DAY 8: ROAD TO HANA

November 27, 2015

Today will be devoted to one of the all-time best road trips, traversing a highway as mythic as Route 66 or the Autobahn—only a lot curvier. But unlike most of the travelers who brave the 52-mile Hana Highway, you'll be spending two nights at its end point, an idyllic seaside hamlet far from the modern world.

Have one last swim at the serenity pool before you check out of Four Seasons at 10am.

ROAD TRIP TO HANA

This road trip will start with a 1hour drive and then a stopover in the town of Pa'ia. This will be your last stop before you continue on the long road to hana, so fill your tank with gas, buy some snacks for the road and have lunch at Mama's Fish House.

Back on the road no later than 11 a.m., you'll follow the coast for some ten miles; then the road jogs inland, making broad turns at first, past sugarcane fields, farmland, and fruit trees laden with coconuts, basketball-size mangoes, and squat bananas. The farther east you go, the thicker the vegetation and the tighter the curves. To add to the fun, you'll be crossing 46 one-lane bridges and hugging serpentine sea cliffs. Your best bet against car sickness—and white knuckles—is to stop as often as possible.

Luckily, Hana Highway provides plenty of diversions:

For starters, there's the Waikamoi Ridge Trail, a short hike through a bamboo and eucalyptus forest up to a coastal lookout.

A few miles farther along are two botanical gardens: the luxuriant, well-manicured Garden of Eden (808-572-9899) and the wilder Ke'anae Arboretum, home to strange tropical trees from both sides of the equator, including painted bark eucalyptus from the Philippines and African sausage trees (admission is free, but you'll pay in other ways: This riverside park is filled with mosquitoes).

Hillside waterfalls are the hallmark of the route, as are the profusion of roadside fruit stands and their shameless professions to have the "world's best" banana bread. Strong contenders to the claim are in the village of Ke'anae.

On an achingly lovely peninsula, Ke'anae is among the last of the islands' traditional Hawaiian villages—stop to admire the patchwork of taro fields, all farmed by hand. The town's other notable attraction (aside from Ke'anae Landing's banana bread and coconut candy) is the coral-and-lava-rock church built in 1860.

Just beyond mile marker 32 lies Pipiwai Trail.

The Pipiwai Trail offers, hands-down, the all-around best of East Maui’s most dramatic stream and waterfall hikes.This idyllic 1.8 mile trail unfolds alongside a string of (many more than seven) pools and waterfalls framed by the lush green diversity of the lush tropical rainforest.

Attractions: The Banyan Tree, Bamboo Forest, Waimoku Falls

You're almost there.... Just 4 more miles and you're in Hana. Check in at Hana Kai Maui Hotel, have dinner at Chow's, then treat yourself to a spa/massage and have a good night's sleep that you deserve after finishing the long road trip to Hana. <3