Guest post by thadeus_d3
Map tips: each color represents a different day. Click a marker to learn more about the spot, and click the star in the map header to save the entire map under Your Places in Google Maps.
After our late afternoon arrival into Hawaii, I headed to Hertz to pickup our rental van. Pickup took over an hour (even with Hertz Gold membership), so we went to our condo and relaxed the rest of the evening.
Day 1: Kamaole Beach Park I
Our condo was directly in front of Kamaole Beach Park I, so we spent most of the day at the beach.
Day 2
- Lahaina
- Kahekili Beach Park
- Kamaole Beach Park II
We decided to spend the day at Lahaina. It’s a small historic coastal town with plenty of restaurants and shopping. There’s also a massive Banyan tree that my kids loved. We spent half of the day exploring the town on foot before visiting Kahekili Beach Park. Kahekili is a beautiful beach, but the waves are high and there is a pretty sharp drop off along the shoreline. My sons were scared of the waves, so we left after a few hours and headed to Kamaole Beach Park II. The waters were much calmer and the sunset was beautiful.
Day 3: Haleakalā National Park
This dormant volcano was my must see attraction in Maui. We left our condo at 2:15 AM to make the drive to the summit of Haleakala to watch the sunrise. The drive takes a few hours and it’s completely uphill. It’s full of dangerous twists and turns with very few barriers. The fee to enter the National Park was $20 per car. Be sure to bring snacks and warm clothes because it’s very cold at the summit (~45F in July) and food is scarce. Get there early because the parking lot fills up fast. Sunrise was incredible and folks left pretty quickly afterwards. We stuck around since it wasn’t as crowded and took pictures of the crater. You can also hike the crater, but we were hungry and decided to call it a day. Be careful on the drive back down because there are bike tours down the volcano. We witnessed a few bad wipeouts, so keep your eyes out for cyclists.
Day 4: The Road to Hana
- Ho’okipa Beach Park
- Maui Brewing Co
- Twin Falls Maui Waterfall
We got a much later start to the day due to a mishap. We left for the Road to Hana around 11am – 2 hours later than planned. We stopped by Ho’okipa Beach Park, which is one of the fist stops on the road to Hana. The beach is small, but there were Sea Turtles that swam up right next to us. Overall a very cool experience. After a few hours, we continued on the road to Hana. The drive was pretty scary but the scenery was beautiful. Lots of winding, single-lane parts on the road with very little visibility.
Twin Falls was the perfect pitstop, but the rocks were very sharp inside the water at the base of the falls. I think there was a shop selling sandals, but we missed it and entered the waterfall barefoot. We swam in the cold waters for about an hour before leaving. By this time, we were hungry so we continued until we stopped at the Thai food stand at mile marker 32. After eating, it was around 4pm. I decided that I didn’t want to drive on the road to hana at night, so we turned around. I’m still bummed out that we didn’t get to complete the road to Hana.
After getting home, we decided to meet a friend at Maui Brewing Company. They had excellent beers and the staff was very friendly.
Day 5: Kalama Park
Our flight left in the afternoon, so we went out to buy souvenirs before visiting Kalama Park. The park had a beach, playground, Skate Park, basketball courts and more. It was great to relax and let the kids enjoy themselves before heading back home.
Traveled in July 2016
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