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.
That is the bargain Hāna offers. There are no big resorts, no traffic lights, barely a town center — just Hāna Bay beneath Kaʻuiki Head, a few churches and food trucks, the black-sand coast, and the waterfalls. People come the length of the highway for exactly this: a pocket of old Hawaiʻi the island never quite caught up to, where the reward for the long drive is the quiet at the end of it.
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.
