Maui is a wonderful place to explore on your own, but sometimes you want to go a bit deeper—or discover locales the average traveler doesn’t know about (or can’t access). There’s where a company such as Epic Maui Hikes comes into play.
This tour operator leads guided hiking adventures around the Valley Isle. The guides themselves—and the chance to get a bit off the main tourist circuit—are the chief virtue of Epic Maui Hikes. Relaying some fascinating information on landscape, culture, and history, catering to a given group’s individual interests, these tour leaders are pretty top-notch.
The various outings Epic Maui Hikes offers cover quite a few different kinds of experiences, but all include a bit of outdoor adventure and loads of swoony Hawaiian scenery. For instance, the 3.5-hour Jungle Waterfall Adventure takes you through lush tropical vegetation—including bamboo forest—and gets you up-close and personal with some of Maui’s gorgeous waterfalls. As with a number of the Epic Maui Hikes adventures, cliff-jumping is on the itinerary, if you’re interested.
Then there’s the Surf Safari, three hours of wave-riding instruction from a former pro-Brazilian surfer. All of your equipment for trying out Hawaii’s most iconic watersport—including surfboard, rash guard, and booties—is included.
There’s no more famous drive on Maui (and maybe all of Hawaii) than the Hana Highway. Epic Maui Hikes leads a guided journey on this spectacular North/East Maui coastal route via its nine-hour Road to Hana Adventure. This odyssey can be customized based on your particular interests, with waterfalls, tidepools, lava tubes, and cliff-jumping among the attractions. For an additional fee, you can arrange to return via the less-trammeled “Backside of Hana,” with strikingly different—but equally stirring—scenery to enjoy.
Speaking of Hana, you can overnight it with Epic Maui Hikes’ Hana Camping Adventure. You’ll enjoy ocean views from your tent on this experience, plus waterfall swimming, ocean cliff-humping, and hardcore hammock time, among other pleasures.
Rejuvenation and transformation amid Maui’s gorgeous greenery and crashing surf are also possibilities with Epic Maui Hikes. Consider the 3.5-hour Hawaiian Wellness Adventure, for example, which incorporates everything from guided meditations and breathwork to yoga, Tai Chi, and a cleansing ceremony complete with river-swimming. The four-hour-long Spiritual Adventure, meanwhile, includes a guided walking meditation, body scrub, and ocean soak.
Epic Maui Hikes will provide you with such essentials as water, snacks (plus lunch on the longer experiences), eco-friendly bug spray, and reef-friendly Raw Love Sunscreen. Your adventure also comes documented by GoPro camera, so you’ll have photos of all the fun to take home with you. Meanwhile, you should consider wearing shoes, boots, or hiking sandals (and bringing flip-flops along) as well as your bathing suit under whatever outerwear you’re comfortable in.
And hey,have some cash on hand, as the Epic guides always appreciate well-earned tips!
Insider Tip:
The GoPro photography comes with any Epic Maui Hikes experience. But you can also arrange to have footage taken of your adventure as well, providing you with a pretty cool, completely personalized Maui video to show off back home.