Elevatedexperiences
Apr 2019
I highly recommend this tour! I was leery about booking this trip and extremely worth it.
While exploring on your own is always fun, there are so many things you can miss without the local insight. And if you're the driver, you definitely miss out on the scenic journey as you're too focused on the 620 curves and 59 bridges! I've done the self exploration before and it was soooo much better to sit back, relax and not worry about are we in the right place, did we miss the trail/waterfalls, asking someone to take our photos 📸 or figuring out just where to park. Our entire family was able to enjoy the journey together 🥰
We were so glad to have Gayle as our local guide. She was extremely insightful with the history, vegetation, gave us heads up on which locations had the most mosquitoes 🦟🙏, informed us of which lava tubes to walk into and she exactly knew which locations would be the busiest during peak hours helping us avoiding crowds & circling back when it wouldn't be as crowded. Gayle also knew which backdrops would be perfect for family photos & even packed extra toilet paper and handsoap 🚻. When I had done this trip previously, I was lucky to visit the 7 pools and other areas which I learned was closed - another benefit to having Gayle. She also knows the best places to hike!
Our tour started off with being picked up in front of our hotel at 7 am. I ♥️ that we were picked up & dropped off directly to our hotel which saves in unnecessary travel time.
The conversion van that picked us up was very clean, not as new as I'd expected though it did have USB outlets which is extremely helpful🔋
Our first stop is in Paia for breakfast at Cafe Mambo. Breakfast is included in this excursion with a specific (limited) menu to order from. Don't worry, you do have the option to order from their full menu for an additional charge which I did 😊 They're known for their crispy 🦆 duck which we didn't try.
Paia is a great historical plantation town offering lots of shopping, restaurants & bars that we ended up revisiting on our own.
After breakfast we head on our journey where Gayle's knowledge of the vegetation is amazing! She told us what to look for and we completely would have missed some of the cool treasures like the sponge tree 🌲 (feels like a sponge!), paper tree (bark peels off like paper), gorgeous rainbow 🌈 eucalyptus trees 😍 and shrinking grass just to name a few.
We stopped at scenic waterfalls, the black sand beach (Gayle let us know a cool lava tubes with natural skylight to explore along with which trails to take)🌊🏖️⛱️ and other destination spots.
Our lunch (included with a limited menu as well) was in the town of Hana at Hana Ranch Restaurant where we enjoyed hamburgers and pulled pork sandwiches.
After lunch we circled back to some of the scenic destinations that were crowded earlier and enjoyed our time without feeling rushed. Especially at the famous banana bread stand 🍌😋
This trip definitely let's you explore and isn't one where you're in a car all day.
I'd definitely recommend packing:
1. Towels
2. Have your swim suit/trunks on underneath 👙
3. Wear tennis shoes 👟 to start in and have flip flops or water shoes to explore some of the beaches/waterfalls
They do provide bottled water ☺️
Check our some of our photos from our journey ❤️