Maui and the Road to Hana

This past weekend, Sajal and I went to Maui. Maui is another island in Hawaii. After researching all about Maui and what to do there, I found that Maui is known for it's amazing Road to Hana. Road to Hana is a windy drive along the coast of Maui through a rainforest filled with amazing greenery, waterfalls, and sights. Maui is also known for its beaches. After going to the beach almost every day here in Oahu, I didn't feel the need to really explore Maui's beaches.

The Road to Hana can be done by yourself or with a tour guide. We opted for the self option because that way we would really be able to set our schedule and stop at all the places we want to go to. If you do go by yourself, I highly recommend downloading the Road to Hana Maui GyPSy Guide. There are many spots in Hana where you can lose signal. This guide speaks along the entire way, pointing out cool sights and teaching us about the history of Maui. It was $7, but it was totally worth it.

We started off with an early morning flight at 9 AM on Friday morning. The picture below is a picture of Oahu from the airplane. You can see Diamond Head, the big crater, and the city of Waikiki!

We arrived in Maui at about 9:30 and went off to go get our rental car. We decided to get a convertible so that we could experience the rainforest in the fullest. This was the BEST decision that we made. Driving with the roof down was by far the best thing on this trip.

Below was our itinerary for Maui. I thought our itinerary was perfect. It gave us buffer time while also allowing us to see everything we wanted. One of the best things on this itineraries was stopping by Aunty Sandy's Banana Bread shop. It was some of the best Banana Bread I've ever had. We decided to spend the night in Hana because that was what everyone suggested us to do.

The views were truly really amazing on the road. There times we were so high and we were able to see the beautiful water down below. We saw so many trees. The road to Hana has 59 one-lane bridges that gave us beautiful sights. The road was a little difficult just by the nature of all of the turns. Sajal was complaining that his forearms were sore at night. It requires a lot of concentration but it was really fun.

We also saw these beautiful Rainbow Eucalyptus trees. These trees have colorful paintlike stripes running down the bark of the trees.

We also saw many many waterfalls. Here is a picture of the three bears waterfall. It's hard to tell in the picture but there are 3 streams of water, which is what earns the waterfall its name.

The best place along this road is the black sand beach. The sand is mixed with volcanic ash that turns the beach black! The beach is super beautiful and unique.

I had to of course wear my black bikini so that I could match with the sand.

There was also a lava tube. You had to duck down a little to reach it, but it was this beautiful black cave with black sand that the water just flowed right into. It was a wonderful sight to see.

When we finally got to Hana we were a bit disappointed. We thought the town was going to be a nice town. Instead, it was a string of houses. It was so small that we didn't even know that we had even arrived. We got food at some food trucks which was really very good. I highly recommend you stopping by some.

After we got to our hotel room, Sajal and I decided that we were done with the road to Hana. We were planning on going to a couple more places tomorrow, but we were done looking at waterfalls and greenery. It was beyond beautiful but I just think we had enough. I guess we just aren't super nature people. Do I appreciate it- yes. Do I want to only look at trees for 2 days- no. We decided that tomorrow, we would instead go to Kaanapali and Wailea. Going to these places was definitely worth it. The beauty of them was just so captivating.

Kaanapali and Waianae were pretty similar. They are the two most popular resort towns in Maui. The beach towns were really very cute, with little shops and restaurants.

The best thing was the drive. We just loved driving alongside the water. This part of the island the weather is much drier. Sometimes it was almost like driving through a desert mountain area.

In all, Maui was a great trip. Hana didn't quite meet our expectations and we didn't finish the road to Hana, but it was a beautiful island. Going to the beaches and the rainforests really gave us a holistic view of Maui.