Customer Reviews

Footprint New Zealand (Footprint New Zealand Handbook)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was not familiar with this British travelguide series until I used this edition for my recent trip to New Zealand. The book is very easy to use, with pleasing layouts, and up-to-date and reliable restaurant recommendations of sites to see, hotels, restaurants, etc. The writer really showed his familiarity with NZ, and the writing was crisp and energetic. I had researched several guides to NZ (Fodors, Frommers, Lonely Planet, Rough Guide) before I left and found this one to be the best. I also looked into the Footprints guide to Australia and found it to be equally first-rate. I will definitely consider a Footprints guide again the next time I travel.

I loved this guidebook!

I went travelling in New Zealand for two and a half months, which was enough time that I researched thoroughly beforehand which guide would be my companion. I really liked the contents of this guide book - it contains all you need to know for accommodation, restaurants and the like, but most importantly, on things to do, it has a fairly strong emphasis on the outdoors. I mean, it is New Zealand after all! Everytime I followed the guide's recommendation, I found myself appreciating it as it was described, and by the end the guidebook was like a good friend who likes to do the same things I like to do, so that I could trust a recommendation blindly. The author has a strong conservation background and it really shows in all the anecdotes and info - which I gobbled up as I am into it too!

It was also quite good at saying things as they are. For instance, if a hostel is a busy, loud place, it will say so - hey, it could be your thing if you're feeling social right. If a hostel is out of the way and fairly quiet, it will also say so, and it could also be what you're after (or truly not). That way, whatever it is you're after, you'll get an accurate picture.

And you know what the best part was? The vast majority of travellers have the lonely planet book. Which means any accommodation highly recommended on there will be crammed full. I met a fellow traveller who ended up going to any place he could find that would not be mentioned in his lonely planet guide, to avoid the crowds. I was pretty smug with my footprint :)

Now, any new place I go, the first thing I do is check whether footprint has a guidebook there - the unfortunate part of that being that they don't have quite as much coverage as the other guides...

Despite the beautiful color photo on the cover, the inside of this book appears rather lifeless. It is extremely dense - lots of information displayed in very small type. I would check the publishing date as some info could be out of date. Two of the towns I am going to do not appear in the book. This is a very heavy book and not handy if you're arriving by air. Some of the discourse gets overly cheeky. For example, it advises women that the New Zealand male may be more like Roger Ramjet than Don Juan (which could be good to know, depending).