I don’t think I’ve ever written an App review until right now. We LOVED using the Shaka app on the Road to Hana. As someone who does her research and extensively prepares for adventures like the Road to Hana, I can honestly say that we would’ve been lost and confused without the Shaka guide. It provided us invaluable information throughout the day, like where to park for different sights, which spots had fees associated with them, which places we could skip and hit on the way back if time, which places had bathrooms, where to get food, what time certain sights close, etc. Seeing as you don’t have Internet access or service most of the drive to Hana and back, we never would’ve been able to access that level of info and detail without Shaka. Using Shaka let us prioritize the sights we wanted to see, skip the ones that were less important to us or would be more time consuming, and find the often shrouded entrances and parking areas necessary to actually see and enjoy the various waterfalls, natural pools, caves and arboretums. PLUS, we learned so much about Hawaii, its history and traditions, which was especially appreciated on the drive back from Hana, when we were done with our stops but needed the audio company. We were honestly sad to end our time with Shaka and our narrator for the Road to Hana. Will recommend to absolutely everyone going to Hawaii!!!

First, and most importantly, this app is absolutely worth the $20. It’s very informative, has great stops for sightseeing and tasty food, and the GPS worked very well even in areas with little service. HOWEVER, and this is a huge however, TURN AROUND when they suggest you turn around. If you’re doing this drive, they give you the option to do a complete circle or go halfway and turn back because the road becomes “challenging.” To call the road challenging is such an understatement it feels borderline illegal. I’m a 30 year old man and literally almost started crying the drive is so frightening. It’s a narrow single lane road on the edge of a cliff with no guard rail. And it’s an actual cliff with like a 100 foot drop. If a car comes at you, one person has to reverse down the mountain until there is a spot when it can slip by you. The second half of the drive was one of the scariest experiences of my life in that I actually feared for my life. The Shaka app shouldn’t even have the option to do a full circle loop because a customer will actually die (if that hasn’t happened already). To be fair to Shaka, the app gives plenty of warnings (probably at least 5) that drive will become difficult and challenging and you should turn around if you’re an anxious driver. TURN AROUND. But otherwise, 5 stars and I would definitely recommend Shaka with this caveat.

I want to preface this by saying I never ever write app reviews. My husband and I just traveled to Kauai for his birthday. Even though it’s a small island I was so overwhelmed with finding the best places to explore. There was so much to do and I didn’t want to miss out on the best spots for us to experience. This app was a life saver! We were really impressed with the GPS audio tour of each side of the island. It is so nice to do the tours on your own time and stay as long as you want. That wouldn’t be possible if you were doing a group tour and I would have no idea what would be a good stop if I planned it on my own. One day we had surf lessons but they were rescheduled because of weather, not to worry because we could hop in the car on a whim and start a tour instead. The day was not wasted! We loved learning about the culture and found it very helpful for what was worth a stop and what we could pass on. My only suggestion would be to incorporate a travel user interface for apple car play that acts more like google maps or Apple Maps. We found it hard to tell exactly where to turn at some spots distance wise. We had to keep zooming out to see upcoming turns because the audio instructions were just a tad early. We are excited to try this app with some national parks!

We did the Maui full loop tour. The tour guide was engaging, gave lots of great local tips and history. There were tons of places to stop and the narrator gave pros and cons because you couldn’t stop at every single one and make it in a day. We made lots of little stops and then a nice long picnic lunch break at Hāna Bay. I appreciated the heads up about the rough roads on the second half of the tour. The roads are listed as “narrow and some dirt roads,” but I would say it’s more like a couple miles of gravel roads. Really not any more precarious than the first half. The main thing is to take the corners slowly because most of them are blind and you don’t know if somebody’s coming around. The narrator reminds you to be thoughtful about locals and drive safely. I think the biggest driving hazard is other tourists as these roads are unfamiliar to us. For the most part, the narrative tracked us really well via GPS, very impressive considering there are lots of areas with no signal, so obviously download it first. It was totally worth the $20 we spent and I will look for these tours other places we visit. Thanks!