Lanai's island neighbours are close enough for a day trip, and the ferry connection to Maui makes it genuinely easy. From Maui, boats also run to Molokini Crater, one of Hawaii's premier snorkeling destinations — a crescent-shaped volcanic remnant partially submerged offshore of Maui's southwest coast, with visibility that can exceed 100 feet on a good day.
Maui is the obvious base for a Lanai visit, and the relationship works in reverse: travellers staying on Lanai often take the morning ferry to Maui for a day of driving the Hana Highway, visiting Haleakala, or simply shopping in Lahaina before the last ferry home.
Molokai is Lanai's near neighbour to the north, visible across the channel from Shipwreck Beach. It is the least-visited of the main Hawaiian islands and fiercely proud of it — a place of small farms, sea cliffs, and the remote Kalaupapa peninsula where a leprosy colony operated well into the 20th century. Getting there from Lanai requires routing through Maui or Honolulu; there is no direct ferry.
