived. Also, spend the extra money and get a Deluxe Ocean View room in the Ocean Tower. You feel like you can jump right into the ocean from your lanai. Good luck.

I stayed at both last summer and my vote would be the Sheraton hands down. The Westin's pool area is extremely small and cramped. The Sheraton was much more spacious and the rooms were fantastic! Ask for a room facing the ocean near the Cliff Divers. The Sheraton is a short walk (one block) to Whaler's Village.

Thank you for your responses! We're going to be on Maui Sept. 6-10. We're SPG members, but fearful that if we don't just book the Deluxe Ocean View that we won't get upgraded. Would hate not to have that view!

Sorry to disagree with Dodger, but the Westin's pool area is not small at all. It's tiered, which may make it look small, but it is not.

There is excellent snorkeling right off the beach at the Sheraton. I think it's called black rock. I don't know about the Westin.

The Westin is a bit more upscale. The pool area is not small as someone else posted. The Sheraton has some of the best snorkling on Maui right out front at Black Rock. Your really can't go wrong at either - both are nice and a short walk to Whalers' Village.

I have stayed at both hotels, and had enjoyable experiences each time. I would suggest that if you really like to snorkel then the Sheraton is much closer to the Black Rock snorkeling area (last year we saw turtles, baby octopus a LOTS of fish!). If you have children that would like the pool experience then the Westin is a lot of fun with the slides and waterfalls.

As my DH and children like to do both we found the best experience was to stay at the Sheraton as we snorkel and do the beach mostly, then they allow you to use the pool at the Westin (I believe that they are sister companies).

Hope this helps - have a great time. And don't miss the fish and chips and the Hula Grill in Whalers Village - great view of the water and good food!

Personally, I like the Westin because it is newer and my Hawaiian friends do not like for me to stay at the Sheraton at Black Rock because it was built on sacred ground and they say it has a bad mana to it.. the snorkeling is great at Sheraton though and I didn't think that the pool at the Westin was small at all..
Have fun cactgirl!

I think the pool at the Westin is rather large... it is actually made up of several pools with interconnecting water throughout much of it. There is an adult only designated area. I agree with other posts that the Westin seems to be a bit more upscale, but at the same time I didn't feel like it was stuffy at all. When I stayed there I did prefer to walk to the Sheraton for snorkeling but was very happy to go back to the Westin to stay. The walk between the two is only about 5 minutes. The beach seemed better at the Westin and it seemed less crowded, probably because most people who were snorkeling had walked down to the Westin!!

Oops... I mean the beach at the Westin was less crowded probably because most snorkelers had walked to the Sheraton!!

Just talking about this over lunch yesterday. Friend highly recommends Maui Sheraton, she loved being able to snorkel right off the beach.

Family members just returned from the Maui Sheraton a couple of weekends ago and they really loved the Sheraton, in fact they are going back some months from now. They loved the snorkling too as Suze's friends did.