Waiheke Island: Breathtaking Hop-On Hop-Off Freedom Explorer

Beautiful destination. Well organised. Freedom to choose own itinerary on island. Lovely utilise to island on comfortable and well organised ferry.

We had the amazing opportunity to ride with Becca and Scottie on a beautiful Sunday afternoon! The commentary was detailed and the driving right on time. I couldn’t think of a better way to discover Waiheke Island. Absolutely recommend booking with Western Explorer!

Around 16 stops on tour (9 out & 7 on return -I think) with the double deck buses running every 30 minutes. Great way to see what island has to offer in an hour or so. The trip is narrated by driver and guide and is a light hearted yet informative tour.

Our tickets included ferry both ways and hop on hop off tour and we felt it was good value for money. Note: if ferry included you need to convert your tour ticket to actual ferry tickets at the Fullers 360 office close to departure dock so allow time for that. Was a fun day - we went to end of loop first & walked beautiful sand beach barefoot to end and back before having lunch at outdoor cafe. Good to have food in stomach before tastings. Spent leisurely time at 2 wineries and one brewery, quick stop at last town before catching last bus & ferry back at 7. There are later ferries, but ticket good till 7 otherwise must take different ferry and buy your own ticket back to Auckland. Good value for money-especially with ferry tickets included & never had to wait long for the bus. Highly recommend!

The tour does include ferry there and back from Auckland which was not clear when you book, also check the stops before you go as some of them even on weekends don’t open until 11am and also check to see what time they close, wish you didn’t need to do so much research on your own but they don’t tell you any of that when you get on. Our favorite stop was Heke great whiskey and we also enjoyed tantalus estate. Mudbrick is gorgeous great views unfortunately restaurant was closed for private event. For the price of the ferry and transport was well worth it!

This allowed you to customize your time on the island in the places where the shops, beaches and vineyards are. If you want to get in specific places make sure they are open ahead of time. If you are just a go with the flow type, hop off, check out a place for 30 minutes or more and then hop back on the bus. We didnt have a full plan but we got to shop, visit a beach a winery and a brewery. It was a full and beautiful day.

Good experience and worked well getting on and off. Would have been great however if it was timed to get back to the ferry terminal before the ferry leaves rather than watching it leave as we are arriving at the terminal. We then had to wait around the terminal for an hour waiting for the 4pm ferry. Made little sense that the bus did not dovetail with the ferry.

All the drivers and guides were very kind and helpful. During a busy time expect to wait at the port to board a bus-30 minutes between each bus. You also won’t have time to make all the stops so my suggestion is to figure out where you want to make sure you go and stop at those in order. I did like the fact you could see where the bus was so if we were wine tasting we could see if we had to hurry through it or take our time. Expect you could do about 3-5 wineries (if that’s what you want). We did take the 10 am ferry from Auckland and went back about 4 pm. Regardless, it’s a wonderful island to enjoy. Note: there is a place for Olive oil tasting and on Saturdays they have a market in the town square. The system is very easy to navigate and team very helpful.

They offered great service, multiple opportunities to check out the different wineries and sites with regular drop offs and pick ups. The tour guides Tilie, DeBaker and Ruby were hilarious and courtesy. Well worth the price for a low stress adventure.

A range of different choices of places/venues to visit, with informative driver/hosts highlighting everything to do with these areas of Waiheke Island. Highly recommend our driver Ash and he even gave us several chances to take photos - the scenery is amazing on this area of Waiheke. We planned out the venues we wanted to visit as the bus comes past approximately every hour, the only thing to keep in mind on this particular tour.