Shaka Guide | GPS Audio Tours 4+

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!!!

So happy to hear you had an amazing time on your Shaka Guide tour. Hope to see you all again on more Shaka Guide adventures. 🤙😍🤙

We downloaded the Shaka app for our self-guided tour of the road to Hana in Maui. Let me just say it was well worth the $20. Honestly this tour was SO well done, Maui tourism should advertise it. Not only did it guide us on a road with zero cell service, it gave us in depth info about each stop before we got to it. It taught us about the beautiful history of Hawai’i and had great music along the way. My favorite part had to have been the reminders to respect the road signs, nature, and most importantly the locals. As respectful tourists, it is really nice to know the not so obvious
not to do’s or places locals would like to keep to themselves. This was a very great thing to add to the tour and I really respect that!
We chose the classic road to Hana as the loop is currently closed. I thought the ride home was going to be boring but to my surprise, the tour included a whole new bunch of info for the ride back! So so so well done. Probably even better than the guided tours. I will absolutely be recommending this and will definitely use it again when we return to Hawai’i!!!

Mahalo for your review and recommendation. Hope to see you and your family again on more Shaka Guide adventures on the Islands! 🤙😍🤙

I really like the idea of this kind of guide, but in the end I have mixed feelings about Shaka. We listened to all of the Volcano NP tour and part of the south coast tour. Here’s what I liked and what I didn’t.

The good: music selections and stories about the gods and legends were both highlights. Because the guide is keyed to gps, you do see things you might otherwise have missed. The turn by turn directions work great for some tricky intersections

The less good: for my taste, these guides are short on information. The Volcanoes guide was better in this regard than the south coast guide, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that these guides were pitched at too general an audience to really tell you very much. Vanishingly little history, not much Hawaiian cultural information beyond the mythology I mentioned above, and light on science and natural history. I get the sense that in an effort to make the guides accessible to all audiences, they’ve reduced the content to just the slimmest basics. Maybe if you’re traveling with small kids this is a bonus, but I found most of the entries too light on information to be very interesting. I bought the whole big island package, but after listening to one and a half tours I think I’ve had my fill. I like the (printed) Hawaii: The Big Island Revealed *much* better. But of course you can’t read that while you’re driving!

Aloha! Thank you for your kind feedback. We are reviewing this and several other suggestions for future updates.