Cotopaxi Volcano is less than two hours from Quito and well worth a visit. When we entered the park we were greeted by a park ranger who explained to us that our little Chevy Spark (who we affectionately named Sparky) would make it to the lake but would not make it further. We had read several reviews online with mixed reports. Some people said they made it in very small cars like ours and other people said you need a 4-wheel drive to get up the volcano.
We were offered a local guide who would drive us up to the refugio in his truck for $60. That price included our park entrance fee which on its own is $10 (we think per car not per person). We decided not to risk it and took the guide. From the entrance, he began driving us up the windy road to the lake and then on to the parking lot for the refugio.
The lake is home to several species of birds which you will likely see. You can also get great views of Cotopaxi and the surrounding volcanos if it is a clear day.
From the lake the road continues up the volcano until you get to 14,750 ft elevation where the parking lot is for the refugio. The hike up to the Refugio is about 1km and takes you up to 15,953 ft elevation. The summit of the volcano is at 19,347 ft elevation. We read in several blogs before we left, that from the refugio you can walk to the start of the glacier. They day we hiked our guide told us we couldn’t hike up any further than the refugio. We think this was due to the snow cover as it was pretty snowy at the refugio. We were there in November which is a month that typically has more snow cover.
For the hike up to the refugio you have two options- a switchback path or a straight-up path. We chose the switchbacks which seemed to be what everyone was doing. Our guide said we should expect 45 min to an hour to complete the hike. We are pretty active and we made it up in 30 min with multiple rest breaks to catch our breath and take in the views.
Once you are at the refugio you can order hot chocolate, soup, and sandwhiches. It was the best hot chocolate we have ever had! There are flags hung on the walls of each country that has had hikers make it to the summit. Each flag is signed by everyone who made it to the top.
We got very lucky during our visit and got to see a fox up close, walking along the parking lot. As we drove back down the volcano we saw several wild horses grazing along the road.
After our morning hike we stayed nearby at Cuscungo hosel and lodge The hostel had a great view of Cotopaxi once the clouds cleared. We had a great room with beautiful views and an upper balcony/deck area with a hammock. They had a great fireplace that was lite all evening. They set out warm water for tea before dinner. Dinner included soup, a main course and dessert. Breakfast was also served. Breakfast was included and dinner cost an extra fee but was well worth it.
We were very happy we stayed here. The whole experience was great. Staying near Cotopaxi also gave us more time/a better chance of seeing the entire volcano. The weather here is super unpredictable. While we had a view of the glacier during our hike we never saw the entire volcano until much later in the day while relaxing at the hostel.
We hope you enjoy your trip if you do visit this amazing place! Tell us what you love about Cotopaxi and about Ecuador. Leave us a comment below.
Quito is a huge city. Where you chose to stay will most definitely effect your experience. We read a great article describing the best areas/neighborhoods to stay in Quito.
At the beginning of our trip, we stayed near the historic center to see all there is to see in that area- read our post herefor details. At the end of our trip, we had one final night in Quito and we wanted to explore/experience another area of the city. Based on what we read in the article mentioned above we chose La Floresta, said to be an artsy part of town full of great restaurants and cafes.
Where is the Food:
We then came across another great post describing the street food carts in La Floresta park- really called Navarro park when you are looking for it on the map. The post we read said the food carts begin setting up in the evening. We found that when we walked by the area around 3:30 in the afternoon the carts were already serving up food and pretty busy.
What to Order:
The thing to try here is the Tripa Mishqui – or BBQ tripe. It’s a typical meal in Ecuador and something we had never had before. Tripe is stomach, typically from a cow. In this preparation the stomach is cleaned, grilled, cut into small pieces and put back on the grill along with some oil to crisp up the outsides.
The vendors will definitely get your attention as you walk by and will gladly let you sample this before ordering. One order cost us $3 and was a lot of food. You can choose between several options for starches you want added to your bowl, we opted for potatoes (papas). To top it off you get a small bag of carrots, onions, and cilantro to sprinkle on top. The larger pieces we found to be a bit chewy but the smaller pieces were very good, having a grilled meat flavor with no gamey or strong “organ” taste.
The cart next door was offering morcilla or blood sausage which we had in Spain and absolutely loved! We ordered that as well- one order cost us $2.5o. The large bowl was filled with potatoes and then topped with the morcilla. The morcilla here was filled with rice and a variety of spices- clove and cinnamon stood out to us. While we preferred to morcilla we had in Spain we definitely enjoyed this variety as well and would recommend trying it if you are here.
More Details:
While there were several other food carts in the park we would have loved to try we were quite full after our dinner of $5.50 and decided to end it there. Next to the food carts are several small metal table tops you can stand around to eat. There are also places in the park to sit if you want to find a quieter place to eat after you grab your food. This also seemed like a popular place with locals to “take out” their food and bring it home. We saw several people with the food truck bowls walking away from the park with their food all packed up.
After traveling though Mexico where we seem to constantly find street food and Sunday Markets full of little carts like this we were so happy to find this place. We read several posts about all the various street foods found in Ecuador. During out time there we didn’t find a lot of street food readily available in the historic center of the city or other places we travelled through. If you are in the historic center the Mercado Central would be our recommendation for traditional foods and a good price. The market is full of venders selling a variety of foods for you to try!
Street food is a great way to eat local food when you’re traveling! What are your favorites? What did we miss in Quito? Leave us a comment below.
We read about Banos being a lovely little town full of beautiful scenery and great restaurants/cafés. It’s also known for having lots of adventure activities from zip lining to white water rafting. What we didn’t really realize until we arrived is that you are at the edge of the Amazon rainforest. The landscape changes dramatically as you drive from the Andes Mountains into Banos.
We only stayed for two nights/two and half days but this is a place that you could definitely stay longer. We chose Hostel balcon del cielo. We booked them for the view from their balcony. You overlook the river and the valley below town, you can also watch as people bungee jump from the large bridge. You are served your breakfast on the balcony each morning. Of course, you can enjoy the views throughout the day as you wish. The hostel was on the edge of town but only about a 5 minute walk to the central square and center part of town. There is parking available but it is down quite a steep, long hill at the other property they own. Our little car barely made it back up the hill.
After hiking in the Andes we were ready for a little relaxation so our first afternoon in Banos we head to the public baths. There are several public bath options in the area, ranging in price. We chose to go to the Thermals de la virgin. The entrance fee was $3 per person plus $1 for a swim cap. There are several different temperature pools to choose from. You have a great view of the waterfall from the pools and you can rinse off/cool off in the showers with water straight from the waterfall.
When you arrive you will buy your cap at the little stand located right after the entrance then head upstairs to change. They have bins for you to put all your clothing in and a “locker area” where you will leave your bin and get a small tag with what number your bin is located in so that they can return your stuff to you afterwards. You will need to rinse off in the warm showers before choosing your pool and getting in.
They do drain the pools every day at 4pm, clean then out and then refill. They open back up at 6? So do be aware of that when planning your visit. This is a popular place with the locals as well as tourists.
Our second day in Banos we headed off to the Route de las cascadas (waterfall route). This is a section of E30 that heads from Banos towards the Amazon. The drive is beautiful and we found ourselves driving for 30-45 minutes, taking pictures along the way before we realized we passed everything we were there to see.
The largest waterfall/biggest attraction is Pailon del Diablo (The Devil’s Cauldron Waterfall). This is located in the very small town of Rio Verde. We assumed there would be signs along the main road but we didn’t see any. When you arrive at the waterfall there is a sign and you can chose to enter to the right by the river or drive straight ahead into what looked to us like the main entrance. We chose the main entrance.
It will cost you $1 to park and from there you will start along the trail that will lead you to the entrance. The entrance fee is $2 per person. Once we got to the waterfall we realized the entrance we chose gets you to the lower stairs towards the bottom of the waterfall. There were also stairs up to get you behind the waterfall. You will get soaked but it was a very cool experience. We saw bridges and stairs higher up that we didn’t have access to so we assume that the other entrance would have lead you to view the waterfall from higher up.
After viewing the waterfall we headed over to the suspension bridge to get a view of the entire waterfall from a little further back. Across the bridge is a café that we chose to sit and have a coffee/hot chocolate at and take in the views before heading out.
We stopped for lunch at a restaurant near the parking lot. We orders almorerzo plates which is a great way to get a very large meal for cheap. We had juice and soup included in the price. The actual plate of food offered whatever meat you chose, a small salad and some sort of bean or potato.
After lunch we were on a mission to find all of the waterfalls said to be along the road. Our first attempt we stopped at a site that had a large staircase which we assumed would lead to a waterfall. It did not and we were pretty sure we parked on someone’s private property so we quickly kept driving. We pulled up Gaia GPS which showed on the map where the waterfalls were located. Another one we drove by had a huge welcome sign and a small shop that lead to a path up to see the falls but a locked gate kept us out.
Finally we found a few that were open and that we could visit but not without also finding a few more locked gates along the way. The waterfalls we were able to see were great. We aren’t sure if the closed gates were due to COVID and having less visitors in the area or for some other reason. We were there on a Thursday afternoon.
We were expecting something similar to a road to Hana experience on Maui. A nice drive with lots of pull outs of beautiful things to see. While that is here, the tricky thing is the tourist infrastructure isn’t really set up well. Trying to find parking along this highway road to pull off and walk to a waterfall isn’t easy and nothing is well marked.
The final waterfalls we went to, we pulled up in front of someone’s house. We figured we messed something up but an elderly woman sitting outside waved us forward. A younger woman came out of the house, told us it was $1 to enter. After we paid she lowered the wire that was closing the entrance off so we could pass through with our car. We drove a short way and then found a walk way to two separate waterfalls. Basically our message is, you have to work for it to see these waterfalls. So if you’re up for an adventure it makes for a great day trip.
We also read you can rent bikes and there is also an open air bus that that’s this route. That may be better way to go if you want less adventure/work in finding the falls. We also didn’t see the buses stopping or very many other tourists on this route while we were there.
Back in Banos we enjoyed some good food and drinks. We had dinner and drinks at Cráter rooftop bar which is on top of a hostel. This place was our most expensive dinner. Our total bill was about $46. We both had two drinks and our dinner- drinks wer about half our bill so the food its self wasn’t super expensive. They had several types of gin and tonics with gin from Ecuador so we had to try some! They were great, our favorite was the passion fruit. This place had a great atmosphere, lots of other travelers, a DJ, super nice staff, great views of the town. It wasn’t a place we saw any locals. For one evening it was a nice place to “splurge” on drinks and a meal.
We also really enjoyed to cafes. We stopped at Honey Coffee and Tea. They are located right on the main square and have outdoor seating. We enjoyed a hot chocolate and watched the town go by. Our favorite and THE BEST hot chocolate we had during our trip was at Amari café. This place is not to be missed. They have several different types of hot chocolate you can order. We had the Amazonico Dark and the Chocolate con Especias. Both were excellent. You can also by bars of chocolate here to bring home. They had pretty much every flavor of Pacari Chocolate available.
This was the perfect town for us to end our Adventure through Ecuador! We got a taste of the Amazon rainforest and would love to explore more if it! From here we headed back to Quito for our final night.
If you have looked into traveling around Ecuador you have probably seen photos of Quilotoa, a beautiful crater lake. It is worth your time to visit even if you don’t plan to do the multi-day trek.
Blog posts we read before our trip said the entire loop takes 2-3 days. Since we didn’t have that much time to spend here, we didn’t research much further. We figured- let’s just day hike around and enjoy the views. When we arrived we saw on the map that there is a 10km hike around the crater. That is definitely doable in a day so we went for it! There are multi-day treks if you are interested in spending more time here. Those treks take you from various small towns around the area with several options for hostels to stay at along the way.
The trail we took can be found here. It took us about 3-3.5 hours. We found the trail to be well marked with red and blue dots along the way. The map at the entrance did make it seem like we wanted to be on a yellow trail and we never saw any yellow dots marking any trail. We were slightly concerned at first, but we used Gaia GPS to track our progress and felt confident we were on a trail we could complete in one afternoon. On the trail, you hike up and down several peaks around the lake which is at 12,841 ft elevation. The hike was challenging but worth it! The plants/vegetation change as you hike around the crater and we saw several types of beautiful wild flowers.
We got into town and started our hike around 11:30 am. For us, the view of the lake only lasted about the first 25% of our hike before the clouds started coming in. We would highly recommend getting there early in the day to start your hike. The weather seems to be better in the mornings. The clouds/rain seemed to come in during the afternoon hours throughout our entire trip through Ecuador. We were there in November which is the start of the wet season. Bring your rain coat and/or windbreaker for sure. The weather can change quickly here so be prepared rain or shine!
To visit the crater you will need to pay $2 per person at the entrance to the town of Quilotoa. Once in town, there are a few parking lots you can park for free and take the very short walk to the crater. There is a large viewing platform you can take pictures of the lake from before you begin your hike. The trail starts on either side of the viewing platform. In town you will see several restaurants and shops but overall it is a very small town.
After our hike we ate at one of the small restaurants right off the trail. We had one of the best hot chocolate’s here and tried cocoa tea and canelazo as well. All the warm drinks were exactly what we needed after a long afternoon on the trail.
We would highly recommend trying canelazo! It is a traditional warm drink in this region of the Andes. It’s made from naranjilla which is a sour orange fruit, water, sugar, cinnamon and sometimes other spices along with aguardiente liquor. When we ordered it the liquor came in a shot glass on side so you could chose if you wanted to add it or not. With and without the shot, the drink was delicious! We wished we would have had it more. Canelazo is pretty readily available in the mountains but don’t expect every coffee shop or restaurant you go to have it. When you see it, try it! The hot chocolate in Ecuador is another thing not to be missed! We found ourselves ordering it every chance we got!
While we were in Quilotoa, we also tried the coy asado which is grilled guinea pig. This is a very common dish in the region. The order here was probably a quarter of a guinea pig. Most places sell the entire thing as a large platter which is too much for the two of us. We were glad to be able to try a smaller portion. It was very good, but difficult to eat with the plastic utensils we were given (this may very well have been due to COVID). It would have been much more enjoyable with proper silverware.
Google maps doesn’t seem to have all the restaurants in the area listed so we can’t seem to find the name of this place. Most of the restaurants in the area appeared to have the same types of traditional foods. After a long day of hiking you can’t go wrong wherever you chose to go to warm up in Quilotoa!
After our day hike around Quilotoa we stayed at Hostel el vaquero. They don’t have a website but you can book on booking.com
This hostel is in one of the small towns you can stay at if you do the multi-day trek. We would highly recommend this place, they served breakfast and dinner included in the price of the room. They have a large common area with a wood fire burner and plenty of space to relax. They also have a sauna for $3 a person which we didn’t get to enjoy but would have loved to. The people were very nice and accommodating and the meals were excellent.
If you visit Quilotoa we hope you enjoy your hike! Tell us what your favorite hikes/treks are. Leave us a comment below
We are always looking for a warm-weather escape to the ocean as soon as it starts getting cold here in Michigan. This trip started in Cabo San Lucas and from there we headed to Cabo Pulmo national park, La Paz, and Todos Santos. You can easily do this trip in one week but more time is always better! We actually stayed in Cabo the entire week we were there and did these locations as day trips. It was definitely do-able if you are up for several hours of driving a day. If you want to avoid that and stay in each of these locations along the way you can do this road trip as a big loop.
Let’s start in Cabo and get a few logistics out of the way. Parking can be found on the streets for free. Look for grey or white painted on the curb, those are the areas you can park overnight for free. Do NOT park where the curb is painted red, green, or yellow. If you head a few blocks away from the beach, away from the main tourist center you will easily find parking overnight or during the day. La Paz appears to have this same color system. Todos Santos is a smaller town and didn’t have all these colors. We easily found a place on the street to park for a few hours during the day. Look for where other cars are parked and follow suit.
Now the fun stuff to do in Cabo:
Towards the beginning of this trip, we decided to go charter fishing. Cabo seems to be a place where some type of fish is always in season and the fishing is always good. It was Mahi Mahi (Dorado) season while we were there. We booked on fishingbooker.com and went on a private charter for the morning with @bluesea_sportfishing.
We would highly recommend Johnny as your fishing captain! He is a super nice guy and we caught so many fish! We cooked fish for the majority of our meals for the rest of the week which saved us a lot of money (if you are going to fish, book accommodations with a small kitchen)! After we got back to the dock we did take one of the fish we kept across the sidewalk to La Chatita where they prepared our fish 7 different ways as well as making us a ceviche appetizer. That was way more food than we could eat for lunch but everything was very good!
If you are planning to go fishing as we did, you will almost be guaranteed to go right by the arch – so I wouldn’t spend money on a separate tour to see it! It is recommended that you book your fishing trip for the morning. The fishing is much better that time of day, you will get to see the sunrise on the water and, you will get to go past the arch before all the other tour boats are out for the day.
Taking a water taxi to Lover’s Beach (Sea of Cortez side) and then walking to Divorce Beach (on the Pacific side) is a must while in Cabo. We would highly recommend going to the beaches early in the morning. You can easily find a water taxi from anywhere in the marina or from Medano beach. The ride to Lover’s beach is very short. We negotiated and got a ride for just the two of us, we paid $30 total including our ride there and back (private). We told our driver we wanted to stay at the beach for two hours.
We arrived just before 9 am and he picked us right back up at 11 am. We had both sides of the beach to ourselves for about the first hour. Being there for two full hours gave us time to walk around and explore/take pictures on both sides of the beach. We enjoyed watching the big waves roll in on the Pacific side and then walked back to the Sea of Cortez side to swim, snorkel, and watch the Pelican’s dive-bomb the water for fish. There isn’t a reef to snorkel on right at the beach here but we did see a school of small fish and some other larger fish.
The main beach in Cabo is Medano beach. It is super long with lots of small restaurants right in the sand to relax with a drink and/or some food. As soon as you enter the beach from the marina you will see mostly locals. As you continue to walk down the beach, in front of most of the restaurants, you will see more tourists and a lot of beach vendors selling all kinds of things. We were there in November of 2020 during the COVID pandemic so there were not very many tourists in Cabo during our trip. In fact, there were probably at least 3x the number of beach vendors than tourists. Because of that, we were asked to buy things a lot!
Everyone in this picture is a beach vendor
We ended up walking past the main tourist area to an open area of beach with no restaurant directly behind it. There we saw mostly locals and could avoid some of the vendors. When we did want lunch or a drink we ate at Tobasco’s which is the last restaurant in the line and is a bit further from the main tourist area. The food was good, nothing special, it was your standard beach fare. If you want lunch, want to avoid vendors as much as possible, and don’t want to leave the beach, this is your place.
We didn’t eat out much in Cabo (since we had all our Dorado to eat) but we did go a few places:
The Outpost: Really good food and cocktails with views of the city as you eat outside on their balcony. Definitely on the pricey side, and more of a foodie restaurant than anything else we had on this trip.
Peruvian Ceviche & Grilled Shrimp Cesar at The Outpost
La Taquiza: Good tacos overall and inexpensive. After our meal, the restaurant owner or someone affiliated with the restaurant came over and gave us his whole speech about the activities he can help book. We took the brochures to be nice, knowing we weren’t booking anything else we hadn’t already. Well, it didn’t end there, he also wanted to show us a new resort that he said was cheaper per night than our Airbnb condo (not true). He tried to convince us to come the next day for a free breakfast and to see the resort so maybe next time we would stay there (it sounded like a timeshare pitch). We realize that Cabo is a touristy area and these people make most of their money from American tourists but this just left a bad taste in our mouth. We expect that once we decide to sit down and have a meal in a restaurant, we won’t be bothered by people trying to sell us on things. If this hadn’t happened we may have stopped in here for tacos again during our trip but instead, we would recommend not eating here.
Crazy Lobster: We ate here the last night, wanting some seafood that wasn’t fish (after several days of Dorado) They had pretty good prices for lobster tails compared to eating lobster at a restaurant in the states. We enjoyed the grilled lobster tail and the Chile Rellenos.
Now on to the road trip! If you are day tripping from Cabo or any of these destinations you could visit them in any order. For a week-long road trip, we are going to move from Cabo up the Pacific Coast and end with Cabo Pulmo national park as our last stop. There is not much in Cabo Pulmo. We aren’t sure about accommodations in/near the park. So after visiting it might be best to drive to Cabo or La Paz to stay the night.
Cerritos Beach:
From Cabo, this beach will be just before the town of Todos Santos as you head north up the Pacific coast. This is a surfers beach. As soon as we parked, Juan, who seems to run this beach came up to talk with us about the surf. You can rent boards from him, rent an umbrella, and/or take a surf lesson. He was super nice, helpful but not pushy. He explained everything, let us go find a spot on the beach and decide from there what we wanted.
Ryan rented a board for a fee of $20. The rental was not on a time limit. Juan simply said surf until you are tired. There are some beach vendors here but not nearly as many as in Cabo. We were offered items from maybe 5 vendors at this beach in total.
Talk to Juan, then get your surfboard off this sweet Taco!
After our time surfing, relaxing, and walking the beach we walked to the Barracuda Cantina for lunch. This place was awesome! It just had good vibes. Everyone was relaxed and having a good time here. You sit with your toes in the sand just a short walk from the beach. They have a food trunk that makes some really good tacos. And the bar is lined with fresh herbs and fruits with bartenders making fantastic cocktails! We loved this place! It is a must stop!
We did try to make one more beach stop in the area at Punta Lobos beach. We drove there only to find it was closed due to COVID. We got out of the car and took a quick look around. There were several local fisherman fishing from the rocks, it is a pretty small beach but the cliffs along the far edge are beautiful. I did smell very fishy while we were there, maybe because it was closed and the only people there were fishing? It is probably a much more enjoyable experience when it is actually open for visitors in non-COVID times.
Todos Santos:
From Cerritos beach, it is only about a 10-minute drive to the small Pueblo Magico of Todos Santos. This is an artsy little town full of local artists and studios as well as beautiful buildings. We spent a morning here wandering the streets, stopping for coffee and a pastry and finding some local art to buy. We stopped into a small stall where the artist explained to process for how they make their art. They use bark from the trees that grow in the area. Once the bark is dried out they dye it and manipulate it into these different pieces. We decided on a small piece to bring home with us. The artist explained that he could have it placed on a painted wooden block to add a background color. He offered various colored blocks and gave us plenty of time and space to decide what option we liked best.
There is also a Hotel California in the town of Todos Santos. We did look it up and found that the song was not written with this hotel in mind but still people come to see it and take photos. It is a pretty red/orange building with a shop and restaurant inside. We just walked by and didn’t stop in at all.
Instead, we found a small coffee shop with seating along the sidewalk called Aline local café and bistro. The coffee here was okay but its a great place to sit and take in the town!
La Paz:
Unfortunately, our whale shark tour took most of the day instead of the three hours we thought it would so our time exploring La Paz was limited. The area along the water is beautiful. There are plenty of restaurants and shops along the boardwalk. As you round the corner near the marina there is another line of restaurants. We ate at Estrella Del Mar on the corner and enjoyed a great view of the water and the marina. There were a ton of sailboats anchored out while we were there. This town seems like a cruiser’s paradise. We also really enjoyed coffee from the KM0 coffee shop and bar.
Swimming with the whale sharks was the reason we drove to La Paz. We booked a morning tour that was supposed to be 3 hours long. We figured after our tour we could get lunch and spend some time walking around or driving the coast nearby to explore more. But that isn’t what happened.
The whale shark is very protected in this area, which is a good thing. What the tour websites don’t tell you is that once you are on the boat, there is another boat anchored out in the bay that you must check-in with. Only 14 boats are allowed in the whale shark area at a time. By the time our group got to the check-in boat, there were already 14 boats in the area so we had to wait.
We were the first boat on the waiting list so as soon as any of the boats left the area we got to enter. What we didn’t account for was that the wait time was almost three hours. We waiting anchored out in the bay. Snacks were provided and we did see several dolphins that came up close to the boat, providing entertainment for a little while. Having to sit and relax on a boat, on a warm, sunny morning isn’t the worst thing but it did cut into our La Paz time so we were a little frustrated.
Once you are in the whale shark area you have three hours in total. That means in that time your boat needs to find the whale sharks and swim with them. Once you do find them, the boat can only be with the whale shark for 30 minutes total. We had a group of 7 people plus our guide and no more than 5 people total can be in the water with the whale shark at a time. That meant we had to swim in two groups. In total, each group jumped in twice and got a total of 10-15 minutes of swimming with the whale shark.
Swimming with the whale sharks was truly an amazing experience! We are very happy that we did it and would definitely recommend it to anyone coming to the area. We did book with the cheapest company we could find which was Espirtu Tours- http://www.espiritubaja.com.mx/index.php.
They were not bad, our guide was very knowledgeable but we did get out there after the other companies which lead to us having to wait. Also while we were out in the whale shark area the boat engine died several times. Our captain was able to quickly get it started again. But it was a bit frustrating that after all the hours of waiting we then had to stop multiple times to address boat issues before we could keep going to find the whale shark. If you are on a budget this company is a good option, if we went back and did this experience again, we would book with someone else. We also learned that to be a tour company that can operate in the area you need special licenses/permissions so any company you chose should be very knowledgeable and able to answer questions you might have about the whale sharks.
Cabo Pulmo National Park:
We read online before driving out to the park that the best snorkeling is on El Arbolito beach so that is where we headed. To stay on paved roads as much of the trip as possible we entered from just north of the small town of Cabo Pulmo. The town isn’t really a town so much as a small collection of houses, a few restaurants and a dive shop you can rent dive gear from. El Arbolito is a few miles south of town.
We headed down the windy dirt/sand roads until we found the sign for the beach. There was someone at the entrance and we did have to pay a small fee $2.5 USD or 50 pesos per person to park for the day. We came with our own snorkel gear but they do have everything you need available for rent. It’s required to wear lifejackets if you are getting in the water, renting them was another $2.50 or 50 pesos per person.
The snorkeling is just steps off the shore. You can see the coral and rocks in the water from the beach so you will know where to go. We were told the best snorkeling was on the right edge of the beach and further right (if you are looking at the water). We snorkeled there and on the left edge of the beach and found both spots to be good. The center is mostly sand bottom. We saw lot of fish, a turtle and an eel. All in all a great snorkel spot. It did seen to be mostly rocks with some coral growth vs lots of coral as we have seen in other places.
After our snorkel, we decided to walk along the beach. To the right (again if you are looking at the water) we walked along the rocks a short distance and then it does become pretty rocky and difficult to walk. We decided to go left and were able to walk much further.
The beach was was honestly just good, if not better than the snorkeling. You will have to climb over some rocks, but if you do, you can follow the beach for quite a distance and you will probably have it all to yourself! Nobody else was on the beach once we left the main El Arbolito area. We saw lots of crabs crawling along the rocks and in one area of the beach saw several small hermit crabs running along the sand. It is a stunning beach with turquoise water on one side, the sand you are walking on, and high, rocky cliffs to your other side. There are cactus plants growing on the cliffs, giant vultures, and ospreys flying overhead. It is truly where the desert meets the sea.
After our time on the beach, we headed back into the small town area for lunch at Tito’s place. The food was good, we had fajitas and sopa de Azteca. It was a nice place to sit outside for a meal before heading out.
Again as we said, there really isn’t much in Cabo Pulmo. We weren’t looking for accommodations as we had planned to stay in Cabo and day trip each day but we certainly didn’t see any hotels or hostels in the area as we drove. If you do want to stay here it would be worth looking into. Especially if you love to snorkel and/or scuba dive this would be a great place to spend more than one afternoon.
That was the end of this week-long road trip for us, of course, there are plenty of other beaches and great destinations in Baja Sur. We will definitely be back! What did we miss, leave us a comment below!
The first time we went to Michigan’s upper peninsula we saw pictured rocks and Tahquamenon falls and that was about it. So this time we decided to go further and see more of the western part of the peninsula. This was our first trip with our home built teardrop trailer- check out our post for lessons learned about the teardrop on this trip. Our intent going forward with our teardrop is to do more dispersed camping away from crowded campgrounds. But since this was our first trip out we did stay at campgrounds each night just in case something went wrong with the trailer. To reserve your campsite at any Michigan park go to this website: https://www.midnrreservations.com
We headed north after work and made our first stop at Wilderness State Park just south of the Mackinac bridge. We got there after dark and departed in the morning so we didn’t spend much time here. The facilities were nice and we did have a spot close to the water which was nice. It is a standard campground so spots are pretty close together. There is a dark sky viewing area in the park. We enjoyed a great night sky view even just from the campground area.
The next day we crossed the Mackinac Bridge and into the upper peninsula. Our first stop on this road trip was Presque Isle Park in Marquette which was still a few hours drive away. We got to Presque Isle in the afternoon and enjoyed the short hike around the park. The hike isn’t that long but does offer some great views of the lake and the rocky cliffs as you go along. It was a worthwhile stop if you are driving through the Marquette area. While we did enjoy the hike and the views we did think that there would be more to this park. The hike around the park is really the highlight so if you aren’t passing through the area it probably isn’t worth a drive out of your way.
That night we stayed at Baraga State Park. We picked a spot in the row closest to the water when we looked online. What we didn’t realize is that the park is just off a very busy road so all night we heard lots of cars (and logging trucks) going by. Other than that the camp spot itself was a bit more spaced out than at Wilderness state park and the showers were nice. Overall this was not our favorite park to camp in.
The reason we decided to stay at Baraga State park is that it was on our way to the Porcupine Mountains and it is close to the Canyon falls hike we wanted to do. The next morning we headed from Baraga to Canyon falls (only about a 15-minute drive). This hike is beautiful! You wouldn’t know it just by driving by. It is literally a roadside park. There are vault toilets and some tables for people to pull off the road for a break. But beyond that, you will start this hike along the river. It will take you to Canyon falls and then there will be a sign that says the path ends. But the hike isn’t over! The hike continues and gets way better as you follow the river into the actual canyon. Look for the blue markings on the trees and that will lead you up a hill where you can then continue the hike. You will follow the river as it flows through a small canyon and will see several smaller falls and beautiful spots along the way. We highly recommend this hike!
Porcupine Mountains
After Canyon Falls we drove west to the Porcupine Mountains. Here we stayed at one of their more rustic camping spots. If you prefer you can camp at a site with showers and real bathrooms. We stayed at the white pine extension outpost. We had a vault toilet available near our site, no other bathroom facilities nearby. Our site had a picnic table and a fire pit. There are less than 10 sites in this outpost and all are fairly spread out.
Our outpost camping site was very buggy so definitely bring bug spray, a mosquito net, or some kind of protection for when you are hanging out at camp. It was nice to switch it up and stay in a less crowded area of the park. We also got to test out our propane heated shower and pop up shower room- check out our post, linked above on lessons learned from this trip for more on the shower set up.
The day we arrived in the Porcupine Mountains it was beautiful and sunny but the next day it rained all day. The highlight of the park is definitely seeing Lake of the Clouds- so do that when you have a sunny day! We went on our second day in the park in the rain and wind. The views were still great but it would have been much more enjoyable had the weather cooperated. We also hiked along the Presque Isle River. That was a beautiful area that led out to a small rocky beach. There are a lot of hiking trails here but really that is the main attraction in the park. The rain did put a damper on our time here but unless you are an avid hiker who wants to do multiple long hikes all over the park, you can probably see the highlights in one day. Maybe a day and a half, one to two nights in the park would be ideal.
The Bill Nichols Trail
We left the Porcupine Mountains and drove up the Keweenaw peninsula in the morning. That got us to Copper Harbor around lunchtime. We took the Bill Nichols trail for part of the drive and then got back onto the main road. On the trail, you cross over several old railroad bridges. Just a side note, we have read that there are some old railroad spikes that have been known to puncture tires (we didn’t have issues). The portion of it that we drove was mostly like a dirt road, with no huge bumps or obstacles to get through. We had no trouble driving it with the trailer.
Looking back, we would have loved to spend more time in the Copper Harbor area! We stayed at Fort Wilkins State Park in the west end campground as the eastern side was closed this year. The park sits along Lake Fanny Hooe. We got a great sunset on the lake in the evening. Again the showers and facilities were very nice. The spaces are fairly close together here. We dropped our trailer off, made lunch, and headed out to explore the area. We had a few great stops that we would highly recommend!
Brockway Mountain Drive
This drive is about 9 miles long. The views along the way are awesome! There are several pull-outs so that you can stop and take photos. We also saw a TON of mountain bikers. There are trails all over and of varying degrees of difficulty. We are not mountain bikers so cannot speak to that experience. What we can say is that it appears to be the thing to do here!
Estivant Pines:
These pines are over 500 years old. There are a couple of short hiking trails you can take that loop around the park. It was a nice hike and some of the pines were very large. Worth it to stop if you have time but it wasn’t our favorite hike we took on this trip.
Hunter’s Point Park South/North Beach Trail Hikes:
This hike was one of our favorites! We are certainly drawn to the water and this hike is along the lakeshore so that is our own personal bias! This is a short hike out the point where this small strip of land ends, forming the calmer waters of the harbor. It was a very windy, wavy day when we visited. It was amazing to see how much of a difference this small area of land makes in calming the waves and protecting the boats in the harbor. The north trail follows lake superior and the south trail follows the calmer side of the water in the harbor.
Off-road driving/hiking to HorseShoe Harbor:
Another one of our favorite spots in Copper Harbor. Just shortly past Fort Wilkins State Park, the pavement ends. You then end up on a seasonal, dirt road that gets narrower, becoming more of a two-track as you drive back. We turned left about a mile after the pavement ended. About another mile or two into the drive there is a small parking lot and you can park and walk out to the beach. The hike to the beach is very short and worth it for sure! There is a very large beach area. Along one end there are very large rocks that come out into the water. They are not easy to climb up but if you can get up on top of the rocks definitely do! It was a very windy, wavey day when we were there so we really enjoyed watching the waves crash from the top of these rocks! We did follow the road/two-track past the beach walk parking lot but it quickly became much narrower and difficult to drive. We ended up having to back up and turn around because we came to a pretty steep and uneven hill that we weren’t sure our truck could manage. If you have a real off-road vehicle this would be a great place to explore!
We had only one day in Copper Harbor before we had to start our long drive back home! We did alot in our day but as we said this was an area we would have loved to have more time to explore!
Tell us your favorite UP destinations, what did we miss? Where should we go next time?
In all of our travels together, Erika has never been to the Rocky Mountains. It’s about an 18-hour drive from where we live in Grand Rapids to Denver. After getting two smaller trips with the trailer under our belt, we felt we had most of the kinks worked out for a longer trip. We decided on Colorado since we have some good friends there and it’s a manageable drive with the trailer. In total, we had about 5.5 days in Colorado, plus two days of driving. We started at our friend’s house in Denver and headed out, into the mountains from there.
We found this itinerary to be very manageable with the time frame we had. From Denver, our first stop was Maroon Bells near Aspen. After that, we headed about 3-3.5 hours to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. From there we went to Salida which was about a 2-hour drive. Our last stop was in Colorado Springs. We really enjoyed our time in each of these locations.
Maroon Bells:
We were lucky enough that our friends had booked a campsite at Maroon Bells well in advance. You can start booking these campsites 6 months ahead of time, and we have been told you need to book early to get one! The sites are fairly small but we did fit our teardrop and truck and our friends SUV with a rooftop tent. There are plenty of trees in between the sites so you do get a good amount of privacy. From Aspen, there is one road into these campsites at Maroon Bells. During spring/summer and into early fall ( we were there in September) you do need a camping reservation to drive that road between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm. If you do not have a reservation you can take a bus from Aspen. Check out this website for more information: https://www.aspensnowmass.com/inside-aspen-snowmass/stories/maroon-bells-101-all-you-need-to-know
The greatest part about camping here was getting up and heading to see the sunrise hit the famous mountain peaks. This is a must-do! Definitely get to the parking area early as it does fill up (early in the morning you can without a camping reservation). After sunrise, we hiked from the viewpoint to the base of the actual Maroon Bells mountain. We did an out and back hike of about 3 miles, but there are multiple trail options if you’re more ambitious. The views along the way are awesome!
Other than that our time at Maroon Bells was spent just relaxing and hanging out with our friends at the campsite. We did have one bit of excitement when a black bear walked right through the camping area. There are bear boxes at each site to keep food locked up so do use those as you never know what you might encounter!
One last note on Aspen/Maroon Bells. It was recommended by our friends that we take Independence Pass to get into Aspen from Denver vs going around the mountains. This road isn’t always open and you do need to make sure your total length (for us meaning the truck and trailer) is less than 35 ft. We measured ahead of time, with our trailer we are 32 ft and we had no trouble driving this pass.
The road does have several switch-backs, some without guardrails and some are pretty narrow. There were lots of signs warning vehicles beyond that length to turn back, there was nobody enforcing this rule but it would definitely be a bit sketchy to drive if you were over 35 ft. The road is beautiful, it winds up the mountains to the peak which is at 12,000. There is a parking lot you can park and take in the views at the top, we did not since we were following our friends to the campsite but we would have loved to stop and take it all in!
Gunnison:
From Maroon Bells, we headed to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We got there about 2:30-3 pm and were told there were still campsites open but when we drove through we couldn’t find one. The sites are mostly set up for you to parallel park along the outside and then set your tent up in the spot. For us with our teardrop trailer, the spots wouldn’t have worked well. They are also very, very close together so there is not much privacy. We would say that it is not worth it to camp in the park. The cost is $16 a night for no electric hook up, $22 a night with electric hook up.
There is a large area of BLM land approx 1 mile from the park entrance with a lot of spots available. The BLM land is well marked and easy to find. The spots are fairly spread out and the area is forested enough to offer privacy from others in nearby spots. We really enjoyed this camping area and would highly recommend it! And it is free!
While you are in the park we would recommend driving along the rim and stopping off at the various viewpoints. Most of these are only a short walk from the road and you can easily stop at them all within one day. All the views are beautiful! There are several trails in the park, our favorite was the rimrock trail which follows the rim and offers spectacular views along the way!
Our other favorite activities were driving down the east portal road to the base on the canyon. There is a length maximum of 22 feet to go down the East Portal due to the steep switchbacks. Once you are down there, you can walk along the river. If your plan is to do some hiking and just take in the views in the park as we did then you really only need one full (busy) day, maybe a day and a half here to get a good experience. We stayed at the BLM camping area for two nights. The first evening we just set up camp and then drove down the east portal road and explored a bit. Then the following day we got up and really explored the entire park.
Salida and Collegiate Peaks:
Our next stop was the town of Salida near the Collegiate Peaks. We found another great BML spot to camp. The road was pretty bumping getting to this area but the views were amazing! We had full 360* views of the mountains from our site! After dropping off our trailer we headed into downtown Salida for some lunch. We ate at Amicas pizza and brewery. We really enjoyed the food and beer.
From lunch, we decided to drive up into one of the mountains nearby. From highway 285 we took Chalk Creek Drive, which led us right past the chalk cliffs and past some really pretty views. There is an alpine lake which we did drive past but it is, unfortunately, private property. We enjoyed the views of the lake while driving past but couldn’t get out and walk around the lake as we hoped.
The next morning we began our drive back to Michigan. We did stop at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and did a little bit of driving/walking around that park before leaving Colorado. We would have loved to spend more time at the Garden of the Gods hiking around the rocks. It is really a beautiful park!
To find all our free campsites we used the Dyrt app and Gia GPS. We found both to be accurate in regards to the location of the BLM land. The Dyrt also has reviews from users on the camping areas to help you decide which sites you want to stay at. We loved this road trip and can’t wait to get back to Colorado to do some more exploring!
The city of Zacatecas is full of history, culture, beautiful architecture and great food! All of this makes it the perfect city for weekend in Mexico. While this city does get tourists from other areas in Mexico is seems to be mostly undiscovered by the rest of the world. We absolutely loved our time in this city and would definitely love to go back!The city is very walkable and we feel this is the best way to soak it all in. Finding parking on the street can be tricky but we managed to find a spot where we could stay all weekend for free. There are several public parking lots around the city but you will have to pay to park in one of these.After you park the best thing to do is to start walking! We headed straight to the the center of the city where the Catedral Basilica and the Plaza de Armas are located.
Catedral Basilica and the Plaza de Armas: All of the churches in this city are beautiful and worth walking to see! Even if you aren’t religous at all, the architecture is stunning! Just across from this cathedral is the Acropolis Café Galería where you can sit outside and enjoy a coffee and some lunch while taking in views of the catedral and the surrounding part of the city.Just behind the catedral is the Plaza de Armas. You can find a small tourist office here where you can get maps of the city and more information. The plaza also has some great street art painted on the inside and is well worth walking around.In the evenings the Plaza comes to life with locals and tourists alike hanging out, playing music, eating, drinking and just enjoying the city. If you chose to attend the Callejoneada Zacatecana event (which we highly recommend and will talk about in greater detail later on in this post) then you will meet here to get started at 7:30 or 8:30PM depending on what your ticket specifies.
Next up on the walking tour…
Rafael Coronel Mask Museum and Ruins of Templo de San Francisco: We stumbled upon these ruins and didn’t really realize that there was also a full museum here. The entrance fee for the museum is 30 pesos per person. You cannot walk around the ruins without paying the entrance fee but it is worth it. The museum is laid out really well within the ruins and is known for having Mexico’s largest collection of masks from the pre and post hispanic eras.
Hotel Quinta Real/ Plaza de Toros San Pedro: We did not stay in this hotel but did walk over to see it and have cocktails at the bar. This hotel encircles and old 17th century bull fighting ring. The bar is on the ground level, underneath where the guests watching the bull fight would sit. It has a cave like atmosphere with stone walls and ceiling. There are tables near large windows which open out to the bull fighting ring. While we were there the ring was under some construction/setting up for a wedding the following day but it was still very cool! We ordered a mezcal flight and then a cocktail while we were here. The Mezcal flight was really good – Mezcal can be very smoky and bitter but good mezcal tastes very similar to a really good tequila. This area of Mexico is know for Mezcal so you have to taste some while you’re here! If you do want a cocktail while your here we highly recommend their palomas!
Acueducto el Cubo: Just outside the hotel Quinta Real you will see a huge aquaduct. It was in use until 1910 to bring water to the city from El Cubo mine.
Templo de Santo Domingo: This is another large church next to universal art museum. We did not go into this museum or church just admired the outside as we walked by.
Templo de Jesús: This church is a bit further from the main part of the city but worth the walk.
Templo de Fatima: This was our favorite church by far. There was a wedding about to start when we walked by so we were not able to look inside unfortunately.
Plazuela Miguel Auza/ Templo de San Agustín: For a break from all the churches and site seeing we recommend you head over to this plaza and sit down at one of the restaurants/cafes. We did this twice on our trip, its a great location to people watch, enjoy the warm weather and just relax with a beer or glass of wine or a coffee.
Mina el Edén: Zacatecas is an old mining town. The mina el Eden offers tours of the mine during the day and offers a night club you can go to starting at 9pm. The night club does get busy so we would recommend arriving a little before 9pm so you can get in quickly. We arrived just after 9 and there was already a pretty long line. You do have to take a train into the mine to reach the club so only so many people can enter at a time. The train is pretty quick but this does slow down the entrance process. The mine dates back to the 16th centry. The tours are only offered in Spanish so that is something to be aware of. We only know a little Spanish so we didn’t understand alot of the information on the tour but the mine its self is definitely worth seeing. After you go through the mine you can walk through the mineral and rock museum before taking the train back out of the mine. The museum is not an additional fee; if you pay for the tour you can see the museum. In total the tour and museum took us about an hour and a half.
Bufa Hill/El Cerro de la Bufa: This hill offers excellent views of the city and is a must do! There is a teleferico (or cable car) that will take you up to the top. Erika is terrified of heights so needless to say, we didn’t do that. You can also drive up to the top which is what we opted to do. We did this on our last morning before driving out of town (that way we didn’t risk leaving our parking spot and having to find another one). Once you are at the top of the hill you can take in the views of the city. There is also a short hiking path along the side of the hill giving even better views of the city as you walk. There are also several large statues to visit, a chapel built in 1728, the Plaza de la Revolución Mexicana and the Observatory de la bufa. After exploring all of these things there are several small food stands on the hill if you want to stop for a snack.
Callejoneada Zacatecana Event: You can buy tickets for this event at any tourism office or stand that you pass by in the city. The event started at 7:30 PM in the Plaza de Armas the night we went. We believe this event is put on every Saturday and sometimes Friday nights as well. You will follow a group of local musicians as they play through the streets. When you show your ticket you will be given a small cup to wear around your neck for your mezcal. They will pour you as many re-fills as you want during this event. You will enjoy locals and other tourists dancing and just having a good time. While the mezcal was not of the highest quality we would still highly recommend this event! You could follow the musicians through the streets without buying a ticket however then you won’t be given any mezcal and really that is part of the whole experience!
This is a foodie destination! Mexico in general is a fantastic place to eat but this city has some really, really good food! None of these places are fancy or high end restaurants, instead what they offer is really good, local food at a very affordable price.
Where to Eat:
El Sultan: Small tacos but really good, great place to stop for a snack as you walk around
La Toska: Maybe our favorite place, it smells amazing as you walk by! We actually ate here twice because it was so good! They had a taco deal going the weekend we were there- 10 tacos for 59 pesos. The tacos are small but if there are only two of you it is the perfect amount of food to share. We also ate one of the best things ever at this place- a pile of tortillas, cheese and whatever meats you chose (we had a carne asada one and a pastor one) all topped with a thin layer of fried cheese! So, so good!
Rincon Tipico: We stopped in here for lunch when we first arrived. They have no menu, just a few options each day. There were three options to chose from when we were there. We both had chicken and rice served of course with tortillas and salsa.
Gorditas doña Julia: There are a couple of these around the city. Its a simple place serving up some great gorditas! We really enjoyed the peppers and potatoes (pimientos y papas) and the pork (cerdo) but there were plenty of options to chose from here.
El Callejon: This is located near a small market area in town (Plaza Bicentenario). You will find multiple vendors selling food, drinks and other items around this area. We stopped in for a second breakfast/mid morning snack here and were very happy we did. Try the chorizo and potatoes (chorizo y papas) and the bean and cheese (frijoles y queso) gorditas!
Plaza Bicentenario: While you are wandering around this market area be sure to try a donut (donas) They are very good! We aren’t really even donut people but trust us these are delicious!
Cervecería Shannons: We stopped in here late afternoon for a drink. It definitely has a younger vibe. We were probably the oldest people in this bar and we are 30 and 31. None the less the place is very cool. It’s got loud music and cool modern art on the walls. They are up on the second story with small balconies overlooking the street below. We attempted to just order a beer here but our waitress wasn’t about to let that happen. Our Spanish isn’t that great so we were not exactly sure what she was saying. We are pretty sure she was trying to upsell us which she did. We ended up with giant beer cocktails. We are pretty sure they were Mitcheladas- beer with clamato, hot sauce, lime and a chili salt rim around the glass. This doesn’t sound good in our option but it was suprisingly really good!
Birrieria Alvarado: We stopped here our last morning for breakfast honestly because they were the first place we passed actually open at 9AM on a Sunday and we were ready to start our day. We aren’t 100% sure what the type of meat we ended up eating was- either sheep or goat is our best guess. We had a traditional soup with shredded meat, onion and cilantro in a spicy red broth, of course served with tortillas. And we had a few tacos with either goat or sheep (again not 100% sure what we ended up getting). The soup and the tacos were both really good. Honestly it seems you can’t really go wrong for food in this city. Everywhere we stopped was great.
La Bartola: We stopped here for a small dinner/late lunch and a drink after more walking around the city. They have outdoor seating and are located on the corner of the Plazuela Miguel Auza. We ordered a gringa and two volcanes (these are similar to a tostada). Again really good food and great spot to sit and people watch as you eat and drink.
Churro Place: Every time we walked down the Juan de Toloso road we smelled churros frying. We weren’t able to find it on the map now that we are back, but trust us, you will smell them! These were probably some of the best churros we have had!
This just might be our favorite city we have visited in Mexico! We highly recommend this as a weekend trip or part of any larger trip through Mexico!
Tell us your favorite city’s in Mexico, leave us a comment below!
Maui is a great destination with tons to see and do! Of course, everyone reads about the road to Hana which is absolutely amazing and you definitely need to do that as part of your trip! We have a full post on driving the road to Hana which we have a link to at the end of this post! Here we will tell you where else on Maui to explore during your trip! We explored the island via camper van. We spent our nights at campgrounds and used the van as transportation to make sure we could see as much of the island as possible on this pretty short trip. We had about four and a half days to explore. Here’s our list of what to see and do on Maui outside the road to Hana.
Lava fields at Perouse Bay/Hoapili Trail: Our first full day it was a little rainy in the morning so we decided to drive out to the lava fields and hike. We were one of the only people on the trail that morning. It was really nice to have the place pretty much to ourselves. You are walking on a pretty rocky/uneven path but it is an overall easy hike. You will get great views of the ocean as you walk. As you walk farther you will see large rock cliffs that drop straight into the ocean. We also came across a few small tidal pools among the rocks. We even found one large and deep enough to swim in. We would recommend wearing you swim suit under whatever you are hiking in so that you can easily go for a swim if you would like. Do watch out for sea urchins if you are swimming over here, they are very sharp so you don’t want to step on one!
Lava Fields Kings Trail: On your way to hike the lava fields you will pass this beach. We stopped here after our morning hike to do some snorkeling. It doesn’t look like much when you walk down to the beach but just offshore you will see amazing coral and lots of fish! Literally as soon as we put our faces in the water we were surrounded by fish here! We also saw a sea turtle and an octopus while we were here.
Big beach and little beach at Makena Park: These are both white sand beaches and both are beautiful. Little beach is a clothing optional beach so do be aware of that if you are walking over there. It is just a short walk in-between the beaches. There is also a small path that follows the coast past little beach. The path is along lava stone on the coast, it is a pretty walk but we would recommend the lava fields to get your lava experience over this path.
Hookipa beach: This beach is another white sand beach. It’s a good surfing spot and is right before the start of the road to Hana. There are bathrooms here, showers to rinse off at and picnic tables. We spend a little while here our last afternoon on the island. This beach has a great mix of locals and tourists.
Papalaua State Wayside Park and Ukumehame Beach Park: We stayed at camp Olowalu our first two nights. As you drive along the Honoapiilani highway from Kihei towards Lahaina (or towards camp Olowalu) there are these narrow beaches running just off the road. It is easy to pull off, park your car along the beach and relax during the daytime hours. We also heard this is a great spot for long boarding. These beaches are also great spots to watch the sunset! Camping at Papalaua State Wayside Park is also an option, if you’d like. Check our our Maui by Camper Van post for more information on camping throughout Maui- Maui by Camper Van
Papawai Point: This look out is a really great spot for sunset and for whale watching in the winter. Again this is along the Honoapiilani highway as you drive from Kihei towards Lahaina. We watched the sunset here our last night on the island. It is a popular spot (for good reason) so do be aware that the parking lot will likely be full.
Snorkel tour with Pacific Whale Foundation on Ocean Explorer: We chose to do a smaller tour group that offered more snorkeling spots than some of their other, larger tours. Our group was only about 15 people total which was really nice. It made getting on/off the boat much better than having to wait for everyone in a larger group. The tour starts at 6:30 am. You meet up at the Pacific Whale Foundation where you sign in and they provide you with breakfast as you watch the sunrise over the marina. At 7:30 am you will head down to the boat. You are on the boat a total of about 6 hours. We stopped at five different snorkeling spots on our tour. You get a small snack provided about half way through the tour. You also get lunch on the boat once you are done with your final snorkel. The tour ends back at the marina at 1:30pm. They have water and other beverages available at any time during the tour. You are welcome to get off the boat at each stop or sit on the boat and relax if you want to skip one or more of the snorkels. We had a captain driving the boat and two lifeguards/marine life specialists with us on our tour. Each snorkel one of the life guards would come into the water with us to make sure everyone was okay. They would also help point things out for us in the water. We snorkeled in the “turtle town” area where we saw tons of turtles! We then did another reef off the coast where we saw more turtles and a small eel. From there we did a drift snorkel (the boat stopped, let us off the circled nearby while we snorkeled since it was too deep to anchor) to see a small place crash and all the fish that are living in the wreckage. Then we headed to the back side of Molokini Crater (another drift snorkel) where we saw a seal and then snorkeled along the wall there before finishing our tour inside Molokini Crater snorkeling the reef. We would highly recommend this tour! We had a great time on this tour. The Pacific Whale Foundation does a lot of great research and advocacy for the environment/ocean. Part of the money you spend on your tour is going directly to the foundation to allow them to keep doing the good work that they do. The link below will take you to the snorkel tour that we did on their website. From there you can check out the other tours and activities that The Pacific Whale Foundation offers.
We are foodies and typically food is a huge part of travel for us. But this trip was shorter and we were camping and moving around the island quite a bit. Food was not our top priority here. We ate a lot of snacks in the camper van and stopped along the way for more full meals as needed. Here are a few of our recommendations for where to eat on Maui:
Paia Fish Market: This place has great fish burgers! Also make sure to try some Maui Brewing Company beer while your here! This was our first stop after we picked up our Camper Van! The portions are huge and the prices were fairly standard, definitely not an expensive meal but very good!
Da Kitchen in Kahului or Kihei: This restaurant is BYOB. It has great kalua pork! The portions are huge! We both ordered an entrée for dinner and could have easily just split one meal.
Star Noodle in Lahaina: This place was one of our favorite restaurants we stopped at. They have really good food! We planned to eat in for dinner however when we arrived at 6-6:30ish there was an hour wait for a table. We ended up ordering take out which only took about 15-20 minutes to prepare. We took our food back to our campground and enjoyed it there instead. Moral of the story, make reservations if you plan to eat dinner here and avoid the long wait time.
Jawz Taco Truck at Makena Park: This is a great option for a quick lunch on the go as you explore the island. We headed to Makena park after hiking the lava fields our first day. The trunk arrived to the park about 12:30 pm. We had pork and fish tacos here and both were really good but we preferred the pork.
For Food recommendations and recommended stops along the road to Hana check out our full Road to Hana post here: Road to Hana Camper Van Adventure
There is definitely more to Maui then we listed here. Another big thing to do is head to the top of Haleakala for the sunrise. We heard very mixed reviews on this so we decided to skip it on this trip. We have read that sunset on the top of Haleakala can also be really great and can be less crowded. If we had one more full day we would have added one of these two options to our itinerary. But now we saved something for the next time we are in Maui!
Tell us your favorite places on Maui, leave us a comment below!
Last year for the first time ever we decided to do what we called a mystery trip! What that meant for us was that we got time off work approved and then waited for a cheap flight deal to determine where we were going to go. We ended up finding a really great deal to Hawaii through Scott’s Cheap Flights. We did a little research and decided on Maui! After we booked our flights we started looking for an Airbnb or boutique hotels which is what we typically do when we travel. Turns out most of the Airbnbs on Maui are not cheap! So our cheap trip was becoming more expensive. We started looking into other options and quickly came upon several camper van companies. There are a few companies you can book through on Maui, we decided to go with North Shore Vans (https://www.northshorevans.com) and we would highly recommend them! The owner (Chris) was great and super helpful!. He picked us up from the airport and dropped us back off at the airport after we returned the van.
The van is your lodging and your transportation for your trip all in one which makes seeing all of Maui really easy. We found the van to work out really well for us, it allowed us the freedom to explore the island without having to make sure we got back to one spot each night.You will see vans pulled off to the side of the road on small beaches and other locations all over the island. Legally you are not supposed to do this, you need to book a spot at a campground with your van each night. This was a shorter trip for us, we only had about four and half days on the island so we picked a couple different campgrounds to really make sure we could see as much of the island as possible.
This is where we stayed:
Camp Olowalu: Start Here
This place can fill up fast so it is recommended that you make reservations ahead of time. We spent our first two nights here. This was definitely the nicest campground we stayed at. They have hot showers and nice bathrooms. There is also a small black sand beach on the property. Tent camping and van parking spots are available, as well as tentalows and cabins if you want to do some glamping. There are chickens all over this property, they are not shy and will walk right up to your tent or van! They did not bother us at all and would typically quickly run away if we got too close to them. There is also a large group of stray cats on this property if you walk along the path near the beach. The cost for a night here is $20 per person. We also headed back here our last evening before taking a late flight home since the last campground we stayed at didn’t have showers. To stop in here and just use their hot showers the cost is $10 a person. This campground is about 15-20 minutes from the airport which makes it a great place you start your trip. It is also a good central location if you want to go up to Lahaina or over to Kihei/Makena/lava fields!
Camp Kaenae/YMCA: Awesome views, but bring bug spray!
Reservations are recommended here as well as it will make checking in easier, but it was almost empty while we were there. This campsite is just about to the halfway point on the road to Hana. You likely won’t have cell phone reception here so making sure you already have your spot reserved is very helpful. The cost here is $30 a person – which is honestly a more than it’s worth. They do have hot showers and bathrooms. There are spots for van camping and tent camping here. The night we were here it was very buggy which we were not prepared for. If you can handle the mosquitos, the view out to the ocean here is amazing! One final word of caution – make sure you bring food to cook on the grill/stove. We had planned to stop at a BBQ food stall on the way but that place was closed and there were no other options close by. You are in the middle of the Road to Hana and there was literally nowhere to eat. We ended up eating pretzels and trail mix for dinner. Also the night we were here there was only 2 other vans so for the most part we had the place to ourselves.
Kipahulu- Haleakala National Park:
This is about 10 miles past Hana. This park is where the seven sacred pools are located. The campground here has no showers, it does have vault toilets. Van and tent camping are allowed here. They do not take reservations ahead of time, but they had a lot of campsites. We arrived late in the afternoon and had no trouble finding a spot to park. It will cost $25 per vehicle to enter the park. Your park pass is valid for three days and also allows you to drive up the Haleakala volcano and even stay at the Hosmer Grove Campground within the three days. There is no additional fee for camping. The van parking spots are very close to the water. If you are tent camping you can camp even closer to the water if you like. We walked along a small path in the morning to find a quiet place to do our yoga and we passed several small tents in small openings along the path/trail with great views of the water.
Here is a list of other campgrounds on Maui that you can legally park your van for camping:
Wainapanapa State Park
Papalaua campground
Hosmer Grove -Haleakala National Park (uses the same pass as the Kipahulu campground!)
Check out North Shore Vans Website for more information on each of these locations and links to each campsite where reservations are needed- https://www.northshorevans.com/campgrounds
Other Logistics: We were recommended to grocery shop Mana foods in Paia which is actually a small, health food store. They have fairly good prices however they didn’t have everything we were looking for, so we ended up having to go somewhere else to get a few other random items. There is a Costco and several other big name stores near the airport. We went to Walmart since it was the first one we passed after leaving Mana foods. If you are looking for any toiletries, sunscreen, or alcohol Mana foods won’t have these items for you.
Also something we didn’t consider is that all of these campgrounds do have grills so you can cook food. The van also had a small gas camping stove for cooking. The van does have a cooler for keeping food cold. The cooler is sitting in the hot van all day while you are out exploring so we did find we had to refill it with ice almost every day. We relied on snacks and stopping for food along the way each day since we were on a shorter trip. Camp Olowalu is within 15 minutes of several small towns so you can definitely eat at restaurants when staying here. The other places we stayed were along the road to Hana where food options are very sparse. There are restaurants in Hana, so we got take out when we were there the next afternoon and kept that in the cooler for dinner the night we stayed at Kipahulu-Haleakala National Park.The back of the van had a bed, storage for all of our stuff and a sink. Simple dishes and silverware were provided as well as a map of the island with points of interest to help us make the most of our trip. There were also curtains to cover the windows at night when we wanted to relax in the van. There were also lights and a power inverter to charge phones/ipads, etc.
We found the camper van to be a really nice way to see the island. We would highly recommend this to anyone looking to travel cheaply! You always hear that Hawaii is not a cheap place to travel but trust us when we say this is the way to do it! It isn’t your typical Hawaiian vacation but we loved every minute of it! We haven’t visited any of the other islands yet but there are camper van rental companies on the other islands as well and we are looking forward to exploring those islands in this way as well!
