A few months ago, we decided to come to Maui to visit my father in law for his birthday. Of course when we come to Maui we like to go to Hana.
We have stayed at Travassa, now called the Hana Maui Resort, a few times, but it was ridiculously expensive, like over $1,200+ tax per night. So I happened to see a post from @ivieanne talking about how you now need reservations to go into Wai’anapanapa State Park a few months ago. I told Sean & he told me about when he used to stay there with family back when he was a kid.
So I took a look on the website and because of Covid they were doing reservations 30 days in advance, 2 night minimum for $100 a night for those coming from out of state. So on Sep 18 I got up at just before 3am Pacific/12am Hawaii to get us a cabin. And I got lucky and got us a cabin!
Normally these cabins are rented a year in advance so it was a huge plus that they were doing 30 day reservations.
What are the cabins like? Well each one has 3 sets of bunk beds, you do need to bring sheets, blankets, pillows, etc. Since we were visiting Sean’s dad we got ours from there or we would have had to bring that all with us.
There is a kitchen area with a slightly smaller than full size fridge/freezer, a microwave & a hot plate. It looks like they provide pans, plates & silverware in normal times, but since we are still dealing with Covid they removed that stuff.
They had a folding table & 4 folding chairs inside the kitchen area & a picnic table outside & 2 more bunk beds.
The bathroom is a decent size, with a sink, small shower & toilet. It’s nice to have a bathroom in the cabin, vs having to go to a shared bathroom. You do need to bring your own towels though.
The view from the cabin was incredible. I had read a blog post prior to booking that made me think that the cabins wouldn’t have ocean views but that was not the case. Cabin 4 which we were in had an amazing view.
The cabin had also had an outdoor grill, which we didn’t use.
Note: There is food to purchase in Hana but most everything closes early, like 5pm early. The General Store was open until 6pm but most of the food trucks were mostly closed or out of food early (which makes things tough for Sean & I being vegan).
That being said, if you have the ability to bring food, it would be ideal to do so & you will have a microwave & hot plate. The only caveat is that there are not any pots/pans/cups or anything to cook with so you will need to bring your own. I brought camp mugs, my aeropress & silverware with me.
The first morning, we stayed at the cabin for sunrise, which was beautiful but it was behind the trees.
After a quick cup of coffee, we headed out to the other side of the park, where the black beach & trails were.
There is a trail next to Cabin 3 that can take you in both directions. Since the ladies at the entrance told us that they didn’t like people to walk on the road portion, we took the trail over to the park.
The second day we were there we took the trail to right and were able to see the sunrise over the ocean.
Then we went to the Black Sand Beach before we headed back to the cabin to pack & clean up. The cabins have a 10am check-out and you are asked to clean up before you leave. They have brooms & a mop/bucket and ask for you to sweep & mop the floors before you leave.
Honestly, I loved staying at these cabins, they were a little rustic, but definitely a few steps up from camping and I didn’t miss the resort luxury too much :). We were lucky though that we had family who could lend us sheets, pillows, a fan (it was pretty toasty inside), etc.
