Our driver, Al, was courteous and attentive. He was a careful and skilled driver, which gave us comfort in the challenging road to Hana. Al needs to recheck his facts on sugar cane farming and production of sugar if he is going to talk at length on the subject. This luxury tour is marketed as a foodie tour neither the Mambo Café in Paia for breakfast, nor the Travasa Hotel in Hana best offerings, hamburger and fish tacos were better than OK. We were a group of 6, including a member with physical disability. My wife and I were the youngest at 72 and 71 respectively. No opportunity for swimming was given, no visit to the pools in Hana, limited stops for photo opportunities.
TLDR: Do NOT spend your money on this Slog to Hana. Rent a car or book with a different tour company.
Long version: I'm a pretty go-with-the-flow type of person and don't really like to leave negative reviews, as I know guides can have off days and that different people enjoy different experiences. However, after this tour, I really felt the need to write this before others get duped into shelling out 250 per person for one of the most cheap and tedious tours that I've ever been a part of.
My husband and I were so excited to book a VIP tour for our honeymoon we had heard so much about the Road to Hana and figured that spending a little extra on this would be better than trying to navigate it ourselves. We even cancelled our rental car for this because we thought it would be a more inclusive, educational experience. We saw that breakfast and lunch was included, and were pretty excited to see which local places we would be going to for the meals which is something we've experience on other pricey tours.
Some highlights:
-Left hotel at 7am and didn't get any food/drink/bathroom breaks until 9am - basically 2 hours into the drive without food and while needing to pee. This left me nauseous from all the twisty roads on an empty stomach, and left all 4 passengers rushing for the bathrooms as soon as we finally did pull over. I wish we had been told the itinerary in advance! I guess we assumed we would be stopping earlier and we didn't want to be those people requesting an unscheduled bathroom stop. It was really, really uncomfortable.
-Once we did stop for a break, our VIP breakfast consisted only of a small cube of chain store-bought pound cake I kid you not served on a napkin that the driver put on a picnic table near the bathrooms, plus a water bottle and can of soda.
-We got informed about how amazing different stands/restaurants/stores were, how they were some of the best in the world and how much the driver enjoyed the delicacies at some of the little local stands how one ice cream place was rated top 10, how we should get local fruit from stands, how fresh seafood was at Mama's Fish House --- and then we would drive straight past it! One passenger asked if we could check out a coconut candy stand that the driver told us a whole story about, only to be told ...maybe, but only if we can find parking on the way back. It was disappointing because the whole reason we booked this tour was that we didn't have a car, and wanted to explore these cool places! Instead, we were just told excessively about how great they were while knowing we'd never get the chance to go to them.
-A fellow passenger said he had started counting the number of times this happened -- I never wished that I had a rental car so badly!
-What made it especially infuriating was that when we did pull over for lunch, it was in arguably one of the least scenic locations in Hana a kinda meh beach that was like 90 parking lot. We should've given up hope on the VIP experience for lunch once the driver asked us to hop out of the van while he parked to go grab that picnic table with the empty beer can on it.
-Our VIP lunch consisted of some store-bought wraps and Little Debbie-esque brownies in tupperware. I'm not being hyperbolic.
Things that the tour guide pulled over for:
-A sign near a building where people had created an irrigation system.
-A flower shop where we were unexpectedly dumped into a 20-minute sales pitch for 100-200 orchid bouquets that, even if we were interested in purchasing, couldn't even legally take on the plane ride home -- what?
Why did we waste 40 minutes of our time there??
Things that he didn't pull over for:
-Beautiful unique multi-colored trees and waterfalls that other tours stopped by.
-Cute stores and towns and stands and restaurants that we were told had some of the best cuisine in the world and had amazing-looking rotisserie chicken and tropical fruits and shaved ice.
-Local stands with people selling local souvenirs.
-We only got to spend about 30 minutes at the black sand beach. Luckily we had brought swimsuits the other passengers didn't have anything that would allow them to enjoy the ocean the website doesn't give any recommendations on what to pack. Had we rented a car, we would've spent so much longer at these beaches and waterfalls and would have eaten literally anywhere besides the Costco lunch we were provided.
-The scenery was beautiful but the commentary was painfully dull - we learned way too much about irrigation systems and foliage. Too much time was spent talking about water pipes and plants. I'm sure it was great for some audiences, maybe because we are younger it just wasn't our thing?
My husband and I are still kind of in shock. We were so excited and had heard SO much about the Road to Hana and how amazing it was -- I can't believe we spent 500 tip and it was somehow one of the most frustrating and boring experiences. Absolutely NOTHING about this was VIP.
Great trip - beautiful scenery - comfortable van - highly recommend this tour!