Road to Hana — RachiePie

When I think of Maui, one of the first things that comes to mind is the Road to Hana. After doing a lot of research about this drive, most of what I read recommended to stay overnight in Hana in order to really maximize your time exploring this part of Hawaii. Alex and I ended up doing just that and spent a full day driving the Road to Hana, staying overnight in Hana and then taking an alternative route home where we ended at Haleakalā National Park.

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Before our drive to Hana, we downloaded the app, GyPSy Guide - Road to Hana. This app uses GPS and provides commentary by a guide (we named him Alan!) including history & facts about the area, alerting us to upcoming sites & stopping points and travel & driving tips. I really enjoyed this guide as Alex can attest to. For about the first 45 minutes, I kept repeating “this is so interesting - I LOVE ALAN!”. It was nice just being able to listen all while enjoying the beautiful scenery. There are other GyPSy guides for both Canada and the United States which I’ll have to keep in mind next time we do a road trip. It added so much to the experience.

Alright, now that I’ve declared my love for Alan - let’s get to the Road to Hana! The Hana Highway (Highway 360) starts just after the small town of Pa’ia. This town is adorable with lots of boutique shops and restaurants. The great thing about this route is you can pick and choose which stops you make. As we started our morning around 7:00am, we chose to skip Pa’ia since there was not much open at this hour. I should mention once you get on Hana Highway the mile marker resets and starts at 0. This is helpful as most travel guides list the sites by mile-marker, so all we had to do is reset our odometer and could keep track (along with our trusty guide Alan!) on which stops were coming up.

We made about a dozen stops along the Road to Hana which took basically the whole day. I’m really glad we decided to stay the night as we were both exhausted by the time we finished. My favorite sights and stops for the day included: Garden of Eden Arboretum (mile marker 10.5), Keane Village for fresh out-of-the-oven banana bread (mile marker 16.9), Nahiku Marketplace (mile marker 29), Ohe’o Gulch and Seven Sacred Pools (mile marker 42) and Hamoa Beach (mile marker 51.7).

The most beautiful trees I have ever seen - Painted Bark Eucalyptus Trees

Ke‘anae Congregational Church built in 1860

Waiting in line for Aunt Sandy’s Banana Bread

Most people after completing the Road to Hana turn around and take the same road back. However, there is another route to take back by driving past Hana and continuing on the road to Kipahulu. Most guide books recommend not taking this route as there are areas of unpaved and bumpy roads and many car rental companies prohibit this route. I was a bit skeptical when Alex informed me he wanted to take this way back (I’m all about SAFETY FIRST), but he convinced me it wasn’t going to be too bad. The road started out pretty narrow with lots of bumps and potholes for the first 30 minutes. But, once you make it past this part, the road turned glossy and new and made for a smooth drive. Plus, I think we maybe passed 10 cars the entire three hours we were on this road! This road passes through some amazing scenery including dry grasslands, ranchland (we had to slow down for multiple cows crossing the road!), lavascapes and beautiful coastline.

Remember when Alex posted pictures of him taking pictures of me on the blog? He’s still at it!

We ended the Road to Hana with a drive to Haleakalā National Park. Haleakalā is home to the highest peak on Maui and boasts five distinctly different climate zones. As we were driving up to the visitor center, the temperature outside went from 65-degree to 45-degrees in a span of about 40 minutes! Unfortunately, we did not pick the best day to visit as it was very foggy and misty and you could hardly see anything. My parents visited later in the week and had a much better viewing experience.

I am really glad we had the opportunity to travel the Road to Hana as it is such an iconic part of Maui. I’m not sure I would do it again as it was slow moving and extremely busy - there were times we couldn’t find parking and the crowds could be a bit distracting. But, I am glad I can cross this off my Maui bucket-list knowing we survived the abundant hairpin turns and one-way bridge crossings. Plus, my trusty guide Alan provided some excellent advice about this route: “it’s all about the journey, not the destination so just enjoy the ride:”. Good advice Alan, good advice.