Day Trip to Lana'i - Globemaster Girl

Aloha everyone!

I got the chance to spend the last day of 2021 taking a day trip to the Island of Lana’i with a couple of friends! For those of you that don’t know the island of Lana’i, it is a small island south of Molokai and west of Maui. Living in Hawaii allows the chance to easily travel from one island to another based on a decision you made the night prior (like what I did) or a trip that was planned like the one we took to Kauai a couple years ago (blog post seen here)!

The weather was not typical Hawaii weather with sunshine all day, but we traveled on one of the very few days a year when it rains, so unfortunately it was a wet trip, but we still made the most of it!

I wanted to spend as much daylight as I could on Lana’i, so we departed on Mokulele Air first thing in the morning and came back to Oahu right after sunset.

I had rented a Jeep from Gail at Lanai Cheap Jeeps to help us get around the island! It was perfect for driving around the island and in the muddy areas from the rain. They are a very military friendly company and are super helpful for dropping off and picking the vehicle up from the airport, which avoids us having to get a taxi to pick it up!

Places to Eat

As soon as we got on island, we were starving and got the recommendation to go get breakfast at the Blue Ginger Café. It was a really delicious breakfast and I would also recommend you check it out! Keep in mind a lot of places, including this one, accept only cash, so I would bring some with!

For lunch, we went and grabbed plate lunches from the local gas station (The Plantation Deli). It has great food that we took to go and ate at the beach!

These two were the main couple of places we ate at, but here are some others:

In Town:

Coffee Works
Cafe 565
Ganotisi’s Pacific Rim Cuisine
Pele’s Other Garden

Around the island:

The Break near the Four Seasons
Sensei by Nobu

Keep in mind that some of the places around the resorts are for guests only, or at least were when we showed up! Not sure if that had to do with it being NYE or the weather, but no beers for us that day!

Checking out the Island:

Our first stop after getting food was taking a drive down to Shipwreck Beach. The roads were pretty sandy getting down near the water, but easily drivable (probably not for any other vehicle besides one that can handle that). We got out of the Jeep and continued to walk down the beach to get closer to the shipwreck.

I have done my fair share of flying over this shipwreck, so it was awesome to be able to see it from the ground this time!

That whole beach was pretty secluded, so you could easily snorkel or hang out on the beach and not be bothered! We also saw a TON of whales during the drive and when walking around the beach. They were amazing!

Hiking was next on the list to one of the highest points on the island. Once we got to the top, the views were breathtaking! It was a constant incline for the most part up and then we got poured on on the way back down, so we got pretty muddy! The trail was called Koloiki Ridge.

After hiking is when we stopped to grab lunch, then headed to the beach next to the Four Seasons Resort. There were only a few people around and still sprinkled a bit and later down-poured (again). From the beach, we went snorkeling and saw beautiful reefs and so many fish, including a trumpet fish, the Hawai’i state fish, and many others!

We also got to walk around the area and saw Puupehe, otherwise known as Sweetheart Rock.

As the day was coming to an end, we drove down to Kaumalapau Harbor, which is where the cargo ships will come in. It offered some amazing views of the west side of the Lana’i!

Within Lanai City, there are multiple shops, including a beautiful art gallery that you can check out. The shops definitely give the area a small town city type vibes, but is beautiful and quaint and the trees are pretty unique.

After the long day of adventuring, we finally headed back to the airport for the very interesting experience of a flight back to Oahu.

Things we didn’t do:

One thing on the list that I had wanted to do was to visit Keahiakawelo (Garden of the Gods), which is a terrestrial-type landscape. Unfortunately, due to all of the rain and mud, we didn’t get the chance to go!

I would’ve also loved to try diving around the island and doing more snorkeling, but overall it was a really great day trip!