Waitomo Caves: Tours & Tickets

Love the entire activity: from Hobbiton to Rotorua and Waitomo Caves. Booking was easy breezy. Got Confirmation via email right away and coach service/driver was very precise with pick up time (which i like!) at the hotel where we stayed. Just a little glitch for me was the time allotted for lunch and tour at Te Puia in Rotorua. Felt like we had to rush our buffet lunch just so we’ll have ample time for the tour of the area (which is kinda huge). So we ended up not being able to go around some more coz time wasnt enough. Somehow, we also wanted to enjoy our lunch after the Hobbiton activity. But all in all, it was great! Thanks! No hidden whatsover (fees, incidents, etc) unlike other tours we have experienced from diff countries with other companies.

If you love the hobbit or Lord of the Rings this trip is a must! It’s an early day but Nick, our driver, got us there before the crowds and everyone goes on the same length tour through Hobbiton itself which is just gorgeous- over 40 hobbit holes and the Green Dragon is very nice too! The Waitomo caves were incredible- our guide gave us the history of the limestone caverns and her people’s connection to them. Her great great grandfather was the chief of the local Maori people who discovered the caverns and they have been running tours since the late 1800s! The gloworm looked like constellations above us but you can’t take any pictures!

The guide was excellent-we could hear her clearly and she was informative. But we would have enjoyed more time looking at the glow worms and less time on how the cave was formed. This would have been of interest to first time cave visitors, but as we have done this kind of tour before, it was of less interest to us. The glow worms were the reason for our visit and we felt that this aspect of the tour was too short.

I highly recommend this tour! We didn’t have to drive all the back roads and through traffic. The van was comfortable. We had breaks to stretch and use the facilities. Nick, our guide, was phenomenal: friendly, knowledgeable, and a great driver. Lunch was included and tasty. And the tours were fantastic: even better than I expected! Thank you so much fir a wonderful day! You even provided beautiful weather.

I went on the Waitomo Glowworm Day Tour from Auckland. It was a nice drive through the countryside on the way to the caves. The cave experience is maybe 30 minutes tops, and the glowworms are not near as striking as the photos. It's a long way to go for a short period, but it was worth it for the unique experience.