Anyone who's been to New Zealand, please help
Anyone who's been to New Zealand, please help
Hello.
I would absolutely love to visit New Zealand. I would most likely be travelling solo (23-year-old female), and visiting in January or February 2007.
I've done some research, and will probably go on an escorted tour holiday.
I've found a tour to New Zealand for 22 days costing £3,000. The price includes flights, accomodation, excursions, but not meals, insurance, or spending money.
Do you think that the price justifies the tour?
I would be visiting: -
Auckland • Rotorua • Christchurch • Wellington • Dunedin • Queenstown • Mount Cook, plus many other places.
Any advice/ comments etc are greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Answers:
That is rather spendy but probably quite a good deal as it includes flights which seem to be getting more and more expensive!
Im from NZ so havent needed to stay in many hotels but i would say it sounds about fair. Meals are pretty cheap, and it would be pretty nice to do it in a group as it could be quite hard to meet people if youre not in one place for a huge amount of time. Who is it with? I wouldnt spend a huge amount of time in Auckland (where i'm from) or Hamilton personally, the further south you get the more beautiful and interesting it gets - I hear fab things about the South Island in particular!
Any other questions about NZ feel free to pm me!
Answers:
I've travelled around NZ twice - once on my own as a backpacker over about 2 months and then again with my hubby 5 years later in a campervan for 3-4 weeks and it really is one of the most beautiful countries I have been too.
3k is a lot of dosh to spend and there are certainly cheaper ways of doing it but there are pros and cons to both.
As a backpacker you can stay in hostels with lots of other travellers so you meet lots of people, hostels are generally cheap and cheerful and generally very safe. You can then take the bus, train or internal flights to where ever you want to go to next (I always found someone was going the same way so I was never really on my own). NZ is geared up incredibly well for backpackers so everything is made so easy for you.
Depending on what type of tour you're looking at you might be stuck with the same people for the entire time which can be great if you like them or dreadful if you don't and it can also take away alot of the adventure as you are so safe and everything is on an itinerary so if you really like somewhere would you be able to stay another day if you so choose or would you have to move on with the coach??
I would highly recomend Auckland and Christchurch (obviously), Milford Sound and Queenstown were my 2 most favourite places and the glaciers are amazing.
Its been a few years now since I have been, but feel free to ask if you want some more info although there are plenty of other baggers who have been more recently who might be of more use !
Whatever you decide to do I'm sure you will have an amazing time as its an incredible country and the people are very friendly and genuine (and Kiwi men are rather cute too!!)
:yay:
Answers:
Hi GorgeousTortoise and Ang999.
Thank you so much for your posts.
Now I'm not sure what to do.
The tour is with Travelsphere.
I did look at the STA Travel one, but it's only for 12 days, and I really don't think that's long enough.
I know this sounds a bit strange, but I don't really want to travel by myself. And the escorted tour option seems ideal to me. I know that there might be people that I don't like/ or get on with, but I intend to ask Travelsphere when I call them the age-range of the people that have booked so far.
Is February a good time to visit weather wise? I really don't like the sun, so I wouldn't want to go in the Summer season (which is soon, considering Oz and NZ have the opposite climate to us)
Thank you.
Also - How much does food cost? Roughly?
And here is the itinerary, if you would be so kind to glance at it, and tell me if it sounds good:
Here
Answers:
ok so i lost my huge long reply so sorry if this is brief, i just need to get it all out before i forget what i wrote.
Food wise its difficult for me to remember exact costs, since i havent spent more than a few weeks at a time there over the last 5 years and always stayed with my parents! I vaguely remember a mcdonalds combo type thing is about $7, a bottle of coke $3, a night out in a nice restaurant for two with all the trimmings will cost you about $200! you obviously wouldnt be looking at that price range - i've just sent my dad a text to ask him, he knows these things more than i do!
Feb is quite warm, not as hot as jan which is definitely the warmest month, i remember going back to school at the beginning of feb tho after summer holidays and it was definitely still quite warm, so maybe end of feb is best. Its FREEZING there at the moment, apparently they've had snow as far north as the coromandel (about an hour from auckland diagonally to the right!) which NEVER happens!
Your itinerary looks quite good, Rotorua, Taupo and Huka Falls etc are AMAZING!
Hello.
I would absolutely love to visit New Zealand. I would most likely be travelling solo (23-year-old female), and visiting in January or February 2007.
I've done some research, and will probably go on an escorted tour holiday.
I've found a tour to New Zealand for 22 days costing £3,000. The price includes flights, accomodation, excursions, but not meals, insurance, or spending money.
Do you think that the price justifies the tour?
I would be visiting: -
Auckland • Rotorua • Christchurch • Wellington • Dunedin • Queenstown • Mount Cook, plus many other places.
Any advice/ comments etc are greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Answers:
That is rather spendy but probably quite a good deal as it includes flights which seem to be getting more and more expensive!
Im from NZ so havent needed to stay in many hotels but i would say it sounds about fair. Meals are pretty cheap, and it would be pretty nice to do it in a group as it could be quite hard to meet people if youre not in one place for a huge amount of time. Who is it with? I wouldnt spend a huge amount of time in Auckland (where i'm from) or Hamilton personally, the further south you get the more beautiful and interesting it gets - I hear fab things about the South Island in particular!
Any other questions about NZ feel free to pm me!
Answers:
I've travelled around NZ twice - once on my own as a backpacker over about 2 months and then again with my hubby 5 years later in a campervan for 3-4 weeks and it really is one of the most beautiful countries I have been too.
3k is a lot of dosh to spend and there are certainly cheaper ways of doing it but there are pros and cons to both.
As a backpacker you can stay in hostels with lots of other travellers so you meet lots of people, hostels are generally cheap and cheerful and generally very safe. You can then take the bus, train or internal flights to where ever you want to go to next (I always found someone was going the same way so I was never really on my own). NZ is geared up incredibly well for backpackers so everything is made so easy for you.
Depending on what type of tour you're looking at you might be stuck with the same people for the entire time which can be great if you like them or dreadful if you don't and it can also take away alot of the adventure as you are so safe and everything is on an itinerary so if you really like somewhere would you be able to stay another day if you so choose or would you have to move on with the coach??
I would highly recomend Auckland and Christchurch (obviously), Milford Sound and Queenstown were my 2 most favourite places and the glaciers are amazing.
Its been a few years now since I have been, but feel free to ask if you want some more info although there are plenty of other baggers who have been more recently who might be of more use !
Whatever you decide to do I'm sure you will have an amazing time as its an incredible country and the people are very friendly and genuine (and Kiwi men are rather cute too!!)
:yay:
Answers:
Hi GorgeousTortoise and Ang999.
Thank you so much for your posts.
Now I'm not sure what to do.
The tour is with Travelsphere.
I did look at the STA Travel one, but it's only for 12 days, and I really don't think that's long enough.
I know this sounds a bit strange, but I don't really want to travel by myself. And the escorted tour option seems ideal to me. I know that there might be people that I don't like/ or get on with, but I intend to ask Travelsphere when I call them the age-range of the people that have booked so far.
Is February a good time to visit weather wise? I really don't like the sun, so I wouldn't want to go in the Summer season (which is soon, considering Oz and NZ have the opposite climate to us)
Thank you.
Also - How much does food cost? Roughly?
And here is the itinerary, if you would be so kind to glance at it, and tell me if it sounds good:
Here
Answers:
ok so i lost my huge long reply so sorry if this is brief, i just need to get it all out before i forget what i wrote.
Food wise its difficult for me to remember exact costs, since i havent spent more than a few weeks at a time there over the last 5 years and always stayed with my parents! I vaguely remember a mcdonalds combo type thing is about $7, a bottle of coke $3, a night out in a nice restaurant for two with all the trimmings will cost you about $200! you obviously wouldnt be looking at that price range - i've just sent my dad a text to ask him, he knows these things more than i do!
Feb is quite warm, not as hot as jan which is definitely the warmest month, i remember going back to school at the beginning of feb tho after summer holidays and it was definitely still quite warm, so maybe end of feb is best. Its FREEZING there at the moment, apparently they've had snow as far north as the coromandel (about an hour from auckland diagonally to the right!) which NEVER happens!
Your itinerary looks quite good, Rotorua, Taupo and Huka Falls etc are AMAZING!