Page 20 - AAA Magazine – AAA Ohio Auto Club – January 2019

ROAD
The
to HANA
Leave the Driving
to Someone Else
By John T. Garcia
Once you decide to tackle the Hana Highway in Maui, Hawaii, you need to make reservations for Mama’s Fish House in Paia since the popular
restaurant fills quickly and bookings need to be made weeks in advance. After this journey, you will want to reward yourself with a nice meal, and possibly a stiff drink because the Hana Highway is not for the faint of heart or feelings.
The Hana Highway runs from Kahului along Route
36, becomes Route 360 and continues to Hana on the eastern edge of Maui. It is only 52 miles to Hana from Kahului, a stop for some cruise lines, but the trip can take up to three hours because of the winding road.
In the 36-mile section where Route 360 starts to Hana, there are more than 600 turns and the highway features nearly 60 bridges, 46 of them being one-lane wide. Many of the concrete and steel bridges date back to 1910 and all but one are still in use.
iStock.com/VisualCommunications
So, after you have decided you want to go on this journey, and after you have made your reservations, next you need to determine if you are going drive the Hana Highway yourself or leave the driving to a tour company and enjoy the ride.
Our guide told us we were smart. Not just because we had booked our trip with his company, but that, as a couple, we decided not to drive the Road to Hana on our own. The reason, he said, was that no matter who is driving, even if you switch when you get to Hana, that although you might survive the trip, your relationship might not.
We were cruising Hawaii, and once we docked in Kahului, we met our guide in the port area. We boarded a converted van and each of us had a captain’s chair with large windows. The driver doubled as our guide and communicated with us via headset. An empty chase van followed us, the driver explained, in case
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