Haleakala Downhill Bike Tour & Brewery Tasting Experience

Our Maui bike tours of Haleakalā include all the biking equipment needed for the ride (Redline Monocog Mountain Bike with disc brakes and 29″ wheels, helmet, rain/wind gear, gloves, backpack, map, and bike lock), along with a narrated van tour. Before heading out, you’ll receive a comprehensive safety briefing covering area guidelines and riding tips to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience. As you travel from sea level up to our 6,500′ staging area just outside the National Park, our professional guides share the rich history of Upcountry Maui, along with insights into local culture, points of interest, and the island’s unique geology.

This ride includes shuttles back up to the starting point so you can enjoy the best upper switchback section twice. Once you’re on the road, you’ll have full support from our sweep van and team of drivers ready to assist with anything you need along the way. After your second lap, the experience wraps up with a stop at the Lāhainā Brewing Co. Upcountry Taproom, where you can relax and enjoy one included drink—featuring more than just craft beer—with local food trucks right next door, before we shuttle you back down to our Pāʻia bike shop.

The nature of this ride doesn’t require you to necessarily be in shape nor does weight matter as long as you aren’t over the bike manufacturer’s weight limit of 300lbs. This ride is quite easy and you BARELY even pedal! It’s 99.9% all downhill.

However, riders must be CONFIDENT and COMFORTABLE riding a bike. This ride isn’t for beginners, and not safe if you haven’t been on a bike in years.

If it’s been a while, we recommend getting out on a bike and practicing before you do this ride. While it’s not a physically challenging ride, you are descending at 25+ mph at an average grade of 5-6%. This requires bike handling skills.

You will be sharing the country roads with vehicles and riding a bike down the sloping switchbacks of Haleakala! It’s truly a fun and easy ride AS LONG as you are a confident cyclist and comfortable riding a bike!

On this Maui downhill bike tour you will not get lost. We will do laps and be waiting for you at the pick-up points. There are no opportunities to get lost!

You will return to our shop in Paia around 1:30pm. From our shop, it’s about a 15 minute drive to the airport. Security lines do tend to be longer here on Maui than at mainland airports, so do factor that into your day’s timeline, but yes, you can fly the same afternoon as your bike tour!

You are more than welcome to store your luggage at our shop, customers do so all the time and we are more than happy to keep it secure until you return.

Like any other outdoor activity, there are inherent risks. In order to minimize those risks, you MUST be comfortable riding a bike, be able to use hand brakes, and be able to stay focused throughout the ride. You are coming down country roads and sharing the road with cars.

If you are a beginner cyclist or haven’t been on a bike in years, this ride likely is not the right fit for you. We recommend practicing on a bike before you do this ride. While it’s not a physically challenging ride, you are descending at 25+mph at an average grade of 5-6%. You will be sharing the country roads with vehicles and riding the bike down the sloping switchbacks of Haleakala!

It’s truly a fun and easy ride AS LONG as you are a confident cyclist and comfortable riding a bike on the road while descending!

We are committed to keeping you safe. We take great effort to provide you with the safety awareness, guidelines, and briefings you need to have a safe and fun trip. However, ultimately you are in control of the bike. Remember this is a Maui biking tour, not a race. If you decide to bike down Haleakala at 50 mph, then you can make the bike ride very dangerous. And, of course, this is not the place to learn how to ride a bike, so you need to be experienced at riding a bike. Although it is not a difficult ride, you should be a competent, confident rider.

Tours that take you into the national park to see the crater/summit range from $220-$240 per person. Our tour is a lot less per person, due to the fact that we don’t enter the National Park. Tours that bring you into the park, will then drive you back down to the same place we begin our bike ride. No tour operator can allow you to bike inside the National Park.

We suggest going into the National Park on your own for a more personal experience at only $30 per vehicle. There are over 35 miles of hiking that you can do inside the park so it may be worthwhile to separate your activities to really take in the park and make it an experience of its own. 

Most of our guests visit the park another day or go after the bike ride to watch sunset. A lot of locals say the sunset is just as beautiful (if not MORE) and much warmer, less people (no reservation needed) and so much less of an ordeal, like waking up at 2am on vacation. With that our favorite recommendation is to join us at 9am for your downhill ride. Enjoy Paia and the beaches after the ride, maybe have an early dinner in town and then drive up and catch sunset. You can enter the park an hour early and explore the park, hike around a bit and see it more than you would at sunrise. Bring a towel, bottle of wine or beverage of choice, Hawaiian snacks and see the spectacular sunset! It’s warmer at the crater than it will be waiting for the sun to rise. You can also look up the volcano and see if the weather is to your liking to view sunset, where as with sunrise it is all or nothing at 3am!

Some guests opt to do sunrise on their own & then join us for a Downhill Bike Ride. Since our tour starts at 9am, guests that still want to experience sunrise on their own and save a bundle of money, go up on their own and then drive down immediately following sunrise. You will need a reservation with the National Park as mentioned above, it is very crowded so get there early and you do need to wake up around 2am to get up the volcano in time. It takes about an hour and a half to come down and reach our shop in Paia, plan to leave the summit at the latest by 7:30am. Then you can park your car for the day and we will shuttle you up for your bike ride. When you finish your ride your car will be parked in Paia ready to explore the North Shore.

Keep in mind all the sunrises and sunsets are 50/50 that you will have incredible views due to our tropical weather and clouds that come through. At least for sunset you can decide if it’s worth it but for sunrise it’s all or nothing, due to your reservation and its dark and cold so you can’t totally see the weather. Remember sometimes you see clouds above but you often times break through the clouds and travel a couple 1000’ feet above the clouds. It varies from day-to-day!