Skyline Hawaii Haleakala Sunrise Tour
- Home
- Maui
- Haleakala Tours
- Skyline Hawaii Haleakala Sunrise Tour
Highlights
- Middle of the Night Pickup at your resort or Central Maui Park-n-Ride
- Park Admission and sunrise viewing permit included
- Watch sunrise and includes breakfast on the mountain
- Fewer children on this tour since they have no child rate
Description
Your driver-guide will greet you at your hotel or the Central Maui Park-n-Ride. After sunrise and a tour of the park you will have breakfast at the Maui Tropical Plantation.
- Hotel pickup (or meeting point at Central Maui Park-n-Ride)
- Viewing of Sunrise as it rises above the clouds is the climax of the morning. The unforgettable show of light and color bursting into view is a spiritual experience for many. Majestic views from the 9,740 ft elevation are unparalleled anywhere. You can often see the Big Island to the east!
- Descend through the Clouds as you gently glide through the changes in topography, weather, and scenery accompany elevation changes.
- Return to your hotel or Central Maui Park-n-Ride after your morning on fabled Haleakala.
Cost
Skyline Haleakala Sunrise Rate (SKYH7)
$229.95 per Participant (plus 4.712% Hawaii sales tax)
If your dates are already sold out with Skyline Hawaii we have two suggestions for you. First, check availability with the other two tour operators who also do Haleakala Sunrise Tours. See Valley Isle Excursions and Polynesian Adventures. Second, if all tour operators are sold out on the Sunrise Tour consider the Haleakala Sunset Tour instead. Sunsets are just as pretty, and the park is a lot less crowded in the evening!
Details
Schedule: Daily
Pick Up: Around 2:00am to 2:30am depending on the location of your accommodations and time of the year
Duration: 8-10 hours depending on your pickup location.
Tour Includes: Round trip transportation, park admission, guide, breakfast at Kula Lodge, cozy jackets.
Restrictions: Because of the high elevation, this tour is not recommended for anyone with breathing or heart problems or pregnant women.
What to Wear: Dress in layers. Bring a warm jacket or sweater along and wear long pants. Closed toed shoes with socks will keep you warm. Cozy jackets will be provided if you need one.
Reservations: Advanced reservations required. This event is "RESERVE NOW PAY LATER"; we need a credit card on file to finalize your reservation but we do not charge you for this reservation until a few days before the beginning of your vacation!
Minimum Notice for Cancellations / Changes: At least 48 hours before the start of the event. All tours go out rain or shine.
Kevin's Activity Tips:
In February of 2017 Haleakala National Park implemented a reservation system for sunrise viewing from the summit of the crater. Without advanced reservations, visitors are not permitted to drive rental cars into the National Park from 3am to 7am. If you want to see a sunrise from the top of Haleakala and you didn't secure a permit weeks before your Maui arrival, one of these tours is your only way to get inside the park in the pre-dawn hours.
Sunrise on Haleakala has gotten SO popular that it is hard to find space on any of these tours if you aren't planning ahead. There isn't a tremendous difference between the three tour operators who have permits to run Haleakala Sunrise tours. Your decision on which company to go with may come down to taking whichever company still has space available for your date. One of the advantages of doing this tour with Skyline Hawaii the inclusion of cold-weather clothing. If you don't have winterish clothes with you in Hawaii, Skyline provides jackets if you need one! One potential downside ... Skyline Hawaii offers resort pickup in West Maui and in South Maui, but they don't offer both pickups on the same day. The pickup route for each tour is based upon the location of the first reservation that they've gotten for that date. If you reserve this tour and you are staying on the West Side and the date is already scheduled for South Side pickups, you would have to drive to the Central Maui Park-n-Ride to meet up with the tour in the middle of the night. When we run into this situation we always contact clients and check if this option is acceptible to them, and if not we try to move you to a different date or switch to a different company. As for the tour cost, Skyline Hawaii doesn't offer a child rate. If you have kids, it will be less expensive to go with Polynesian Adventure Tours. If you don't have kids, then the advantage of Skyline is there will be probably be fewer of them on your tour since children are the same rate as adults. The families tend to go with another company.
The road to the summit of Haleakala is not as narrow as the road to Hana, but there are hairpin turns … LOTS of them. And driving it in the middle of the night in the dark can be a challenge. Actually, if you aren't properly rested, driving can be dangerous. Consider one of these tours … you can rest your eyes on the way up instead of having to prop them open with toothpicks and getting white knuckles from holding the steering wheel too tightly.
Haleakala is famous for its spectacular sunrises and it has a well-deserved reputation. We wish every morning at the summit could be equally beautiful, but obviously this just isn't possible. There is no way to predict which mornings are going to be pretty based upon weather forecasts. Occasionally there are days when cancellation is necessary due to a serious storm, but ordinary summit weather is notoriously unpredictable and changes quickly. The tour operators provide the same level of service every day, and incur the same expenses in operating the tour regardless of the quality of the sunrise view on any given day. All they can do is take people on their tours every day and watch what happens as the sun rises.