Waipi'o Valley — Attraction in Hawaii

One of my favorite hikes of all time. Arrive early (before 9 am) to get a good parking spot and start your trek down. Wear proper hiking shoes, I saw several people wearing sandals/flip flops. The first part down is all on black top and pretty well straight down. Our legs were pretty shaky by the end. If you have hiking poles they would be nice here but this is a completely doable hike without them. Once you get to the bottom of the black top turn right. There, we were able to see some wild horses. Respect the no trespassing signs as there is quite a bit of private property. We walked on the trail to the beach, and instead of continuing on the trail in the tree line decided to walk along the beach instead. It was beautiful. The black sand and the views from the beach are awe-inspiring. There is a river that connects to the ocean that you will need to cross if you choose to continue on the trail across the beach to the lookout (which I highly recommend). So, take water shoes or something you don't mind getting wet and wear shorts or something you don't mind again getting wet. You can cross closer to the ocean but the current is stronger and there are more rocks making it more slippery. Your best bet is to cross in the waist deep water where you can walk across on sand. Once you get to the end of the black sand beach take a left into the tree line and follow the trail up to another lookout (I'm not sure of the name). The view from here made the uphill hike so worth it. From here you can see Ipuu and Hiilawe waterfalls. They look like twin waterfalls located just slightly to your right if you are looking straight out from the lookout. Seeing these falls is really unique. Many people walk along the beach and never bother to look back at the valley, and most people definitely don't make the hike to the lookout to see the falls. The falls are on private property so do not try to hike to them. It's less than 1 mile to the lookout from the beach so it is well worth it! When you leave the lookout and head back down, I suggest walking on the dedicated trail through the treeline that lines the beach. The vegetation here is spectacular and the trail feels great to walk on. Heading back up to the Waipi'o lookout is brutal. It's straight up and there are no switch backs to rest at. Rest when you get the chance to let cars by. It's tough but so worth it! Definitely one of my...

There are three ways to get to the Waipi'o Valley: you hike, you pay $$ for a commercial tour (you have one hour free time in the valley) or you rent a four wheel drive and do not tell the rental company you are going to this valley. What I heard/read prior our trip: locals living in the valley arranged that the only four wheel company on the island does not allow you taking their truck down to the valley. And they went further: locals arranged and have an agreement with the businesses taking you on a tour to trespass their property (of course they get some of the $$ from the tour company). It stinks. We did not want to pay $$ for any tour so we decided to hike it. I read many reviews how difficult the hike was and all the locals were discouraging tourist from entering the valley saying that "many tourists are dropping dead on the way up from the valley". I have to laugh, what a funny discouragement! Well, we hiked it, spent only about half an hour in the valley, walked on the main road and on the beach. Disappointed. Nothing to see. There were five "wild" horses which were so tamed you could pet them, they followed us for a bit. And yep, there were many signs such "do not enter, private property, be aware of flying stones (this was a good one), if you enter, we will shoot you and if you survive we will shoot you again". Yep, locals do not want you there, but are happy to get your $$. Hiking up was not easy, but it was not difficult. We were not experienced hikers and were carrying heavy backpacks (the negative reviews freaked us so much, we packed LOTS of water for the hike) and had to stop at places to give way the four-wheel vehicles going down. Took us only 38 minutes to hike up. Without heavy backpacks you can hike it up in less than 25 minutes. And this was the dreadful, hard hike? Hahaha. Nope. We personally thought this valley was not worthy of our time. I highly recommend hiking to the Pololu Valley and beyond it - no crowded, spectacular and peaceful. Do not get discouraged by locals telling tales how hard the hike is, do not spend your $$ either on any tour. And do not trespass, you will be shot or the worse stoned...

WOW!!! Phenomenal beach and view of the waterfall (as good as it gets without trespassing). The waves are good for boarding and there is plenty of clear area off the beach without having to worry about get pushed into rocks. If you’re a glutton for punishment you can head down on foot and the hike back up is killer, makes for a great HIIT workout sprinting mixed in with walking for recovery. My lungs were on fire! Definitely a steep climb so make sure your vehicle has working brakes and four-wheel-drive (signs posted say the latter is a requirement, the former is a no-brainer haha). Also be cautious of the weather if you plan on driving down as it rained when we went and some cars had a little trouble on the real steep spots. If you do go down on foot bring water!!!! We heard a few people commenting that they hadn’t brought water as we neared the top and they were just starting the hike down....you will definitely want some water

Just a little logistic advice: arrive early as the parking situation gets crazy. We went on a Saturday morning and arrived around 8:30-ish and there was plenty of parking. When we came back out several hours later there were cars parked everywhere (there are signs so that people don’t block local driveways) and others sitting in their cars trying to figure out...