Laurie 's activity reviews | Book tours, activities & fun things to do on HawaiiActivities.com

Great tour

I wished we had a more outgoing/energetic group of passengers along with us, but our driver, Sam made up for it, amazing me with his non-stop humor and entertainment. As others said, I am very glad I did not have to drive that one-lane two-way road with rusty railings and precarious turns myself for hours and hours of driving (see the one photo attached where looking out my window you could see an inch of pavement and then the drop). The tour buses being higher than car height and having large windows provided a wide-open view i would not have see from my rental car. Sam educated us on Hawaiian history, and pointed out dining spots, fauna, flora, and talked of herbal uses of the plants. He talked about his family and their land, and told stories of growing up in Hawaii. He made certain to stop and let us take photos from the tour bus, at perfect photo spots along the road often near its many bridges, rivers, falls. We were handed a map at the beginning with spots high-lighted in yellow where we would get out and walk around, so we could gauge how long we had to go. The places we stopped were gorgeous. Some had very short paths to explore. The banana bread stop nice. At one popular waterfall stop, the road jammed up and Sam was out there, cooling tempers with his humor, making friends, and directing traffic to clear the gridlock. The open air restaurant in Hana was good, beautiful artwork, nice lunch. Sam brought us tastes of a local dish, Poke, the restaurant made. Unfortunately at the one stop for swimming at the 7 Sacred Pools of 'Ohe'o, the park has certain conditions the surf must meet to let you down there to swim: it was closed that day, and I was terribly disappointed after seeing so many beautiful pictures on the internet and hoping it to be the big finish, but Sam still gave us time enough time to do the circular hike out to the point above there, as consolation. I am very glad I signed up for this tour. Was sad when the day was over.