Mitai Maori Village Cultural Experience In Rotorua

excellent! worth the money. the food was excellent and lots of it. the emcee was very knowledgeable, funny. the musical performance was very good. nice to see young folks participating in their culture.

This was a good experience. Our host was fun, and the food was lovely. The show was really good as well

This is a great experience. Lovely food and great show. It really showed how us the life of the maories. Kia ora

This was an amazing experience, so glad we did it! From the moment we arrived, the genuine and wonderfully friendly hospitality really stood out. The Maori that hosted us was fantastic, such a great speaker and engaged with us throughout the evening. Watching the traditional boat ride and performances was very moving and the food was just sensational! Would highly recommend doing this when in Rotorua!

We love this experience, a real insight Maori culture and 'family'. The show was amazing, Guy was the perfect host!

Great show, delicious Marrakech and insights into Māori culture. It’s definitely worth it…highly recommend!

We went to the evening show. First a talk on Maori culture and history, then down to see a war canoe and cultural show, a hangi dinner, the Maori host then answered any questions, a quick walk around the village (very dark,steep and needed a torch), then back along the stream to see glow worms. The staff were friendly and helpful and the performers enthusiastic. Learnt a lot about Maori history and culture. Recommended

Had a great night on this excursion, we were welcomed by our host, who told us a lot about Maori history/culture etc, we were then led down to the stream were a Maori waka (war canoe) arrived with Maori warriors, next up was a cultural show of music, song and dance, we then had a Maori dinner (hangi) which was plentiful and tasty, we were then led thru a recreation of a Maori village in the dark (bring a torch and quite steep in places) The evening ended by walking past the glow worms, A thoroughly enjoyable evening,

What a awsome night. Show was awesome . They put great effort in to their performances. Highly recommend. Meet some great fellow travellers

This was a really wonderful evening. Very informative, lovely and plentiful food and it finished with a Maori show. The rowing of the Maori boat up the river was an impression of a Maori war canoe, but you needed to use your imagination a little. The whole experience was really great and an experience not to be missed.

The tour guide was very informative. He answered questions and explained the cultural significance of the ceremony. The meal was delicious and there was lots of ut

Mitai Māori Village Experience – Disappointing and Overcrowded (4/10) I booked the morning show at Mitai Māori Village, but unfortunately, it was cancelled due to insufficient bookings. I was asked to change to another date and time, so I switched to the evening show on the same day. Let me start by saying that the food was absolutely fantastic and was by far the best part of the entire experience. Unfortunately, that was the only truly exceptional thing about the evening. The dinner arrangements were extremely uncomfortable, with around 10 people squeezed onto each table. We were practically sitting like sardines, with our elbows touching the people beside us. There was barely any room to move, and we had to eat with our arms tucked into our sides, making it difficult to cut our food and use our knives and forks properly. The dining hall had at least 30 tables, and the sheer number of people made the whole experience feel more like being herded like cattle than being welcomed as a paying visitor who had spent around NZ$100 to experience Māori culture. Unfortunately, things did not improve once the tour began. We were taken around the makeshift Māori village in a group of approximately 300 people, accompanied by just one guide. With so many people in the group, it was difficult to hear what the guide was saying most of the time, meaning much of the information was lost. The same lack of organisation continued when we were taken to watch the haka performance in the makeshift theatre. It was so overcrowded that many visitors, myself included, had to stand along the sides in order to get a view of the show. This was disappointing, as I had paid to experience and appreciate Māori culture, not to spend my time struggling to see what was happening. The traditional Māori canoe display along the river was another example of poor crowd management. There simply did not appear to be enough organisation to ensure everyone could see the performance. People were pushing and shoving to get a better view, which made the experience uncomfortable. The village tour itself was equally disappointing. We were guided through a very small makeshift village in almost complete darkness, with people pushing and shoving to see inside the various areas. For a group of this size, the space was clearly inadequate. Towards the end of the tour, visitors were left to find their own way out, which I found particularly concerning as someone with a visual impairment. Navigating an unfamiliar area in darkness without proper guidance or assistance was neither suitable nor safe. Overall, I felt that Mitai Māori Village was trying to accommodate far too many people at once, at the expense of visitor comfort, safety and the quality of the cultural experience. With so many people packed into the dining hall, theatre and village, the evening felt rushed, overcrowded and poorly organised. It is a real shame because the food was excellent, and there was the potential for this to be a memorable opportunity to learn about and experience Māori culture. However, good food alone cannot make up for poor organisation, overcrowding and inadequate consideration for visitors with disabilities. My rating: 4 out of 10. The food was fantastic, but the rest of the experience fell well below my expectations. I would have expected much better crowd management, more space, clearer guidance and proper consideration for visitors with visual impairments, particularly given the price of admission. Sadly, I left feeling disappointed rather than feeling that I had experienced something truly special.

A fantastic evening from start to finish. Picked up from our campervan site and joined an enormous group of people. We learned about Māori people and enjoyed their traditional chants and dance. The food was endless and so enable. Finally, our host, Guy was humble, funny, engaging and perfectly suited the night. Highly recommend.

This was such a fun night! The experience is fantastic and there are lots of surprises along the way that I won’t spoil here. The dinner is substantial so feel free to come hungry! The food was excellent!

A really informative and brilliant experience with humor, history and delicious food. You can't go wrong :)

Great show, great food and learned so much about the culture. Would highly recommend going. Don't miss it.

Our guide was informative and shared wonderful facts about Māori culture. We walked among the purest spring in North Island, through a forest whilst overlooking glow worms and listening to the rowers singing. Absolutely magical. Later we ate what I would regard is a five star or fine dining Hungi, and drank water from their spring which had a rare and precious taste and feel (reminded me a little of zamzam). We were entertained by singers and dancers, and different hakis. This tour has it all.

The evening had pre and post dinner entertainment, ample vegetarian dishes, and I learned a lot about the Māori culture. Met some new friends along the way! Hotel pickup was easy and convenient.

Lots of fun and educational, great meal and lots of food and variety and being picked up was a great add. Good value for money.

Wow! A beautiful evening experiencing Maori culture. Learning about the history, life in a traditional village, the games, songs and the food was wonderful. The hungi dinner was absolutely delicious...I was left in a food coma. The show was delightful and seeing the warriors paddle and chant in the waka was a highlight. A must do experience in Rotorua.

Was a wonderful night the guide and speaker was very knowledgeable and taught us many things about the Maori culture the hāngī was amazing and delicious and so was the performances and seeing things from there history all together was an amazing night would recommend highly

We had a great time learning about the Māori culture , the hangi was delicious, the cultural show was great. Highly recommend.

Good cultural experience and nice meal. The young lady who led the cultural experience was great. Well run.

Informative, interactive and great feed. Enjoyed everything about the experience. Family friendly as well.

very relaxing and quiet and good service. Very clean and the amenities were great too and would come again

The experience would have been good but there were far too many people. We were unable to see or hear some of the very interesting facts on the walk particularly at the end. We were at the tail end and no consideration given to the fact that we were left behind; held up by slower walkers and missed dialogue, context. Poorly organised for the walks which should have been smaller groups not a herd.

Great experience, all the family enjoyed it. Only one thing not reached my expectations, too many people, at night really hard to see and hear the tour guide’s talk

Awesome experience, great evening of experiences, food and entertainment! The young team were very proud & passionate.

Marvellous cultural experience. Our host for the evening was fabulous and so welcoming. Everything from the atmosphere to the food was outstanding. We felt a little crammed in on tables of 10 but this was manageable. Some of the civilise were not fully accessible for my elderly mother. Great food and stories. The performance was breathtakingly good. A must do activity if you visit Rotorua.

The evening was well organised and the people friendly. We enjoyed the meal. The food was tasty and plentiful. . However, we were disappointed with the show.

This night was amazing , food excellent, commentary excellent and show enthralling and captivating The organisation was very thorough, never felt rushed when moving through to the village.

A great evening at the village, host and entertainment were excellent, sharing stories about the Māori culture. Food was fabulous, lots of choice which was well cooked. A great evening entertainment which helped to understand more about the Māori culture a real must do activity.

It was amazing. We loved it so much. Such a great experience. Highly recommend The show, the food was out of this world. Such beautiful people and loved learning about their culture.

There are a few cultural experiences to choose from but we absolutely loved this one. The storytelling and songs where all excellent and the hungi was definitely a highlight-so much food!

Great food. Interesting commentary very knowledgeable. Learnt a lot about Māori culture. Good show. A good night out. Recommend.

Food was awesome and the whole experience was really good. The tour lady was very informative.

Very happy. Great food, tour, show and all over experience! Thank you, will come again.

The buffet was fabulous with a very large variety of foods. The village was too dimly lit to see at night and many of the depictions were “under construction.” The guide was excellent and yet he spoke only loud enough for those first 20-30 people lined up behind him. I wish there was another on for the slower older guests in the back 1/3 of the group. I never heard anything he said. The performers were clearly hard working and trying to do their best. They mostly were very young men and women.

A fun experience. The war boat simulation is fantastic. Loved the performance and guy as a guide for the night was awesome. The hangi was good but the lamb was overcooked. Dessert was a bonus.

A very powerful and immersion experience that puts you face to face with one of the most beautiful cultures I've ever seen. Guy is a wonderful guide who made the whole experience even more enjoyable (Bob was real fun too). The experinece itself is already worth your time, but to top it off the food is amazing and the staff are some of the kindest people I've seen out there. One of those things that after all the 3 hours you still wish it'd last longer. I'll be coming back and bringing everyone I know.

Absolutely amazing evening. The knowledge sharing was absolutely beautiful to experience and the food was delicious. Wonderful atmosphere and guides were warm and welcoming. Grateful to have experienced this.

This is a great experience. I highly recommend doing this. It was raining & cold, but still a wonderful evening. The entertainment was great & so was the hangi. We got to see glow worms as well. Excellent!

We left this experience feeling that we had been processed through a tourist attraction rather than welcomed into a meaningful Maori cultural experience. Unfortunately, almost every part of the evening reinforced that impression. The biggest issue was the scale and organisation of the whole thing. Much people seated around large tables. That immediately made the idea of an intimate cultural evening seem unrealistic. Everything felt designed around moving a very large group of tourists from one stage to the next as efficiently as possible. The cultural performance was probably the least disappointing part of the tour (but still disappointing). The canoe ceremony was another example of how the evening felt staged for mass tourism. We walked a very short distance to the river and then waited around for everyone else to arrive. The canoe appeared, performed what seemed to be a very short routine, and disappeared again after perhaps 30 seconds (the waterway is not actually navigable, so the canoe simply came out, travelled about 10 metres, and then reversed back because there isn't even enough space for it to turn around). Dinner was equally underwhelming. We had expected the hāngī to be a highlight, but the buffet was essentially a selection of standard mass-catered food: various meats, potatoes, coleslaw and similar sides. There were no labels, so guests had no way of knowing what some of the dishes were. The desserts looked and tasted like mass-produced catering. And then came the “glowworm walk”. We were told that this was the second bushwalk, but the way it was handled made that description feel rather generous. We were taken through a different entrance from the one used before dinner, which initially made us think we were heading somewhere new. Once inside, however, we realised that the route itself was essentially identical to the path we had already walked earlier. There were some glowworms, so technically the promise wasn't completely false. But there weren't many, and the whole thing felt rushed. We were practically hurried along the path and then ushered out at such speed that we didn't even realise the tour had actually finished. There was no natural conclusion to the experience — we were simply being moved out. This also made the purpose of the second walk seem fairly obvious. After dinner, rather than allowing people to remain at their tables, the entire group was sent on this supposedly separate walk. The route was basically the same as before, and we were then pushed out of the venue. It was hard not to feel that the walk was simply an efficient way of clearing the dining area and making sure nobody stayed behind at the tables for too long.

An immersive cultural experience delivered with passion and energy by the family. The buffet was also great 👍

This is a fantastic night. From the host to the entertainent & the food, the entire experience is amazing. Great exhibition of the History & Maori culture. Love every minute.

Guy is an absolute legend! The manner in which he passes on knowledge with humour and simple explanations was engaging and we learnt so much from him. The singing, Haka and stories were so important and interesting and the time flew- because of how engaging and enjoyable it was. I now have knew knowledge because it was explained in such an entertaining and visual manner. The food was fantastic and loved how we got to meet other people from all over the world at our table. Walking down to the creek through the forest at night to watch the warriors paddle up stream was exciting and powerful 🙌 Highly recommended tour 👌

Worst hungi ever apparently blamed on covid horrible food just cooked modern techniques so disappointing

Great experience with informative and entertaining shows. The food was exceptional. Would definitely recommend

Gaining insight into the local culture and traditions was definitely worthwhile. That said, the experience is noticeably commercialized and doesn't feel entirely authentic. ​However, I genuinely appreciated our guide referring to the local performers as artists and giving them proper recognition. That thoughtful framing made a big difference and allowed me to enjoy the shows feeling much more comfortable and respectful of their craft.