Private Tour: Waitomo Caves Day Trip from Auckland
Description
See the popular attraction of Waitomo Caves on this private day trip from Auckland. Whisk through the 'City of Sails' with a quick introduction by your personal guide, then travel by private vehicle to the caverns brightly lit with glowworms. A boat ride through the Glowworm Grotto is an unparalleled experience you won't soon forget and is run in groups through the caves.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Pick up from your hotel accommodation and drive through Auckland CBD and head out towards Waitomo a small village in North Island of New Zealand.
Waitomo is a village on the North Island of New Zealand. It’s known for its extensive underground cave systems. Thousands of glow-worms light up the Glowworm Caves. The vast Ruakuri Cave features waterfalls and limestone formations. West, Mangapohue Natural Bridge is a high limestone arch over Mangapohue Stream. Northeast of the village.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
Pickup available from any Auckland CBD hotels, Port, or Airport (additional charges apply for port or airport) Please note that the travel is by private vehicle and the tour at the Glowworm caves is conducted in groups by the venue.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- A minimum of 2 people per booking is required
- All guides speak English. If you should need a guide that speaks one the following languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish- please book using OTHER LANGUAGE SPEAKING GUIDE
- The tour inside the Glowworm Caves is conducted in groups
Reviews(12)
Wonderful private cave. Need to be able to walk up 150 stairs as there are no elevators. Tour guide was absolutely fabulous and did not rush the tour and provided ample time for pictures. Highly recommended! Tour finished with some wonderful Kawa Kawa tea. Your Max is 10.
The caves are incredible and worth the 2.5 hour drive from Auckland. As for Private tour, our driver was a very safe and provided bathroom stops but was not really a guide. He didn’t talk the entire time unless we asked a question. We wanted to know more about Auckland, the land, etc. We told him we were only here in transit once before. A usual private guide will tell you everything about an area or country. He was a driver.
Hello, Thank you for the time in providing your feedback. All our team are driver/guides and have noted your feedback re having a driver that is more communicative and providing additional inputs on the area you are travelling through. We are disappointed, that you did not find the service up to your expectations, and will work to having this incorporated to ensure a better experience. Kind Regards, Legend Team
The glow worm caves are not to be missed--an extraordinary experience. However, be advised that it's a 2 hour 20 minute drive from Auckland to the caves and even longer back (because of Auckland traffic) for an hour in the cavern. Our main complaint is that our guide/driver was a competent driver, but not a guide at all...in fact, she had never toured the caves. Her accent was very thick, making her hard to understand, and if you were in the back of the van you couldn't hear her anyway. This would have been a wonderful opportunity to learn about the countryside of New Zealand with the right person to explain it. If all you want is a ride to the caves from Auckland, there's probably a cheaper way to get there.
Hello Ruth, Thank you for the time in sharing your feedback. Your driver/ guide is quite experienced and been to Waitomo a number of times amongst other sights in New Zealand. Your comment, re more information on the countryside is well noted and we will endeavor to incorporate the same and appreciate the feedback re being unable to hear at the back of the mini van especially with 6 people on board. Kind Regards, Legend Team
The trip was not well organized. We had to wait 2 hours for our pick up. Even though the driver was a very friendly guy. It's much easier to buy tickets at the spot and drive there with your own car.
Hello Armenak, Thanks for your feedback. We have over the years conducted many tours and these have gone without hiccups. On your tour, early in the morning we had a mechanical issue with a vehicle and this caused the initial delay. Then we had as per our communication, pick up planned from Crowne Plaza, and in your communication you requested the driver come to Hilton - as you had moved there. This, created another delay, as Hilton is on Princes Wharf and with a cruise ship there we needed to get access to the wharf at a very busy time - which was not prebooked. Coupled with this, the delay meant, that your entrance to Waitomo (which as advised was fully sold out) had to be changed with the venue to ensure you got access after the drive there - which as you can appreciate created another delay. Whilst, we understand and appreciate that this was not your fault, but as you can understand, it was not due to our not wanting you to have a great day out - we did all that was possible to ensure you got to visit the caves. We thank you for your feedback and wish you safe travels.
Wonderful driver, very respectful and knowledgeable. The worm caves were out of this world. I would highly suggest this tour to everyone. This is a bucket list item.
“Private” cave tour is a glorified Uber ride to the caves, where you then tour with the rest of the public… this company is a bunch of crooks.
Excellent - we added the Hobiton on to the Waitomo caves and it was fabulous - Anili the driver also used spare time to get us to the KIWI house - very well informed and helpful guide highly recommend!
We booked a private tour of the Glowworm Caves via Legend because we were doing as a day trip from Auckland. It was one of the most expensive activities we did (only helicopter tour more expensive) and it was not good value for the return. The Glowworm Caves were interesting...and the tour of the caves is conducted by employees of the caves, not Legend. But it was a long drive (2.5 hours each way) for the caves, the tour of which takes only about 45 min. Most people pair the Caves with Hobbinton but we werre not interested in touring a movie set. The description of the tour said it included Auckland highlights (by car) as well, though our driver did not do that. I would not recommend doing the Glowworm Caves as a day trip from Auckland; they are interesting if you are in the neighborhood, but not worth a detour. The tour of the caves itself is not expensive; we paid alot for the driver to take us there an back.
Going into the experience, we expected a full day of exploring and learning with a private guide, but instead it looked like this: 7.30-11am: Drive from Auckland to Waitomo 11am-12pm: Group Tour with 50-odd people at the Waitomo Caves, a nice enough place, but crowded and nothing private about it. 12-2.30pm: Drive from Waitomo to Auckland We spent twice as much time in a van driving to and from the caves than we did actually exploring. The description is misrepresented as there is nothing private about the Waitomo Caves tour.
<p>We had a lovely guide, Irina and we thoroughly enjoyed the day and the experience. We would recommend this tour to others.</p>
