Rotorua Mud Baths

The place to take a mud bath in Rotorua is Hell’s Gate at Tikitere, east of the city, where you sit in an outdoor pool of warm geothermal mud and then soak in sulphur water. The Hell’s Gate Mud Bath & Spas ticket is from $52 per person and rates 4.4 from 553 reviews. The one other bookable mud experience on this site is a self-applied mud lounge inside Wai Ariki’s two-hour spa journey in town, which suits a different kind of day.

Mud bath or mud pool: the difference that matters

Rotorua is full of bubbling mud, and almost none of it is for bathing. The mud pools you see in parks and geothermal reserves can be scalding, sit behind fences for a reason, and can burn badly. A mud bath is a managed bathing pool with staff, showers and time limits.

None of Rotorua’s free mud is for bathing. If you see mud in a park, look at it from the path. For the free places where people do soak, and the safety rules that go with them, read our free hot springs guide.

Where you can do a mud bath in Rotorua

Hell’s Gate is the outdoor mud bath most people mean when they search for one. The mud-and-spa ticket is the same product whether you buy it on Viator or on GetYourGuide, where it is listed as the Hells Gate Outdoor Mud Bath & Spa Experience from $51. If you also want to see the steaming reserve, the Hell’s Gate Geothermal Walk & Mud Spa adds the walk, the cool plunge and a carving session from $65 per person. Our Hell’s Gate Rotorua guide covers the park, the hours and the walk in full.

The Wai Ariki Restorative Journey on the lakefront is a two-hour circuit of pools, steam and heat rooms, and one stop is Te Wheako Paru, the geothermal mud lounge, where you apply natural mud mixed with plant oils yourself. You do not sit in a mud pool. It is for guests aged 16 and over, and robe, towel and locker are included. Our Wai Ariki guide has the full sequence.

What a mud bath at Hell’s Gate feels like

You change into swimwear, step into the mud pool and sit in the warm mud with the sulphur smell of the reserve around you, spreading it over your skin and letting it sit. Hell’s Gate caps the mud at 20 minutes per person per day for health and safety, which is plenty. The official FAQ says each mud container holds 40 to 60 kg and the tubs are not filled entirely with mud, so you scoop the mud and spread it over yourself.

After the mud you rinse under a cool shower, because you need to wash it off before the sulphur spa, then soak in the hot sulphur water. On the combined ticket you can finish in the cool plunge pool. Changing rooms and showers are on site.

What the mud does for your skin

Local Māori have used the mud and sulphur water at Hell’s Gate for more than 800 years. The operator describes the mud as opening and cleaning the skin and the sulphur spa as a gentle exfoliation, and operators describe it as softening the skin. That is as far as the claims go here: a mud bath is a pleasant, unusual soak, and not a medical treatment. If you have a skin condition, ask your doctor first.

How much a mud bath costs

On the booking platforms, the mud bath and spas cost from $52 per person on Viator or $51 on GetYourGuide, and the walk with the mud bath and spa from $65. Those are US dollar prices. On Hell’s Gate’s own website the adult gate price for the mud bath and spas is NZ$90, and NZ$115 for the full experience with the walk. Children aged 5 to 15 pay NZ$45 for the mud bath and spas, and a family ticket for two adults and two to four children starts from NZ$250, so a family of four pays less at the gate than four separate tickets. Our Rotorua hot pools prices page lines these up against the mineral spas.

Without a car, you have three options. Hell’s Gate runs a free shuttle from six pickup points in central Rotorua, and you must book it ahead.

The evening shuttle leaves Hell’s Gate at 7:30pm, the same time as the last mud bath entry, so if you travel by shuttle, book a session that starts soon after the 4:15pm pickup arrives. The Hell’s Gate Geothermal Mud Bath Half Day Tour from the Rotorua i-SITE is from $154 with transport, the walk and the mud bath, though it has only 3 reviews so far. From Auckland, the Hell’s Gate Mud Spa & Blue Springs Day Tour is from $224 and rates 4.5 from 13 reviews.

Who should skip the mud

Children can take a mud bath from two and a half years old, and the sulphur spa from six months, with under-15s supervised at all times. The listings say the bathing is not suitable for pregnant women or for people with heart problems or high blood pressure. Hell’s Gate’s own wording on pregnancy is softer: bathing is “not our recommendation but an individual’s choice”, so ask your midwife or doctor before you book. If any of that applies, the geothermal walk alone keeps you dry.

What to bring

Bring old swimwear and a towel you do not mind about: both come away smelling of sulphur and need a thorough wash. Both can be hired at reception for NZ$5 per item, subject to availability. Remove all jewellery before you go in, because the mud and water tarnish most metals, silver especially, and wait a day or two before wearing it again.

If you would like a warm soak without the mud, start with our best hot pools in Rotorua. For the mud bath and sulphur spas, check availability.