3-Day Auckland to Wellington Tour

While the trip so far has been fine, I would just like to caution folks that this is not end to end tour where you are accompanied by a guide. It seems like tourist agent booking individual components. The first part the trip was through Flexi Tours. The guide was knowledgeable. There was some confusion as different people had different understanding of what their “tour” was. On closer inspection, it looks like the last trip from Rotorua to Wellington is on a bus. Overall, I would this is fine if you want someone to book everything for you, but possibly not if you are expecting a guided tour experience. So buyer be aware.

I had read several not so nice reviews regarding Viator.. I still went for it and am so very happy with the way I was looked after, the coaches/ Vans were very comfortable and the Driver’s were experts at the wheel and absolutely informative . Reservations at all the different locations were done to precision. The Hotel, “Prince’s Gate” in Rotorua was charming , comfortable with helpful staff . 100/100 for Viator, I will surely recommend them to my contacts and social media forums.

DO NOT USE LEISURE TOURS. We booked a three day tour from Auckland to Wellington and paid $1308 US dollars. Day one we went to the Glowworm caves, Agrodome and Went to see the Maori traditional dances. At end of day, we were supposed to be dropped off at the hotel but instead they dropped us off at the information center and we had to get ourselves to the hotel from there. Day 2 we were on our own in Rotorua. They never took us to the Rainbow Nature Park as they had indicated they would on the website. They claim it was an oversight. Day 3 The itinerary said that we were going to see various locations which gives the impression that you’re still on our tour. Instead you’re on a public bus without any toilet for eight hours and the bus is stopping and picking people up from one Little town to another but there is no sightseeing. The drivers were rude and if you mentioned you needed to use a toilet when the bus stopped they told you to hurry up because they were already running late. The bus was dirty and had no accommodations and barely any air-conditioning. When we got to Wellington artist nation the bus was running about 10 minutes late so the cab they were supposed to pick us up had already left. We were on our own and took an Uber to our hotel We emailed Leisure tours and told them of our experience. They apologized for the fact that they had missed the rainbow park and told us that they would reimburse us for the two trips that we took on our own to the hotel as a courtesy. They said that the first driver should’ve never dropped us off at the information site but that we should have called the cab when we got to Wellington because even though the cab had already left since we were late, that the cab would have come back. In terms of the third day which really was the day from hell they made no apology and said that the trip is designed to take a public bus and the bus we took was not unusual and that the stops were not unusual. Their advertising is misleading they make it sound like you’re basically still on a tour seeing different places on the third day We will never take a tour again from leisure tours and we are writing this review for those of you who may be thinking about it.