THIS MAUI B&B IS ESPECIALLY FOR LOVERS.

Byline: - Eric Noland

WAILUKU, Hawaii - A sense of old Hawaii and the simple comforts of a bed-and-breakfast experience await Maui visitors willing to forgo the resort life for a couple of days.

The Old Wailuku Inn at Ulupono occupies an 82-year-old house at the mouth of the Iao Valley, where the island's population and power have been concentrated for centuries.

The inn has 10 rooms, no beach, an inviting porch, no golf course, an impressive selection of Hawaii books in the living room, absolutely no hustle-bustle and thematic elements built around an early-20th-century poet.

It's one romantic little hideaway. When we visited recently, it wasn't surprising at breakfast to learn that four of the eight guests at the table were honeymooners.

The inn is within walking distance of the antique shops, cafes and bookstores of Wailuku's up-and-coming downtown district and is also a convenient base from which to launch excursions to Hana or the summit of the Haleakala volcano.

Innkeeper Janice Fairbanks knows this latter fact well and dispenses valuable advice and provisions. For those wishing to watch the sun rise over the volcanic crater, she packs blankets and thermoses of coffee (the temperature can drop precipitously in the climb from sea level to an elevation of 8,205 feet). For those headed to Hana, she hands out ice chests, beach mats and towels.

And no matter where the day-trippers are headed, she gently urges them not to be in a manic, mainland hurry. ``I try to encourage people to stay and eat breakfast before they go, because it's a long day,'' Fairbanks said.

Breakfast is certainly worth lingering over at the Old Wailuku Inn. Set out early were coffee and a selection of teas well suited to the setting: mango Ceylon, ginger peach, ginseng peppermint, chamomile lemon, green, British breakfast. At 8, guests settle into the sunny breakfast room and enjoy more tropical delights - waffles with pineapple and macadamia nuts, perhaps, with papaya, kiwi fruit, grapes and juice.

The inn is very homey, yet without emitting the persnickety B&B vibe that you'd dare not touch anything. The living room is appointed with Japanese antique furniture and wicker pieces, and there are Hawaii books everywhere - guidebooks, coffee-table picture books and the poetry of Don Blanding, who began praising the island in verse back in the 1920s and continued until his death a half-century ago.

Along one wall is a vintage upright Steinway piano, with music books open to hapa-haole classics. You have the sense that the sing-along will commence at any moment.

The bed in our room was covered with a beautiful, hand-sewn Sig Zane quilt, turquoise-green on white. Other nice touches included built-in cabinets and bookshelves, and original doors with glass doorknobs. Yet there were pleasant concessions to the modern age - a whirlpool tub (three of the rooms have them), bath-sheet towels and Aveda toiletry products.

We were disappointed, however, that our windows didn't open - which meant forsaking Maui's invigorating trade winds for central air conditioning. But the house was built in 1924 (a banker's wedding gift to his daughter-in-law) and can undoubtedly get stifling in the inland Maui heat. Still, fresh-air freaks might want to specify a room in the Vagabond's House, a cottage with three guest rooms, built a few years back; its windows open.

At some point during a stay here, guests inevitably pad across the living room's gleaming hardwood floors and step through the screen door onto the front porch. It faces South High Street, which doubles as Highway 30 - a busy route for Wailuku residents who commute to jobs at the beach resorts, particularly in the early morning.

But between you and the road is a leafy front yard, dotted with ponds where Fairbanks grows water lilies as a hobby. Relaxing here, even for a few minutes, provides a sense of what it might have been like to be a powerful sugar baron in the Hawaii of a century ago.

Hmm, that tea should be finished steeping about now.

--2199 Kahookele St., Wailuku; rates from $140 (two-night minimum); [phone], [phone]; www.oldwailukuinn.com.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Hand-sewn Hawaiian quilts adorn the beds at the 10-room Old Wailuku Inn at Ulupono on Maui.

(2 -- color) The Old Wailuku began life as a home built by a banker as a wedding gift for his daughter in 1924.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor