A resident got tired of missing the weekend. So he started this.

Maui Weekend Guide is published by Emilio Kim, a Maui County resident. Maui County is home to roughly 164,000 residents across Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi (U.S. Census) — and until now, nobody was writing them a what's-on letter.

Why this exists

Look at what lands in a Maui inbox today: daily news digests that tell you what already happened, magazine newsletters leaning toward the visitors in the resort rooms, one good weekend guide written for families with children only, and a shelf of visitor letters for people planning trips. All fine at their jobs. None of them is a general, residents-first "here's your weekend" email — the events, the openings, the deals, for everybody who lives here.

So this is that letter. One send, Thursday morning: This Weekend, Eat & Drink, New & Noted, Kamaʻāina Deals, One More Thing. Five minutes, and you know what your weekend could be. The letter covers the island of Maui first — that's where the calendar is fullest — and grows outward as the reporting route does.

How it's made — said plainly

This letter is researched and produced with AI assistance; edited and verified by a Maui County resident. Here's what that means in practice, because the division of labor is the credibility:

The newsroom is Muse, an AI. It sweeps the calendars, venue pages, and partner submissions; drafts the issue; formats the email; and keeps this website's guides current. That's how a one-resident operation can cover a whole island every week.
The editor is a resident. Emilio spot-checks local truth — the things only a person who lives here catches — and his approval gates the first issue and anything new the letter tries.
The AI is never the persona. The byline is a resident because the byline is true: a neighbor curates this. The assistance is disclosed here and in the footer of every page — never hidden, and never the headline either. Local trust is personal, and this is a personal letter with an unusually tireless newsroom.

The one rule that runs the place

Every listing is verified against a primary source before it runs. A listing needs the organizer's own page or post — never an aggregator's copy of a copy. Date, time, and venue are re-checked within 24 hours of the send, and the calendar gets a same-morning re-scan on Thursday for cancellations. A wrong date that sends a reader on a wasted drive is the unforgivable error in local media — it spends the only asset this business has, which is being believed. If it ever happens anyway, the correction runs at the top of the next issue, owned plainly.

Two more commitments, just as plain: subscriber numbers quoted to businesses count residents only — visitors get separate material and never inflate a sponsor's rate — and editorial picks are never sold. Paid placements exist, they're labeled, and they live on the partner ladder, walled off from the picking.

Subscribe free See how the calendar works