West Maui Road Trip

Since we drove around the eastern side of Maui, it only felt natural to drive the west as well. Our West Maui road trip started at our hotel in Wailea around 10AM. It felt like a late start, but according to our GPS the route was a lot shorter than driving the East side. We chose to do the north side first, as it would take longer than the rest of the drive and we wanted to complete it first instead of having to rush later. Please note that it is recommended to drive clockwise around the west side of the island, so when you have to share the road with a car, you’re not on the cliff side. To be honest, it wasn’t something that we had considered and luckily wasn’t something we had to deal with. Most of our passings with other cars were on road that was wider and more forgiving. There were plenty of one-lane blind turns though, which usually require a warning honk before passing.

Not too long after we started navigating the windy section of the road, Søren got car sick. There wasn’t a place to pull over for a few minutes, and luckily we had extra towels and water which helped a little with cleanup. I still feel so bad for him, but really it wasn’t a great drive for any of us. While it was beautiful as a whole, there were very few scenic views or even places to park. Our first major stop was at Olivine Pools, and afterwards we were all a little too tired to do the full hike to Nakalele Blowhole. We only made a couple of other stops along the way, as we mostly wanted to get back and clean up the mess. Maui Guidebook has a great list of places to visit along the way.