OUR TOUR GUIDES

The guides’ day starts at 5am at the tour van base yard. They load up the vans with bottled water and ice, do a checklist look-over of their vehicle and review the manifest of people they will be picking up that day. This is the beginning of a 14-hour day for them.

The tour has hotel pickup and drop off and the first pickup time for the west side of the island, which is about 30 to 40 minutes from the base yard, starts at 6:45 am.  Since these vans only carry 12 passengers and most people come out on tour as couples, they are usually making about 5 to 6 pickups before heading to breakfast. Arriving at about 7:30 am for breakfast, this tour begins the day at Cafe O Lei at the Mill House for a tropical continental breakfast. As the guests enjoy breakfast and get acquainted with fellow passengers the guides check in with each other.

These guides are often locals who were born and raised in the islands, or have lived on Maui for most of their life. They have all told us that in one way or another that the road to Hana gets in your blood.  Some have family in Hana, some grew up in Hana and all are not only proud but honored to share their Aloha and knowledge of the island and Hana with visitors from around the world. Often we hear them referring to their guests as “my people.”  They feel that showing people the Hawaiʻian way of thinking and living is something that can make a real difference in the world. To be honest, most of them would make great stand up comedians too! Laughter is definitely a big part of our tours!

Aside from being fully trained professional drivers, these guides are also storytellers. Part historian, part botanist, part climatologist and an entertainer to the core, providing interpretation of the sites all day long. Having provided so many tours we have become aware of how a lot of guests start the day quiet and somewhat shy and by lunch the whole group has become more like a giggling kindergarten class.

What people enjoy the most from these guides are the stories of life and living on Maui that they share throughout the day. A guide’s childhood story about how her parents would not let them play in the streams alone in Hana until they could hear a stone thrown into the water rolling with the current becomes part of the tour. The streams of Hana often have unannounced flash floods that start high on the mountain and roll all the way down to the often sunny coastline.  When this happens the only warning is the sound of the rocks being pushed by a wall of water. As she put it, “growing up in Hana you have to have jungle smarts.”

Our drivers know how to time themselves differently so that the stops aren’t crowded with our vans at a time.  Somehow they decide (maybe at breakfast?) who will lead the pack and who will be the caboose. Each stop can be anywhere from 15 minutes at an overlook to a full hour for swimming.

After all guests have been dropped off the van is refueled and dropped off at the base yard. Mechanical reports are filled out (any new squeaks?) and another 14 hour day if finished.

Our aloha goes out to these men and women of Maui who not only inform and guide, but keep people safe. If you really want to get a feel for life in Maui take a tour. It may be one of the best things you’ve ever done in Maui, or anywhere for that matter!