If you drove the Road to Hana and continued around the backside, could you make it in a day trip?
My concern is daylight hours since the backside sounds somewhat remote.

I am also wondering whether or not to purchase the Hana tape for the drive. My ideal thought of a beuatiful drive is with great music, you know - pull out the old Rat, Poison, and Cindrella cds and crank em! "Every rose has its thorn just like every cowboy sings a sad sad song, every rose has its thorn" Wowsers!!! thats a great tune!! Anyway, should I waste my money on the Hana tape when I have crankin' cds like Quiet Riot? I've heard the Hana tape has good info but I want to enjoy the scenery and music? Just wondering.

ttt

Hi, you don't need the tape to enjoy the ride, I prefer music and the views. When you see a place you like stop and read your guidebook if you need to know any information on it. Otherwise just enjoy the scenery for what it is, scenery.
As far as going along the whole way it will take a long time and you will end up in the dark. The road has been upgraded now days so it isn't much of a problem now and it gets alot more traffic.
It is a long day trip though and you might find yourself rushing if you dont want to drive in the dark.

Natalia is it faster to go all the way to Sacred Pools and return back the Hana Highway or to continue on the backside?

if you are concerned about daylight, i would recommend starting on the volcano side then go on to Hana. when we did the trip we had been to the volcano, then had breakfast and stopped at the winery on the volacano, so i think we got our start late in the morning. we then stopped at the sacred pools and drove around the isle back to kiehi (spelling??!) i think we were back before dark and that was in April. the backside of the volcano is worth seeing and by 'reversing' the trip you go from arrid to jungle, the change is quite dramatic. there is a very scenic town midway through the drive if you get into trouble.

Mileage-wise it's exactly the same....because of road conditions, though, it's probably faster to return the way you came.

I highly recommend putting a few of your favorite CD's in and getting the Maui Revealed Guidebook. The guy on the Hana CD got on my nerves afterwhile. It was like listening to Mr. Rogers for hours. I was waiting for the trolly to come rolling around the corner. You can't get much in the way of radio frequency, so if you want music, bring your own and enjoy. As for going around the backside, the only part that you really have to get past before dark is the 8 to 10 mile stretch of rough gravel. I wouldn't want to do that in the dark. After that, it is smooth highway the rest of the way. However, if you waste too much time, you won't have enough light to enjoy the nice scenery on the other side. It'll just be dark. We left the Ohe'o Gulch at 5pm and had enough daylight to make it back to Kahului just as the sun was down. I believe it is actually a bit faster to simply keep going all the way around. It is also a nice change of pace to the winding road to Hana. The backside is much less curvy and less likely to give you motion sickness. It's just that bumpy stretch that can be tough to navigate.

In recent times we went the back way after visiting the winery and drove on through Hana, stopping just long enough for an ice cream at the General Store then pushed on back on the Hana Hwy.
I think I would rec. though starting on the Hana Hwy and then going on through the back way, if you dont mind lonely stretches of road with sort of bleak landscapes on one side and the ocean on the other. It might get a little unnerving to some people if it gets dark along the way.

Really, I would suggest this and starting very early in the morning so you don't end up rushing.

Time wise I think it is about the same as written above.

We left Lahaina very early in the morning, around 6 or 7 am (can't remember now but it was dark and we saw all the folks coming back from sunrise on Haleakala), drove the entire way around and were back in Lahaina by 4. We made a number of stops. The backside road was certainly passable and the scenery was completely different. We borrowed a CD from our hotel and had a woman, so maybe there are different versions. We also used the Maui Revealed book and found the cd and the book complemented each other. We made a couple detours based upon the cd that we might not otherwise have made.