Manele Bay Review

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Manele Bay

  • Address: From Lanai City follow Hwy. 440 (Manele Rd.) 9 mi south to bottom of hill and look for large sign marking harbor on your left, Lanai City, HI, 96763 | Map It

Fodor's Review:

The site of a Hawaiian village dating from AD 900, Manele Bay is flanked by lava cliffs hundreds of feet high. Though included in a Marine Life Conservation District, it's the island's only public boat harbor and was the location of most postcontact shipping until Kaumalapau Harbor was built in 1926. The ferries to and from Maui and Maalea pull in here. Public restrooms, a small café, water, and picnic tables make it a busy pit stop—you can watch the boating activity as you rest and refuel.

Just offshore to the west is Puu Pehe. Often called Sweetheart Rock, the isolated 80-foot-high islet carries a sad Hawaiian legend that is probably not true. The rock is said to be named after Pehe, a woman so beautiful that her husband, afraid that others would steal her away, kept her hidden in a sea cave. One day, while Pehe was alone, the surf surged into the cave and she drowned. Her grief-stricken husband buried her on the summit of this rock and then jumped to his own death. A more authentic, if less romantic, story is that the enclosure on the summit is a shrine to birds, built by bird-catchers. Archaeological investigation has revealed that the enclosure was not a burial place.

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