For those of you who have not been there yet, this driving adventure is a breathtaking journey into a fabulous Maui paradise. It is the journey itself that makes the scenic drive to the small town of Hana, on the island of Maui, so famous.
Maui’s rugged eastern coastline hosts one of the most spectacular drives to be found in the world. The drive starts near the international airport and meanders through the town of Hana and then finishes at a small historic church.
The peaceful town of Hana, gives the road its name and is considered to be one of the last unspoiled Hawaiian frontiers. To learn a bit more about Hana and its surrounding attractions please visit http://www.hanamaui.com/
Getting Started: Things to get and things to know about:
This is the first in a series of five “Road to Hana” travelogues that I will provide to you. I believe that these articles can do two things for you. First, if you are not physically visiting Maui they will let you take a virtual vacation drive by engaging your brain’s mind pictures and imagination. Secondly, if you are visiting, or will be visiting, Maui, then you can print these articles out and use them on your real trip down the Road to Hana to make that experience even more memorable.
So regardless of whether you are really in Maui or not these travelogues will allow you to take an incredible journey that features 617 curves while crossing 56 bridges as you pass through some of the most breathtaking scenery in the entire world. This is a journey fraught with narrow one-lane bridges and hairpin turns while featuring another incredible island view just around the next bend in the road.
This entire sixty-eight mile tour that begins in Kahului, Maui’s commercial center, meanders to and through the Shangri-la of Hawaii, Hana, and ends at the simple church where Charles Lindberg is buried-resting in quiet solitude for eternity.
Through the pages of these travelogues you will explore unconquerable precipices, wave-thrashed shores, sculptured streams and verdant rain forests. You will visit bamboo forests, saltwater caves, historic churches, pristine waterfalls, Charles Lindbergh’s grave, and a variety of colored sand beaches.
Preparing For The Adventure:
Before pointing the vehicle down the Road to Hana there are some logistics to take care of and interesting information about the road that you will be using.
- If you have your own rental car but would like to hire an experienced driver and guide for this incredible adventure then you might consider contacting Guides of Hawaii: http://www.guidesofmaui.com/
- Check with the local weather service to see if the northeastern and/or eastern part of Maui will have any significant rain on the day you are planning for this trip at: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=20.75371675288015&lon;=-155.9941864013672&site;=hfo&unit;=0≶=&FcstType;=text. You can also check the weather conditions by calling the National Weather Service (877-5111) for Maui’s, and Hana’s, weather forecast.
- If it is going to be rainy then you may want to postpone the trip for another day. Gray skies will cancel out most of the scenery’s vivid and sumptuous color and will limit visibility and photo opportunities; streams and waterfalls will be raging and they will be un-swimmable, their normally clear waters colored brown by mud, and stream banks and rocks will be slippery. Driving conditions will demand the driver’s total concentration, and if the rains are especially heavy, landslides can block the road.
- TRUST ME, if you are using your own rental vehicle for this adventure then you do not want to take this trip without the audio guide called “The Road to Hana CD Guide” to tell you all about the history, geology, geography, and biology of this fabled road. It uses the mile markers posted on the road to entertain you with information and stories about the area in which you are currently driving. Your enjoyment of this road adventure will be magnified many times over if you utilize this radio audio service (and no I do not own stock in this company). The best of the lot, in my opinion, is the one that you’ll find ONLY at the Shell Service Station on Route 380 in Kahului, just before the Hana Highway intersection (Route 36), about one mile from the airport. There is a little booth there that will provide you with this audio guide (this company was the first to produce these audio guides for the Hana Highway back in 1985) as well as a wonderfully useful map and some other goodies. Click the link provided here for more information: http://www.hanacdguide.com/Road_to_Hana_CD_Guide_Home_Page.html
- You’ll want to fill or top off your gas tank at the beginning of your journey (and you are already at a Shell Station-how convenient) but no later than in the windsurfing town of Paia, or before that, as there are no other gas stations after that until you reach the town of Hana. Pick up some food and drink as well because, other than a few fruit stands, there are no places to eat until you get to Hana. Besides, there are dozens of spectacular and lovely spots where an unforgettable picnic will greatly add to your vacation memories.
- You will want to consider changing drivers, if more than one is available, fairly often on this road. The driver MUST be very vigilant on the narrow and twisty sections of this road as you will see other cars gliding out of their lanes as they admire the views rather than attending to their driving. And this is especially dangerous on the many hairpin curves when the on-coming driver wanders across the center divider towards you because his attention is riveted on some amazing view. You will not have much time to react defensively to these dangerous situations. The driver just will not be able to enjoy as much of the scenery as the passengers will which is why switching off drivers during this adventure just makes good sense.
- Be prepared to stop before bridges, at the yield signs, because many bridges are for one way traffic only.
- DO NOT PARK ON THE ROAD during this trip! Make sure that you pull into a parking area or as completely off the road as possible when you are stopping to visit one of the scenic areas. The other drivers on this road are not on their best alert for traffic collisions and you do not want to be stranded as the result of an accident that will do more than just ruin this great adventure.
- Consider the possibility of getting motion sickness. If necessary you might want to talk with your doctor but usually taking Dramamine, Bonine or Benadryl for this problem might be wise on this trip. Relief bands for motion sickness are also becoming more popular as a substitute for medications. Relief bands (like Sea-Band or BioBand) for motion sickness are based on acupressure technology. This technology used in relief bands for motion sickness applies the right degree of pressure to the precise location on the body (on the wrist) to prevent nausea. These are especially good for pregnant women. Regardless of what you use, the sharp twists and turns on this road are rough on almost everyone.
- If you are thinking about having a picnic, then consider bringing along a ground tarp or blanket to sit on. Many of the places you will find suitable for a picnic will probably have few or no facilities at all. And bring a trash bag with you in the car. PLEASE do not leave any trash laying around regardless of where you stop on this adventure.
- Also, do not forget your hat and sunscreen and bring along insect repellent – it is the topics and you don’t want to ruin this trip by overexposure to the sun nor because of the itching caused by pesky mosquitoes. Keep in mind that the waterfalls and pools will beckon you to swim so bring your bathing suits and some towels to dry off with to enjoy all of the benefits of making this road trip.
- There is a National Park to be found at the end of the road to Hana. At nearly all of the American National Parks one or more National Park Passport Stamps (cancellation stamps) can be acquired at no cost to you at park visitor centers and ranger stations. If you do not own one already, you can usually buy a Passport Book to hold your cancelled stamps as you travel across the USA and visit the National Parks and Recreation areas. So if you do have a National Park Passport Book, be sure to bring it along.
- You can find even more tips on how best to enjoy the Hana Heavenly Highway by visiting: http://www.govisithawaii.com/2008/03/19/tips-for-driving-the-road-to-hana/
- Sadly, I must bring up this last point. Criminals, many of them young and unemployed across the Hawaiian Islands, are stalking the tourist areas. Typically, you personally are safe from these predators as long as you stay in groups and in well traveled areas. Most of the time the target of these thieves will be your automobile. As you visit the various tourist sites, including the ones documented in this series of papers, you will often walk away and out of sight of your car. At that point these thieves will brazenly break into your car, and your car’s trunk, to steal whatever they can. Cell phones, cameras, luggage, computers, purses – anything of value can be taken in a matter of just a minute or so. Do not bring anything valuable on this trip that you will not carry with you while you are enjoying the scenery of the road to Hana. Or, at the very least, leave an adult with the car so that someone is on watch over your belongings to safeguard them against these criminals. Even at the National Park they suffer automobile break-ins. No remote tourist location is safe unless you make it so.
On a lighter note, here are a couple of the anomalies of the road for this trip – things I experienced on my last trip down the road a few years back. As you reach the intersection of Dairy Road and the Hana Highway, that is where mile number zero starts – even if there is not a marker to say so. And then when you reach mile marker 16, the highway number changes from 36 to 360, and the mile marker numbers start over again at zero. And then if you go beyond Hana to visit the sacred pools or Lindberg’s grave, the mile markers will start decrementing.
Ahead of you along the Hana Highway lie the tiny and lovely hidden hamlets of Huelo, Keanae, Wailua and Nahiku; forests of bamboo, fern, and eucalyptus; edible treats like guava, mountain apple, sugar cane and mango, abandoned coffee trees and creamy-colored blooming ginger, countless unnamed and untamed waterfalls, water chutes, pools and swimming holes. Spectacular overlooks cling to cliff tops, providing distant views of the sinuous road both ahead and behind, carved early in the 20th century with pick and shovel along the full length of the seaside ramparts.
If you enjoy group travel and would like to leave the driving to someone else, so that you can enjoy the natural beauty of the entirety of this spectacular drive without the hassle of steering a vehicle along this road yourself, then please check out a few of these local tour companies that can provide you with that service:
Valley Isle Excursions: http://www.tourmaui.com/
Adventure Maui Tours: http://adventuremaui.com/islandtours.htm?gclid=CNLO3bCrq7ECFQtU7Aodzg8AQw
Road to Hana Tours: http://www.roadtohanatour.com/index.htm?gclid=CLST36eqq7ECFQmd7QodSEMAJw
Hidden Hawaii Tours: http://www.discoverhiddenhawaiitours.com/product/oahu/roadtohanaecoadventure.html
So let’s get started. Print out these guides and keep then handy to read along the way as you (or your experienced guide) point the vehicle down the road towards Hana. If you are in your own rental car then put your Road to Hana CD into the car radio, turn it on and listen to the introduction and opening remarks. Then switch it off until you reach your next mile marker destination.
This ends the first of five travelogues about how to get the most out of a drive along The Road to Hana on the island of Maui.
To continue this adventure, please see the following article:
Travel Guide for A Driving Adventure on “The Road To Hana” on the island of Maui in Hawaii – Part 2 of 5
