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©2008 Santana Cycles, Inc.
Your friends who ride singles will be jealous. In Hawaii, where a dozen touring companies use the same busy highway to circle the Big Island, Santana alone offers something more spectacular. Instead of six days circling one big island; we found seven better rides on three smaller, friendlier and less-visited islands -- Maui, Lanai and Molokai. And because you won't want to spend every waking hour on a bicycle, Santana's multi-dimension adventure also includes waterfall hikes, a swim with wild dolphins, Hawaii's best snorkeling, sailing amidst whales, kayaking the islands' only barrier reef, inter-island transfers using chartered gyro-stabilized yachts, a mule ride down the face of the planet's highest sea cliff, and expert paddling lessons in an authentic outrigger racing canoe.
While all seven of the tour's tandem rides are relatively traffic-free, one deserves special mention. After developing guidelines and achieving a perfect safety record, Santana received an exclusive permit from Haleakala Volcano National Park that allows our participants to experience something beyond the scope of other cycling tours. From the lip of the 10,000 foot crater (where we witness sunrise before unloading our tandems) an unforgettably beautiful descent to the beach not only passes through sixteen distinct bio-zones, it also qualifies as the world's longest uninterrupted paved downhill.
Where will we stay? Instead of using condos or inland accommodations, all nights are in full-service beachfront hotels. Food? We include all meals, toast each sunset with a tropical drink, and, after a themed dinner, use nightly live entertainment to explore authentic Hawaiian culture. Expensive? For a simpler 6-day / 5-night circuit of one island Trek gets $2995; Backroads $2998. Santana's 2010 adventure with 3 islands and twice as many extras is a mere $2895. So what's the problem? Unless your friends are ready to discover the joys of tandeming, you'll have to leave them behind.