roads on the Big island

Can anyone tell me, are there roads on the BI that you should stay off of? We were on Maui a few years ago and there were a few roads that went from 2 lane hghways with gaurd rails to a gravel road (maybe 1 1/2 lanes wide) no guardrails and high up in the mountains. Just thought we would like to know for our future trip to the BI. We will have a rental car and the rental car companies request that you stay off of some roadways. They never let us know this type of thing when we rented on Maui. All help would be greatly appreciated:)

roads on the Big island

hey there, yes there are a few side roads, but unlike on Maui you can drive all around the island with no such concerns.

The big three:

Mauna Kea Summit Road from the Visitor%26#39;s Center to the summit.

Road to ';Green Sands'; beach.

Waipi`o Valley Rd from the lookout into the valley.

These three are sketchy roads.

Not difficult but not paved:

The gravel road out to Kiholo Bay.

More out of the way:

Honolulu Landing Road from intersection of Hwy 132 and 137 north of Kapoho to Hawaiian Beaches subdivision.

Road to the Sea.

Any road supposedly going to Makalawaena beach.

The road out to Kekaha Kai park is paved, I guess, but many report it to be a bear to drive.

Then as to the Saddle Rd (Hwy 200), between Mauna Kea Access Rd and the Waikoloa side intersection, varies with rental agency.

I may have missed some.

roads on the Big island

Make sure you read yor rental contract, you are forbidden to take the carr off the paved road anywhere and there are some paved roads that will be off limit too.

I dont know but we ended up on probably the same scary road on Maui as you did! the one west of Kahalui? I was so scared and my fiance was laughing at me for leaning in...as if that would keep us from driving off the edge!! We%26#39;ll be going back to Maui after our Big Island trip in june and know better now :)

I didn%26#39;t think the Green Sand beach road was too bad. We didn%26#39;t encounter a lot of traffic. When we did, we slowed down and pulled over. Of course I grew up on gravel roads. :)

We ended up getting sand blasted as we hiked the 50 miutes to Green Sand beach. It was extremely windy. In hindsight, I%26#39;d just buy a picture.

The road from the Place of Refuse to Cook%26#39;s momument was single lane. The pavement was better than the Green Sand Beach road, but a tour bus, and convertible going way to fast, made it a little scarey.