What’s the best stop on the Road to Hana? What was our favorite place? The black sand beach!
The black sand beaches on Maui’s Road to Hana were spectacular! Be sure to stop and soak in the sights at Waianapanapa State Park.
Be sure to check out all 23 posts in my Maui Hawaii – First Trip Travelers Guide!
Black Sand Beach views Waianapanapa State Park
Caves and Lava Stone Arches at Maui’s Black Sand Beach
Black Sand Beach Maui, Hawaii
Or a swim. You can see a distant view of the people on the black sand beach here. Lots of people were swimming!
Swimming at Waianapanapa State Park, Maui
We did not swim. But we saw a lot of people who did. Including these guys who were sure to make any mom very, very nervous. I can’t recommend it! It was hard for me to watch. (Yes, you hear me at the end saying I couldn’t watch it any more.) Spoiler alert! All these guys came up swimming. Whew!
You’re probably thinking I made a mistake and held my phone vertically to take that video. When I started writing this post, that’s what I thought! So I spent an entire afternoon figuring out how to turn a portrait video into a landscape video. And FINALLY got the edited video below.
Guess what? Now I remember I took it vertically on purpose because somehow the horizontal view didn’t capture the jump well. It made it look tamer somehow. Take a look, what do you think? Did the vertical video better capture the death-defying jumps?
Road to Hana Black Sand Beaches on Maui
The biggest black sand beaches (which are still small by beach standards) on Maui are in Waianapanapa State Park. Most guides will tell you that the ultimate destination of the road to Hana is the Bamboo Forest. But, unless you will have at least a couple of hours there, in my opinion it is not worth driving further on to the Bamboo Forest. In this case, stopping to enjoy the Waianapanapa Black Sand Beaches is a more relaxed alternative.
Bonus! This was my teen daughters’ favorite part of the Road to Hana.
Be sure to check out all 23 posts in my Maui Hawaii – First Trip Travelers Guide!
More information on Maui Black Sand beaches
Maui’s Black Sand Beach @ Waianapanapa State Park – I haven’t used this tour service but they have some very nice information on black sand beaches on Maui.