Maui Downhill Bicycle Tours

It was great! Super early pick up from our hotel (2 am) on a nice shuttle. Got to Haleakala in time for the best viewing spots. We waited an hour until sunrise and it was fairly cold, but manageable and so worth it! The sunrise was incredible. Lots of great photos from the top. Then we met our bicycle guides — Steve and Mark — they were lots of fun while also being really professional. I am truly out of shape, but this was an easy ride. There is a stretch about 75 yards that is slightly uphill, and it was a bit of a battle. But all the rest is coasting downhill at quite a clip. The bikes are nice and fairly comfortable. So worth it for such an exhilarating ride! I think the company did a great job of making sure we were safe, trained, and taken care of while we had a fun experience.

Let’s start with the positive…
–Shuttle was on time and the driver, bald guy in his 50’s-(ish), was outstanding. Explained everything well, just funny enough and seemed to connect with everyone on the shuttle. Pretty impressive feat considering he picked us all up before 3am. He made it clear that tips were pretty important and we had no problem tipping him, assuming that he’d be taking care of us all day. More on that later.
–Although it was freezing, the sunrise was amazing. We went right to where our driver told us to go to get the best view and we were not disappointed. Perhaps worth the entire price. I cannot tell you how beautiful this sight was.
–Equipment worked fine. No issues at all. Bikes rode smooth. Brakes worked fine. Extremely important on a downhill ride.
–Everyone was friendly.
Now the negative…
–Our two guides, Mark and ‘the other guy’, were the worst part of the experience.
Mark– Between the bad cross of Hawkeye Pierce and BJ Honnicutt schtick and his constant attempts at trying to «bond» with us, he just tried to hard. He tried very hard and was very nice, but it just didn’t work. He even asked «someone please just bond with me». I get it, you work for tips, your personality sells, but for some reason he did not click with anyone. Unless you count the little Spanish señorita that ran the taco truck they brought us to for lunch. He got her number.
‘The other guy’- He was our actual guide on the bike. His knowledge was good and I have nothing but good things to say about his leadership skills on the trail. However, his repeated racial references (at one point he mocked the «Japanese with the click, click cameras». There were Japanese in our group btw), and bad political jokes went over worse than a lead balloon. His stories were long, boring and irrelevant. Again, he tried really hard, but if you continue to get dead silence every time you try to be funny, wouldn’t you eventually just stop.
–Tips, Tips, Tips. It was mentioned several times, including suggestions about the amount we should tip. It almost felt like they were begging. I work for tips and I have never once had to ask or even suggest for someone to tip. I get that maybe a lot of tourists would not know to tip for this service and if that is how these guys make their living, some «prodding» might be necessary, but it seemed awkward and over the top.
–A lot of unnecessary waiting around. The early part was ok, but after the ride, we wasted a ton of time. We had been up, as well as everyone on the trip, since 1:30 AM. When we returned to the «home base», the guys took their time unhooking the trailer, getting the gear situated and getting us back in the shuttle to take us back to our respective resorts. It wasn’t exactly what I would call a streamlined operation. One of the guys bragged early on in the ride that they are the oldest outfit on the island running these bike trips. If that’s true, you’d think they would have it down better by now. They did say they had a guy out, but our driver, the good one, was filling in and no one was new. The entire experience just seemed really ‘clunky’.
We sat on the side of the road going over mandatory safety instructions that we could have gone over in the long shuttle ride.
Over all, I would do this again, but I would shop other places to see if it’s any better. I hope this helps.

Great crew and support. Doug coached us where to go for the sunrise and we had the best seats in the house! Cody and Mark were great on the ride down.

What a great time! If you don’t use Maui Downhill you’re just plain uninformed.
Mark is The Jam, the Grand Wazoo and I want to subscribe to his newsletter. Dan is a bicycle GURU, has ridden solo across the mainland is a fantastic and informative ride leader — he does half the thing looking backwards! MD is all about safety, and having fun. If you’re a tightwad, don’t go with these guys, go with Downhill Dipshits or some other lame ride company
If you want to put some fat on your head and learn a thing or two about Maui, Haleakala or Hawaii in general, it begins and ends with Maui Downhill!
Be on time and be a good time! Tell em Barber Derek sent ya.

Don’t waste your time with this operator. Either drive up to the top of the volcano yourself or find another bike company that lets you bike at your own pace. The «guides» waste about an hour of your time telling you how to ride a bike, force stop/​start constantly and request that you rude at their pace, which is about the pace I normally walk.

Best Maui adventure!!! Sure the sunrise tour is early and it’s way cold at the top of that volcano, but ITS TOTALLY WORTH IT! We had Shane and Connor, both awesome guides and they told us everything we wanted to know, even if we asked questions. The food truck they took us to was great — get the komboocha or the pineapple lemonade. My wife and I were the only ones that grabbed the windbreaker pants and jacket and am glad we did because they said it gets cold at the top. It is colder than you think! Everyone else was probably freezing their coconuts off. I wore jeans, full socks, shirt and fleece on top. I wish I had gloves and a hat for that cold — I was still freezing! There’s some cold wind up top. The tour guides had gloves so ask for them when you get up there to walk out and wait for the sunrise!

We did the Haleakala Sunrise & cycling tour. It was a very early start to the day (pick up was 2.45am) but well worth it! The sunrise was absolutely stunning at 10,000 feet. You are issued windbreaker pants and jacket but it gets very cold up there so we’d recommend taking a warm fleece and borrowing a blanket from your hotel. A torch is also useful. The cycling down the volcano was so much fun and done as safely as possible with a van following along blocking traffic when necessary until the cyclists could move over and allow cars to pass. You do need to have a certain degree of confidence on a bike as the speeds can get quite high. The bikes are very easy to ride, no gears and good brakes. If you turn up and don’t feel up to the ride, you can ride in the van at any point. This tour was one of the best activities we did while on Maui! SO MUCH FUN!

We had booked their Sunrise Watching Haleakala tour and we were scheduled for this morning. The confirmation email that they sent us two days ago stated that we would be picked up from our hotel at 2:45am. We were ready to go and waited in front of the hotel from 2:40am onwards for almost a full hour until 3:30am — nobody showed up to pick us up. We tried to call the phone number in their email several times to find out what is going on, but we only reached their voicemails. We asked the person at our hotel reception, who saw that we had been on time and had been waiting for almost one hour, if she knew what was going on, and even she tried to contact the company for us. At 3:30am we gave up waiting for them and drove up to the mountain by ourselves.
At around 8:00am someone from their company called us back to respond to our voicemails, and the person stated that their driver had been there and we were not there on time, which was clearly a LIE (that the hotel staff could witness to). They did offer us to reschedule, however refused to give us any kind of discount or compensation for our wasted vacation time (having cut the prior day short, having waited for them for nothing, and having our tight schedule impeded by this).
I would absolutely not recommend booking the tour with this company. It’s one thing for a company to make a mistake — like forgetting to pick someone up — but it’s another thing not to take responsibility for it, instead blaming the customers and refusing to compensate them for the bad service. Very, very disappointed!

This was an awesome experience for my wife and I. We were able to go to Haleakala to watch the sunrise where Everett picked us up and managed to entertain 24 people at 230 in the morning. After watching the amazing sunrise Everett showed us some neat things to look at. From there we met up with Mark and Dan for our 16 mile bike ride down the volcano. They were so friendly and nice that there wasn’t a moment of our day that felt wasted. Great time with great instructors. I recommend using their services asap.

The highlight of our trip in Maui this time around! We booked the sunrise Haleakala, Bike and Zip tour. They clearly state on their website that it will be a long day and it was… but it was still pretty awesome!
The driver was right on time and picked us up from our Condo at the specified. They took us to their main office in Kahului as a meeting place for all their pickups. We had a quick cup of coffee and a pastry before we were given helmets and jackets. Oh and pants if we wanted. The bus ride up to Haleakala took about an hour for the 6am sunrise. It sounds like a bit early but it’s to get us right up to the edge of the railing. Is it worth it? Well it’s very cold and there will be a bit of waiting to get that good spot, but if you love to experience sunrises, it’s worth it. On a good day, this one is a doozy.
After that our driver Everett took us to the very top to see another view and some silverswords. A nice little stop. We then were dropped off a little ways down the mountain where we met up with RC and our bikes. RC was chipper and energetic. It was refreshing and fun. This enthusiasm spilled over into the safety briefing but it no way made it less complete. They are first concerned with your safety and it shows.
Finally we started our ride… it was magical. At first it was a little bit nerve racking going down that hill at what speeds seem like you’re flying. But you soon forget about it because you feel like you’re flying! It really was a great feeling just going down that hill with nothing except the wind in your helmet and one of the most beautiful views in the world. The ride itself is worth it, but with the staff being so entertaining and professional I would recommend this activity for all… families and couples alike!

We did the Bike & Zip tour booked through the zip line company Sky-​Line Eco Adventures. They picked us up from our rental house in Puamana at 2:15 am (they said 1:55 am to be outside. Don’t really mind that they were late but at least give us a heads up since we had to wait outside the community gate for twenty min.) Our driver/​guide Doug was SUPER nice and informative but we spent about 20 minutes doing introductions to everyone on the bus which I think annoyed everyone, let’s get the show on the road. He gave us some great tips about the Road to Hana that we’re going to use this week. 20 min later we arrived at the Maui Downhill building to get helmets and wind breakers. They had coffee and hot chocolate and some really gross cheap plastic wrapped pastries. Again, wasn’t hungry so I didn’t care but just stating the facts. We then left and drive an hour and 15 to the top of the summit. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE. It was raining and so windy and cold (30 degrees) and pitch black. I cannot emphasize this enough– it was insanely cold and windy and awful that we were forced to huddle together for warmth. We stood on the rail because Doug emphasized we needed to get the best spot before all the other tours and visitors arrived. We got there at 5 am and stood shivering and cold for over an hour while rain seeped into our shoes and clothes. Other tours had coffee for their visitors which would have been SO NICE. We waited and waited and didn’t get to see the sunrise because it was too cloudy. I mean it was a bummer because we went through hell for no reward but not the tours fault. Guess it happens more often than not. Back on the bus at 6:15. Arrived at the bike stop. Our tour guides Dan and Mark WERE AMAZING!!! seriously, so nice and funny and witty. The bikes were SO BAD though. They were so old, didn’t have gears, and shook and squeaked the entire time. Also, we were forced to ride in single file and our group was split up so didn’t get to see or talk to them because some of us were in the back of the line. Just all around a bummer. The view was gorgeous though and we stopped and Dan got an amazing photo of our group all propped on the bike. If they got new better bikes, and let us ride next to each other it would have been so much better. Also an issue because there were inexperienced riders so we had to go so slow. Tour was also very short we were all shocked when we arrived at the zip line place. I’d ride down the trail again on my own bike at my own pace with my friends but never on this/​a tour again.
We then got to the zip line place Sky-​Line Eco Adventures. The zip lines were pretty short except for the super long awesome fast last one (there’s 5) but scenery was beautiful and our guides were AMAZING! definitely would do zip line there again. It was so much fun. Go check out my review of them that I’ll post shortly.

We literally just came down the volcano, and we’re sitting having breakfast/​lunch with the crew. I had SO much fun on our trip and loved each and every one of our guides! Doug was our guide who drove us up the hill. He is so kind and told us a lot about the area and traditions of the Hawaiian people and culture! I’m so thankful he was our guide! He told us exactly where to watch the sunrise to get the best shots and he took some gorgeous photos of us from the top of Haleakala. For our bike ride down we had Mark and Alan (not sure if that’s how they spell their names) they were a fantastic duo! Mark’s humor is great and Alan is a great bike guide and does an awesome job at taking photos of everyone, making sure you come away with a photo like any other. We are so thankful for the guides we had today and the experiences hey provided us with. We will never forget this trip!!!

We were very disappointed with our family’s experience with this company. First and foremost, the bike guide, Steve, is not a professional as far as how he treats people. But almost as bad, is the total lack of respect for people’s time. There’s absolutely no reason that it should take almost 10 hours to go see a sunrise, and do a 40 minute bike ride. Yes the bike ride portion was 40 minutes at most. We were picked up at our hotel at 2:15 am by a very nice driver, who I should clarify is not the same person who did the bike guide part.
And others stated before, after you are picked up you then make a drive back to the company’s office near the airport, where you stop briefly to have what they consider a breakfast, which is really a frozen pastry in a plastic bag, and coffee. After sitting around for a while, you are given a motorcycle helmet to prepare for the ride. There’s very little direction or information given during this downtime, which keep in mind is happening around 3am. (Why did we have to go back to their offices, when they could have had the bikes and helmets already on board when they pick us up at the hotel?). You then hop back in the van, and you begin the journey up to the mountaintop. You arrive at the top of the mountain by 4am. Now the question comes to mind, why the heck are we at the top of a mountain this early, in the freezing cold, when the sunrise doesn’t even happen for well over an hour. Baffles me, as you could argue maybe it was to get a better view, but the guides never got out of the van and told us where to go to see the best view of the sunrise. We shiver for an hour and a half, and caught a glimpse of the sunrise off to the side behind a visitors center building. By the time we eventually realized the best place to stand and view, it was crowded with other tour groups and people.
After the sunrise, we go back to the parking lot to locate the van. The driver and the bike guide were sitting there talking to each other inside the van, not making any effort to find us, or do anything outside of their comfort zone. We then made a couple stops as we went halfway down the mountain, to sightsee. It really felt like I was more a stall tactic, as there was lots of traffic in the area and we needed to buy some time before we start the bike ride. That’s fine, better safe than sorry. We were also given some guidelines and how tipping typically occurs, with both a verbal mention, and it was put in writing on the safety paperwork. It was awkward.
We then pulled over and everyone was given some instructions on the bicycles, and then we were lined up in order from lightest weight to heaviest weight, to form a single line. By the time we started the bike ride it was after 8:30 am. Being smaller, my young grandson was near the front of the group. At one point we took a brief break on the bike ride, & I went to see how my grandson was doing, and the bike guide was very rude to me and told me not to interfere, and he would check in with him for me. I was confused, as when are you not allowed to check in with a family member, for their safety? I found Steve to be quite rude about this, and other members of the group later pointed out that they thought this was more than inappropriate on his part.
We got back on our bikes and continue down for another 10 to 15 minutes. We abruptly stopped in the middle of nowhere, were told to step away from the bikes, and then were told that was the end of the ride. Thinking back, they said we would take several breaks, but like I said we only took one so nobody had any idea it would end so abruptly. Somebody ask Steve about why we ended so abruptly, and he brushed them off, and was arrogant as usual.
We then got back into the van, and we were teased with the idea of going to this great food truck that has great food, and affordable prices, not something you typically see in Maui, and there be an art studio/​shopping experience. What a joke. It was a single food truck that sold 5 items, 4 of which have pork in them, averaging $ 11 to 12 each. The food was very disappointing. There was no artist village, as it was a simple art studio that was closed. And for all of our enjoyment, there’s a single porta potty restroom for all of us to fight over.
Clearly the owner of this bike company got a kick back to bring our group to this lone food truck, and had no concern for what we would actually want in terms of food or restrooms, after almost 9 hours away from the hotel.
The bottom line is the idea of riding down the mountain was pretty neat, and a fun experience, but this is absolutely the worst company to be handling this. We spent over $ 500 for our family of 6 to go on this excursion! If they can figure out how to better manage your time, and find a bike guide who is polite and more respectful than Steve, then there might be some hope for them. Until then, I strongly recommend you look for another bike company who appreciates its customers. Mahalo.

I was initially apprehensive about riding down Haleakala on a bike, as it seemed a bit mundane and simple at first, but it turned out to be much more amazing than I could have imagined, and riding it with Maui Downhill was much more comprehensive than I ever expected.
The guide was great and got to know each and everyone of us. He kept the trip in the van lively with funny stories and made it seem much shorter. He and the van driver knew all the interesting things along the way and pointed out the good spots to take pictures. They also made us feel very confident in their extensive experience, because despite all the jokes, they took safety very seriously. At the same time, they made us feel comfortable to ask for help.
Furthermore, they not only guided us down the mountain, but they also spent time to help us understand and appreciate the island. They even personalized the experience by giving each of us certificates of completion with our Hawaiian names on them! (Not sure if all tours do this.)
As for the mountain and the ride themselves, nothing could have prepared me for the absolutely stunning beauty that I witnessed. The ride was exhilarating. (If you are an experienced rider, you might not find it so, but I did nevertheless.) We actually went faster than I expected, and it was so fun feeling the wind rushing by.
I think it needs to be said that there’s a huge difference between driving the exact same road in a car and riding it on a bike. I felt connected to the scenery I was passing, and since there was no glass or engine noise separating me, I felt like I could take it all in more thoroughly.
Whether it was riding through passages cut into the rock of the mountain, the fragrant eucalyptus forest, or the tall, lush fields, the experience was sublime. And needless to say, the views of the island from atop the mountain were breathtaking.
I would highly recommend, but be prepared to spend the majority of a day. Also, I would advise grabbing breakfast first. A lot of people have complained about a lack of options, but I don’t think you should expect anything substantial for food. It’s Maui Downhill’s job to get you up and down the mountain, not to feed you.

This was fun! We were able to view the amazing sunrise and a local high school was up there singing as the sun rose. Definitely layer up, we also brought a blanket!
If you are doing other activities on Maui, be prepared to be disappointed in the food. As others mention, a pastry, granola bar and small water, then you need to pay for your own food at the lavender farm. We had done 3 other activities prior to this and all meals were included with plenty of great food, this tour would knock it out of the park and have better control of the timeline if they did the same.
The bus driver was amazing! He was funny, friendly and super kind. He has been doing this for 28 years. The van however reeked of smoke and the driver seemed anxious to receive tips. Be prepared to tip the bus driver and the van driver (if you choose), they should have one tip box at the end then split accordingly, in my opinion.
We would do this again at our own pace, be prepared to ride the brake if you do any biking in your day to day life… lol…
3 stars only because of lack of good food, added expenses and van experience.
Enjoy!

It’s was one of BEST experience in my life !!!
Definitely I like to try again !
Also the people who guide us they are really kind n helpful !!
Love Love Love this Haleakala tour !
Thank you so much for awesome experience ;)

All around coolest experience on the island! We took the sunrise tour (earliest possible time) with Doug. Combine a shuttle ride up a volcano to watch the sun rise with a bicycle ride down the same volcano and you have this great excursion.
All guides were informative and enjoy getting to know you-​Louie was full of energy and made sure we were safe while having fun. We stopped for photo opportunities and snacks. I hadn’t been on a bike in years, but that was no problem. Also-​extremely grateful for the loaner windbreaker pants and jacket! This is a «must-​do»

Had a great time and a great ride! Billy and Stan were great guides, they were a great duo! They kept us entertained and informed on the ride in the van and most importantly, kept us safe on the ride down. Those guys really know how to do this tour right!
Highly recommend!

I enjoyed my excursion with Maui downhill. From the start it was prefect. The driver, Gerald, who picked me up on time, was nice and up beat at 1:45am. They got us to the top if the mountain early so we could star gaze before the sun rise and told me the prefect spot to stand to see the most beautiful sun rise I’ve seen. Part 2 was a 28 Mile back rude that was beautiful. My favorite part was smelling eucalyptus trees. Mahalo! to Maui downhill

This tour was great! Take it!!!
We took the sunrise tour and it is worth getting up at 1:30am to do it. We chose to drive ourselves to their office in Kahului instead of being picked up. They had coffee and packaged Danishes for us at the office. We were fitted for a helmet and windbreaker gear before heading out.
Mark and Adam were our guides and they both were very professional and entertaining. They told us the best spot to stand to see the sunrise, which was just breathtaking. Cold but amazing. Take a blanket or two with you as the weather at the top is quite cold! They gave us a granola bar and some water before heading down in our bikes. We stopped about half way down for «lunch“at the lavender farm. Coffee and a bagel was about $ 6 each. I felt safe the whole time. Loved it!!! Loved it!