Iconic Shore Excursion: Dunedin City Highlights Tour
Recommended by 95% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Port Chalmers, New Zealand
+5
- 4 hours (approx.)
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Explore Dunedin’s highlights in just half a day without running out of time on a small-group shore excursion city tour. Visit historic Olveston House, the University of Otago, and Baldwin Street, officially the world’s steepest street. Enjoy panoramic views from Signal Hill and free time in the Octagon. Transfers are available from the cruise port or Dunedin Railway Station. Group numbers are limited for a personalized experience.
- Half-day sightseeing tour leaves the rest of your day free
- Learn more about Dunedin than you would sightseeing alone
- Easily get around the hilly city in a private vehicle
- Receive personalized attention on a small-group shore excursion
What's Included
- All taxes, fees and handling charges
- Professional guide
- Cruise Port pickup and drop off; Please meet us inside the Visitor Building on ship's wharf
- Lunch
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting points
Select a meeting point
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End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.Itinerary
1
Signal Hill
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
2
Baldwin Street - World's Steepest Street!
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
3
University of Otago
5 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
4
Olveston Historic Home
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
Speight’s Brewery (Pass By)
5
The Octagon
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
6
Dunedin Railway Station
20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
7
Toitu Otago Settlers Museum
20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
St Clair Beach (Pass By)
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Service animals allowed
- Infants must sit on laps
- Not recommended for travelers with back problems
- Most travelers can participate
- Children must be accompanied by an adult
- passengers must be able to access the steps on and off the vehicle un-assisted
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 20 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.8
based on 149 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
Very worthwhile.Dunedin came alive to us as Greg shared his knowledge of the city he grew up in. Highly recommend this tour 10 out of 10
What a great tour of Dunedin. Our driver/guide Alan was so knowledgeable about Dunedin’s history and culture. We enjoyed his running commentary on the many and varied sites that we visited throughout the day. Highly recommend.
Excellent excursion that gave a great overview of the city. Our guide was a wealth of information and gave us one of our best tours yet as we explored New Zealand.
Wonderful tour of Dunedin's sites, tour guide/driver very knowledgeable, helpful and Informative. We had plenty of time to stop and get photos and see everything we wanted. Thoroughly recommend this tour.
Our guide, Greg, was excellent: attentive to the individuals in our group while keeping the tour on track. There was a nice diversity of activities and the pace was perfect. In addition to information on the sites we visited, Greg was wonderful at answering questions and shared related insights on the area. His narration was a real bonus.
Get to see scenic views, and learn history of Dunedin and a bit of shopping at the end. Wear walking shoes to climb the big hill.
Great tour! Allen was a wonderful friendly guide who was very knowledgable and had a great sense of honour. I would recommend this tour.
Our guide, Alan, was fantastic. He had so much knowledge of the places we saw and he added many interesting details and facts. We would highly recommend this tour.
Response from Host, Feb 2026
Alan has so much knowledge and is such a people person. So glad you enjoyed your time here with us. Thanks for the review
We were deeply impressed with our tour guide who was extremely knowledgeable and offered deep insights of the various sights seeing
Response from Host, Feb 2026
All our guides have so much information and passion for their jobs. We all love our beautiful city. Glad you enjoyed your time with us
An excellent day in Dunedin. We were picked up at cruise port early and had time for an extra trip to a view point above the ship. The guides Kim and Greg were friendly, helpful and full of information. Many stops around town managed very efficiently and a hour to get lunch and do a little shopping. Then they got us back to the ship in comfortable time. Highly recommended!
Response from Host, Feb 2026
Thanks for your review. Greg and Kim really are the dynamic duo. Such friendly, knowledgeable guides with a great love of Dunedin
Whirl wind tour of highlights. Lots of stops all quite short but no real need to be longer. Our tour guide Allan is a good driver was non stop chatter but very informative. Bus was clean.
This was a cute town and had great sites to see. We enjoyed Baldwin Street and the free time this tour allows.
Response from Host, Jan 2026
Glad to hear you had such a good experience in our beautiful city. Thanks for your review
We were told by the driver that the Viator information was not what was offered by Iconic. We were rushed at times with the timing differences. Also the bus driver would not organise a bathroom stop until several guests explained the need. The driver also was reported to say why didn't they go on the ship. Our party and others found that quite disappointing and dismissive of the age group on tour. The places visited were very pretty and ticked off several of our bucket list items. Iconic and Viator need to be on the same page and include opportunities for bathroom stops. We missed the steepest street due to waiting in line for one toilet and around 15 people. Disappointing to say the least.
Response from Host, Jan 2026
Thank you for your feedback. I'm glad you found Dunedin to be very pretty and the tour "ticked off several of your bucket list items".
I am sorry to hear of the problems you encountered with the wait for the restroom and also that you found our guide to be dismissive of your concerns. This was one of our very experienced guides and after talking with him, he agrees he should have made it a priority to find a public toilet sooner. We have also discussed adjusting the itinerary slightly to ensure there can not be too much of a gap between stops with restroom facilities.
There were some challenges on that day which caused delays earlier on and also during the tour. Our guide said he was focused on completing the itinerary in order to make up time. I think this is also why he suggested 10 minutes for the Railway Station stop, however he did make it longer when it was pointed out the 20 minutes was allocated on the itinerary. And was able to inform the rest of the group of this as well.
With regards to the Itinerary shown on Viator, we don't always follow it exactly due to the fact that every group is different and also external conditions such as weather can dictate what we end up including. For example there is no point going to Signal Hill lookout on really cloudy days because the low cloud and mist can make visibility zero up there. And with Toitu Museum, if you read the information under the heading on the Viator Itinerary, it does state we only stop there on rainy days. We always include the must see stops on our City Highlights Tour; Baldwin Street, Railway Station, and the Octagon for free time or shopping. These key places truly represent the magic and charm that is Dunedin and we ensure to include them on every tour. There are so many other interesting places in Dunedin, I feel it is important that our guides have some flexibility in choosing what else to fit into the tour around these main attractions. It helps us tailor the tour to the group and get the very best out of the day. In saying this we do follow the itinerary shown on Viator pretty closely.
Once again we really appreciate you providing feedback on your experience, we have been able to use it to improve and enhance the tour for everyone.
Cheers, Kim
Our tour guide Ken was very informative, we loved Baldwin Street, didn't get to the top 🙂. The whole tour was fantastic. We would recommend this tour to everyone
Kim our tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. The organisation of getting the right people to the right bus at the beginning of the tour was a bit chaotic - but we got there in the end and enjoyed the trip.
Informative and very interesting,driver very friendly and knowledgeable. Was a a great tour , comfortable bus.
We had a very nice bus driver, his knowledge of Dunedin was excellent as he is a native of the city..
Kim our tour guide was phenomenal. He was very knowledgeable about Dunedin and told us many fascinating stories and shared interesting facts. He safely drove us to a range of places and always parked close by. I would highly recommend this trip.
What a fantastic tour in a beautiful city. All through the tour you never felt rushed. Plenty of off-board time to look around at some of the most Iconic locations. Our driver/tour guide, Kim, was very knowledgeable but also incredibly enthusiastic about a city he clearly loves. This certainly made the tour even more enjoyable. It also made a huge difference being picked up and dropped off at the cruise terminal. We loved every minute of this tour... Goodonya Iconic! 🤘
Itinerary was changed without letting us know prior, bus left port at 10am with no mention of change, did enjoy and walk on Baldwin St and The historic railway was lovely, but the same couple of passengers were allowed to take an extra 20 to 30mins past meeting time at stops which all other passengers did understand with nothing said to them ( stops were 20mins at each place )the driver told everyone what time to meet back, so our tour was running longer and by time we got to 1 hour lunch break in centre it was 1.30 pm and we had not stopped at the University of Otago as bus could not park and driver was going to try later, we asked driver when are we going to Signal Hill to which he replied the bus won't make it up there, there was no apology, so we asked could we leave tour which another couple had already done at previous stop and told yes so caught a taxi back to cruise via Signal Hill which was what I was looking forward too for photos, I we did however get a photo opportunity of a not so pretty side of Dunedin of Uni students accommodation with street littered with broken glass and burnt couches from drinking episodes at night ,not quite the beautiful scenery we paid for.
This was a fabulous tour and Kim was an awesome guide! I highly recommend it! It was the right amount of time for us.
Very enjoyable tour, our guide Kim was very knowledgeable & friendly. The tour showed us the stunning scenery around Dunedin, across the Otago peninsula, plus the highlights such as the railway museum, first Church etc.
Kim was an amazing guide and had so much information about Dunedin to share and secret insights. He not only has vast knowledge of the area, he also shares hilarious antidotes along the way to keep you laughing and entertained throughout the route. I highly recommend this tour.
Fantastic tour! We only had so much time, with a cruise excursion, Kim put as much into those hours as possible! He knows the history, wildlife, and trivia that we all wanted to know and filled the hours with stories and facts.
Easy going knowledgeable guide
Accommodating to needs
Good tour content and enjoyable points of interest
Great introduction to Dunedin. Such a beautiful place and so interesting. Guide was friendly and knowledgeable.
A good overview of Dunedin and itinerary was flexible. I’ve been to Dunedin before but still saw places I hadn’t been to and our driver gave a great commentary.
Response from Host, Apr 2025
Thanks so much for your nice review! Always good to know were keeping things interesting, especially for people like you who have made repeat visits to Dunedin. All the best, Kim :)
We had a wonderful outing with guides Kim and Greg! Clearly, they love their city and made sure we saw and learned about this special place. From the steepest street in the world to Signal Hill, the Botanical Garden and the Greenway, it was all great. We love our walk about Otaga University and our visit to the "mouth" of the harbor with the six molars guarding the entrance. We went on to the beaches and even had time to pick up a to go order of the fantastic pumpkin, lemon grass with chili drizzle soup at The Corner Shop Cafe. Thank you Kim and Greg for this terrific look at Dunedin.
Ann made this tour. She was interesting and very friendly and helpful. I felt this tour gave a very good overview of Dunedin.
It is a small van so tour is small and quaint. Full of information about Dunedin and NZ. We went to all the important highlights.
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