Road to Hana-What you need to know!

What you need to know before you venture down the winding roads to Hana Town.

Road to Hana-What you Need to Know! First and for most, the Road to Hana is not an organized step by step tourist attraction. It is a road that gives access to Hana town on the far east side of the island. All the “attractions” are best found by paying attention to the mile markers along the highway.

Second, the service is spotty at best when you get over to that side of the island. I recommend downloading any guides ahead of time. Also, I put in Hana town into my maps and screen shot the overview so we would still have a map if our phones wouldn’t load.

Finally before you dig in, if you would like my full 7 day itinerary for Maui you can get that here!

Jump to different sections of Road to Hana-What you Need to Know!

• Road to Hana map
• Haleakala National Park- Pipiwai Trail (Waimoku Falls)
• Waiʻānapanapa State park
• Scheduling
• Where to Start
• Paia
• What you Need to Know
• List of all notable stops

I regretfully scheduled our road to Hana trip the day after we hiked Haleakala and watched the sunset. You can read more about that here. I wish we would have had a day to rest before going out trekking through the jungle again. My husband and I were so exhausted, consequently, I had our passes to the state and national parks purchased already. 

Scheduling

The reason I scheduled them back to back days is to save money. Waimoku Falls is on the Pipiwai Trail on the east side of Haleakala and the best way to access this hiking trail is the road to Hana. When you purchase your Haleakala national park pass, it gives you access to the park for 3 days and I didn’t want to take any chances so I scheduled them back to back days of our vacation. It’s alot to do these as day trips consecutively. I did see a lot of people find places to stay or camp for a night but my husband isn’t a huge camping fan so we opted for the day trips.

In 2023, you had to book a reservation with the state and national parks in advance. I honestly don’t think it’s a bad idea either. This way you have your vacation planned out before you get there and there is less time wasted while in Maui. If you would like to see my full 7 day itinerary, check it out here.

We woke up at 7 am and had to get moving pretty quickly and definitely had to stop for Starbucks before hitting the road….we needed the caffeine. Our reservation was 10am-12:30pm at Waiʻānapanapa State park. It was over 2 and a half hours away from our condo. 

Waiʻānapanapa State Park

Most of the Road to Hana stops you do not need any type of reservation or advanced notice but Waiʻānapanapa state park you do. And on top of that it’s even more specific. You have to reserve a 2 hour window of time that you’re going to be there. Here’s where you reserve a time slot. 

They do have park rangers checking your reservations as you come in. It’s not obvious where the entrance is and we were a bit hesitant driving down the single lane past people’s homes. At the end of the lane was the state park. We checked in and parked. You park up above the black sand beach and then walk down stairs to get to it. It was breathtaking. 

The black sand contrasts the blue water and makes it look even more turquoise. Here we found a lava tube that we crawled under and walked down to the water in which we really enjoyed. Then we went swimming. The beach is in a little alcove but the waves were still pretty big. Swimming here felt really special. After and hour or so we hiked to the top of the lava cliffs and checked out the overlook. There was a sign about monk seals unfortunately we didn’t see any. What wonderful views there are here, undoubtedly our favorite beach ever!

Map

The road to Hana had a lot of stops along the way of notable things to see and the road itself is very narrow and winding. There is a lot of traffic because of tourists, and the locals drive really fast on the road and generally seem annoyed with tourists. The roads are so tight and twisted that the speed limit was only between 10-35mph with most people moving about 20mph on the road. Also, there were many one lane bridges so, you would have to stop and take turns. Here is a link to the Hawaii guide which has many useful maps and information to help you plan your journey.

Here is a list of the most popular stops on the Road to Hana:

• Paia Town
• Twin Falls–Mile Marker 2
• Ho’okipa lookout–Mile Marker 9
• Waikamoi Ridge Trail–Mile Marker 9.5
• Garden Of Eden Arboretum–Mile Marker 10
• Kaumahina State Wayside Park–Mile Marker 12
• Honomanu Bay–Mile Marker 14
• Ke’anae Arboretum–Mile Marker 16
• Halfway to Hana Stand–Mile Marker 17
• Wailua Valley State Wayside–Mile Marker 18
• Upper Waikani Falls–Mile Marker 19
• Pua’a Kaa State Wayside Park–Mile Marker 22
• Hanawi Falls–Mile Marker 24
• Nahiku MarketPlace–Mile Marker 29
• Hana Lava Tube–Mile Marker 31
• Kahanu Garden–Mile Marker 31
• Wai’anapanapa State Park–Mile Marker 32
• Hana Town–Mile Marker 34
• Kipahulu, Haleakala National Park–Mile Marker 42
• Wailua Falls–Mile Marker 45

Where to Start

We saw tons of waterfalls and rainbow eucalyptus trees. We didn’t stop and get out at any of the notable spots on our way to Waiʻānapanapa state park so we could make it to the state park for our time slot. There were food trucks and road side stands selling food and gifts. After the beach we toweled off and hopped back in the car. We saw more waterfalls and Hana town. Road to Hana is 

Haleakala National Park

We arrived at the Haleakala National park again. This time staying at sea level, we hiked the Pipiwai trail and saw Waimoku falls. It’s the tallest waterfall in Maui at 400ft. This trail was beautiful. We hiked through jungle and saw an ancient banyan tree. We hiked through a bamboo forest and even saw a mongoose! The trail was 4 miles round trip but we went beyond the trails end point and got right up to the falls. My husband went in the water under the falls! I was a little worried about the signs they posted about the bacteria in the water. We sat by the waterfall for 10-20 minutes, then headed back because we were tired after the hike and decided to skip the oheo gulch. We were at the end of the road to Hana so we started back the way we came. It was a beautiful trip we left the parking lot around 4:30pm.

Paia

We drove back to Paia. This was a cute little town, similar to Makawao. There were restaurants and shops. We ate at Paia Fish Market. It was delicious! It was one of the top meals we had in Maui.

I hope this “Road to Hana-What you Need to Know” post was helpful! As always, I am here to help and give you my experience and advice! Feel free to leave a comment or email me directly at [email protected].

<3,

Allie