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Maui Travel Guide · Hawaii Travel Podcast by Hawaii’s Best: Plan a Better Hawaii Vacation

• 0:05
  Hawaii's Best: Welcome to Hawaii's Best Podcast, where we help you prepare for your next trip to Hawaii. Discover the experiences, businesses and stories that make Hawaii the Aloha state. And now your host, Brian Murphy. Hello. Hi
• 0:21
  Bryan Murphy: and welcome to a another episode of Hawaii's Best where we help prepare you for your next trip to Hawaii. I'm your host, Brian Murphy, the owner of Hawaii's Best and with me again, is our good friend Andrew fowers. co founder CEO of shaaka. Guy, what's going on?
• 0:35
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah,
• 0:37
  Andrew Fowers: how's it going?
• 0:37
  Andrew Fowers: Thanks for having me.
• 0:39
  Bryan Murphy: Last time I said this is becoming a thing. And it's a thing. So this is a lot of fun.
• 0:44
  Andrew Fowers: It's cool. I I just I've lived here a long time. I know the islands really well. And I just love to kind of talk about them and give a chance to have our listeners learn more about these islands.
• 0:53
  Andrew Fowers: And today,
• 0:56
  Bryan Murphy: Maui. Yeah, Maui.
• 0:56
  Bryan Murphy: And we covered a lot on a previous episode kind of we find ourselves in this island tour travel guide, if you will, over the islands, the four major islands and today we are talking about Maui, or the Valley Isle and it got his nickname. If you ever been to Maui and you you land. And then you get off the plane and you're driving and you find yourself kind of like riding the smack dab of Central Maui you got Holly aka love the enormous volcanoes on one side and you got the West Maui mountains to the other side. And that's kind of where it got his nickname the Valley Isle. Maui is the second largest island in terms of size. And it also includes when we talk about Maui, there's also we're talking about Maui County, which includes the islands of Lanai and Molokai II. But today we're going to be focusing all about the island of Maui. So, Andrew, take us around the island a little bit, break down the different sides of different regions. And then maybe we can dive into each of those as we get into this.
• 1:56
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, definitely.
• 1:56
  Andrew Fowers: So how we kind of structured This podcast was just basically around the regions first and for each of these regions will kind of talk a little bit a bit about what to do there things to check out some fun things to check out restaurants, stuff like that. So just to kind of break it down.
• 2:14
  Andrew Fowers: If you look at the island. It's shaped kind of like a with a Big Valley in the middle. We have the West Maui which is a very unique outcropping on the left.
• 2:21
  Andrew Fowers: And this is the resort areas like kind of poly couple and Lahaina and then in that flat area, we have central Maui, and this is kind of where we have el Valley wailuku. We have Casa Louis and the airport, just up the mountains. There's Holly Alcala, which is this huge mountain, which is basically you know, the entire eastern side of the island. it's unavoidable right, you see, wherever you go, it's like all the 10,000 foot above the ocean, it's it's crazy. So right on the slopes, they have what's called Upcountry Maui. And there you have some cool farms, you have some local businesses, you have just beautiful, nice cool climates up there. Then you have South Maui, which is actually if you going from that valley flat area and you drive south we have kihei and a South Maui in this.
• 3:12
  Andrew Fowers: There's also if you keep driving, you have Wailea. These are also more of like a bunch of vacation rentals resort area that has some nice beaches there as well. Some like shopping and restaurants and stuff. And then last but not least, we have East Maui, which is basically it's most famously known for the road to Hana. But they have haunted town on the east side, and kalpoe on the backside, which is kind of more of the remote side of Maui that people do like to drive around. So that's kind of the rundown on the different parts of the island. And today we discuss trying to go through and discuss these each a little bit one at a time,
• 3:55
  Bryan Murphy: so much to unpack, and I know we won't be able to get like a deep dive into every, you know, one, every one of those regions and areas and you know, best places to eat and all that we'll cover some of that.
• 4:05
  Bryan Murphy: Probably one of the best ways to do that is we'll link up those types of blog postings in the show notes. So while we're listening to this, at the end of this, we'll be sure to link down where you can grab some of the blog postings on shocker guide for some a little bit more in depth overview of these different areas and regions. But Andrew with all that let's go ahead and start with West Maui, because chances are if you visited Maui, you've probably stayed on West Maui, or you've probably stayed in kihei area in South Maui. But let's start with West
• 4:39
  Andrew Fowers: Maui. I mean West Maui, you do have a mountain range there, but most of the resort area is kind of on the beach side, right beautiful white sand beaches during the winter months. If you're lucky.
• 4:50
  Andrew Fowers: You can see whales just right off the beach cresting and breaching it's just a beautiful view there. You can also See Lanai actually from the west Maui coast there, there are some beautiful beaches in the kaanapali beach resort area.
• 5:05
  Andrew Fowers: There's multiple hotels there.
• 5:09
  Andrew Fowers: And then we have Kapalua and La hyena. So those are kind of the three big areas in West Maui, where there are a variety of shopping, hotels and some restaurants.
• 5:21
  Bryan Murphy: One of the most surprising things about West Maui is you may not realize because especially if you do a trip over to Hana, West Maui is really dry. But as you're driving in your you'll probably see that pretty quickly. But yeah, it is it is a pretty dry area where there
• 5:38
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, and there's one thing I definitely don't want to forget is before all of these resort areas popped up. I mean, originally it was the hyena,
• 5:47
  Bryan Murphy: right. Well, hi
• 5:48
  Andrew Fowers: knows the original port city actually was the capital of the Hawaiian monarchy at an earlier time.
• 5:53
  Andrew Fowers: Anyways, the hyena is is an old fun town, they're nice little walking town with a port, excuse me, not a port, but we have many of the big cruise boats anchor offshore, and then they they have boats coming in. It actually is an old like whaling community right in the day. So there's a lot of cool like old stories, and some history back when it was kind of like, kind of like the wild wild west of Hawaii, like, that's where you get all the sailors and the bars and like, all that stuff. But beyond that, there's also a lot of historical and cultural significance. And so what's cool about la Hein is actually it's a walking town. So there's a bunch of plaques. There's like a free walking tour map, where you can go and explore some of the historical areas there. So to funtown definitely recommend checking out if you go to West Maui.
• 6:45
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, it was really cool. Last time we were on Maui we took Shakur guide with us the tour, and we you know, driving through Lima town and so much of the history you don't realize as you're driving through, you're just like, Oh, this is a cute little town. It's like the history there is so it's so rich, and it's you know, not that far from that resort area of kaanapali. That maybe you're probably staying out so take that in. It's also has a cool art scene. I'm not sure exactly what that all is looking like right now. When Lohan is up and running. It just sounds like such a fun cool vibe. So I can't wait to check that out when things are a bit more normal.
• 7:22
  Andrew Fowers: From what I've heard it is back. I mean, there's no flow back. It's really great to see those businesses coming back to life and people coming in and so yeah, Maui is West Maui, specifically the hyena is a great place to check out
• 7:36
  Bryan Murphy: Alright, so you know, you're gonna check out you get all this history and it's cool you're walking around you're you're eating but you can only like, you know, walk around and eat so much like what are some things to do westmalle area
• 7:49
  Andrew Fowers: so once you're kind of done chillin at the resorts, which you know, definitely want to spend a few days just like, chillin pool beach, get sunburn, eat a lot.
• 7:59
  Andrew Fowers: You know, that's, that's what we want to do on our vacation. But after that, it's like, okay, I want to get out and explore. So, on the west Maui coastline, there are some cool beaches to check out, of course, the resort areas. But if you go past couple on the north side, there's a place called honolua Bay. It's a sweet surfing spot in the winter. But there's also some really good snorkeling there in the summer when it's less wavy.
• 8:26
  Andrew Fowers: So there's like a little hike out there. It's kind of a more of a rocky beach, but it's a fun place to check out. You also have DT Fleming's beach, there's some beaches near the hyena as well as slaughterhouse speech.
• 8:36
  Andrew Fowers: slaughterhouse is a little bit more challenging, because the parking is limited and you have to like take stairs down. All of these are good for surfing, good for checking out. Some have more parking than others. I think Honolulu is probably your best bet for beach check out there.
• 8:54
  Andrew Fowers: But it's just like driving around like checking out nature and checking out like just the raw ocean. I think that's really pretty. Some other things though, to check out that are also kind of fun, is there are a couple hikes in the West Maui areas specifically, in Kapalua, there's a trail called the dragon teeth trail or dragon tooth trail depending on who you ask. And you can park in a couple of area there is some you know, public parking there only a few stalls. So if not, you might have to park further out of the resort area and hike in or park at the sundry mini Mart there and then walk in but it's a cool little hike. They called the dragon teeth because it looks like dragon teeth on the trail which are rocks. It's a short hike on the coast kind of in a peninsula there. So that's fun. Ohio trail that one's much further. It's a it's a trail really deep into West Valley. So if you're driving around the whole entire West Maui, there's this Ohio trail that's it's much smaller. And they name it after that because there's a plant there that's unique to that area called Ohio. The cool thing which I think to do, which you should definitely do if you're if you have a rental car you're driving West Maui is go to the noccalula boho, that is a little bit further I think from couple fluids like maybe 30 to 45 minutes drive. It's like this natural blowhole when the waves are in the right condition, it launches water like 3045 feet in the air. It's also super cool.
• 10:25
  Andrew Fowers: Just some cautions. Make sure you don't get close to the ocean's edge. Sometimes there's big waves that come in and people get hurt. You know, look at the blowhole from a distance take some pictures, don't get near the blowhole, although some people think they're like invincible, but it's really fun.
• 10:42
  Andrew Fowers: So just check out NACA lineable.
• 10:42
  Andrew Fowers: home if you're out there on West Maui.
• 10:46
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, how far up does that drive go on the west side.
• 10:49
  Andrew Fowers: I mean, it's a full day drive. If you want to do the whole loop. It's a full day but just as like a little heads up. If you go past the noccalula boho, that bro starts to get more narrow. Sometimes there's no yeah, no medium, it's a two lane road. And that's that's it. So you really have to be cautious in one part there on the west Maui. It's a one lane roads. So you have to like yield to oncoming traffic, and it's just a little white knuckle driving. So if you're not familiar, or feel confident driving in some more precarious situations, you know, just avoid driving the whole loop and just turn around after the blowhole.
• 11:26
  Andrew Fowers: But if you're up for it, we do have the sharp guide toward we do have a tour that takes you out there and around the full circle. I've done it, I think it's fine. But I've talked to some friends and they're thinking like, Dude, that was super sketchy man, like, so be cautious. And if you don't feel up for it, then just turn around. But it's still fun either way,
• 11:47
  Bryan Murphy: right? And even if you're if you're staying in the kaanapali area, the the beach right there. I know we kind of touched on it. But there's also a lot of activities, you know, you can learn to surf, you can you know get on an outrigger.
• 12:01
  Bryan Murphy: And that's a cool like morning to get out there and do that. So for sure waves they're pretty chill. So in
• 12:09
  Andrew Fowers: the shopping, there's like tons of shopping,
• 12:11
  Bryan Murphy: right? It was village,
• 12:13
  Andrew Fowers: well, there's village, Willie's Museum, you know, a bunch of restaurants and stuff there. So just I'm not going to recommend one in particular, because there's too many direct command but just go check out some local food, try some of their fish. I mean, it's all really fresh.
• 12:27
  Bryan Murphy: Right. Alright, so that's, I think, a good overview of West Maui, where you'll probably spend, I would say majority of your time if your your hotel is over there. Going back over to Central Maui.
• 12:36
  Bryan Murphy: Andrew, as you driving in between West Maui mountains and Haleakala, what can we explore central Maui area.
• 12:47
  Andrew Fowers: So actually central Maui has kind of been going through some transition.
• 12:49
  Andrew Fowers: It used to be a bunch of cane fields where they grew sugarcane for many, many generations. Now, it's kind of switched over to other things like hemp. They also have a cool like sunflower garden out there, you can check out but if you're looking at Central Maui, it's kind of broken up into basically two cities that that connect and one is called Louis, which is the airport and kind of the main area. Then we have wailuku, which is more like locals older town, but it has a fun little walking area there as well. Not a lot of visitors spent a lot of time in the Central Valley unless you're staying there.
• 13:23
  Andrew Fowers: They do have the Queen kaahumanu Shopping Center, which is like kind of the biggest mall out there. They also have Maui ocean center, kind of in that central Maui area. The other thing I like to check out on the central Maui is actually the El Valley so that actually takes you into the valley there is cool State Park in the little walking there next to the river. So those are some of the things to check out.
• 13:47
  Andrew Fowers: There's also some petroglyphs you can check out it's near the Maui ocean center area, and also some good food as well. Mama's fish houses like legendary, basically, like really good fresh fish a little pricey needed advanced reservation, but I mean, everyone's asking like, Oh, I want to go to Mama's fish house. So recommend checking out if you have the chance. If not, there's some also some great alternatives. The Pioneer fish market is I think, on par with Mama's fish house. And it's more of a fast casual setup.
• 14:19
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah. What about any any beaches over in that area?
• 14:23
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, so the beaches, the checkout would be like hookipa Beach. That's like the windsurfing, kite surfing capital of the world. I swear, like every time you drive by There are tons and tons of wind surfers and kite surfers. When the conditions are right you can they get launched like 50 feet and they're like, no, no. So super cool. That kind of just watch from the distance. Yeah, and the other cool anomaly there in hookipa. Is turtles like to nest to nap there at night. So if you kind of go during the evening, you'll see a bunch of like black rocks and if you look closely Like there's a lot of turtles there that are also just kind of chilling out camouflage, like, of course, you know, keep your distance but just take pictures, right. The other one to check out is jaws. This is a unique beach because it's probably the biggest surf in the United States. When it's going off. It's up to 40 foot high surf very, very unique conditions to get that way.
• 15:22
  Andrew Fowers: Normally, it's like a lake. It's very like no waves at all, but in the right conditions one or two times a year. jaws is legendary, huge surf and it's so big, they have to get towed in by a jet ski kind of like a dirt road to get out there. But yeah, I mean, if it's going check it out, but it's very rare that it does.
• 15:45
  Bryan Murphy: Awesome. Yeah, I think a lot of people have heard of jaws or the legend of jaws.
• 15:47
  Bryan Murphy: And yeah, that's kind of where you're where you're finding that. Okay, upcountry, Maui. And Holly Arcola, that's probably one of the like, on everyone's must do list. Let's talk a little bit about that.
• 16:02
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, so Upcountry Maui. It's about 30 minutes from Casa Lewin the airport. You have to drive uphill Of course, it's the major town there is like Kula, but they also have Mako while and Miko is more of a country cowboy town. Some cool eats. They're a nice little walking community, quaint little boutiques and stuff. makos check out that and then cool a lot of like Airbnb or vacation rentals kind of spread out in the area. There are a few hotels, but not many.
• 16:30
  Andrew Fowers: What people like to do in Kula and the upcountry area is actually check out all these cool farms. Like what's unique about upcountry is it's in the shadow of holly Aquila. And so the clouds kind of get blocked there and which creates a nice, moist environment. So it's super different compared to West Maui, where it's dry up countries much more wet green, so there's some cool farms to check out if you have a chance. A Li Kula lavender farm is a good one.
• 16:59
  Andrew Fowers: Protea farm. They have some tours, they're cooler country farms, the Maui winery, which they have like this cool like pineapple wine. And then the surfing goat dairy where they make goat chocolate and goat cheese and stuff like that. My favorite is actually the Kula Botanical Garden now one is paid admission, but it's like totally worth it. It's this is really old, nicely maintained botanical garden to check out. I went there with my family A while back and we actually did some some photos there that we still have up on our wall. That's cool. Any of those farms are nice to check out. You know, some of them have farm tours where they take you on a tour or some you can just kind of self guide and browse. Just kind of depends on what you're interested in.
• 17:42
  Bryan Murphy: Okay, now, let's go ahead and get to Holly Aquila.
• 17:46
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, so specifically Holly auklets.
• 17:48
  Andrew Fowers: Like, okay, you've checked out the farms. Now let's go up the mountain. All right, so right, it goes very steep for a very short distance. So it has a lot of switchbacks. Along the way, you'll just start to see more and more and more of the valley.
• 18:04
  Andrew Fowers: Eventually, it'll start to open up to where you can see inside the hollow Aquila crater, which is actually about the size of Manhattan Island. That's how great the crater is. So as you go up, there's three or four viewpoints that we recommend in the shotgun guide tour, where you can stop and like check out different perspectives of the crater. There's also some fun hikes to check out as you make your way up the mountain we have the hosmer Grove, which is kind of near the front entrance. They also have the Halima crater hike, as well as the sliding sands trail. Those you can do in certain parts like they're in back to mile, or maybe they're in back half mile. I mean, when you're so high up like a half mile feels like three miles.
• 18:54
  Bryan Murphy: Oxygen is elevation, right? Yeah,
• 18:56
  Andrew Fowers: the elevation is like Dude, like I can go as far as I thought. So there's some fun hiking, but if you're not up for hiking, I mean just driving it and getting some cool photos and then going to the summit.
• 19:09
  Andrew Fowers: And seeing the view it's totally worth it easily can be done in about a half day. But it can also take up to a full day if you really want to just take your time and see the sights.
• 19:20
  Andrew Fowers: And one other thing to mention is Holly arkla has a ton of legends and stories about about Maui the demigod about how he last saw the sun. Just some fun stories there. And Maui that Hawaiian Superman is is the song their brother is so he definitely has some epic views clouds. I mean, they call it the sea of clouds actually because when the weather's right, all you see is an ocean of clouds and there's like right, that's where the sun rises. So beautiful sunrise very cold in the morning, but definitely worth it if you have the time.
• 19:58
  Andrew Fowers: Check it out. Holly Alcoa.
• 20:01
  Bryan Murphy: So one of the things with Holly McCullough, I mean, it's on everyone's like, like I mentioned is on everyone's to do list. And especially right now during the time that we're in Andrew, what if someone wants to see a sunrise? What are some of the steps, you know, right now to be aware of?
• 21:14
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, so first of all, if you want to go to the see the sunrise, you need an advanced reservation, and you can go to the National Park website, there's a place to do it, it only costs a couple bucks, and you only need a reservation from 4am to 7am.
• 21:27
  Andrew Fowers: After that, it's just normal National Park price admission.
• 21:32
  Andrew Fowers: But specifically for the sunrise, you need that reservation, that's just to control the crowds a little bit at the mountain because there's not a lot of parking up there.
• 21:41
  Andrew Fowers: But other than that, if you want to go any other time or even sunset, which isn't also a nice alternative. You don't need a reservation there.
• 21:51
  Bryan Murphy: Okay. Going to South Maui, and if you are drowning somehow is probably the other area. If you're not staying in West Maui, you're probably over in South Maui.
• 22:03
  Bryan Murphy: It's a bit dry and sunny over there as well. What do you wanna talk about with South Maui, Andrew?
• 22:07
  Andrew Fowers: So yeah, let's talk a little bit about South Maui. So it's about 30 minute drive from Costa Louis beautiful resort area. There are a bunch of beaches along the the drive there so basically have resorts on the as you're driving down, you know, the key a and y layer.
• 22:22
  Andrew Fowers: There's hotels and some resorts kind of like more smaller ones.
• 22:27
  Andrew Fowers: You don't get a lot of big hotels in kihei. And then some beaches on the right. As you continue to go down there is the y layer area and there's some big shopping area there. There's also some bigger hotels to check out as you make your way down into Wailea. Some of those are pretty high end hotels. And then further down into the end of the road, you have McKenna and there's some beaches there and some snorkeling at checkout.
• 22:53
  Andrew Fowers: From this area. They also pick up their tours for the snorkeling tour for Molokini.
• 23:00
  Andrew Fowers: And that's where you can pick up to see the take a boat out to the mall Coney Island there to check out the snorkel tour.
• 23:06
  Andrew Fowers: Other than that, I mean, South Maui is pretty basic. It's more for people just to chill resort beach, similar to West Maui, right, just a lot of great options just to kind of hang out.
• 23:19
  Bryan Murphy: Before Andrew and I continue our conversation about Maui, the team at shocker guide made available an epic blog post that we have linked out on our page you can go to Hawaii's Best travel comm slash Episode 61 that's episode six one. And you'll be able to find where you can get that blog post that goes into even more in depth about planning a trip to Maui. I'm excited for the second part of this conversation because we're going to dive into the east side which is the road ohana and that's something you're not going to want to miss. So thanks again for listening. If you found value in this conversation already and as it helped you, which is asked that you'd currently hit subscribe, leave a rating and review if you're listening on Apple podcast right now that would be a huge thing. So thank you so much for for considering to do that. And right now let's go ahead and jump back in to my conversation with Andrew from shocker guide. Now probably like the the most epic East Maui wrote ohana. Let's unpack some of what it is some of the history and some I think probably more so right now the etiquette and some things to be aware of, if you're wanting to put wrote on your to do list.
• 24:40
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, so if you want to check out East Maui, it really is the road to ohana is the way in right that road actually, you can drive all the way around the island or you can just drive to Hana and back. If you are not wanting to do a long road trip with a bunch of turns and see waterfalls, then the road to Hana may not be for you.
• 25:00
  Andrew Fowers: I've heard some people like it's too intense. It's too long, you know, and they're not up for it.
• 25:07
  Andrew Fowers: But if you're up for an adventure, you want to really see the real authentic side of Maui, then I think the road to Hana is a lot of fun for families. Back in the 80s. They made this cassette tape where you push play and they would talk and tell you where to go and check out the different stops along the road to Hana then it was like a CD. Now there's like an app for it. So I'm going to try to give you an overview of what that experience will be like. But bottom line is it makes more sense to check out an app Shopify also has an app for the road to Hana, where we have a driving tour that will take you in and talk story and tell you some of the cool stops at checkout along the way, but just really quick to unpack it.
• 25:52
  Andrew Fowers: It's a one and a half lane highway, sometimes two lanes.
• 25:56
  Andrew Fowers: It's about 64 miles from pioneer town all the way into Hana 620 curves as well as 59 bridges.
• 26:02
  Andrew Fowers: And some of those bridges are one lane bridges. So it's a lot of turns a lot of curvy curves.
• 26:11
  Andrew Fowers: But in in that area, there's I think 13 something possible waterfalls to check out. Some of the top spots that people like to check out on the road to Hana is Twin Falls. Also the why a Napa Napa State Park, which you currently need a reservation to go to similar to Holly Alcala,
• 26:31
  Bryan Murphy: also known as the black sand beach.
• 26:33
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, so why Napa Napa is known as the black sand beach. There's a walking area, it's beautiful. They're just trying to limit the number of people at the same time. And that's the reason for the reservation system. Gotcha. But some other fun stops, I think are is Hana town itself. You can go into Hana and there's a little Bay there you can check out I recommend like getting some food in Honiton and then going to the beach to watch, you know, watch the waves and stuff.
• 27:02
  Andrew Fowers: If you're adventurous and you want to push a little bit further, you can turn it on after Hana town and just go back that's fine. You want to push a little further. But you can go all the way to what's called the seven sacred pools or the seven sacred falls, and the PPI trail, which is in the kipahulu district of the Haleakala National Park. And this is a beautiful, well maintained part of the national parks where you can swim. Sometimes the swimming is closed if there's been recent flooding or flash flooding. But if you can't swim, the PPI trail is beautiful as well. It's a it's a hike that you can see to waterfalls as you hike up. And if you go all the way to the end, you can see this why moko falls and in Haiku this cool bamboo forests, so definitely something to check out. If you go into the Holly orkla. The kipahulu site, they're called the seven sacred pools.
• 28:00
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, that the bamboo forest, that's where you can find that. That's one of those I know, whenever we'll we'll post about it. You know, he gets some people with the words out on Maui, and I didn't know that. Yeah, that's, that's where you could find that. So now, this is like an all day adventure. And I'm sure it takes all day, especially if you're, you know, you're on staying on West Maui. This
• 28:23
  Andrew Fowers: is like, the whole other side. And all the loop de loops and all the 59 bridges. Yeah, like how long does this take. I mean, if you're planning to do the road to Hana, it's definitely like an all day thing. And even more so.
• 28:38
  Andrew Fowers: So just be prepared that you need to start early, especially if you're staying in the Kapalua, or the kaanapali side of the island, it's gonna take 45 minutes just to get to the pirate town. So you need to be up at like seven at least driving to pyin start the road to Hana about eight 830. And you're good. And then from there, I mean, it seriously will take all day, just for you, you probably won't even get to Hana town until one o'clock. So that's why I say kind of eat lunch and Hannah. But then if you go all the way to the seven sacred pools, I mean, you won't get there till three or four, you know, hang out and swim, there's a bunch of stuff to check out there. And then if you decide to, you have a couple of choices, actually, once you reach the seven sacred pools, you can either just turn around, and it's about two hours drive all the way back. And I mean, it feels like it's it's a never ending drive going there. But actually the way back it goes pretty quickly. So planet about two, two and a half hours on the return trip. If you're wanting to avoid driving at night, just make sure you leave a little ahead of time so you don't get caught in the dark. You can drive it at night, but I just it's little bit safer to do it during the daytime.
• 29:55
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, especially this isn't your your normal commute, you want to
• 29:59
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, it's you really have to be cautious because there's a lot of blind curves and you know, cars will come whipping around and you don't want to do any head on. So you really got to take it slow and cautious. Especially on the way back when you're kind of like tired. You're like Dude, I want this beat. And that's where you need to be most cautious.
• 30:16
  Andrew Fowers: You don't get any accidents and stuff. If you don't want to drive the way back and you want to actually drive the entire perimeter of the island. You can some rental cars don't allow it so you need to check with your rental car company. The only reason is it's a dirt road. And there are some guardrails, where if you're not careful, you could you know, drive over. But frankly, if you're safe and you drive slow, I think it's totally doable in a two wheel drive vehicle. But again, check with your rental car company on that.
• 30:43
  Andrew Fowers: The backside kahana doesn't is not as green, not as many waterfalls and hikes and stuff but it's still kind of this different experience. So it's totally this contrast between super We're like road to Hana and then the backside it gets dry and there's like wild goats and like the other The last time we did it was like, these cows like, you know, walk across the road. He's like, Dude, this is, this is country man.
• 31:11
  Bryan Murphy: So
• 31:12
  Andrew Fowers: yeah, and then try basically drive back into through Kula. And then back to pioneer town. There is no shortcut to Wailea and kihei on the backside there a lot of people think they can just like, you know, hang a left, like and go down but you have to go all the way back to Paya and then all the way back down yeah, to kihei. So anyways, heads up on
• 31:35
  Bryan Murphy: Dylan road ohana and even backing up. When talking about Holly aka, those are maybe a couple things would encourage you to do maybe in the beginning of your your trip, especially if you're traveling from the mainland of the US, you're probably three to maybe even six hours ahead of you know, Hawaii time. So you're naturally going to be getting up at like, you know, 4am and getting going. So that would be something to you know, if you're if you're thinking as Andrew was talking, like, get out, you know, leave your hotel by seven, well, you're probably going to be getting up by like forest way. So
• 32:10
  Andrew Fowers: another thing to be aware of is the road the hunt also has a lot of locals that use that road as a as they commute. So just some careful etiquette here. Please be respectful of the locals that travel that road. Be cautious, don't speed. And if someone is driving faster behind you, then just let them pass. Again, Don't be in a hurry on the road to Hana Take your time. But also let the local traffic pass.
• 32:38
  Andrew Fowers: Because I mean, when you get stuck behind a visitor that's like, Oh, dang, this is beautiful. And the locals like Dude, I do this everyday, get out of the way, when you're there also just remember, this is actually someone's home that people live there, and they live on in near the road to Hana so that we as visitors need to be respectful of that.
• 32:56
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, definitely you're visiting this area, keep in the back of your head, or maybe in the front of your mind, like this is this is actually someone's, you know, home this is this is where they live in.
• 33:04
  Bryan Murphy: And especially right now, and even coming off of last year of 2020 resources are super limited on this side of the island. So just being cognizant of that and just being mindful as you're enjoying the incredible beauty but you're not going to find you know, the Costco the target over there. So whatever you have, make sure you pack out as well.
• 33:30
  Bryan Murphy: So bringing, you know a trash bag, keeping that in the back of your your car and just being aware of that and obviously supporting local there. You got to make sure you get some banana bread. Yeah, Hannah. I mean, come on. Forget it.
• 33:44
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, so Auntie Sandy's is a good one. There's also halfway to Hannah, I mean, is solid, the road to honey, there's so much to see and do that shotgun guy does have an app for the road to Hana. And basically, it's a location based driving tour, where we have three options, you can do the classic Tour, which will go there and back, or the loop which will go the perimeter or the reverse, which is the perimeter but in the opposite direction. And all of those tours have similar content, similar stops, just in different orders, depending on kind of how you want to manage your time.
• 34:18
  Andrew Fowers: But it's a lot of fun, we do some great storytelling about the Hawaiian history, Hawaiian monarchy, background about the area, specifically Hana and beyond. So check it out if you have a chance on the App Store Shaka guide.
• 34:33
  Bryan Murphy: And also a tip there would be to download these tours ahead of time. So at your hotel, or even before you you know, before you leave, so you have them on your device. Yeah,
• 34:44
  Andrew Fowers: yeah, definitely plan in advance. I mean, road to Han is not something you just kind of wake up and like, oh, let's go do let's go do the road to Hana, you really have to plan a little bit in advance there.
• 34:55
  Bryan Murphy: Okay, thinking about Maui. Maui is one of those places that is kind of a bucket list. You think about Hawaii, think about Maui. And many people visit Maui they get married in Maui, they renew their vows in Maui DO THE FAMILY REUNION on Maui. And a lot of memories are made on Maui. And we hope that this guide will help to maybe guide you to make some of these memories, because that's really what it's all about is about enjoying the incredible place of Maui but also making these memories together with your family.
• 35:27
  Andrew Fowers: And just one little note in the show notes.
• 35:29
  Andrew Fowers: There's a link where we have a very detailed travel guide about Maui where you can kind of read more about what we talked about today.
• 35:38
  Bryan Murphy: Awesome. We'll definitely link that in the show notes and look out for on both of our Instagram accounts and our Facebook pages. You can go to our Hawaii's Best or at Shaka guide and we'll be sure we will provide all those links as well.
• 35:54
  Bryan Murphy: So Andrew next time, we we get Together we're gonna be talking about another island. So be sure you guys subscribe and leave a nice kind rating below.
• 36:02
  Bryan Murphy: Appreciate you all and until next time, be well, Aloha.
• 36:10
  Hawaii's Best: Thanks for listening to Hawaii's Best podcast. To stay up to date on future episodes. Be sure to subscribe. For more information to help you plan your next trip to Hawaii visit Hawaii's Best travel.com