The Best Guided Tours in Niue [2023]

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Taue Uga Tours

Learn about the Niuean tradition of uga hunting while learning about these fascinating arthropods on the Taue Uga Tours. There are two tours available to give you the opportunity to partake in an uga tour when it’s convenient or when the crabs are at their most active – at night. You are offered the chance to have uga prepared for you to try after the tour if you choose.

Tours depart from Avatele. Make sure that you have a sturdy pair of shoes, water and insect repellent. Note that the forest that you hunt uga has rough terrain and requires good balance and mobility.

Taue Uga Day Tour

Tours are available Monday to Saturday. Join your local guide as you are taught how to set up coconut baits to attract the uga. You have a good chance of seeing some uga along the way. Your guide will also share insights about nature and culture throughout the tour.

Taue Uga Night Tour

Tours are available from Thursday to Saturday. See the coconut baits in action on this night tour that typically starts around 8pm. Delve into the forest at night, when it’s the best time to see a lot of uga in the forest.

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Ebony Rainforest Tours

Join a local guide and acclaimed ebony carver, Jack, as you learn about some of the rarest wood in the world on this Ebony Rainforest Tour. The guided tour takes you deep into the Huvalu Forest Conservation Area where he’ll teach you survival techniques for living in the Niue bush. He’ll go through traditional food and medicine gathering techniques and talk about the different properties of the island’s trees including the rare ebony tree, locally known as kieto. You’ll also get to see a few caves that not many tourists get to see. The tour ends with viewing some ebony carvings in Jack’s ebony carving studio.

Refreshments are included in the tour. Tours depart from Hakupu where transfers are available from the Commercial Centre in Alofi and the Scenic Matavai Resort.

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Niue Orientation Tour

Available on Tuesday and Saturday mornings, the day after you arrive in Niue, the Niue Orientation Tour aims to give you the best start to your time in Niue. The 4h30mins tour takes you to eight different west coast highlights in Niue. The tour includes a resource pack with 27 different locations detailed, as well as a tide chart so you know when is the best time to visit them. The small-group tour of up to six people includes refreshments.

Learn more about the tour in The Best Sightseeing Tours in Niue.

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Explore Niue

Explore Niue offers two different guided land tours, as well as fishing charters and whale swimming tours. One of the most popular land tours is their orientation tour of the west coast, while they also offer west coast tours. Pick-ups are available from any accommodation and the Visitor Information Centre.

Explore Niue West Coast Tour

This tour orientation tour of the island introduces you to some of the west coast highlights, including cultural and historical sites, snorkelling spots and places to eat. The 4-hour tour also includes a tide chart to know when is the best time to visit each swimming location during your stay. Refreshments are also included in the tour. Tours run on Tuesday and Saturday mornings.

Explore Niue East Coast Tour

This half-day tour of the east coast takes you to the village of Hakupu on your way to the Anapala Chasm. After visiting the chasm, you delve into the Huvalu Forest Conservation Area to the iconic Togo Chasm for a tropical rainforest walk. Then it’s to the Hikulagi Sculpture Park before making your way across the island to Alofi and your accommodation. These tours require a minimum of four to run.

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A5 Tours

Experience a 2-hour tour of a Niuean bush garden and rainforest with A5 Tours. Your guide, Tony, will teach you about the Niuean way of life living off the land on an interactive 4WD tour. You’ll get to touch and taste the food grown on the plantation depending on what is in season, including pawpaw, banana, mango, watermelon, cassava, taro, kumara and more. You’ll also get to learn a few interesting Niuean techniques, such as how to husk a coconut and hold an uga.

Tours depart from Mutalau village and typically run on Tuesdays and Fridays.

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Maala Garden Tour

Visit a gorgeous tropical garden and plantation on the Maala Garden Tour. You will be shown the maala (garden) by your hosts, Doris and John, where you’ll learn about growing food crops, tropical trees, herbs and much more. The special interest tour has more of a focus on gardening where you can certainly pick up a few tips from your passionate hosts who have developed this garden out of a labour of love.

The Maala Garden can be found along the Alofi-Liku Road around 10km (6.2 miles) from Alofi. Tours are available on Mondays and Wednesdays.

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Niue Vanilla Tour

Join Niue Vanilla International (NVI) for their vanilla plantation tour. See a plantation with more than 7,000 organic vanilla plants. Enhance your understanding of the vanilla industry as you learn about the growing, harvesting and packaging vanilla. Visit between May and August, and you’ll see how flowers are hand-pollinated. The one-hour tour in Alofi North is a real Niuean foodie experience.

Tours depart from Alofi North and operate Monday to Friday. Tours can be booked at the Niue Vanilla Store in Alofi town centre.

[CLOSED] Tali’s Cave Tour

The Ulupaka Cave is one of the most iconic caves in Niue, but the only way to see it for yourself is on Tali’s Cave Tour. Join your local guide on traditional family land as you explore ancient limestone caves awash in formations, from stalactites to magnificent pillars. You’ll delve into a variety of passageways, including the infamous “keyhole” where you’ll also be shown some of Niue’s ancient fossils.

The tour departs a few hundred metres south of Lakepa village.

[CLOSED] Misa’s Nature Tour

Culture, history and a whole lot of nature intertwine in this highly informative tour with Misa. Misa’s Nature Tour is a 2-3-hour tour showing you how to survive in the bush from your nature guide who did just that growing up in Niue. Learn about traditional cooking and hunting methods, traditional weapons, the many uses of a coconut, examples of Niue’s fascinating geology, how to bark trees for materials, how to make fire, where to sleep in the bush, how to fumigate mosquitoes, how to find medicinal plants and more! You’ll also have the chance to meet some forest-dwellers, such as an uga and a flying foxes.

Misa’s Nature Tour is located just outside of Alofi opposite the Niue High School. Tours are typically available Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.