Private Tour in Auckland

[AllenF]

Any recomendations for a private tour in Auckland. We are spending a few days there after our cruise. We would like to be picked up at the ship and dropped off at our Hotel after the tour. Thanks

[AllenF]

Thanks I have booked mark both of your web sites. We dont cruise till next christmas so this gives me plenty of time to plan.

[cruisingkiwikiaora]

I suggest you check out various options under "Tours" in Auckland, where you will also find Private Tours - see http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g1811027-Activities-Auckland_North_Island.html There are several options, all of which will give you an outstanding experience in Auckland as a private tour. Good luck!

[Bruin Steve]

Thanks I have booked mark both of your web sites. We dont cruise till next christmas so this gives me plenty of time to plan.

 

For anyone reading this now and being confused...What happened here is that there were two posts deleted from this thread by the moderators...

 

The OP's question was first answered by a first time poster who, himself, was a tour operator in Auckland plugging his own services.

 

The second response was from one of the first responder's competitiors.

 

The policy of Cruise Critic is to NOT ALLOW tour operators to use these boards as a forum to plug their own services. Obviously, such information is self-serving and not necessarily dependable.

 

When accepting a tour company recommendation on these boards, always consider the source. The recommendations should come from long-time participants who are "real" cruisers themselves...and come from personal experience...People who also participate in the Roll Calls and the Cruise Line forums and so on...If posters I recognize from their overall participation tell me that when they cruised out of Auckland last year, they used a particular tour provider and thought them excellent, well, that carries some weight...

 

But, when some guy comes on to recommend himself, I take that with a major grain of salt...

 

I would encourage the OP to search the boards for REAL recommendations or to solicit the opinions of real cruisers who actually used any specific guide...

[AllenF]

Not my 1st rodeo Bruin Steve with over 17 cruises I have used many local tour operators and I know these 2 were just that but thanks for reply. Funny 1 of the ones who replied also pays to advertise here on CC. As you can see not to many yet have given any recomendations. Having cruised Europe a few times, Alaska, Hawaii,West Coast and the entire Caribbean a must say we have done about 90% private tours I prefer to put my money in the hands of locals for tours. The cruise line gets plenty of it already :)

[Robocat]

Not my 1st rodeo Bruin Steve with over 17 cruises I have used many local tour operators and I know these 2 were just that but thanks for reply. Funny 1 of the ones who replied also pays to advertise here on CC. As you can see not to many yet have given any recomendations. Having cruised Europe a few times, Alaska, Hawaii,West Coast and the entire Caribbean a must say we have done about 90% private tours I prefer to put my money in the hands of locals for tours. The cruise line gets plenty of it already :)

 

A group of six of us (organized via the Roll Call on Cruise Critic for our HAL Sydney-Auckland cruise) used Gavin Oliver of Milestone Tours for a one day tour from the ship to Waitomo on November 21. I expect he may be the tour operator advertising on the site referred to in the above post, and I recommend him highly.

 

Gavin had lots of good suggestions for us about how best to structure our day (e.g by steering us to Spell Bound, rather than the larger more commercial operator, at the Waitomo caves) and, with six of us sharing his comfortable mini van, the price was reasonable. Waitomo was well worth the visit, but I am sure he also would have lots of good ideas about other things you might want to do.

[cruisewellwoman]

Any recomendations for a private tour in Auckland. We are spending a few days there after our cruise. We would like to be picked up at the ship and dropped off at our Hotel after the tour. Thanks

Hi, there are tour companies that do standard tours in and around Aukland, but if you are looking for something personalized, I have a recommendation. We recently ended a cruise in Aukland and were looking for a way to go see gannets at Muriwai Beach but didn't have time to do a standard tour that included the gannets. The concierge at our hotel - the Stamford Plaza - arranged for Jim Martin of Regency Limousines to take us. He charged $95/hr and not only did he pick us up at the Aukland Museum (where our tour group was) and dropped us off back at our hotel, but shared lots of info about the area as we drove to see the gannets. While there he pointed out birds and plants also. Jim was more than just a driver and I would highly recommend him. Oh, there were just two of us, so we found another couple who wanted to go which resulted in our 3 hr trip costing us each only about $75 apiece, a real value we thought. Jim's website is http://www.regencylimousines.co.nz and his email address is jim@regencylimousines.co.nz Enjoy your trip.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Hi, there are tour companies that do standard tours in and around Aukland, but if you are looking for something personalized, I have a recommendation. We recently ended a cruise in Aukland and were looking for a way to go see gannets at Muriwai Beach but didn't have time to do a standard tour that included the gannets. The concierge at our hotel - the Stamford Plaza - arranged for Jim Martin of Regency Limousines to take us. He charged $95/hr and not only did he pick us up at the Aukland Museum (where our tour group was) and dropped us off back at our hotel, but shared lots of info about the area as we drove to see the gannets. While there he pointed out birds and plants also. Jim was more than just a driver and I would highly recommend him. Oh, there were just two of us, so we found another couple who wanted to go which resulted in our 3 hr trip costing us each only about $75 apiece, a real value we thought. Jim's website is http://www.regencylimousines.co.nz and his email address is jim@regencylimousines.co.nz Enjoy your trip.

 

Another one for Auckland is Corporate Cabs.

 

http://www.corporatecabs.co.nz/tour_service.php

 

 

[Jasp 0401]

Last year we did a private tour of Auckland with Claud 9 tours and for 6 of us it was a lot cheaper than using shore tours from the ship .We found Krystle very friendly and always answered our question and all our e-mail quickly.We had a wonderful tour around Auckland and our tour guide Kevin was great and very friendly. We are looking at using them again when we go back next year and doing there beach and bush tour.