I mentioned this before on the phone. This was fun, but was only able to do one activity. Unfortunately the ad misleads you into thinking you can do whatever activities, whenever. You are allowed to swim, snorkel, bike ride or hike in the morning. Then you can either surf(which you cant cause it will cost you more when you never did it, apparently you have to take a lesson before using their boards), kayak, or stand up paddleboard in the afternoon. It just was a disappointment to have an expectaion of what to get for my day, then not do it. In other words, two spereate locations for the morning and afternoon activities, so majority of your time is traveling. Which is fine, but also would of have a different opinion. Knowing what i know now, i probably would never choosen this activity.
I missed the bus to go to the afternoon location, needless to say i was given the wrong time by tourist, but honsestly by the time i got there, i was out of time. One thing that is odd is the memory game, being dropped off somwhere and being picked up elsewhere. However, the people that works at the snorkel rental place, especially that young kid, clueless to his surroundings. Knew who i was & i who else i was there with in regards of the other party on the tour bus & couldnt inform me of the other party making it back. So knowing the time i had to be picked up, this kid not being observant and missing the bus is all my fault, right? So thanks for that! I had to wait for the city bus to pick me up to find out where the tour bus was to get back on it.
All in all, i only did one activity and did a lot of sitting & waiting around. Snorkeling was fun, but was my excitement was short lived with the turmoil. I had fun snorkeling, and thats about it. Oh yeah, dont worry, ill take care of that bus fare!
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Activity Date: | 2015/05/16 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
We had a wonderful day with AC as our guide. He was very knowledgeable, pointing out local sites and giving history along the way. He bent over backwards to accommodate everyone on the tour, taking each group to their favorite locations, running back and forth moving us around from hot spot to hotspot as we each finished our excursions. He was very professional at all times. We would hIghly recommend him as a tour guide. We had a blast! He even went out of his way to go back and find a lost article for us- which fell out of the van at a previous stop.
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2015/12/21 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
We had an excellent day out and learnt a lot of interesting facts about Hawai'i, and the shrimps were fantastic
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2015/11/14 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
Paul our driver was very informative and told us many stories about the island and showed us so many beautiful places. Shrimp lunch was yummy.
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2015/11/17 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
This was one of the most enjoyable and informative tours I have been on, Tiffany was an excellent and knowledgeable host this tour offers more than the tour description indicates and includes detailed interesting natural fauna information. I can highly recomend this very enjoyable tour and is excellent value for money the shrimp meal was enjoyable. Well done Tiffany for making our day day an enjoyable one.
Aloha Eric,
Thank you for your great review, and awesome praise of Tiffany. We will be sure to let her know how much you appreciated her tour. We are thrilled you had a great day, and got an amazing experience with her knowledge and information. That is the Oahu Nature Tour Difference. We hope you join us on another one of our adventures the next time you are in Oahu.
Mahalo,
Oahu Nature Tours
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2015/10/13 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
Great day at the north beach. We chose the waterfall hike as our activity in the morning. You could have done snorkelling or bike rides if preferred. We then had free time on waimea bay beach. In the afternoon we had a free lunch instead of doing another activity such as kayaking. Saw sea turtles at a beach on the way home
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2015/09/25 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
Rained most of day, so sopping wet weather in water or not. Confusion all day about activities etc.
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2015/09/11 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
Overall it was a family friendly, enjoyable and relaxing experience. We all had a wonderful time.
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Families with Young Children |
Activity Date: | 2014/08/26 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
The trip around the island was great I would highly recommend Veltra tours. The trip was made even better by our guide Bethany who was an endless wealth of knowledge, we did this trip2 years ago with another company and I can honestly say that we learnt 10 times more with your tour.
Aloha Karel,
We are so happy you had a great time. Our goal is conservation through education, So anytime we can share our enthusiasm and knowledge of our beautiful island we consider that a great success! We appreciate you taking the time to share your review here and hope we can take you on another adventure during your next visit to Oahu.
Mahalo,
Oahu Nature Tours Management
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2015/05/28 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
My wife and I were staying in Waikiki for a week and everyone said we need to make a trip to the North Shore when on Oahu. We scoured Trip Advisor, Yelp and other Hawaii Adventure sites and this one looked appealing. Turns out to be a great deal if you are looking for transportation to the North Shore and a variety of options to choose from once you get there. We chose to snorkel in the mornng at Sharks Cove then spend an hour at Waimea Bay, then in the afternoon we did the SUP down the river in Halewia.
The tour is setup where they pick you up on a ~20 person bus from multiple Waikiki hotels, then up a narrated drive up to the North Shore which took about 1 1/2 hours all together. Sam was our host for the day and is awesome at his job. Very knowledgable, humourous and makes the tour a good time. Once you are there, you get to see the options for the day such as hanging at the beach of Waimea Bay, surfing, snorkeling, beach bike cruise, Waimea Botanical Gardens, stand up paddle boarding and probably a few others options that I am missing. There is no additional cost to do these unless you want to do more than two. If there was one draw back for the day, it was that we could have enjoyed a few more hours on the beach and shopping at the local surf shops there.
Overall, great trip and glad we did it!
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2015/04/24 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
The best part is the knowledge and friendliness of your tour guide Bethany.
Aloha Maria,
Thank you so much for your kind words. We are glad you had a great time, and hope the rest of your vacation was full of aloha as well.
Mahalo Nui Loa,
Oahu Nature Tours Management
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Friends |
Activity Date: | 2015/03/28 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
The concept is great. Transport is reliable, clean and on time. The tour guide, Harry, was entertaining and very friendly. The only thing we would suggest is that surfing be offered as one of the activities - it is after all what the area is best known for!
I would recommend this for anyone who wants an active day.
Thank you for the great review, surfing is offered to those with prior experience with our basic package.For the unexperienced folks we require they book the package which includes the "SURF LESSON". We are sorry if that wasn't explained thoroughly by Harry and will have to talk to him about that.
Mahalo Justin
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2015/03/20 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
Our family of 6 adults from Brisbane Australia loved this whole day tour. Our driver / tour guide Sam picked us up from our hotel on time, & drove safely. He was so friendly and knowledgeable about Oahu, and explained all the sights on the way to the North Shore - he make the entire trip an awesome experience. He gave us a drive by & quick stop at each of the available activities before we chose them, then dropped us all to our chosen areas. 3 of us chose bike riding along the famous surfing beaches where we could stop and have beach time as we liked; the other 3 the walk through the beautiful gardens to the waterfall. Though a lovely walk, it is quite a long one, for anyone older. If you want a swim at the Falls, take cash for a compulsory life jacket hire! From there we walked back to Waimea Bay beach for a swim until our bus pick up. Our next activity for 4 of us was SUP (stand up paddle boarding) and 2 did kayaking. We LOVED this time on the water and would have liked to have a bit less time on the morning activities and more time for the afternoon ones! After, we walked through the town and sampled the Shaved Ice and some delicious lunch before boarding the bus completely satisfied with our day. We did several different tours while in Waikiki, and this was BY FAR the very best for the sightseeing, and activities on offer, plus the freedom to have our own time was fantastic. We were REALLY impressed with Sam the driver & happy to tip him well for his outstanding service - he contributed in a big way to making it the best tour during our time in Hawaii. Thank you Sam! I would highly recommend this tour, well worth it and we have great memories of our day.
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2015/02/26 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
This Circle Island tour was terrific. Our guide, Dai Mar, was very knowledgeable about Oahu, the islands in general, and the places we visited. We saw the North Shore and spent time at the Banzai Pipeline, we visited Waimea Falls after a nice stroll/hike with lots of info about the area and the flora/fauna, we ate at Fumi's Shrimp Truck, and we stopped at a Macadamia farm/shop. It was fun, relaxed, and I learned a lot, plus the views were fantastic!
Aloha,
Thank you for the great review. We are so happy we got to share these fantastic places on our island with you. We take great pride in the wonderfeul personalities and extensive knowledge of our guides. Your great review and kind words are always satisfying to hear. We hope you had a great time in Hawaii and come visit our paradise again soon.
Mahalo Nui Loa,
Oahu Nature Tours
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Activity Date: | 2015/03/17 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
This was a truly awesome experience. We had Sam as a driver and he was totally great. He navigated traffic well and all of his narrating was necessary, funny and enjoyable.
We had a slight problem in that we missed our pick up (oops!) but the company was helpful and told us where to go to get another pick up.
We did some bike riding in the morning, saw Pipeline and had a great time. In the afternoon we tried SUP and saw turtles! It was a fully awesome experience. So good getting out and SEEING the North Shore, not just taking pictures of it.
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2014/12/09 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
Had Justin as the guide. Very very good - he made the trip!
Think he managed to talk the entire day(!) and added a lot of interesting and useful information throughout. Wife wanted to try the Shrimp Trucks, so that was her highlight, I wanted to see the large surf, so all-in-all, satisfied all our wants. Highly recommended.
Aloha AJ,
Thank you so much for the great review. Justin and all our guides are the best in Oahu, and we are so glad you got to experience the North Shore guided by his passion and knowledge. I will pass your kind words on to him. Our guides love hearing that they were able to share the aloha spirit with our guests, and show visitors to our island a great time.
Mahalo Nui Loa,
Oahu Nature Tours Management
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2014/11/13 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
My husband and I were disappointed with the tour guide. We felt he had a attitude about him and really didn't want to be there. At times we thought he was being rude in his manor and attitude. We went on another tour and the guide was so different and really acted like he wanted to be there. It made a big difference on the tour and made it much more enjoyable. The tour itself was great, but it could of been a lot nicer if the guide was more interested in the people on his bus and what he was doing.
I'm so sorry, who was your driver?
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2014/10/27 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
After spending the first couple of days in Hawaii walking everywhere, it was nice to sit and relax in the tour van and watch the island slide by out the windows. The hike through Wiamea Valley to the falls was beautiful, although I wish more plants and flowers had been in bloom. Lunch was awesome. This tour is alright, but we could easily have seen everything on our own with a car rental.
You can do anything on your own if that's what you want to do. But then you would have had to drive for 8 hours (paying close attention to the worst traffic in the nation), instead of enjoying the views and just relax. You would have had to rent a car for the whole day, you would have had to pay your own entry fees to the visited locations, you would have had to pay for your own lunch at Fumis and stand in line for it yourself instead of being served, you would have had to buy a guide book and study it to know where to go, you would have had to have someone read out aloud all the interesting facts about our islands natural history, just like our trained guide did for you for 8 hrs. We agree with you that the tour is beautiful and awesome. Plus, we fully delivered what we promised and if you add up all these extra expenses and inconvenience you would have had to encounter had you chosen to drive yourself, you would have lost money and comfort instead of gaining. Aloha!
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2014/09/21 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
This was a great tour. Our tour guy, I believe his name is Sam was very helpful and funny. Sam was also very knowledgeable and he made the tour a memorable experience for us. We like the fact that we get to plan out our activities and get to see couple places at North Shore. The only suggestion that we think can improve for the tour is the activities in the afternoon. There wasn't a lot of options in the afternoon activities like in the morning. Overall, we enjoyed the tour very much.
Aloha Betty,
Mahalo for your review and to make suggestions on how we can improve. This is essential to make guest's experience even better. We will think about ways to try to incorporate more activities to the pm break. Alooooha!
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2014/08/28 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
Our driver AC was great recommend excursion learned a lot great views
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2014/06/23 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
I so so so recommend the Surf Bus!! It was one of the best ways to see and experience North Shore! The driver was the best! He have great information and was so funny!! The paddle board was amazing, waterfall beautiful and the beach with snorkeling just awesome!! I recommend wearing water shoes as the rocks can be a little hard on your feet...(waterfall and snorkeling areas) Hands down best your we took!
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Families |
Activity Date: | 2014/06/13 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
We had a great time! We chose snorkeling and free lunch. Tip: Make sure you have cash!
who was your driver? thank you
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2014/05/16 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
Driver was excellent and the whole day was great driver was very informative
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Activity Date: | 2014/05/11 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
We did several tours and the North Shore was our favorite. The North Shore was gorgeous. There were a bunch of awesome little shops and art galleries. We rode bikes and went snorkeling. It was awesome!
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2014/03/24 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
Wow! what an entertainer Harry was & related so well to us being Aussies & accustomed to the surfing fraternity. We're recently retired & I was on crutches after an operation & nothing was too much trouble. He made special trip in between activities to come & pick me up from Waimea Falls to save me walking. We couldn't praise him enough. Go Harry!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for a wonderful insight into life on the North Shore of Oahu.
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2014/03/21 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
Good Time. Had a wonderful day. The tour guide was friendly and provided a lot of interesting facts and trivia about Oahu on the drive up, as well as the trip back. Once at the North Shore the choice activities and the loosely organized agenda made for an enjoyable day. Would definitely recommend. Great value.
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Activity Date: | 2014/02/11 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
We were looking for a tour to see the North Shore but have the freedom to do what we want to do....we couldn't have picked a better tour. This is the perfect tour for people looking for freedom to do/go where they want. We had Sam as our tour guide, a native from Hawaii. He was informative and very the perfect style of guide for this tour. Knew what he was talking about, laid back but still detail oriented enough to handle everyone's activities and where they were. We went there the day of the Volcom Pipe Pro at the Pipeline. We rented bikes at the North Shore Surf Shop (an included activity with the tour - no extra charge) and that allowed us to go freely around. We rode up to the surf competition to watch live. The nice part was with the bikes, you were stuck in one spot the whole time. Watched the competition, then rode down the coast to Sharks Cove and Waimea Bay. It was great to have no schedule or "planned activities" when we got there. We had 3 hours to do what we want. Some wanted nothing to do with the surf competition and they could do what they want. Everyone had their own agenda and this tour worked great with it. (For a quick bite to eat, hit up Pupukea Grill. Its a food truck in Sharks Cove with a heavenly flatbread.) Met back next to Sharks Cove for the bus and rode to Haleiwa for the afternoon. Again, free time through the town to experience the city itself or do water activities at Surf N Sea. We wanted to experience the town, so we went into the surf shops, stores and walked around the town itself. (For a great sandwich, hit up Waialua Bakery and Juice Bar next to the grocery store...phenomenal.) For being a smaller town, Haleiwa is a very cool town to experience. After the town, we were to a beach to view the sea turtles that come on shore. It was amazing to see the turtles that close.
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Couples |
Activity Date: | 2014/02/03 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
This was an awesome tour. The driver was local and gave lots of information about the area...what it used to be and what it is now. Many changes in 45 years. There was plenty of free time to explore. That was the best!
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Activity Date: | 2013/11/17 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
Harry is a great guide with plenty of energy, he will make sure you have a good time and show you some of the best places to hang out. You can lay on the beach and chill out of take part in a host of activities.
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Activity Date: | 2013/10/22 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
The "Surf Bus" Rocked my world, got timed out and lost my heartfelt compliments. I can't rewrite my praises. It does not do justice. Going to try:
Sam was an amazing guide, the playing, eating, and listening on the North Shore, my taste of heaven. Just visualize; Sea Turtles, tidal pools and an eye to eye with an Eagle Ray, food to die for, and 1000 reasons to keep coming back. An awesome "build your own burger". Surprise yourself and go for it! Not a sit and stare tour, unless your waiting for a set, or focused on sea turtles. You still get to do your driving. Came back exhausted and completed. 50 years in and now I figure out happy. Better late than never.
Mesmerized by the bright smiles, and sense of community that emerged as we talked through our day. 20 people, 5 countries and a bevy of dialects. It was right Kraky, but no worries mate.
@Sam, the Tiki was truly over that rainbow.
Mahalo nui loa!!!
Rating: | |
---|---|
Attended as: | Solo Travelers |
Activity Date: | 2013/10/23 |
Was this comment helpful?
[Yes]
|
Reply from activity provider
An unexpected error has occurred. Please go back to the previous page and try again, or wait a few minutes and try once again.
We are sorry you got the pick up times mixed up and were forced to catch a city bus to catch up , therefore missing your second activity. Normally we have other drivers on the North Shore and could have expatiated things so sorry for that too.PLEASE GIVE US A FUTURE DATE TO COMP YOU THE TOUR SO WE CAN SHOW YOU WHAT ITS REALLY LIKE.
P.S; FOR SAFTEY REASONS SURFING IS THE ONLY ACTIVITY WHICH IF YOU HAVE NO PRIOR EXPERIENCE WE REQUIRE YOU DO A LESSON. Those with some prior experience may surf with our basic package pricing.
Aloha Justin