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A Rotorua Maori Experience is the best way to learn about the Maori culture while visiting New Zealand. This blog post includes everything you need to know about a Maori Experience including the company we recommend and what you can expect if you go for yourself!
New Zealand is a country that has so much to offer its visitors. From the stunning Southern Alps, huge volcanoes, breathtaking hiking trails, and turquoise lakes, New Zealand has something for everyone.
These, although unique things to do in New Zealand, do exist elsewhere in the world. However, there is one experience that only exists in New Zealand – a Rotorua Maori Experience!
The Maori people were the first culture to call New Zealand home. In the years prior they have been the sole guardians of New Zealand’s rich flora and fauna. To this day, the Maori culture still holds a huge significance to New Zealand and its people.
A Rotorua Maori experience is the best way to learn about the history and culture of the Maori people in a fun and interactive way where you’ll get involved yourself!
Here’s everything you need to know about a Rotorua Maori Experience including the best tour to choose from and what to expect!
Quick Pick: Our Favorite Tour
Don’t have time to read the full article?
Our FAVORITE Rotorua Maori experience is this tour of Tamaki Village. It includes an amazing 3-course dinner, many interactive activities, and an incredible cultural performance.
Check out the 1,000+ 5-star reviews and book this tour here!
Tip: This tour is very popular – secure your spot here and get FREE cancellation before you go.
What is a Rotorua Maori Experience?
Rotorua Maori Experience is an interactive lesson into the lives and culture of the Maori people set in a traditionally-built Maori village. Run by Maori people, this experience has been kept as authentic as possible to give visitors the best insight possible into New Zealand’s Maori People.
The experience is actually a tour where you’ll dive into and learn about the different aspects of Maori life including, dance, art, culture, food, war, and love. This is truly an interesting tour and the perfect insight into the Maori people of New Zealand.
Rotorua Maori Experience Location
Rotorua is a small city located in New Zealand’s North Island in the Bay of Plenty region. The city sits on the shores of Lake Rotorua. Just outside of the city is where the Maori villages are located and Rotorua is the best place to stay to experience them.
Choosing the BEST Maori Experience in Rotorua
There are a few different Maori experiences in Rotorua to choose from. Each offers its own unique touch. Here’s a bit about all of the tours and the one I chose for a few reasons!
- Tamaki (Te Pā Tū): From $270 NZD, lasts 3 hours, starts in the evening, includes a 3-course dinner, cultural performance, and transport. Rated 5 stars with over 1,200 reviews (read them here).
- Mitai: From $169 NZD, lasts 3 hours, starts in the evening, includes dinner, transport, a hike to see glowworms, and a cultural performance. Rated 4.5 stars with over 1,000 reviews (read them here).
- Whakarewarewa: From $45, lasts 1.5 hours, includes a guided village tour, no dinner or transport, and starts multiple times during the day. Rated 4.5 stars with over 300 reviews (read them here).
The 3 tours above are the three most popular Maori Experiences in Rotorua and many of them are a great choice. However, when it came to picking my tour I looked at all the pros and cons and went with the Tamaki Maori Experience.
The reason?
For one, the tour included a highly reviewed traditionally cooked 3-course dinner. This was amazing and a huge part of the experience.
The second reason was that they are the most famous and first-ever Maori experience in New Zealand. It was started by two brothers who had a dream to share their culture with visitors.
To be honest, the Mitai Maori Experience and the Tamaki tours are very similar and both tours include the same things. The Whakarewarewa tour is the perfect tour for budget travelers as it’s much cheaper when you don’t include dinner or transport to the village. So, the choice is yours, however, I can personally say the Tamaki Maori Experience is amazing!
Related Read: Chances are high that at some point on your visit to New Zealand you’ll be road tripping. In that case read all about how to freedom camp in New Zealand, it’s a great convenient and money saving travel hack.
Why We Book Tours with Viator
Viator is a trusted online booking system for tours around the world! We almost always book our tours using Viator for a couple of reasons:
- Free cancellation on most tours – Most of the tours on Viator allow you to cancel and get a full refund up to 24 hours in advance. This is handy in case plans change, or if booking an outdoor activity, the weather forecast is looking grim.
- Reserve now and pay later – You can secure your spot on some of the most popular tours well in advance and not pay until closer to the day of the tour.
- Lowest price guarantee – If you happen to find the same tour at a lower price elsewhere, Viator will refund you the price difference.
- Pay in your chosen currency – Avoid costly international transaction fees by choosing to pay in your home currency.
- Peace of mind – When booking with tour operators you find in person on the street or in small booking offices, you are often promised one thing and given another. This online platform holds tour operators accountable with a written description of inclusions as well as the opportunity for customers to leave reviews.
Check out the Viator website here! Or, for more info, read our detailed review about Viator here.
About the Tamaki Maori Experience
Before embarking on this tour, I was very unsure of what to expect and to be honest, a little nervous. However, a traditional Maori experience was at the top of my list of things to do in Rotorua – so off we went!
We had booked our Tamaki Maori Village tour and then on the day of we were picked up directly from our central Rotorua hotel and driven on a bus to the village. During the bus ride, our driver taught us some Maori words and also chose a chief for our tribe (bus).
Once in the village, we witnessed a traditional way Maori tribes challenged other tribes. This can end in battle or a peace offering – luckily for us, this time was peaceful! The peace offering was actually a fern leaf that our tribe leader had to bring with him through the whole experience. This was the most traditional part of the tour and something that I’ll never forget!
Next, we were welcomed into the village to learn about the Maori way of life in small interactive classes. This included learning the Haka, traditional dance, history, and learning about the Maori face tattoos and wood carvings. This made up a large portion of the tour and was a good learning experience that involved lots of laughs between the groups.
After this, we headed off to the main hall but before we entered we got to see our traditional Hangi meal pulled from the ground. This is called the “Earth Oven.” They then explained how it works and how you can do it yourself if you’re up for it!
This was really cool to see and such a great way to cook food!
Once in the main hall, we got to see a few performances including seeing the Haka made famous by the New Zealand rugby team!
Then, it was time to eat! The meal provided was really amazing and included chicken, lamb, fish, salad, and veggies and was all finished off by an amazing dessert of Pavlova and cake.
Once dinner was over so was the tour. We headed back to the bus for what ended up being the funniest bus ride I’d ever been on – our driver was such a great guy!
Learn more about the Tamaki Maori Experience and book your spot here!
Related Read: Hobbiton is one of the most internationally famous things to do in New Zealand but is Hobbiton worth it? Read my Hobbiton review!
What I thought of the Maori Experience
The entire Rotorua Maori experience with Tamaki Maori Village is really a great experience and I enjoyed the entire night. From the start of the night, it was really engaging and felt very authentic. The interactive learning activities got everyone involved and the village itself was a work of art.
The performances were good, the costumes were authentic and the entire village was so impressive! We consider the Rotorua Maori Experience one of the best things to do in New Zealand!
Our Recommended Maori Experience Tour
After joining the Tamaki Maori Village experience both Bailey and I can highly recommend them. The entire production was authentic and interactive and of good value.
All of the staff were all so proud of their own culture and it really showed in the small details and personal connections they made with us guests. I would like to leave a special mention to our bus driver “Dennis the Menace”, what a fun bus trip back to Rotorua it was!
The Tamaki Rotorua Maori Experience has been one of the highlights of my trip here so far. One of the reasons Bailey and I travel is to learn, meet, and experience other cultures. The Maori experience lived up to the hype and we are so happy to be able to support the preservation of the Maori culture – and hope we can also help you decide to join along!
Book your evening Rotorua Maori Experience at Tamaki Village here!
Renting a Car or Campervan in New Zealand
The first step to planning your New Zealand road trip is choosing your set of wheels! Most people rent a campervan or motorhome to get around, but you can also just rent a normal car and stay in hotels (as opposed to camping.)
You can search for rental cars online with Discover Cars in advance to compare car models and prices. We’ve used this website all over the world and if you want more details, read our honest review of Discover Cars for more details!
You can also do this with motorhomes and campervans on a website called Motorhome Republic. It shows all of the available campervans and motorhomes for your specific New Zealand road trip dates. You can compare prices and company reviews here too!
JUCY is our personal favorite campervan rental company in NZ. We love JUCY because they have such a range of both cars and campervans available, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to find something to suit your budget and travel style.
We’ve actually secured an exclusive discount code for our readers with JUCY. Just click here to browse their availability and use the code DTRAVEL25 at checkout to get 5% off! What a good deal!
You can check prices, availability and book with JUCY online here.
Star RV is another company we personally recommend but specifically for motorhomes! They offer larger motorhomes (as opposed to budget campervans) at really reasonable rates.
Star RV has actually given us a discount code for our readers too! Use the code DTRAVEL25 at checkout to get 5% off your motorhome rental! Click here to browse availability, prices, and book with our discount code!
Note: For both Star RV and JUCY, no discounts or promotions will be applied for pickups from December 16, 2024 to January 19, 2025 for New Zealand and Australia. But for the entire rest of the year, the discount is yours!
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance!
If you’re looking to save money on travel insurance, we currently use and recommend SafetyWing. We’ve been using their coverage since 2018 and they’ve had our backs when we needed emergency flights and got sick overseas.
SafetyWing is one of the cheapest providers out there and covers everything from medical costs to lost luggage, travel delays, and emergency flights. A huge difference we’ve found between them and other companies is that they let you take out a policy AFTER leaving your home country. We’ve also found it handy that it’s a monthly payment rather than a lump sum, and you can get a refund for unused time.
SafetyWing has helped us out in some scary situations before and their affordable coverage has given us peace of mind. You can read our honest review of SafetyWing for all the pros and cons.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks so much for reading our guide to the Rotorua Maori Experience! We hope this guide has got you excited about your upcoming trip to Rotorua, New Zealand. If you have any other questions please leave them below in the comments section!
If you liked this blog then be sure to check out all our informative guides on our official New Zealand page or check out these related articles below!
Nina Out and About
Monday 27th of May 2019
Love the post (and thanks for the shout out). This experience was so wonderful!