We have 2 days to spend in Hana. Is the drive worth it, and what is there to do once we are there?

The drive to Hana is THE event by itself. You must get the tape or CD tour that will guide you on your drive to Hana. Stop at every spot the tape tells you there is something to see. It is a wonderful drive and you will miss Maui if skip it. As far as hana is concerned there is not much to do there.

ditto on the tape we had our best experience with it. It will tell you things you would not know like where to stop for a bamboo patch or tropical flowers, waterfalls ect..

DItto the previous posters. Do the drive. The drive is the thing.

We stayed in Hana for one night because it takes so long to get out there. Really is a nice quiet place with beautiful scenery. My kids LOVED swimming in the pools past Hana, some call the "Seven Sacred Pools", but I think they are known by another name. Worth the time. But get there before all the tour buses show up around lunchtime.

If you take the trip to Hana, and plan to stay overnight, can this be done by a tour van? We would rather not drive ourselves, so that we can both enjoy the scenery. Thanks very much

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I would not go with a tour van, stuffed into an air-conditioned van with an unknown number of other persons (who may experience car sickness), you're not going to see much of anything out the windows (some of the great views are down the hillsides and up above your line of vision in a van) and you give up the flexability of stopping where you want to and staying as long as you want to at the numerous points of interest along the way, etc. Tour vans are great for economical transportation from point A to Point B and a guide to explain the significance of where you are (but the tape/cd package will give you that), but the drive to Hana is the experience you want and at the pace you want to set, not the end of the road. In and of itself, the town of Hana is not much to see, the drive's the thing. I've heard the Hana Maui Hotel is wonderful, but it and the other accomodations in the area are very low key. Other than visiting the 7 sacred pools and locating Charles Lindberg's grave (at a local church cemetary) there's not much on that side of the island or in Hana other than spending time at the beach. Unless you're not planning to rent/drive a car at all on the island (for whatever reason) or do not enjoy driving generally, go for it! The drive is not any more difficult than driving elsewhere ont the island, just longer and slower. Gas up the vehicle (preferably a convertable for the total experience) pack up some food and water and enjoy the drive (and don't forget the camera!). Aloha!

The DRIVE is worth the drive. Hana is not worth the drive. Hana isn't the point, the drive is. Personally I wouldn't bother staying there, but I would definitely recommend the drive.

It's been 12 yrs since we made the drive to Hana and we still to this day talk about the road to Hana. Once we got there we looked at the beach went to the Post and turned around and came back. It's the drive that's the experience.

melikeytoo

Unfortunately I have to disagree about the Hana drive. When my husband and I went on our honeymoon for 11 days back in 1990, we were able to split out stay between Oahu, Kuaui, Hawaii and Maui. Maybe we were just burned out on driving around the islands since Maui was our last stop (we had a car on all the islands) but we thought the Hana drive was disappointing. I'll agree that you really need to get the tape to know what to look for, but we just didn't feel the drive was worth it. We stopped at many of the stops on the way and I seem to recall it taking many hours to finally make to Hana, where we bought the ubiquitous "I survived the drive to Hana" tshirt and then did the long drive back. However, I don't believe we did the Seven Sacred Pools because I think it was getting late and we were tired. Maybe it was just us since everyone seems to rave about it.