Aloha y’all!
I knew I wanted to go to Hawaii but didn’t know where to start. Or how to pick. So I started with some on-line research. Of course, Lonely Planet is your one stop travel shop. It’s Hawaiian page broke down what type of experience you can expect to have on each island. I looked through pages on Pintrest for inspiration then I leaned on friends. I sent pics to one friend who attended university there and still lived in Hawaii. “I want to see this lushness” I told her. She assured me I could see the lushness on any island and basically gave me the same rundown that Lonely Planet did. I reached out to a friend who recently moved from my dreamland of Stuttgart to yet another paradise, Stuttgart. And then to a few friends who lived in Hawaii for years. I got the same response from them all, no matter the island, I was sure to enjoy.
I chose Molokai for a few reasons: (1) All the hotels on Maui were booked and I few other options. (2) I read that Molokai was the most Hawaiian of All beaches. It’s Hawaii’s least populated Island and largely untouched by tourism. Seriously, the hotels a minimal and you almost have to have a host. Everyone on the island knows each other. Donald, my taxi driver, asked who’s home I was staying. I gave a first name. He gave me his phone to dial the number and her name popped up, already saved in his phone. When I talked about my travels to Maui natives, just a 30 minute propeller plane ride away, “I’ve never been to Molokai,” was the common reaction. Even my friends who grew up in Hawaii asked, “Why Molokai, no one ever goes there.” That was both the question and the answer to my selection of this small island.
You cannot take your car on the ferry. I asked and got told with disgust I cant take my car on the ferry. How dare I not know this? Well you can take your car on the Dauphin Island Ferry. It would make sense for folks who commute from Maui to Molokai to be able to do the same. But no. You can’t. So I had to leave my rental on Maui. Molokai was 100% booked out of rentals for two months. No worries. The locals give rides. And that’s how I got around. Hitch hiking. Fo Free!
Hitch-hiking is the way to get around on the island. Just start walking on the road, people pull over and offer you a lift…well, at least the locals do. You can always tell who is local and who is a tourist by how they drive. The tourists drive like they’re on the Autobahn and don’t stop and pick up walkers!
Then of course, there’s always taxis. But from the dock to my beach house and then from the beach house to the air port I lost $60 each trip. But I got plenty of perspective and history. I love talking to taxi drivers. They always seem to have tales and they know the island and the people. There’s also a white Equal Opportunity van that comes along here and there to move people along for free as well. It’s the only public transformation on the island and not dependable if you have somewhere you need to be.
A bit of Molokai History
A young priest named Father Damien traveled to the island’s remote Kalaupapa Peninsula in 1873 to care for leprosy patients. After 16 years of caring for the quarantined people, he contracted the disease and died. He is America’s first saint. Today the spectacular peninsula is a national park and a visit is one of Hawaii’s top adventures. He has two churches. I saw the smaller one (above). The Medical field is what draws young professionals to the island. It has a small hospital with about 15 beds or so. When I told folks on Maui I was living on Molokai, they automatically assumed I was a nurse.
I fell in love with my beach house the moment I arrived. My home was perfect, charming, and quaint. It could easily sleep eight people in beds. It’s the perfect spot for a family vacation. The back yard is huge! I will be bringing family and friends back to this spot. Unlike the beaches of Cancun, all the beaches of Hawaii belong to the people, thus all beaches are free and open for all to use. A walk along the shore of my back yard at sunset was one of my favorite walks.
Molokai reminds me of a tropical version of the small country town where I grew up in Kentucky. It’s rural. It features one long stretch of slow, curvy, two-lane road. Drivers have to watch out for deer in the road. Everyone knows everyone. There’s even a sandy beach on the river in my hometown. This seemed like the kind of place that would make a young teen restless and count down the days to leave, only to realize later that home is heaven and come back to stay.
The one store between my beach house for the week and the harbor reminded me of the Doodlebugs, the convenient store in the woods near my home back in Kentucky. If you didn’t stock up ahead of time, you have to go there and pay high prices for basics. It’s a local hang-out and has a take-away window. So I bought some over-priced bottles of water, beer-garita, soda and snacks for one person to the tune of $50.
Back on Maui, the beaches were packed with paddle boarders, kite surfers, snorkelers, families and picnickers. The desolate beaches on Hawaii’s least populated island was perfect for private photo shoots without random tourists photobombing! I wish I was more talented with a camera because there was so much beauty surrounding me to try to capture.
Photos: (1) Rocky cliffs that line the country road. (2) My back yard at sunset (3) See the white mass in the middle of the blue sea? It’s a whale!
Getting to Molokai from Maui, I suggest you take the ferry one way and a flight the other. Both are totally different experiences. Winter is whale spotting season in Hawaii. So the ferry ride over in the morning allowed us to see whales at eye-level in addition to the coast lines of Maui and Lanai waking up for the morning. The flight back to Maui allowed these fantastic views.
One this island, there are no restaurant chains. No big resorts. Not a lot of action. No cell service in most parts. It’s just a quiet, peaceful place to play in Hawaii. Just relax and let Molokai guide you.
