Recently Viewed
Private Tour: Waitomo Caves Day Trip from Auckland with Glowworm Grotto Boat Ride
3.5
12 Ratings
Auckland Central
Explore the renowned Waitomo Caves on an exclusive day tour from Auckland. Begin with a brief overview of the ‘City of Sails’ provided by a personal guide, then journey in a private vehicle to the caves illuminated by glowworms. The boat tour through the Glowworm Grotto offers a unique and memorable experience, conducted in groups within the caves.
Explore the renowned Waitomo Caves on an exclusive day tour from Auckland. Begin with a brief overview of the ‘City of Sails’ provided by a personal guide, then journey in a private vehicle to the caves illuminated by glowworms. The boat tour through the Glowworm Grotto offers a unique and memorable experience, conducted in groups within the caves.
Duration:
8 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Auckland Domain - 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 Glowworm Caves - 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…
- Auckland Domain - 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 Glowworm Caves - 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.
What's Included
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- All taxes, fees and handling charges included
- Light refreshments and bottled water provided
- Private driver/guide
- Transport by private vehicle
- Entrance Tickets
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- All taxes, fees and handling charges included
- Light refreshments and bottled water provided
- Private driver/guide
- Transport by private vehicle
- Entrance Tickets
What's Not Included
- Food and drinks
- Personal expenses
- Pick up from Port/ Airport (if required)
- Food and drinks
- Personal expenses
- Pick up from Port/ Airport (if required)
Additional Information
- 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
- 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
Location
Auckland Domain
Park Road,
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
3.5
(12 Ratings)
5 stars
4 stars
3 stars
2 stars
1 star
Susan_s
Mar 2, 2026
Glowing about the worms - 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.
Review provided by Viator
Megan_t
Jan 21, 2024
Bucket list excursion - 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.
Review provided by Viator
Robin
Mar 18, 2019
Waitomo caves and Hobiton - 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!
Review provided by Viator
Tracey_b
Jan 1, 2017
We had a lovely guide, Irina and we... - <p>We had a lovely guide, Irina and we thoroughly enjoyed the day and the experience. We would recommend this tour to others.</p>
Review provided by Viator
Jeanne_h
Mar 28, 2025
Great caves but just a driver - 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.
Review provided by Viator
Ruth_s
Jan 28, 2025
Fabulous caves, disappointing journey - 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.
Review provided by Viator
Frequent_traveler200
Mar 3, 2018
Not good value - 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.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Armenak_z
Jan 2, 2025
Caves - 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.
Review provided by Viator
Philip
Jul 16, 2021
Total rip-off!!! - “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.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Anders
Jan 28, 2018
Not what it was made out to be - 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.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
More activities from this operator
