The Road to Hana — the other side of the island, and the day it costs you
Fifty-two miles, six hundred curves, more one-lane bridges than you will bother counting. It is the drive people remember, and the one they most often get wrong.
- Length
- ~52 miles
- Curves
- 600+
- Bridges
- 50+
- Time
- A full day
Featured · East Maui
The Road to Hana is not a destination with a drive attached. The drive is the thing — Highway 360 winding through rainforest, past waterfalls, along sea cliffs and through small towns that were here long before any of us. Hana itself is quiet, and that is rather the point.
Worth being straight about the geography, though: this is the far east side of Maui. From Napili you are looking at a long drive across the island before the road even begins. It is a committed, full-day expedition, not a side trip from the bay.
The rules that separate a great day from a long one.
- 01Leave early — before 7am if you can. The road fills, and it does not un-fill
- 02Pick five stops, not fifteen. Trying to see everything is how people end up driving it in the dark
- 03Download offline maps before you go. Service disappears and does not come back
- 04Yield at the one-lane bridges, and wave. It is not a suggestion, it is how the road works
- 05Fill the tank before you start. Fuel out there is scarce and expensive
- 06Buy the banana bread. Both stands
Be honest with yourself about the distance.
Napili sits at the northwest corner of Maui. Hana is at the eastern end. Between the two is most of the island, and the drive to the start of the Hana Highway is itself a serious chunk of the morning.
If your trip is short, do this on a day you have written off for it entirely — or do not do it at all and spend that day on the water instead. Half-doing the Road to Hana is the worst version of both plans.
Go direct
Stop-by-stop guides, timing and the reservation rules — the dedicated site.
Featured business on napilibay.net. We only list places we would send a friend — see the rest of the list.
Free PDF · 12 pages
The whole bay in one PDF — map, parking windows, snorkel plan, safety. Free.