Whatʻs with the Road to Hāna? To reach Hāna you drive one of the most famous roads on earth: some sixty miles of the Hāna Highway along Mauiʻs windward coast, about 620 curves and 59 bridges — 46 of them just one lane wide — carved into sea cliffs and threaded through dripping rainforest. It opened in 1926, was not fully paved until the 1960s, and is now on the National Register of Historic Places. The drive is the point. You go slowly, pull over for the cars behind you, stop for waterfalls and banana bread, and let the island slow you down. After two or three hours of green walls and one-lane bridges, the road delivers you to Hāna — and the place feels, as the saying goes, heavenly.
Just past town the surf breaks on a beach of jet-black sand at Waiʻānapanapa State Park — sand made not of coral but of lava, ground fine by the sea. The coast here is volcanic and dramatic: a black-pebble cove, sea caves, lava arches, blowholes, and freshwater pools, with a trail running along the cliffs. It is one of the most striking shorelines in the islands, and so sought-after it now runs on timed reservations. Black sand, green cliffs, blue water: that is the Hāna coast in three colors.
Why People Visit Hāna
People come the length of the highway for the quiet at the end of it: a pocket of old Hawaiʻi with black-sand beaches, waterfalls, and a slow, traditional pace. The drive is the point, and Hāna is the reward — so take it slowly, and travel with respect for a place that has kept old Hawaiʻi close.
