MAUI, HAWAII - ROAD TO HANA- Hawaii's Best Road Trip (top tips and best stops)

Welcome to our Maui series where we explore the beautiful island of Maui, Hawaii and all that it has to offer. From stunning beaches and breathtaking views to delicious local cuisine and exciting adventures, join us as we take you on a journey through the heart of Maui. If you're new around here we're Samy and Tommy and we just spent the last five months having so many fun adventures traveling through Colombia and Ecuador. We got invited to spend some time with Tommy's parents in Hawaii so of course we jumped at the opportunity. We flew here from Quito, Ecuador and we've been crashing on the pullout couch. We've been spending lots of time together playing cards, pickleball, shuffleboard and of course hanging out at the beach. In today's video we're taking you on the road to Hana which is one of the most scenic drives in the world. This winding road takes us through lush tropical forests, past cascading waterfalls and a long rugged coastline. So buckle up it's going to be a fun ride. So everything we've read about this road trip it's more about the journey than the destination so you don't have to stop at every turn off or stop just enjoy it. Do your research beforehand so you know exactly where you want to go. Look how beautiful this view is. Officially the road to Hana starts in the little town of Paella and ends past the town of Hana at Oheo Gulch. We started super early this morning and kind of rushed through the first part of the drive because we have a reservation at Black Sand Beach which we can tell you guys more about that later. Officially we're here on the K&I Peninsula which is a beautiful little peninsula with like lava rock and yeah we've just been taking in the views. What a cool spot right? Yeah this is so nice. I love it. Crash over the lava. Great first stop. So we just arrived to Aunt Sandy's. It is known famously here for its banana bread. Eight dollars a loaf. It was featured on the Gordon Ramsay cooking show I believe as well. Opens at 8 30 and they're open until they run out of bread. Hopefully they open in just a couple minutes so we can try this famous banana bread. Good morning. Smells delicious doesn't it? It does smell really good in there. Have a great day. Thank you. Oh it's hot. Okay we're trying the Aunty Sandy's famous banana bread. We had to take it to go because we're kind of on a time crunch. All right let's give this famous banana bread a try. It's light and still moist and warm. I like that Tastes like homemade. Is it as good as yours? Is it as good as the one we make at home? I'm not sure so sure it is but out on the road early in the morning and you're hungry it hits the spot. Best we've ever had. Tom's banana bread tastes better than this. So this road is 64 miles, 620 turns, and over 59 bridges. It's also known as divorce highway so I'm very thankful that I'm not driving today. So thank you dad for driving us today we appreciate it. So we got this app called the it's kind of like a play on words it's like GPS gypsy guide app. It tells you all the stops along the rotunda. It gives you lots of fun information and kind of like the history along the route as well. It's a really good app unfortunately it does cost ten dollars but I feel like it's worth it. Matches up with your car GPS so he literally knows where you're at. How are we enjoying our driving experience? Second of your drive. Maybe I should just ask the driver that. What do you think of the road? The road to Hana was completed for vehicle traffic in 1926. Before that. So like that he gives you checks in with you it gives you lots of little tidbits lots of information so I feel like for ten dollars it was a really good investment for the road trip. Our friends Alex and Lindsey told us about this guide so thanks guys. Thank you. Just made it just in time for our reservation. It is 9 30 and our reservation ends at 10 so this will be a quick trip to the Black Sand Beach. Let's check it out. It just like so cool that it's actual lava rock formed from when the log came down the side of the mountain and hit the ocean and formed this volcanic sand. So unique. It's very unique. Okay the beach is absolutely beautiful. It is smaller than I thought it was going to be but it doesn't really matter because there's you make a reservation time so it's never going to get busier than it is during that time. I do think it looks smaller just because of the high tide though. We're here very early and the tide is up very high. I did forget to mention it does cost five dollars a person to make the reservation plus a ten dollar parking fee on top of that. So our group paid 30 bucks which I don't think is bad. This has been our favorite stop so far so I would definitely say definitely make the reservation and do it. So there's a small hike here too you can take. You head left facing the ocean from the beach. How far do you say it was? 1.7. This is such a magical place. I love the contrast of the dark black rocks. The greenery here looks unreal. Such a beautiful spot. So glad we came right? I know. I'm so glad we made a reservation. You guys we were so close to just like failing and not doing it. Definitely make the reservation and come to Black Sand Beach and do the hike. Are you coming? Should we keep going? Yeah. This is cool. That was really cool right? Yeah. The place is so amazing. From the ark to the little caves to black sand. Beautiful spot. Now me and mom have been craving a coffee for the last few hours but we've been in such a rush to make our reservation which we did. Now let's hope we get lucky and find a coffee stop. How are we doing? Good and yourself? Good thanks. What do you recommend? All right did you get your coffee fix you addict? No. I got it yet. We found a good spot though. Yeah we did. My tita's cafe for some coconut iced coffees and macadamia nut iced coffees. And she gave us some great recommendations of food trucks to eat at nearby. We're gonna go try to go to the OG place right? Yeah. The original food truck here in Maui. Salute you guys. Jackie's double fisting. She can't help herself. Good. Good. Can I do one barbecued pork please and the grilled mahi mahi? A name that I can call when it's done? Tom. Oh yeah you look like Tom. Yeah. Oh great. Where Tom from? Tom is from Washington state. Alrighty I'm from my mom and dad. Yeah okay. Oh good. So we just arrived to Brudda Hut which is the OG food truck here. They have like barbecue and mahi mahi and we got one of each and we're just all four gonna share before our hike. I'm going for the grilled mahi mahi. I think it is. It smells delicious. It is really really good. A thick creamy sauce has a ton of vegetables on top. It serves with a macaroni salad and some rice. Delicious. How's the pork you guess? Pork is wonderful. It's nice and flavorful but it's also very tender. It's really good. Sweet. It's got a sweet barbecue glaze on it which just jumps out at you. We did pretty good. All right guys what's your favorite? I don't have a favorite. I really like the way we did it. We had half some fish and some barbecue pork. The barbecue pork wins for me. I'm with you. Me too. I like them both but I love the veggies on top of the mahi mahi and I love the sauce that was on the pork when I like went down into the rice and made the rice like all sticky and yummy with the pork sauce. Both really really good. Of course Amy's favorite was the rice. We've made a quick stop at Hamoa beach. So this beach is known to be the best body surfing beach here on this side of the island but there's a bunch of surfers out here too. They're getting some great rides. Very professional. What a great little spot. A lot of them have spots where you can pull off the side of the road and get out of your car but really if you just drive slow you can see the waterfalls from your car which is really nice if you know there's no parking or something like that. Perfect. You do have to buy a park pass to come in to do the Ohio pools and these hikes around here. The park pass is $30 for the annual pass I believe but we got it for $20 because we have our senior parents with us and they got the senior park pass so that was a bonus. Top tip bring your parents with you. See how it says you're here. Good point. Then we're gonna go up here. Large banyan tree. Bamboo forest. Bamboo forest and all the falls. Where's the highlight? Two miles. Start off with going to do a short half a mile loop that has the Ohio pools before we get on the PBY trail to do the full two mile stretch. So let's go to the Ohio pools. Those big leaves are used to weave canoe sails and the fruit is used as brushes to dye paint perfume. Oh that's really cool. So surrounding these pools are over 700 different archaeological sites. So Ohio in Hawaiian means something special and you can definitely see why. The coastline is so dramatic and so beautiful although there's no swimming allowed but it's a very beautiful hike. All right what'd you learn? It means the waterfall that has no because of the danger of the rocks falling as the water pushes the earth to the ground. It's a pretty awesome name actually. It is. Wow. Look at this. This thing is massive. All right let's go. And it's so cool with all these like roots coming down forming like this one giant massive trunk. Look how cool this is. The trunks just trunk down from other branches. It's pretty unique really. We just made it across that shaky bridge into the bamboo forest. Everything's like a light shade of green. I like it. The wind blowing all the bamboo trees and they're like beating against each other. Such a cool sound. Wow that was an awesome surprise. I did not expect to see any wildlife on this trail and a huge mama boar with her couple little ones. She got so close to us. I could almost pet her. I know they're dangerous though. Keep your distance. How cool is that? I haven't done a scare in a wildlife trail. I knew it. I was looking around for you and I was like he's gonna scare me pretty soon. It's massive. I feel like this might be the tallest waterfall I've ever seen. Have you seen anything taller? Not to my memory. Wow. All right finally made it. Felt a little longer than two hours but so worth it. It was a little muddy so it's a little challenging to bring some hikers but the bamboo forest, the banyan tree were an awesome hike. Thanks for watching you guys. Hope you enjoyed our road to Hana. If you're here in Maui, don't miss it. See you guys in the next one. Top tip for the Hana road you give to people? I think my top tip would be leave as early as possible and whenever you decide what time you're gonna leave, leave 30 minutes before that. That would be my top tip. Mom? My top tip is to remember to wear some really good shoes because there's some very cool hikes but it's in Hana and it could get very muddy and wet so enjoy your hikes but have some good shoes. That was a really good tip Jackie. My top tip would be to bring celebratory beers. Not for the driver of course but for the rest of us. I could go for a cold beer, a cooler and a cold beer right now. My top tip would be to plan out ahead of time these stops you want to make because it's a long trip. You're not going to be able to see everything and do the things you want to do so pick out your top choices and make sure you hit those. Definitely true. Maybe top four or five. Yeah. Is this a new segment called Flanagan Family Tips? Flanagan Family Travel Tips. See us in the next one for more.