Hana Highway

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kahului

   Kahului is where most people land on Maui, and for a rider it is the last flat, tidy, six-lane stretch of the day. The town sits on the isthmus between the two volcanoes, with Haleakalā's enormous grey-green shoulder rising to the south and the older, jagged West Maui Mountains to the west. It is a planned town, laid out by the sugar company in the middle of the last century to house plantation workers, which is why it feels more like a grid of shopping centres and bungalows than a postcard. That is fine. You are here for the practical things.

   Read the complete Kahului write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Hana Highway point 1 sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Hana Highway point 2.

2. 2. Paia

   Paia is where the Hana Highway properly starts, even though the road has been climbing out of the Kahului plain for some time already. It is an old sugar and plantation town on Maui's north shore, a short row of weathered wooden storefronts, surf shops, and cafes with a very relaxed idea of the clock. Windsurfers and kitesurfers gather at the beaches nearby, and the trade winds that make them happy are the same ones that keep the air here cool and slightly salty.

   Read the complete Paia write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Hana Highway point 2 comes up 16 km in. Next is Hana Highway point 3.

3. 3. Wailua

   Planning note

   At least 35 km in you reach Hana Highway point 3. Next is Hana Highway point 4.

4. 4. Near Hana

   By the time you reach the Hana end of the Hana Highway, you have earned it. The road from Kahului winds along the north-east coast of Maui for about eighty kilometres, with hundreds of bends and dozens of narrow bridges, most of them only one lane wide, through rainforest, past waterfalls and above black lava cliffs. Hana itself is a small, quiet town of about twelve hundred people, set around a bay with a red cinder hill, Ka'uiki, guarding its southern end.

   Read the complete Near Hana write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Hana Highway point 4, about halfway. Next is Hana Highway point 5.

5. 5. Hana

   There is a particular kind of satisfaction in arriving at Hana, which has little to do with the town itself. Hana is small, a post office and a scattering of houses, a bay, a few shops, and the sense that the world has been politely asked to stay outside. You come here because the ride was long and the road gave you no choice. A little over fifty miles, ridden at the honest pace the highway demands, takes a good part of a morning, and the pleasure is in having done it.

   Read the complete Hana write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Hana Highway point 5 sits at 63 km, late in the day. Next is Hana Highway point 6.

6. 6. Near Hana

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Near Hana write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Hana Highway point 6 comes up 133 km in.