A few days after our adventure along the Northwest Coastline, we decided we were ready to drive the Hana Highway. We decided we would pass through Paia without stopping in order to make sure we would get as far as we could go in one day.
One of the first stops we made this day was at Keanae, just before the 17 mile marker. It was a very nice place to stop, even though it was raining pretty hard when we were there. I would definitely recommend checking it out. The color variety is a sight to see, with the black lava against the blue ocean, and green vegetation in the background. We had packed food for the day, so we ate a snack here. There is a lot of room to park, so we just ate lunch in our car while watching the waves crash on the rocks…
Another of the must see attractions along the Hana Highway is the Waianapanapa Black Sand Beach. It was very busy here, but well worth the stop. It is unlike any beach I have ever seen. I can only imagine the color that would show up there on a sunny day.
There is a small cave once you get down to the beach, which was one of my favorites as well.
We didn’t explore the town of Hana for too long. It is certainly not a big place by any means, although you could probably spend a fair bit of time looking around there. But we wanted to carry on and see if we could make it all the way around the south side of the island.
We did stop to have a look at Hamoa Beach though. The only trail down to the beach we saw was quite steep, but we didn’t look to hard as we were not planning on swimming…
And on the way to Hamoa Beach, we found another small beach, which I believe is called Koki Beach. It was quite stormy and the ocean was very rough, so it did not look like a good place for swimming. There seemed to be a lot of locals at the bbq area here. It was a good beach for photos though…
The highway was paved for much of the trip around the south coast of Maui, but not the entire way. Although there were spots where the pavement was definitely not in the best of shape. We weren’t sure if it was possible to get all the way around, but once in a while when we were stopped to take some photos a tour bus would pass heading in the direction of Kula. So we figured if the buses were going that way then we could too.
The scenery was certainly worth the drive though, and it was much less crowded than the drive to Hana. We decided not to stop at the Seven Sacred Pools. There was no parking when we got there, and we wanted to carry on. Also, it was still raining and we weren’t into swimming at that time. We wanted to keep going and find out what we could see past the point where most people turn around. And we were happy we did…
There definitely were some narrow sections and blind corners. But we were used to them by now having driven along the Northwest Maui Coast as I mentioned in a previous post. Just drive cautiously and you should be alright.
Not sure what the rental car companies think about this trip past Hana. There are a few areas on Maui where they do not like you to go. Not sure what that means exactly, but we figured we would be on our own if something happened to the car outside the areas where you are allowed to go. So you might want to check with your car company, or at least keep it in mind. I have a post on rental cars here.
There were a few small churches along the way as well. They looked very old, and often appeared to be made from lava. They seemed like very interesting places to stop, check out, and take some photos. But we weren’t sure if that was an option or not, so we just took some photos from the road and carried on our way. This one was one of our favorites, out on a windy point.
Eventually we started getting back into the drier side of the island again. Although we still very much enjoyed the scenery. It is also another good shot of the road conditions, as well as the usual amount of traffic we saw out there…
Once in a while we would meet someone heading the other way, but there was always room for them to pass. More often though, we found ourselves pulling over for traffic that had caught up behind us. We wanted to take our time and enjoy the trip. It certainly helped that we packed a lot of food for the day. I think we actually ended up with some left over because we packed too much. But we didn’t want to go hungry with so much distance between towns out there. And we were not sure if we would be in Hana for lunch or not, and did not want that to limit where we could go or what we could do.
The Maui Revealed Guidebook was especially helpful on this trip. Although as I mentioned in previous posts, you have to watch where they tell you to go. Sometimes the locals are not as friendly now that the book has given out so many secrets. It just depends how adventurous you want to be and how much risk you are willing to take.
Their website is very good with lots of links, aerial resort views, resort reviews, and much more. They also post many updates to the book, which is a great way to get the latest news before you head out. Check it out at:
http://www.wizardpub.com/maui/maui.html
Overall I would highly recommend driving the Hana Highway. Just plan for an entire day, pack some food even if you plan to eat in Hana, and of course have your camera ready. Some ginger or gravol might be needed as well if you get motion sickness. The road is very windy. We made so many stops to get out and enjoy the breeze and the scenery that we didn’t notice all the curves in the road. It was actually quite fun to drive.
It was not always possible to stop where we wanted to, so quite often Shauna was taking the photo as I drove by slowly. And of course, if there is a lineup behind you it is much easier to just move out of the way so you can all enjoy things better. We will definitely be driving the Hana Highway on our next trip. There is so much to see and do that we might even stay at Hana for a few nights.
I hope you enjoyed reading, and as always please ask questions or leave comments if you have them.
