Our experience on Molokai was not positive and we would not recommend for others to visit unless you have a reliable rental car and are looking for isolation. The island overall is very sleepy and not many people live there. The people who do live on island are almost all born and raised there.

Hotel Molokai

For our time in Moloakai, we stayed in an AirBnB located at Hotel Molokai. This saved us a little bit of money. However, the hotel was severely lacking in amenities and services that were listed on the website. We did enjoy the pool. However, the views from the hotel were of murky dirty water because of the side of the island it is located on. It was a 2 mile walk into town and we did that walk many times because there was almost a complete unavailability of transportation. We were able to catch a community bus once. However, other times, they just drove right past us. Taxis could take up to multiple hours to become available. There were no rental cars OR rental bikes. We planned to rent bikes for our stay but were unable to do so because the only bike rental place on the island was closed for a month. We felt trapped and did not even get to see any of the pretty parts of the island.

Molokai Hot Bread

This is the talked about thing to do on Molokai. We took an extremely over-priced taxi just to go get this bread. It is made at night in the back of a shop through an alley. We had seen vlogs and write ups on this place so we thought it had to be worth it. It is basically a huge loaf of bread cut in half and slathered with a flavor. We chose cinnamon and butter as recommended by someone at our hotel. It was very confusing to order and definitely over-priced but we figured that we already paid a taxi to get there and it should be the highlight of Molokai. We were so wrong. It was dry and strange. We didn’t even eat half of it. Plenty of people love it, so you may want to try it if you visit, but we were not fans.

Basketball and Local Insight

Along one of our many long walks, we came across some high schoolers playing basketball. Brandon decided to stop over and play a few games with them. They talked all about the island and the old way and new way. It brought a lot more understanding to why we were unable to secure a rental. Basically, there is a lot of negativity towards outsiders on the island. Many people do not want tourism of any kind and do not care for main-landers, which is why we were treated poorly. The newer generations seem to be trying to change that, hopefully that comes to fruition.

Kalaupapa

We had a super sweet lady offer to take us to the airport when she saw us waiting at a bus stop. We were getting anxious that the bus would not pick us up and there wasn’t a taxi available. We had no idea what we were going to do. She just so happened to stop by and ask what we were doing and we explained. She wasn’t born on the island and entered as an outsider but she had been on island for quite a while. She was so kind and when we told her about the transportation issues and how we barely saw anything, she asked if we had enough time for a stop. She took us to the lookout point for Kalaupapa Peninsula, the community that was established to assist leprosy (Hansen’s disease) patients. The story is very sad and interesting. We learned all about the history. The lookout is gorgeous and with the higher altitude, it was so fresh and breezy. That’s definitely a place to check out if visiting.

Small Flights and Views

The best part of Molokai was flying there and back. We flew with Mokulele Airlines on tiny planes. There was only seating for up to 8 people including the pilots. The views from the plane were breathtaking. We felt like we were on a scenic tour. We were flying low and able to see so much. We definitely recommend flying with Mokulele for the beautiful experience between the Hawaiian islands.