Molokai is one of those Hawaiian islands that you don’t really hear much about. It is not a very heavily traveled island (for many reasons, also by design), but we were curious about it and ready to explore a more secluded part of Hawaii. It was definitely an adventure!
Day 1: Arrival/Exploring North & East Molokai
After our last night on Kauai, Mai Tai’s and all, we woke up extremely early to catch our flight to Molokai!
Flight from Kauai to Molokai
From Kauai, we had to connect in Honolulu on Oahu first because there is no direct flight from Kauai to Molokai.
The first flight went smoothly, as James detailed in a prior post, and when we landed in Honolulu we went over to the Mokulele Airlines terminal, grabbing a sandwich and ice-cold soda for me due to having to nurse myself back to health after too many Mai Tai’s the night before.
I was also nervous about getting airsick on the small Mokulele aircraft, because that tends to happen to me, and I hoped that filling my stomach somewhat would help.
Once we were ready to board, they assigned us our seats (“you over there, you’re in row 1”), and potentially because I was the smallest person on the flight, I was assigned the very back row all to myself! James was a few rows back behind the pilots and had a great view of the cockpit, as he detailed in his previous post about Mokulele Airlines.
As part of sitting in the back row, you’ll be asked to latch the door after the pilots close it. I just hoped I didn’t screw it up so I didn’t get sucked out of the door while in the air!
I was nervous at first about sitting in the back because we had watched a video of a guy who traveled to Molokai on Mokulele Airlines and sat in the back seat and he felt pretty sick, although he was traveling through pretty bad stormy weather. We were about to travel through partly cloudy skies, so at least we had decent weather to our advantage.
Well, the back seat ended up being the best seat on the plane! I got a great view out of both sides of the aircraft, and what a view it was!
We flew right over Honolulu, Waikiki beach, Diamond Head, and Hanauma Bay.
It’s so fun to see Waikiki from the air like this, knowing I’ve surfed those waves many times!
We literally flew right over Diamond Head! I’ve also hiked to the top, which is quite a hike if you’re out of shape like I was (bring lots of water), but totally worth the view!
I almost didn’t catch Hanauma Bay but the clouds opened up just at the right time.
This was definitely the way to see the Oahu highlights from the air! Screw expensive helicopter tours, just travel on Mokulele Airlines! (not an ad lol but if Mokulele Airlines would like to sponsor me…)
A few minutes later it seemed, we started our approach into Molokai.
We started approaching the west side of Molokai, looking down at Papohaku Beach, which is one of the largest beaches in Hawaii and would be somewhere we would end up going! Then we went into some clouds and shortly after, we started approaching Molokai from the south.
The landscape was super interesting and looked totally different from the other islands we’ve been to.
You could see where the water was super shallow near the edge of the island (where it looks kind of brownish), and I thought that was really interesting to basically be able to see how the island was shaped and formed (I assume lava flowing pretty uniformly down toward the water from the shield volcanoes making up the majority of the island).
Then we flew over the desert landscape, which had a very Mars-like feeling to it, and into the airport. It was a bit of a bumpy ride down but the pilots handled it like champs. We actually had the co-pilot doing the landing, and being a younger guy, I was super impressed at how well he handled the turbulence! You could tell that these pilots do this quite often.
We got off the plane and got our sweet rental Jeep (necessary for Molokai, I’ll explain why soon!) and headed on our way.
Exploring Molokai: Kaunakakai and Kalapaupa Lookout
We were hungry so our first stop was a food truck in the main town, Kaunakakai. The town is very small but has a few different food options to choose from.
This food truck, Ono Fish & Shrimp, was incredible! I got their “award winning” ono fish tacos with mango salsa, and James got their garlic shrimp and rice.
Both dishes were some of the best food we had on this trip by far!
After we stuffed our faces, we decided to take a ride up to the Kalaupapa Lookout, which is a short 15-minute drive from Kaunakakai.
For those who don’t know, Kalaupapa is a town on the north shore of Molokai that was designed as an isolation colony for those who had Hansen’s disease, or leprosy. Before COVID, you could take a tour down to the town either by mule or airplane, but during the pandemic they closed access to anyone who was not a resident and/or staff of the town’s facilities. However, you could still drive up to this lookout which gives you a fantastic view of the cliffside and the town that resides below it.
We had a great view, although some clouds were obscuring some of the cliffside that day.
The lookout requires a short walk on a paved pathway from a parking lot, and there is also another trail you can take which is on a dirt path that will lead you to what’s nicknamed “Phallic Rock”, which is exactly what you think it is.
This is a phallic shaped rock formation that in Hawaiian tradition is a sacred rock that would increase a woman’s fertility if she came with a gift and slept under the rock for a night. We didn’t have a gift to give and I wasn’t about to sleep under the rock, so we admired the scenery and headed back to the parking lot.
After leaving the lookout park, we drove down the road to the Coffees of Hawaii, which is a coffee farm with a tasting room.
Unfortunately, they were closed, and looked to be closed for a while. I was bummed because I was hoping it would be a similar experience to Kauai Coffee Company on Kauai, and was looking forward to sampling some locally grown Molokai coffee.
East Molokai & Halawa Beach Park
After that, we decided to drive out to the east side of the island to check out Halawa Beach Park. This is a sacred beach for native Hawaiians due to its history and beauty. We didn’t have any plans to do a “beach day” but wanted to at least take a look around.
The drive out there was gorgeous and full of twists and turns along sea cliffs.
We also got some amazing views of waterfalls and tropical landscape with some rain clouds off in the distance. It really felt like Jurassic Park!
Once we got to Halawa Valley, we drove down to the beach parking lot. There were a few groups of people there, and we got out of the car for a few minutes just to walk around and check out the scenery.
We didn’t plan on staying long, mostly because we were unprepared for a beach day but also because we didn’t want to impose on a sacred spot. There were some kids playing in the water, which was relatively calm in the bay-like area.
After a few minutes out of the car, it started to drizzle a bit and we were wanting to get checked into the hotel and relax for a bit before dinner, so we decided to head back toward Kaunakakai.
The drive back was just as beautiful as the drive out, and maybe even more so since we were getting close to sunset.
Hotel Molokai
We got to Hotel Molokai and checked in. James has written about the details of this hotel in another post, but I thought I’d add my perspective on it as well.
This might be the most adorable hotel I’ve ever seen! It was designed with a very Polynesian feel, but with a 1950s architectural twist.
The lobby was open air, the grounds were beautifully lined with tropical landscaping, and there were multiple buildings on the property that housed a few sets of rooms.
We had a nice ocean view on the 2nd floor of one of the buildings on the end of the property, and it was totally worth it! We had a nice deck overlooking the water where I sat out in the mornings and evenings to watch the sunrises and sunsets.
The hotel also had a great pool area with some hammocks that I also took advantage of to watch the sunset each evening.
There was also access to the beach from the pool area, and I took a few walks up and down alongside the hotel, ending up with some incredible photos!
This was one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen, in context with the palm trees and calm water in the distance.
Dinner at Paddler’s Restaurant and Bar
After relaxing in the hammock, we decided to get cleaned up and go into town for dinner at Paddler’s Restaurant and Bar.
There are really only a few options in town for dinner, but even so we had a great meal, great local beers, and there was live music. What else could you ask for?
The food was a lot “fancier” than I expected from what seemed like a dive bar (absolutely nothing wrong with that, I love dive bars!), and we were pleasantly surprised at how good it was!
I got garlic shrimp that were huge and laid on top of toasted crostini bread, and James got one of their daily specials which was a huge local pork chimichanga. I think they were out of his first choice special but he really enjoyed this one, so it ended up being a good alternative after all.
Molokai “Midnight Bread” at Kanemitsu’s Bakery
After dinner, even though we were stuffed, we went down this sketchy looking alleyway to get the famous Molokai hot bread from Kanemitsu’s Bakery.
This seemed like it could be a tourist trap (if there even is such a thing on Molokai), but it is an absolute must!
It is a popular spot for a reason because the bread is incredibly soft and delicious, especially with the gooey cream cheese icing and cinnamon topping we got.
This is one of the most popular recommended flavors, and for good reason because it tastes like an incredible cinnamon roll, but there are other toppings like various fruit spreads that you can add.
You can get a single topping or up to 5 different flavors (“the works”). We were happy with our choice and ran back to our hotel to consume half of the bread on our deck. It was super hot coming out of the shop, so we really didn’t have to worry about it cooling down before we could eat it.
Since the bread was humongous, we also were able to eat some leftovers for breakfast for the next 2 mornings, which was a welcome treat, although pairing it with the coffee in the hotel room left much to be desired there.
Day 2: West Molokai Beach Day
The next morning, we watched the sunrise on the balcony with our leftover Molokai bread breakfast.
After, we got ready to go and headed out to the west side of the island for a beach day. On the way out of town, we grabbed some drinks at the local grocery store, and stopped at a food truck called A Taste of Molokai to get some poke and rice plates to go so we could eat lunch on the beach, one of our favorite Hawaii activities (as mentioned in my last post on our Kauai travel).
For our beach day, our destination was Papohaku Beach Park, also known as Three Mile Beach because it is 3 miles long and is one of Hawaii’s largest and widest white sand beaches.
Driving out on the west side of Molokai is worlds different than the east side of the island. The east side was filled with lush tropical vegetation and rain clouds in the distance, while the west side was dry and arid with no clouds in the sky for miles and dried up vegetation scattered across the landscape.
A lot of this is due to the natural climate, but also due to the various farming companies that had cultivated this land in past decades. There is a lot of controversy about this that I won’t get into, but all I will say is that it was a bit sad driving through this side of the island, knowing that there was lucrative farming once there that provided many jobs and local crops, and that is no longer.
Papohaku Beach Park
Anyway, we finally got to Papohaku Beach! It was a short walk from the parking lot, which was empty.
It was super windy so we tried to find a spot with a bit of shelter along the edges under some of the dry bushes.
We got settled in and cracked open some beverages and our poke lunch.
The beach was incredibly beautiful, with soft white sand all over. With the wind however it felt like needles stinging every time there was a gust, bringing a lot of loose sand along with it. The water was also very treacherous, with a lot of large waves crashing very close to the shore, some of it filled with rocks embedded in the sand.
That didn’t stop some local kids from jumping off of said rocks into the waves, and even though it looked terrifying they were having a blast and I’m sure did this very often and were not concerned (and at least the adult with them didn’t seem so).
We hung out for about an hour or so, and then got tired of the wind whipping us and stinging us, so we decided to head over towards a small beach toward the northwest side of the island.
Dirt Road to Kawa’aloa Beach (Attempted!)
I had seen this small beach on Google maps, Kawa’aloa Beach, also known as Mo‘Omomi Beach Preserve, that seemed accessible via a dirt road that was marked on the map, so we decided to try to get to it.
The first portion of the drive was okay, but at some point we got to a section of road that was very eroded, such that the Jeep was tilted at almost 45 degrees from horizontal for a while! I was terrified that the Jeep would tip over, but James said it wouldn’t be a problem since there were high dirt walls on each side of us that would catch us. We might have to get out and push the Jeep the other way to correct it, but it would likely be fine (as James said while I was freaking out).
Just as a note, this could potentially be considered against the car rental agreement but *technically* this was an actual road identified on Google maps and dirt roads were not against the agreement, just “off-roading” which implies going off of an actual marked road. My advice would be to make sure that you’re not going “off road” and that the roads you’re driving on, even if dirt, are legitimate roads on the map.
That leads me to the next segment, after we passed a group of guys in a 4×4 truck that seemed to either cheer us on or make fun of us (“Suckers!” – Them, probably) we got to a locked gate preventing us from going any further on the dirt road. This would probably have had us going “off road” to get around it to drive down to the beach, so we decided it wasn’t worth it, and also seemed a bit illegal (trespassing on private property). We also didn’t want to get all the way down to the beach to have any other road-blocks, considering it was so difficult to even get to the spot we were at, and we were only about halfway there. So, because we try to be good humans, we decided to turn around and head back to the main road and ultimately back to the hotel to hang out at the pool for the rest of the afternoon.
Hotel Molokai Pool & Dinner at Hiro’s Ohana Grill
I was glad to have been able to salvage the rest of the afternoon at the pool, which was relatively empty. We enjoyed some local beers and soaked in the sun until dinner time.
I watched another amazing sunset, half of it from the hammock by the pool and half of it on the deck outside our room.
We then got cleaned up and decided to check out the fanciest restaurant on Molokai, conveniently located at our hotel!
The restaurant is called Hiro’s Ohana Grill. We hadn’t made reservations, which might have been a mistake, and we didn’t get there early enough so we weren’t able to get a table overlooking the water unfortunately.
We were seated at a high-top table adjacent to the bar, and even though we could still see the water I’m sure it was not the same as sitting at a table right next to the beach. Oh well, now we know for next time! The atmosphere was still incredible though, and I am glad we were able to get a table when we did because it got very crowded, even for a weeknight! It seemed to be mostly locals, and you could tell because there were many separate groups that came in that said hello to each other and seemed to know each other well.
We ordered some drinks first. I got a Li Hing Mui frozen margarita, which was delicious! For those who don’t know, Li Hing Mui is a sweet-and-salty-and-sour dried Chinese plum that is often made into a powder that gets sprinkled all over fruits and other desserts in Hawaii. It was really good as a margarita flavor, especially with a salted rim!
We ordered dinner, which for me was grilled ahi tuna (that I asked for seared/as rare as possible but ended up being more like medium rare) with garlic mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables, and James got Korean Kalbi beef and rice. James’ meal was delicious, and while mine was tasty it was not the temperature I was hoping for in my tuna (I like it as rare as possible if it is seared/grilled).
While we were at dinner, there were live musicians playing in the background. I absolutely love live music, so we hung out for some time after eating our meal, making sure to tip the musicians before we left the restaurant.
Then we headed back to the room and while James relaxed inside, I hung out on the deck so I could continue listening to the music playing in the background amongst the stars (and some planets! Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus were out that night!)
Day 3: Last Minute Exploring & Departure
The next day, we had to check out of the hotel since it was our travel day over to the Big Island. I spent another morning on the deck enjoying the ocean view (and a very clear view of Lanai in the background!) and the last of our Molokai bread, and then we packed up and headed out.
Kalaupaupa Lookout (Part 2) and Maunaloa
We decided to drive back up to Kalaupaupa Lookout since the weather was a lot clearer, and we got a much better view of the cliffside.
Since we still had several hours to kill before our flight out, we decided to head back out toward the west side of the island to check out Maunaloa.
Maunaloa is a small town perched on top of the West Molokai volcano, which is dormant.
There was not a whole lot going on in Maunaloa, but we checked out the Big Wind Kite Factory and the associated gift shop where we picked up some local artwork. The kite factory owner’s wife was showing a family how they make their kites, and I got a glimpse of that as I walked through the shop.
After talking to the cashier about the ability to drive down a short dirt road from Maunaloa down to the southern shore, we decided to check out a small abandoned harbor on the shore called Hale O Lono Harbor.
We made it down with ease with the Jeep, knowing that the cashier said we would definitely be fine because some people with sedans could even make it okay. Although, we did see a wrecked vehicle that had been there for quite some time that had looked like it had flipped over a few times, so just be careful and take it slowly on the dirt roads!
We explored the area a bit, which was odd because it was once a working fisherman’s harbor but was totally abandoned. There were a lot of “ruins” where you could tell where the docks once were.
Lunch in Kaunakakai
After exploring Hale O Lono Harbor, on the way toward the airport we stopped back in Kaunakakai for some lunch. We were dying for a plate lunch, so we checked out Maka’s Corner.
You order at the window and there were plenty of tables outside under umbrellas.
The food was fantastic! I had a plate with Korean fried chicken, and James had a plate with Teriyaki pork, both with a generous portion of mac salad and rice as is tradition with Hawaiian plate lunch.
After lunch, we gassed up the Jeep and headed toward the airport.
On the way, we saw a sign advertising “Post-A-Nut”, which is a local post office service where you can decorate and then mail a coconut to someone for free, so we stopped in to try to do that but were told we had to supply our own coconut. We didn’t have time to do this, so we unfortunately had to skip out on posting a nut this time.
Flight out of Molokai
We headed to the airport with plenty of time (maybe too much time) for our flight. We had a flight from Molokai connecting in Maui before our flight to Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, which James detailed out in a previous post.
The flight out of Molokai took us over the northern cliffs. The views were breathtaking!
We passed right over Kalaupapa and followed the cliffside toward the eastern side of the island.
The views on this flight were quite possibly some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen with dramatic cliffs, waterfalls, green lush landscape, and deep, dark blue water.
The pictures really don’t do it justice. If I had to think of what heaven would look like, I think this would be it.
We even flew right over Halawa Valley where we had been just 2 days earlier.
You can even see the road that we drove to get to the valley!
Final Thoughts
I was sad to leave Molokai, but I think 2 nights on Molokai was definitely appropriate. We saw and did almost everything there was to see and do on this island, and a lot of that has to do with the culture that the locals want to maintain.
We did see a few unwelcoming signs, telling tourists to stay away and/or visit-but-leave (and not move here), and while I understand the sentiment behind it (not wanting Molokai to turn into tourist/haole (outsider)-overrun-Maui for example), it did make me feel a little bit uncomfortable and not necessarily “welcomed” or “wanted”.
I could understand the locals not wanting the typical tourist (especially the typical American tourist) that tends to be a bit entitled (and shall we dare say, spoiled?) to come to Molokai, to visit and especially to relocate. I’ve seen many American tourists behave entitled and downright rude on many of our trips across the world, and in Hawaii it can be especially bad because many people see Hawaii as just a vacation destination, rather than a place where people live and work and want to enjoy their lives peacefully on their land that has, very often, been in their family for many generations. Hopefully, reader, you are or will be one of the tourists that will respect the location you visit, because it is very important anywhere you go!
Overall, I would definitely go back to Molokai! I thought it was beautiful and really interesting, and loved the small-town and relaxed feel. James was a bit torn on Molokai at first, thinking that he didn’t know if he wanted to go back after exploring the entire island and not feeling super welcomed. But now that he’s had time to think on it, he seems to want to go back another time and spend another 2 nights. I would definitely stay at the Hotel Molokai again because it was a nice place to stay, even if it is the only official hotel on the island.
I think Molokai was fascinating and definitely felt like “Old Hawaii” for many reasons. Molokai doesn’t really have much going on, by design, but if you’re looking for a relaxing beach vacation with a slow, small town feel then you’ve come to the right island!
Up next on our trip is Hawaii Vacation: 3 nights on Hawaii Island (Big Island)!
Also, check out my previous post Hawaii Vacation: 5 nights on Kauai to see the first part of our trip on Kauai!