Tamaki Tours Review

Hard when you do not really master the language ...

Very disappointing. Tourist scam. Meal worthy of a canteen. We sell you typical. You have Disney !!!

Nice location in the woods, 30 minutes drive from Rotorua. When had Bob as a fabulous driver. Gave us a warm welcome, and introduced us to the village. Once in the village a clan of warriors welcomed us on a traditional way in peace to they're village. After a tour through the woods and learning about they're way of living. And learning the famous Haka, we were invited to eat a traditional meal. At first it maybe expensive, but it is worth it.

As a kiwi, I probably wouldn t choose to come here if it weren t for a school trip as the demonstrations and the tour is pretty basic and general information. The highlights though were the performances and the hangi dinner.

Very well organized (maybe a little bit too much, but I am French and I love to complain), funny and informative.

This is a great way to experience Maori culture, very imersive and everyone was happy to answer any questions. It was quite cold though as we were there in a winter night but that was the weather's fault. A fantastic experience would definitely recommend.

Note that this is the Meeting Point, not the village! The Village is a 10-15min bus ride away. On the night experience you can either make your own way to this meeting point, or a coach can pick you up from your hotel. Once everyone is here, you then get the same bus to the village. I won't repeat my full review (see the village), but the whole thing was amazing and you must do it!!

The best thing i did in New Zealand, for sure ! The show is great, you learn a lot about Maori Culture, the food is amazing and if you come with Kiwi Experience you get to stay overnight !
A must do in NZ

Unforgetable experience! Especially enjoyed the Haka! Greetings from Chief Paul!

Fantastic experience at the Maori village. Loved the way they interacted and makes us participate. Beautiful singing performances, super generous all you can eat buffet. To top the already amazing day, John (?) our Tui bus driver made us all laugh on the way back with his witty humour.. good singing John!.. but don t give up your job for it !

What a sensational Maori culture !! They even teach HAKA, the dance of warriors !! Not to mention their typical food, cooked in volcanic stone, a delight !!

This is a must going to Rotorua or NZ!! Amazing experience, amazing people and amazing food!!!

Lovely location. Very warm welcome. Great arrangements. Very well organised and very helpful.

We bought our 1 year old on the trip where most of the staff during the experience were helpful and great (Ocean in particular was awesome and gave my wife and I a small break so we had a chance to eat).

But my main gripe is against the bus driver Mark, didn't want to help us load the pram in or out of the undercarriage of the bus and actually closed the bus door on us at one stage while we were walking towards the bus in the rain with our kid. Mark offered terrible service and truth be told he thinks he's very knowledgeable and funny but is actually quite racist with his stereotypes. My wife gave him some robust feedback as well as corrected one of his geographical 'facts'.

Other than this the experience is entertaining but some of the other reviews make a good point about a 'fake experience'. I enjoyed the food also.

Well worth a visit, it was raining when we went so the village experience was cut a but short. However we moved into a covered quickly which worked well.

Food was really lovely and there was plenty of it.

Came here for our year13 tourism trip, it was amazing!! Great performance, great food, awesome to learn some more about Maori culture and history. Great fun, definitely recommend to everyone!

Had a fantastic night, all the perfomers were amazing as were our tour guides and our bus driver JR (legend). Only spot on an otherwise perfect evening was that lack of variety of lactose free dessert options that the staff were made aware of upon booking. Our only feedback would be to include lactose free desserts that arent fruit salad (we like sweets too).
All in all, we would highly recommend booking this tour for an unforgettable night.

The best show - very informative, but there is no shortage of entertainment, hangi tastes very much - I had a great time and I will remember it for a long time

Great experience of tribe who is modern by now speak English but same time train their child their cultural value and make them warrior and teach them to deal with other human being with at most respect

I've never been here domt know why it says I have but I've seen vids and looks bad.
The pic is my fren

It's a very touristy thing to do, but the effort and cultural value you get from this experience makes for a very positive experience. All of the staff work very hard to teach about their culture and ancestry, which really shows. The bonus is that the food was also great. I don't think veggies have ever tasted so good!

Wonderful evening, which we enjoyed thoroughly. Very informative and interesting with a wonderful meal and a great show. Would highly recommend going.

Very educational.great experience.most delish food and entertainment

Very welcoming Maori population and explanations on arrival in New Zealand, show and great meals

Friendly staff and great guide who took us to the village. Great atmosphere when we were in the village on a windy evening.

Every one that visits Rotorua needs to visit this place what a show best feed ever highly educational and very hands on I will be back.

They do a good job and a good show. Make sure you bring a jacket.

A truly magical experience. A great night of learning about the Mauri culture.. Highly recommend.

Took my English inlaws there, never been to NZ before. They loved it, into our history more than their own. Absolutely loved how we used to live, how beautiful we are.

Tourist exebition of native life and culture. Interactive if you are brave. Superb dinner. Music and dance. The folks doing the presentation are friendly and obviously having fun also. This makes it truly enjoyable.

Entertaining and informative. Felt very personal with opportunities to ask many questions. Food was awesome too.

a successful wonderful evening, with great food and lots of information about the natives NZL. Very well done, definitely worth the money. When booking in any case ask if you can get JR as a bus driver, which is smooth again worth 5 stars :-)

Highlight of our time in Rotorua. Thanks Dennis for being a hilarious driver.
The workshops on arrival were amazing - staff a delight

We had a fantastic evening learning about the Maori people. Everyone from our bus driver (Wallace) to the waiting staff in the restaurant to the singers and dancers were welcoming, informative, happy and a pleasure to be around. We both agreed that it was one of the best experiences we had in New Zealand. We would recommend it to everyone. The food was delicious and it was all you could eat. The bar wasn't overpriced and nothing was too much trouble. Great time, thank you

Tamaki has won multiple tourism awards and continuously adds extra things to the village itself. The staff in all areas are passionate about what they do and visitors / tourists get a whole experience of Maori culture, food, language, traditional arts and crafts,an experience of how the old Maori villages looked and food cooked in the earth oven tradition. It is great value for money

Had an average encounter with the people here. It's all about the money.

Excellent experience of sharing an afternoon in a Mauri villa discovering its culture and traditions. Safety pin!

This experience gives you a real taste of Maori culture. You'll be shuttled through various presentations that detail the intricacies of Maori life, and finish it off with a hangi buffet (which is nothing particularl special, though). Bus rides to and from the village are also experiences in themselves - our driver sang songs to us all the way home.

Parking was good. There is plenty of information to read as you wait for you tour bus to leave. Toilets very clean.

Great welcome, great entertainment. Wonderful time had by all.

Brilliant experience, great driver / Guide. Wonderful experience visiting Maori culture and village. Great to see their welcome ceremony and Maori dance.

But the number of persons per trip is bit high and is overcrowded.

Great intro to Maori culture, family owned and run performance. All performers have been passionate and e enjoyed what they do, which made it nice experience and authentic. The bus driver on bus TUI is great entertainer, we sang and laugh all way long on the bus..

Tourist trap.
It's not worth it.
Just a money maschine.
You are always in a hurry and have no time to learn something about the culture.
Save your money!

What an incredible experience! We learned about the Maori culture and had a great dinner. We went on a rainy day, but the rain didnt disturb our adventure. The driver of our bus was very friendly and made everyone feel at home!

Originally wanted to book an early show but couldn t make it due to our travel schedule. I contacted the Tamaki office via email and they said to watch the website closer to the actual date, sometimes they add an extra show. So I checked the day of and it was true! They added a later show and we got to experience the village!

So fun and so educational. My wife and I partook in a traditional Maori game and the dinner was great! Sang with other guests on the bus ride back to the hotel, awesome energy throughout the evening.

Totally recommend this to get a full cultural experience while in NZ!

I learned a lot about Maori culture. It was such a nice evening with very good food (all you can eat).

Amazing to learn about Maori culture and see the pride they take in their heritage. We feel privileged to have been able to experience a snap shot of their lives.

Well done guys . Mauri culture without the tacky tourist bits.

Price was a bit high, so value for money was a negative.

Amazing experience. Absolutly worth a visit. All the People are soooo kind! Food and show was amazing!

Very nice hospitality and experience of Maori culture and food.

A great place to discover Maori culture. The vegetarian meal option was a bit light but I am thanful at least that they had one!

The staff were really helpful when we when to book an evening cultural show

The most wonderfulness time of my life .walk out and felt part of it the whole time 9 was there

They were so welcoming and friendly with plenty of cultural experiences to try. What an awesome experience and definitely worth a visit plus the meal at the end of the night was great, plenty to choose from and so tasty been cooked hangi style.

Ideal to have a good evening and discover the Maori culture quickly, but we do not really go into details and the interactivity is unfortunately only for some people chosen by the chef. But the dinner was delicious! A little disappointed though.

This is as authentic as you can get in terms of getting a M ori experience today. The only thing that would have made this better would have been for guests to be fluent in Te Reo M ori so that the hosts could have spoken in the native tongue of the first people to arrive in Aotearoa, better known as New Zealand around the world.

One gets great insight into the world of the M ori with great authenticity, ranging from the M ori myths surrounding the creation of the world, to their war strategies, and cooking methods.

The experience is one that the whole family can enjoy, and what's great is that visited also get a part to partake in the activities, like M ori games an of course, the Haka.

If ever visiting New Zealand, this is a MUST DO experience!

Because I saw a lot of good reviews before I decided to come here. However, after the very enjoyable opening ceremony, there was nothing. The tourists were taken to the various attractions of the village. They did not have a deep understanding of the Maori culture, but only let the tourists participate in various activities. The food seems to be the level of the school cafeteria. It is cooked in a large pot. It has no taste, and we clearly see that it was done in a kitchen instead of using a stone pot as I said before (actually there is only one stone). The pot was taken out, and many people can confirm this except us.) When we wanted to go, they asked us to participate in the 20-minute singing party. After that, we were asked to sing on the bus that went back. When we sang, the driver also opened very quickly. . I don't want to continue to describe it. Don't come.

Absolutely loved this experience. Out of everything I ve done in New Zealand this was by far the highlight of my trip. It was fascinating with many different aspects to jam pack the experience. Highly recommend

Totally enjoyed the visit learning so much about the Maori culture and their performance was very entertaining.

We had an amazing time.Great food lovely people. Highly recommend

I recommend Tamaki Maori Village! Everyone seems passionate and joyful. And I feel like I was trying to tell you about the right culture. It's not cheap, but I think it's worth seeing once.

Loved this experience. The learning, the singing, the maidens (hotties), the food was amazing. Loved it. One warrior has a problem with Aussies though! To him I say