Explore the town

MORNING

Leave Paia, or wherever your Maui base might be, early enough to hit the road to Hana by 6 a.m. (It sounds brutal, but this strategy will put you ahead of the traffic.) Alternatively, take the 20-minute flight on Mokulele Airlines from Kahului for around $80 round-trip, and rent a car at the Travaasa Hotel (the only rental option in Hana; it’s essential to book ahead). Waianapanapa State Park, also known as Black Sand Beach, is where many of the tour vans make a U-turn and head back to Paia or Kahului after a quick glance at the crashing waves. Just 3 miles from the town center, the park also happens to be the best spot for resetting your metabolism to Hana time, starting with a hike along the basalt lava of Pa’iloa Beach to the blowhole (connected to a submerged cave), which puts on a good show even in the calmest of surfs. If you’re up for a longer hike, flat but often slippery, take the coastal trail 2 miles up to Kainalimu Bay as you look for black-crowned night herons, wandering tattlers, and nene (the state bird of Hawaii) and other seabirds lucky enough to live here.

MIDDAY

Having worked up an appetite, head into town to one of the food stands that are Hana’s best restaurants. (Sit-down restaurants in Hana tend to be overpriced and more touristy than the stands.) Locally caught seafood at Da Fish Shack or burgers with homemade taro buns and grass-fed beef raised locally at Hana Burger Food Truck are your best bets. While you’re digesting, stop in at Hasegawa General Store, a ramshackle outpost of anything you could possibly need, from spare goggles to a CD of ukulele music. Then stroll down to Hana Coast Gallery, a shop that houses the work of the island’s best craftspeople, including jewelers, carvers and painters. Check out the collection of hand-carved koa-wood necklaces, in particular.

AFTERNOON

Spend the afternoon at the beach of your choice. Hamoa Bay Beach is the most deservedly famous beach in Hana for its perfect crescent shape and fine white sand, but do read the waves carefully before taking the plunge. Or take the short hike from the end of Uakea Road (next to the Travaasa Hana resort) to Kaihalulu Beach, more commonly known as Red Sand Beach, where a once-treacherous but now wellmaintained trail leads you to one of the most dramatic beaches on the entire island, where you might find a drumming circle, nude snorkelers or spear fishers in search of dinner. The Japanese cemetery on the hill above the beach is now overgrown with vegetation, but you can still find faded headstones that have washed onto the shore over the years.

EVENING

The evening can start as late as you like because dining is the only nighttime activity in these parts; the population of 1,200 rolls down the shutters before dark. Have a cocktail at the Preserve Kitchen before a dinner of mahi-mahi caught just offshore and watch the sky change colors as the palms sway in the wind. In the morning, ignore the folks who might tell you the Piilani Highway is impassable — it is the best maintained it has ever been — and drive the back way out of town, through the community of Kipahulu, where permaculture reigns and many residents practice subsistence farming. Palapala Hoomau Church here is where aviator Charles Lindbergh is buried. The road soon straightens and opens up onto the back side of the Haleakala volcano on the right and infinite ocean views on the left, eventually landing you in Ulupalakua, a lush upcountry landscape with a winery, horseback riding and a general store, and the first decent coffee you’ll have seen since you hit the curvaceous road to Hana, completing the circle that most visitors never attempt.