This morning is our last morning on the west side of Maui. Today we’re heading out of Camp Olowalu to begin our adventure to the east side on the famous road to Hana! This route is known for its scenic views, curving road, and numerous bridges. Though the trip is only about 50 miles, it usually takes over two hours to reach Hana from Kahului (and that’s without stops)! This picturesque drive notably has 620 curves and 59 bridges, so if you get carsick, make sure you have some medication on hand…or better yet, try the infamous Hana Tonic.
Before we begin our drive east, we decided to check out the southern town of Makena. Yesterday, we planned on exploring this area after our snorkel trip, but there was really bad traffic on the one-lane road (Google Maps estimated it would take two hours to travel 12 miles). Once we get to Hana later today, we’ll be camping at the nearby Waiʻānapanapa State Park where we made advanced reservations for two nights.
We checked out of Olowalu and drove as far south as we could. We ended up at Ahihi-Kinau Cove and Marine Preserve where we decided to hike along an ancient lava field. There is a cove that’s very popular for snorkeling along this trail, but we wanted to get an early start on our drive to Hana…and we’re pretty snorkeled out from the past two days.
The lava field trail snakes alongside the bay and brings you right up to some of the most recent lava fields. It was really nice to walk this trail because just yesterday on our snorkel tour, our captain brought us alongside these same lava fields. Having a different perspective of the same area was really unique.
After our hike, we began our drive north up to Kahului and then east to Hana. We made a quick stop at the Costco gas station in Kahului to fill our tank before embarking…it’s worth noting that gas on the Hawaiian Islands is extremely expensive. We only filled up twice, but we made sure that both times were at Costco (Costco ppg was about $3.50 and the average price we saw elsewhere was about $4.10).
Right across Costco is a really great food truck park that has quite a few different local options, so we decided to make a pit stop for an early lunch! We’ve noticed that some of the best food on the island can be found on four wheels, and many are on our must-eat list. Some of them were still closed because it was only 11am, but the one we’ve been wanting to try the most was open! While planning for this trip we watched an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives with Guy Fieri and saw that he stopped at a food truck called Like Poke…?, so we had to try it out. We’re not big raw fish fans, but this food truck had other options like baked poke and fried poke, so we shared a spicy fried poke dish with rice and wow! It’s no wonder why this food truck made it on Guy Fieri’s list! The fresh ahi (yellowfin tuna) with a spicy aioli and topped furikake was amazing.
After a delicious lunch, we made our way to the town of Paia. This is a quant town with a really awesome local vibe. We’ve been making an effort to shop local while here in Maui, and one of our favorite places to do so is at a shop called Maui Hands. Maui Hands began in the early 1990s, employing 25 local artisans, and it now has works from over 300 local artisans in four different galleries.
We ended up buying a BEAUTIFUL piece of artwork from a local artist working there at the time. It’s a floating frames made with local sea glass and driftwood from the island. She took time to explain her process and it made us want to take it home even more. It was the perfect piece of art for our honeymoon! Oh, and we also got an ornament of a hand painted humuhumunukunukuāpua’a (the state fish, but also Keeshia’s favorite reef fish).
After finding some local artwork to take home with us, we finally began our adventure on the road to Hana. The drive to Hana from Paia was a little over 2 hours, including a few stops along the way. The road is windy and narrow so the drive is definitely a slow one, but the views are breathtaking along every single turn!
Near the Halfway to Hana point (yes, there’s an official rest area called Halfway to Hana), we decided to stop at the Ke’anae Peninsula. There are amazing views of crashing waves along the lava rock coastline, especially during high tide, but there is also a pretty famous bakery dishing out some of the best local banana bread on the island, Aunty Sandy’s Banana Bread. Unfortunately, it was closed for the day when we arrived, but we may decide to try again on our way back.
After a quick stop, we hopped in our van and got back on the road (to Hana)! After the halfway point, stopped at several waterfalls, like Wailua Iki, Waikani and Hanawi Falls. You can see the majority of these right from your car, but some (like Upper Waikani Falls) are worth the short hike for a quick dip. Its’ worth noting that you can’t just pull over and stop on the road to Hana whenever you’d like…it’s frowned upon, but also dangerous. There are a few designated places to pull off, but our massive campervan made it quite the challenge.
After taking some time at the falls and various other stops, we stopped at Coconut Glen’s for some homemade ice cream! We shared a lilikoi ice cream and it was so refreshing…it even had pieces of yellow passion fruit in it!
After a sweet stop, we made it to Waiʻānapanapa State Park to check into our campsite. There are only 6 car camping sites, so advanced reservations are definitely required. If you’re interested in booking a site at this state park and have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us on our “Contact Us” page.
After parking at our site and settling in, we walked down to the famous black sand beach that was only steps away from our site…so convenient! It was pretty packed with day visitors, so we didn’t stay too long.
By this time, we were ready for some dinner and decided to head about 10 minutes south into Hana for more options. We struck out on the first two spots we tried and almost immediately began to realize that many of these local places serve food until they sell out…which can happen well before dinnertime.
One of the only food trucks that was still open on (and on our list of must-try spots) was Ae’s Thai Kitchen. We ordered a green papaya salad and chicken pad thai to-go and headed back to camp. We backed into our spot, set up the table, and enjoyed dinner as the sun was setting…oh and both dishes were absolutely delicious!
We were pretty exhausted after such a long day, so we went to bed soon after dinner. Besides, tomorrow we plan to have an early start so we can be one of the first visitors to the southern side of Haleakala National Park (the Kīpahulu District). We’re really excited to do a few hikes and visit some larger-than-life waterfalls…so stay posted!