Hale Akua Garden Farm & Eco-Retreat - Haiku, Hawaii

Kassidy M. P.

10/10! A must book for retreat hosts and groups traveling. Best stay on Maui by far and I live here. Do yourself a favor and book it. The property is immaculate, the staff is amazing, & it feels like real life Hawaii. Cannot recommend enough!!!!

Jen H.

I was not expecting what we encountered based on the photos and reviews. This place is not nearly as nice as advertised. I know they're trying, but I was terribly disappointed and couldn't even stay for the second night. The room had ants crawling over furniture and on the walls. There was no air conditioning, but we thought for sure it was advertised having it. The "office" closes at night so there's no one to go to if you need things besides an "emergency number" you can call in the evenings. It was very dark and hard to see around the property after sunset. The pool was dirty, and the hot tub was a small "family style" hot tub you would find in someone's backyard. It was hard to know if it was kept clean or treated regularly. Folks seemed friendly and maybe the farm would have been cool, but it was really hard to relax in the room that wasn't well kept so I couldn't stay. I was really looking forward to staying here, but the retreat is not as advertised and was definitely a disappointment. Perhaps it was due to being low season. I'm not sure. But I couldn't even ask, because there was no staff around past 5pm.

Kento S.

Hale Akua was amazing. Great place to stay if you’re looking to get an early start to Road to Hana and get ahead of the traffic. The property is remote and you will not have reception of any kind until you arrive on the property to access their wifi. No noise complaints what do ever and the staff are great, friendly people.

Almudena R.

I spent I night in the waterfall house. The place is amazing, very beautiful. But it was very humid, which is not very healthy. There was a strong smell of humidity. It is a pity. It could have been an amazing place but I didn't feel well there and I couldn't sleep all night

gwenji

watching sunrise from our private deck overlooking the mountain and oceans in Maui was a highlight of our trip. at night the sky was packed with stars. we even had fresh eggs from the farm. we stayed in the Jasmine room which made us feel like VIP's. excellent outdoor shower (indoor one nice too). could not recommend more. that said you are in rural maui. no restaurant or bar, 20-30 minutes away - but if you want a quiet, chill relaxing private time, Hale Akua can't be beat!

Kevin A.

So I think if you stayed in any room other than the one we did (the Garden room), and/or you have more considerate upstairs guests, this would be an amazing place to stay, but we got unlucky with both and had people directly above us stomping around, rearranging furniture, dropping things, etc from literally 4am to 5:30 at which point we gave up and just left early. Rather ruined the whole experience of staying here for a couple nights.

Other than that it's a very beautiful place, the rooms are oldish but still nice, wonderful location at the beginning of the road to Hana with a view of the ocean from the hot tub, lovely saltwater pool. I'd recommend staying here, just avoid the Garden room or you're taking your chances with whoever's staying above you.

Important to know & annoying to us that there's a $50+ fee for arriving after 5pm - in all the hundreds of hotels we've stayed at we've very rarely arrived that early, and never come across a place without a good late check-in process even if they aren't open late. It was nice to get the tour when we arrived but not necessary, we could've parked and found our room fine with just instructions and done the tour the next day.

Terrie T.

We chose Hale Akua as our base for Road to Hana (RTH). The location for RTH adventures is great because it's ~10 minutes from Twin Falls and you get a head start compare to most people. It's also about 20-25 minutes from Paia and some restaurants in up country.

A lot of other reviews are based on stays in the private villas. We want to share the good and the bad from our experience at the Sunrise room which has a shared bathroom. The Sunrise room is located right above the office. We shared a bathroom with another room. The laundry room is in the same building and the kitchen is located in a different building.

The Good's:
- good location
- nice view of the ocean from the hot tub
- good variety of tools available in the kitchen
- free laundry; they have 1 washer and 2 dryers available between 4pm and 10pm.
- Elkay water dispenser available
- it wasn't too bad to drive around after dark. I would encourage you to check-in during daylight so you know where you are going though.

The Bad's:
- Cleanliness: the bedside table clearly has a good amount of dirt that can be picked up by a tissue. We had a shared bathroom and it was not cleaned over our 3-night stay. The room next door was occupied for our first night only, and their door were left opened for the next 2 nights uncleaned. (see picture) The dishes were not clean.
- Wind: we stayed in early April. We heard wind blasting through the night. We met another couple who stayed there and they agreed that it was pretty scary. However, the structure does feel safe. There's no debris flying around.
- Farm: When we booked, the website says the farm tour was included, but that's no longer the case and is not $30pp. The farm product options were limited and were pricey. $10 for a dozen of eggs.

Nancy H.

Our room was very cold. It could have used a space heater and better pillows. A chair in the room would have been nice.. The shared shower wasn’t very clean. There was a beautiful sunrise view to see right from bed. We enjoyed using the kitchen.