lilaki

hi fodorites,

DH and i will be in maui for a week at the end of august. i will be 6 months pregnant.

i have read a lot about the road to hana and am interested in doing that as a day trip. however, i have some reservations...

1. i'm VERY sensitive to mosquitoes and biting bugs (i.e. bug bites on me swell up to grapefruit/baseball-sized proportions). even in toronto, i don't go out at night between may - september without either long pants/sleeves, repellant and an electronic zapping device (don't ask - desperate times call for desperate measures!). in general, i do not go into wooded areas, i don't camp, i'm not a hiker, etc. needless to say, i will be bringing my arsenal of bug fighting gear with me on this trip ... even for evenings out in lahaina!

what is the mosquito/biting bug situation like on the road to hana? we plan to get out at a few stops but i'm definitely not hiking through deep forest to see a waterfall (sorry, just not my cup of tea ... bugs or not). being preggers, i'm not using repellent with DEET ... just some natural stuff which works great in toronto but might not be enough for hana?

2. what is the restroom/facilities situation like on the road to hana? i need to go the bathroom fairly frequently NOW so i can't imagine what that might be like when i'm 6 months pregnant. are there facilities often enough along the way that we can make pitstops? and more importantly, are the facilities equipped with running water (i.e. NOT outhouses/port-o-potties)? i'm not a squat-behind-a-tree gal ... i believe someone once called me an urban-ite!


on the plus side, i don't get motion sickness and any pregnancy-related-nausea seems to have subsided now so at least i can worry about other things for this potential day trip!

thanks in advance for the advice/insight!

montereybob

I have only been in winter so can't say about summer bugs. However there are extremely few public restrooms along the road to Hana and they are spaced VERY far apart. It is not a road for those with frequent needs.

lilaki

hi bob,

thanks for the tip. i'm thinking that we might turn around at Keanae Peninsula ... and limit hiking in dense forested areas. i'll go off and search for various facilities now. tks!