Akaroa Shore Excursion: Akaroa Harbour and Giants House Local Tour

The bus trip was nice. I have a bad knee and it was hard to get up the hill to the Giant House. It was interesting Art work.

Good trip around key spots in Akaroa, knowledgeable driver, and Giants House is a must for anyone visiting. Cheese factory visit was a little disappointing as you don’t actually get to tour anything. Merely view limited activities from behind glass panels in the shop. Tricky to take cheese back given the need for refrigeration ! The timing was just about right - especially as Cruise ships tender into this port so you need to allow extra time for the process.

We had an incredible tour. our cruise ship tender experienced problems and we were one hour late meeting Scott, yet he still gave us the full tour. Scott was extremely knowledgeable, personable, and informative about our destinations. We were allowed ample time at each stop for photos and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Our tour vehicle was comfortable for our small group which made this tour much more enjoyable than the buses offered by the cruise ship tours. Don’t miss the opportunity to visit The Giants House! I highly recommend this tour as part of any visit to Akaroa.

Loved the Giants house it was so unique With its tiered terraces and fabulous mosaics everywhere From paving to sculptures

Great interesting tour, but the real shock was the Giants House. Wonderful art and garden interspersed. Witty and colourful. Highly recommend

Scotty was our guide - he was fantastic!!! Modified our tour as the low cloud made the hilltop view obsolete. Took us on a lovely drive along the coastline and gave an absolutely tremendous Maori history lesson!!! The Giants House is awesome and well worth the visit. We had the option of staying for longer and walking back to port - which isn’t far BUT it is steep. You have to walk up a very steep driveway to get to the house and then down that same driveway- even if you only have minor mobility issues - it can be difficult (my knee is still aching 3 days later - but it was worth it)

Would definitely recommend this trip Akoroa very quaint lovely harbour and promenade. Giants house you will not of seen anything like it prepare to be amazed. Viator thank you again we have booked all our tours with you all drivers have been very informative and helpful as have shore staff 👍👍👍

Really good excursion, easy to find meeting place, and really enjoyable. Only downside is the driver was quite unorganised, had trouble with the audio system, and air conditioning system - we went from boiling to freezing. And he tried to leave us at the Giant House and make our own way back to the ship - a distance of about 2kms. He was quite knowledgable, but we had the feeling he'd been brought in at the last moment to charter our tour. If they try to tell you to walk back from Giant House on your own, stand your ground - tour states that trip back to ship is included.

This shore excursion was booked with Cantaberry tours via Viator. We did get to see much of the countryside with this tour. John was our tour guide and driver as we were in a 16 passenger van with a total of 9 passengers. We first stopped at a cheese factory for a little tasting and then drove on around the harbor to the summit to the Hilltop Tavern where we had an opportunity to buy some refreshment. However since the hill was fogged in, we couldn’t see anything from that location. We stayed too long at the tavern, so John had to fly back down the hill and around the harbor for our appointment for a tour at the Giant’s House. We were too late for the tour, but the owner did give us information about the house. The gardens and mosaic sculptures were fantastic. It reminded me of Gaudi and in fact, the owner/artist did study in Barcelona. We wanted to spend more time at the Giant’s house, so we elected to walk back to the port. However, it was further than we expected, so we were worn out when we got back on the tender to the ship. We got to see beautiful views of the Banks Peninsula. The tour would had been better if the tour guide had stuck to a schedule. They should state at what time to be back on the van.

We had been told by Viator that this was a private tour, however there were 11 people on the tour. I wouldnt call our guide a tour guide at all. He was merely a bus driver called John who acted as though it was a total chore to be there at all. There wasnt enough seating in the mini van so my husband and I were separated for the duration. He drove very fast pulling into a viewpoint of Akaroa harbour. He wouldnt let anyone out of the bus and when one passenger said he couldnt see the ship the driver quickly pulled back out onto the road so no one could take a photo at all. He then wound down throuh suburban streets trying to find somewhere you could see the ship, and when he evenually found a spot he wouldnt let us out of the bus anyway to take a photo. A little dog ran alongside the bus and this became the highlight as we were all concerned the bus driver would actually run over the dog. At this point the air conditioning in the bus failed to work so the driver spent the next 15 minutes as we wound up a very steep hill towards another lookout trying to rectify the extremely hot air that was blowing onto us. We were all eady to expire as he fiddled about with dials as he drove. He eventually opened the window so we could try to recover from the oven like conditions. We stopped at the beautiful lookout and got out there to enjoy some free time to enjoy the view and buy ourselves a drink while the driver tried to work out how to operate the air conditioning. Unfortunately my husband left his hat at the lookout, and whilst the driver did have plenty of time to return there after dropping us all at The Giants Garden he refused to do so. The tour was supposed to be over 3 hours, but the bus driver refused to wait for us to visit the Giants Garden telling us it was obnly 2 minutes to walk back into Akaroa. It was actually almost half a kilometre. At this point he had only been wih us for under 2 hours. It was a hot day and people didnt want to waste precious time walking into town to see Akaroa In the end, after many, many complaints the driver agreed to return to pick people up and drive us into town. He was not happy to do this. The Giants Garden was absoluely exquisite and a must see for anyone visiting Akaroa. I have rarely experienced anywhere so unique It was breathtaking. The only complaint I have is with the driver. He ws not a tour guide and didnt seem to care one way or the other about his passengers..