India, July 26 -- Five minutes into our visit to Lapa'au Farm-one of the many places on Maui that Hotel Wailea sources produce from-and chef de cuisine Emmanuel Eng has already pulled up a stray plant, roots and all, for us to take back.

"Can we get our gardener to grow this?" Eng asks Chris Mitsumura, the hotel's director of operations. Eng wants to use it as a decorative garnish, and before we're finished, he and the farm's co-owner, Michael Marchand, have struck an informal deal to add Thumbelina carrots to the farm's crop rotation. It's this kind of connection to the land and locals that makes Hotel Wailea special-and why it was voted the best hotel in Hawaii in Travel + Leisure's 2026 "World's Best Awards" survey.

To understand ho...