Today I am sharing our adventure and a guide to visiting the Hobbiton New Zealand Movie Set in Matamata. Here is everything you need to know to visit Hobbiton and have a fantastic adventure on the Hobbiton tour! – This is in collaboration with Hobbiton Tours.
We hope you enjoy this Hobbiton Guide and review!
Where is Hobbiton?
The Hobbiton movie set is actually located in Matamata, a town in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand.
The Hobbiton movie set is a famous location to visit for both Lord Of The Rings fans and those who love The Hobbit Movie.
Visiting Hobbiton New Zealand
You can visit Hobbiton via a number of ways. There are plenty of options to travel to the Hobbiton movie set and each one can allow you to enjoy the whole experience of the Hobbiton movie set tour, discovering the shire, visiting the hobbit holes and enjoying the whole experience of Hobbiton New Zealand.
- Drive to Matamata. You can drive to Matamata in a rental car or vehicle. This is a great way of visiting Hobbiton and there is plenty of car parking at Shire’s rest Hobbiton.
- You can book a transfer from key locations such as Auckland, Tauranga, Rotorua and Hamilton using the Hobbiton Tours Transfers Program. This makes it easy to reach the Shires rest where the Hobbiton movie set is located.
- You can also lodge locally in a B&B or enjoy local accommodation when travelling to Hobbiton. There are plenty of places to stay overnight to allow you to rest and enjoy your Hobbiton tour. Be sure to book well in advance.
Booking Your Hobbiton Tour
The best advice I can give for booking your Hobbiton tour is to book well in advance. There are a number of daily tours which are often very full and so you will need to plan ahead of time to get the ideal date and time.
The entry price to visit Hobbiton New Zealand on the standard movie set tour is $84.00 per adult, $42 for youth ages 9 to 16 years and Free for children ages 0-8 who are accompanied by a full paying adult.
In addition to the Hobbiton movie set tour, there are options to attend a Hobbiton Banquet Tour, to enjoy a movie set tour and meal combo and you can even book a private tour of Hobbiton for a more intimate experience.
It’s pretty easy to book Hobbiton tour tickets online. If you book your Hobbiton movie set tour online be sure to print off your tickets and take them to the ticketing desk at the Shire’s rest. Also make sure you arrive at least 15 minutes before your bus to is due for departure.
Our Visit To Hobbiton
Visiting Hobbiton as a family was a real adventure. My husband is a huge fan of The Lord of The Rings and has watched The Hobbit many times. We were super excited to visit the shire, to explore the Hobbiton movie set and take photos outside of each Hobbit Hole. It was a brilliant experience and one we will never forget.
We went on the Hobbiton Meal and Movie set tour which was an amazing experience.
We toured the Hobbit holes and visited the Shire, Bag End, The Green Dragon Inn and all the locations. This was a fantastic visit and a great experience.
Hobbit Hole Photos
The Hobbit holes were for me the highlight of Hobbiton. Each Hobbit hole was a different size. Some were the standard size for a Hobbit, and other Hobbit homes were human size. This was needed to help create the correct visual perspective for the screen, something known as focus perspective.
I loved all the detail outside each Hobbit hole. There were laundry lines, art easels, fishing gear and a small letter box on each gate. This was really great to see and each Hobbit home was unique and different.
I really enjoyed seeing all the detail and effort that had been put into creating the Hobbit holes and it was fantastic to see first hand.
The Hobbiton Buffet Lunch
Prior to our Hobbiton movie set tour we were able to enjoy a feast in the Green Dragon Marquee. The dining experience was really great.
We sat at a table with Hobbit mugs and had a large bottle of water from the South Farthing.
Dining in the marquee was a lovely experience. The whole area was decorated Hobbiton style with lamps hanging from the tent roof, gorgeous hanging baskets and bunting. This all added to a great atmosphere.
The Hobbiton meal was a buffet style meal with some great options to choose from. We enjoyed the root vegetables, roast potatoes, roast beef, plus other delicious options.
Each dish was labelled with traditional Hobbit font lettering and this looked really great!
We enjoyed apple crumble and custard for dessert and the meal set a fantastic tone before we began our Hobbiton tour.
Visiting The Green Dragon Hobbiton
Our Hobbiton tour ended at The Green Dragon Inn, where we were offered a complimentary drink as part of the tour.
Some of the family had traditional ginger beer whilst the others had a warm drink as it had been quite windy outside. Ending the tour at the Green Dragon Inn was really fun and we were able to stay there for 15 minutes before making our way back to our shuttle bus.
Accessibility For Disabled
The Hobbiton Movie set is located on a farm and whilst there are buses and roads and paths, the location is not designed for those with disabilities. There are spots along the tour where you can sit and rest, however due to the speed at which the tour takes place and the hilly nature of the Hobbiton tour, it would be very difficult for someone with mobility issues and virtually impossible for someone in a wheelchair to go on the tour.
I am speaking from experience as someone who is a part time wheelchair user. I was able to just manage the tour, however it was extreemly difficult and I continued to lag behind and really struggled at times. (It was for me worth it, however it would not be possible for some people).
Hobbiton Gift Shop
Following our Tour of the Hobbiton movie set we returned to the Shires rest and visited the Hobbiton store.
There were plenty of amazing Hobbiton items for sale in the Hobbiton tours shop and we each purchased something special.
Sylvia got a postcard and Hobbiton tours pen, John got a Hobbiton hat and location guide for Lord Of The Rings And I got a few awesome Hobbiton magnets for the fridge.
We had a fantastic visit to Hobbiton and enjoyed every minute. The journey was well worth it and the experience was everything we had hoped for.
My husband loved the adventure and being able to connect the locations and areas we visited with different scenes from the Hobbit movie. I think Hobbiton is a fantastic place to visit and is one place I’d totally recommend.
*This is a collaborative post*
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I have heard many lovely things about New Zealand. They couldn’t have picked a better place to shoot the Rings and the Hobbit films.
Reminds me to read them again!
Oh it’s such a great place to visit and we loved every moment of our visit.
I had no idea this place existed but it looks awesome – I love visiting movie related sets and events
Oh it was a great adventure. Movie sets are super fun!
Oh wow! What an amazing place to visit.
The Hobbit hole’s are brilliant! They look exactly like they do on the films.
It looks and sounds like you had a fantastic day! x
Sylvia and John loved it! We had an amazing time!
I haven’t seen any of the films but this looks like a great experience.
Ah thanks… my husband has watched it heaps of times.
Oh this looks so much fun, New Zealand is a long time travel bucket list item for me, even though I used to live in Australia – and never visited.
Oh it’s somewhere I lived for many years but I never really did much sight seeing …just everyday living!
My best friend went to Hobbiton when she was living and working in New Zealand and she loved it too!
Oh it was such a lovely experience. I am sure anyone would love this!
What a fantastic adventure. My son is a big Lord Of The Rings fan so would love it here. In fact a few months ago I asked him where he would live if he could live anywhere in the world and he said New Zealand!
Oh my husband is absolutely loving our adventure over hear! It is a dream come true.
What a wonderful experience for the whole family! We are looking to return to New Zealand for a holiday and would love to visit Hobbiton as we are huge Lord of the Rings fan. The Hobbiton buffet lunch looks yummy
The food was super fab and we loved every minute of it for sure!
Oh wow how cool is this experience. Looks like you had a fab time in this New Zealand adventure land xx
Oh look at the Hobbit houses! Love them! My son would love to visit this place
This would be my husbands dream come true. He is a huge fan of Lord of the Rings.
Yes it was my hubbies dream! 🙂
Oh wow, what a cool place to visit! I haven’t heard of it before but would love to visit now!
It’s super cool and a great place for any Lord of the rings fan or Hobbit fan!
This sounds like an amazing experience! My boys would love this! We have relatives in New Zealand but we’ve not made it over there yet.
It is so far away and it took us years to save but now I want to return to NZ every year!