pjc115

Just wanted to get opinions on our trip to the Road to Hana leaving at 8:00 A.M. stopping at Charlie's for breakfast and picking up lunch at Pic Nics for our ride to Hana. We would like to make two or three stops. Is it feasible to be back at 6:00 P.M. for dinner at Mama's?

SoCalGal

You will want to hit the road before 8 AM. Hate to say it, but you want to be on your way before all the tour buses are or you'll get extremely frustrated sitting behind them. I would recommend hitting the road around 6AM. Keep in mind that your body clock will be at least 3 hours ahead depending on what part of the country you're coming from. If you go to Hana early in your trip, I guarantee you'll be wide awake by 5AM!

Stop at the 7 Sacred Pools and Lindbergh's grave (which is past Hana). You should be able to easily make it back to Mama's by 6PM since it's towards that side of the island anyway.

travelingjan

We've done this trip several time with stops along the way including hiking at the sacred pools. But we do not make it back for dinner at 6, probably closer to 8 or 9 but would not miss Mama's - my favorite place.

pjc115

Thanks for the info will probably start at 6 a.m. and get to charlies at 7 a.m. when it opens for breakfast. Pick up lunch at picnics. Does anyone know the price of an excursion picnic basket from Pic nics? Then onto Hana. I will push back the reservation to 6:30 p.m. Does that sound doable? I would like to be there for the sunset.

turn_it_on

You're making Hana itself sound like a destination. It's not. It's just a tiny little town on the highway. The wonderful sights are all along the Hana Highway itself. I just wanted to make sure, because some people are sorely disappointed because "gee, there's nothing here", and they're right.

And the earlier you leave the better!

love
roxy

ms_go

I agree about getting an early start. We left Wailea at 6:30 on our recent trip and didn't have too much trouble with traffic, but we also did not stop for breakfast.

Re: Pic Nics, I'd started to look into this but ended up ordering through our hotel instead. If you are staying at one of the hotels(as opposed to a condo), you might check to see if they offer picnic baskets. Many do. We got an excellent one from the Marriott Wailea that was packed in a cooler and had enough food to last us all day. I think it was about $16 per person. They had a couple of alternatives, plus a "survival kit" for sunrise at Haleakala.

dmcmom

we left kaanapali at @ 9:00, stopped in paia for picnic lunches and hit absolutely no traffic at all. alot of the tours leave early, so you either have to be way in front of them or after them. we got to the 7 pools and it was not crowded because most people were headinf back. we continued around the backside this time and really loved it. we got back to kaanapali @ 9:00. it's a really long day no matter when you go. we were all salty, sandy, and tired. we were happy to get room service and showers. mamas is great, but we could not have enjoyed it that day. good luck and have fun!!

Cher

How far is Mama's Fish House from Hana?

tropicalbreeze

dmcmom, when you said you continued around the 'back side' of the trip, do you mean going beyond hana along the coast toward the west and loop back to kaanapali. i have been trying to get a response on here for that road adveture and also the road along the nw of maui, beyond the resort area, back to the valley. it is something we would like to do in our travels this time. thanks in advance

ronpal

Where is Hana?? Never heard of it before.

jacketwatch

Hana is on the other side (east) if the island. That side typically get alot of rain and is pretty lush. Similarly Kona on the BI is dry vs. Hilo on the east side, quite wet.

dmcmom

yes, we continued on the road past the 7 pools in our minivan. the drive is absolutely beautiful. we have gone to hana 2 other times but always came back the same way because we were told the road was dangerous. this time we had our 3 boys with us and decided to continue along and we were glad we did. the road is fine for travel, a few spots that were pretty narrow and steep but we had no problems. the scenery was amazing. the travel time is pretty comparable to going the way you come in.

pjc115

We will be doing the road to Hana starting at 6:00 a.m. I am up in the air on whether to keep my resevation for 6:30 p.m. or just having lunch the next day before leaving for Kauai at 3:30 p.m. We will be staying at a B&B in Paia for the one night before our trip to Kauai.

travelisfun

I just wanted to add my $.02. We did the road to Hana and were back at our hotel in Wailea in time for dinner. I don't think we left too early--probably around 8:00--and there wasn't bad traffic at all. We didn't see a single tour bus. Maybe we missed the traffic because we were later. Let me say, though, that we didn't go all the way to Hana...we stopped at the Black Sand Beach, had our picnic there and headed back. We stopped a few times on the way to look for waterfalls, etc., but not at every single vista. I think you can pretty much do the road to Hana in whatever timeframe you want. If you want to be there for your 6:30 reservation, you can definitely make it. But if you want to stop everywhere and spend time in Hana, then probably not.

That said...I like Mama's best for lunch, anyway!

pjc115

I left out the reservation is at Mama's.

KTinTX

Regarding Picnics: It has been sold and is now called Cafe Mambo. I don't know if they still offer lunches or not. I emailed them a week ago about our upcoming trip to Maui in June, and got the response that they had been sold.

KTinTX