Experience the magic of a wild dolphin encounter on this 5-hour tour!

Experience the magic of a wild dolphin encounter on this 5-hour tour!

Highlights

  • Experience the magic of watching dolphins in their natural habitat
  • Get up close views of other marine life such as whales, seals and penguins
  • Spacious and comfortable catamaran
  • Swim with the dolphins - conditions permitting
  • 95% dolphin sighting success rate!

This is the trip of a lifetime for nature and animal lovers! Get up close to magnificent dolphins, whales and seals on board our state of the art catamaran.

Enjoy watching huge pods of common dolphins as they play and swim in their natural environment from the spacious deck. Our experienced wildlife guides have a wealth of knowledge and will ensure a fun and informative tour.

Our trips are highly successful with dolphins being spotted majority of the time and we offer a "Dolphin Guarantee" which allows you a return trip for free on another day if there were no sightings.

The Bay of Plenty is home to a spectacular array of marine life and we often see orca whales, fur seals, blue penguins and albatross during the winter months..

You may get the opportunity to swim with the dolphins but this cannot be guaranteed due to regulations by the Department of Conservation. We swim with them about 85% of the time when it is legal and ethical to do so. We always respect the dolphins space but as they are naturally curious they do like to come and say hello. Wetsuits and snorkelling equipment will be provided.

Book today to secure your spot on this not to be missed tour!

Adult $165.00 (Aged 15+)
Child $125.00 (Aged up to 14 years)
Family $550.00 (2x Adults + 2x Children)

What's included

  • 5-hour dolphin watching cruise
  • Swimming with dolphins - conditions permitting
  • Hot drinks

Duration

  • Allow approximately 5 hours for the whole experience

Location

  • Tauranga Bridge Marina, Berth D1, 101 Te Awanui Drive,
  • Tauranga, Bay of Plenty.

Restrictions

  • Minimum age for swimming with dolphins is 7 years old and subject to sea conditions.

Child Friendly

  • This experience welcomes families with children.

Bad Weather Refunds

  • If your experience is cancelled by the operator (because of the bad weather, safety concerns, unscheduled maintenance etc) you will be entitled to a full refund.

Notes

  • All our tours are weather dependent and a minimum number of 10 passengers is required.

    Our Winter Tours (June to October) meet at 10am for departure.

    For our Summer Tours (November to May) please arrive at 8.45am for your Dolphin Encounter which will depart at 9am promptly.

  • Dolphin Guarantee - Our guarantee is that if we do not find any dolphins for you, will give you a free return trip out with us. This offer has no expiration date, but can only be used by you and you will need to call to pre-book your tour.

Available Bookings from1 Mar to 14 Mar 2026

All prices are shown inNZD ($)

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  • Adult$105.00
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00

  • Adult$105.00 Less than 6 at this price!
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00

  • Adult$105.00 Less than 6 at this price!
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00

  • Adult$105.00 Less than 6 at this price!
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00

  • Adult$105.00 Less than 6 at this price!
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00

  • Adult$105.00 Less than 6 at this price!
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00

  • Adult$105.00 Less than 6 at this price!
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00

  • Adult$105.00 Less than 6 at this price!
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00

  • Adult$105.00 Less than 6 at this price!
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00

  • Adult$105.00 Less than 6 at this price!
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00

  • Adult$105.00 Less than 6 at this price!
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00

  • Adult$105.00 Less than 6 at this price!
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00

  • Adult$105.00 Less than 6 at this price!
  • Child$125.00
  • Family$550.00
Absolutely Incredible Awesome Go have fun bc this is fun Incredible Very good
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Authenticated Reviews

Real highlights, tips, and the helpful advice straight from Bookme customers who’ve actually done this experience.

4.9

88 reviews

Showing all 88 authenticated Bookme reviews

lynneg3 from New Zealand wrote on 28 February 2026

Best day out ever!

We can highly recommend this trip, the captain, the crew, gave us a day to remember, the day was clear, calm seas, warm sun - perfect, we saw 3 pods of dolphins and one large pod stayed with us for a long time , in their milling dolphin mode, some young ones with the pod so we didn't swim for conservation reasons but we had a swim later when the dolphins had left us, warm sea, I didn't need a wetsuit, a very very happy day indeed.

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claudiahearsey from New Zealand wrote on 27 February 2026

Absolutely Incredible

What an experience!! From the greeting I was blown away the 2 ladies that ran the excursion were extremely knowledgeable, fun and interactive - and heck yea to the female skipper!! 💁🏽‍♀️ They managed to find a large pod of dolphins with heaps of new born babies and cruised around with them for ages! I would 100% do this experience!

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CHRIS from Germany wrote on 24 February 2026

Awesome

Many thanks to the fantastic team who made our trip so wonderful. We saw lots of dolphins, turtles, and several mola molas.

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Cleon Vorster from New Zealand wrote on 24 February 2026

Go have fun bc this is fun

Staff Was soo amazing and kind help us with a lot seeing the dolphins was soo cool as they where jumping out of the water and following the boat unfortunately we couldn’t swim with them bc of they hade baby’s but they did give us a opportunity to free swim and looked at some other call animals like sunfish and sea turtles I loved it my girlfriend loves it differently do this again

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Jiratnira from New Zealand wrote on 23 February 2026

Incredible

Amazing, Carolina, Lily, Heidi (might mistook some of them name) 3 crews girl and one captain was awesome with loads of information about dolphins, we were so lucky day with uncountable by eyes!!!!

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Booking

10:00 a.m.Thursday 13 July

12

Adult Aged 15+

Child Aged up to 14 years

Family 2x Adults + 2x Children

*This option must be made together with another price type.
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