My son and I did this trip on December 31, 2021. The pickup at our Condo went very well - very well communicated ahead of time and the guide (with his daughter, home from college) was on time. Unfortunately, the rains the previous night washed out part of the road on the south side of Maui, so we were unable to do the entire reverse loop. Instead, the guide modified the drive to go towards Hana and then returned the same way. While we were very much looking forward to seeing the entire route, this was out of the driver's control, and he improvised as well as he could.
Overall, we enjoyed our guide, Everett, a lot. He told us a lot of stories along the way, answered our questions, and did everything he could to make the trip enjoyable for us. I didn't give this trip 5 stars because of a COVID issue - not our guide's fault, but the fault of the company.
My son and I were the first group picked up. The second group was a family of 4 (parents, daughter, and son-in-law). The third, and final group, was a family of 3. The van accommodated 12 guests, so there were 9 of us in 12 seats.
Although everyone was masked, the family of 4 started coughing as soon as they boarded, and continued coughing during the entire trip - a repeated, dry hacking cough (which was the prominent symptom of the Omicron variant at the time). When I eventually inquired, the father merely noted that they had apparently "caught something" from his son-in-law a day or so earlier. I'm not overly "COVID cautious" - but being on a van for 9 hours in the middle of pandemic with people I don't know repeatedly coughing all around us was a bit unnerving, and definitely distracted from our experience. I'm not sure why the family of 4 didn't cancel their reservation, or why they thought it appropriate to go on this trip with others under those circumstances. Very poor on their part. In retrospect, I should have asked our driver for different accommodations for my son and I ā I just kept thinking the coughing would eventually stop. But I also think the company should have a plan for such a situation - and have asked (and demanded if necessary) an obviously sick family not participate in such a trip - and not risk illness to other participants or the guide. I know safety is priority #1 for tour companies like this - safety just needs to now be viewed in new ways to include illness and spread of disease.