Customer Reviews

Frommer's New Zealand

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Frommer's guides don't get a lot of respect from a certain sector, it would seem. They do not invite you to be an edgy traveler, nor do they indulge the conceit shared by some US guide books that your trip must wholly original (never mind that many others will tread the same off-the-beaten path) in order to be fun and worthwhile.

This edition enables you to travel comfortably, adventurously, and happily - without spending a fortune. You will learn a lot and have a great time doing so.

It was a dependable resource for my husband and me as we drove (rental car), sailed (ferry) and flew (Dunedin to Wellington) for two weeks through the wonderful country of New Zealand. We wanted inexpensive ($65 a night, tops) motels that were clean, quiet, cheerful, and well-located, with an occasional splurge. We wanted to have fun but we did not want to surf, bungee-jump, hang-glide, or parasail, preferring cultural and historical sites, endless green meadows, the fine small towns, natural wonders (boiling mud, snow-capped mountains, steaming ponds and streams, glowworm caves and more) in addition to the exquisite and distinctive cities of this great country, and visits to friends.

New Zealand motels are great. They are mostly family-owned and their owners are on-site and try hard. Ours (all mentioned in this book) were consistently clean, comfortable, have mini-kitchens (microwave, electric kettle, small, quiet refrigerator, dishes and utensils and a work space plus coffee and tea) and you get your own little bottle of milk for your coffee or tea the next morning. Coffee is "plunger coffee," NZ for "French press." You make it with an electric kettle and ground coffee, included in the price.

The Pandora's box "mini-bar" has not completely infiltrated New Zealand. This was nice, too.

Several motels had unlimited hot water (in geothermal districts) and huge, fabulous, spotlessly clean two-person bathtubs as part of an inexpensive room.

We got terrific restaurant and other tips from the owners of these motels.

If you are in a hurry, Frommer's supplies you with especially useful "If you have only one day," "two days," etc. ideas. From these compact lists you can get a good idea of what is out there, and pick and choose as you wish. It's inevitable that you'll make your own discoveries along the way.

We tried more than a few of the restaurants, neighborhoods, motels, B and Bs, and historical and natural sights that this book recommended. No misses.

A curious tourist will find a lot that is helpful in this book. It was a handy and helpful resource, down-to-earth but not pedestrian, and I'd recommend it to any friend traveling to NZ.

I thought this book had good coverage of the major locations most Americans would visit in New Zealand. More importantly, the author is a native of NZ and as such, she seemed to have some good insights into the local viewpoint. I had no difficulty finding the information I needed about every location we wanted to visit and every major hotel or restaurant that interested us. This book is probably not well suited to those who want to backpack through NZ on the cheap. It's aimed at the middle-class traveler who wants to stay in an actual hotel and eat in restaurants.

If you really like to vacation, the best way to do it is B&B's. When my wife and I vacationed in NZ, we stayed in B&B's for 80% of our trip.

Skip the big cities. Auckland is ok. But the pearls in this vacation are found when you travel by car. To the small cities. Across this geographic treasure. Here's better advice than Frommer can give: stay with the locals and learn the culture.

Kiwis love Americans. While staying on a ranch B&B, our hosts grilled fresh fish, created an incredible smorgasbord of fresh meats and served local brew. They invited their neighbors (about eight in a 10 mile radius) and asked my wife and I to "talk about the States." Price of the dinner for the two of us: $25 US.

At another small home, our hosts provided us with a five course meal, dessert and wine for about $20 each. While we ate our scrumptuous meal, we listened to our seasoned hosts as they recalled childhood stories of growing up "just over that hill." There was a large picture window overlooking their personal rose garden. About a mile away, a series of rolling green hills. Sheep grazing. The view was as pristine and peaceful as any I've seen in all my travels. When we were done with dinner, our hosts took us into their rose garden and proudly gave us a tour of their aromatic flowers.

Our hosts were 75 and 77 years old.

Frommer doesn't give much credit about the B&B's in NZ.

You'll need at least two weeks to enjoy the country. We stayed two weeks (one week on the north island and one week on the south island), then finished up with a flight to Australia to dive the Great Barrier Reef.

The south island is best. Aside from our bungee jumping (269 feet) near Queenstown, we took an exciting raft trip in Dunedin, saw the Yellow Eyed Penguins in Otago Peninsula, and were entertained by the flying Albatross at the Kaikoura Peninsula. Spectacular!

The New Zealand Bed & Breakfast Book by James Thomas offers more opportunities to enjoy this beautiful country. In the best possible accomodation - the New Zealand B&B.

I took a 6 week trip to New Zealand 6 years ago and depended on two great books that helped me tremendously. One was Frommer's, and the other Lonely Planet. So when I ramped up for a 4-week return visit, the first book I ordered was Frommer's, even though the reviews were not terrific. Well. This book was such a disappointment, and proved virtually worthless in planning my trip, unlike the volume from 6 years ago.

First up, the accomodation section is sorely lacking for (truly) middle-class travelers. As another writer mentions, I was stunned by the abundance of listed lodging in the US$400 - $1000 (and up!) per night range. Yikes!! And I was dismayed by the paltry number of lodgings listed at a more reasonable range of US$150 - $300. I did check out a number of these latter on their websites, as well as the official NZ website, but still found better accomodation for the price through links and connections to elsewhere. I booked 28 nights of lodging in NZ using only 1 suggestion from this edition of Frommers. How disappointing. The other bookings are at some truly wonderful, visually beautiful, upscale places, for good prices at Bay of Islands, Whakatane, Gisborne, Nelson, Hokitika, Haast, Queenstown, Te Anau, and Akaroa, -but none listed in Frommers.

As well, some of the great suggestions for things to see away from the main tourist centers, which I found in Frommer's during my last trip, were absent in the present edition. So, from a lodging perspective and a "see the real NZ perspective," this book is just a complete disappointment.

For a helpful guide to traveling NZ, I suggest The Rough Guide to NZ, and the official NZ website.

As a first time vistor to New Zealand, I found this book to be extremely helpful. It provided an informative overview of the country, and the various recommendations for accommodations and travel services were, for me, very reliable. I used it constantly both before and during the trip.

I planned a trip to New Zealand in the fall of 2006 using this book and a few other New Zealand travel guides. In the past, I found Frommer's guides to be complete and packed with great recommendations for places to go, where to stay, etc. This book lacked in all of those respects.

The accomodation sections seemed to be a list of the most expensive accomodation for any given area, with no regard for the value of the stay for your money. That the author learned a lot about high-end hotels in researching this book isn't surprising since Frommer's allows their authors to accept complimentary accomodation. But as a reader I expect to get a lot more good recommendations for places in the 'moderate' and 'inexpensive' price ranges.

Aside from leaving out budget accomodation recommendations, some parts of the country aren't covered at all. At first this made planning my trip quite difficult, but fortunately other more complete guidebooks included extensive information about those areas.

If you're only going to get one book to plan your trip to New Zealand, don't get this one. If you're looking to augment your research this could be a great pick, particularly if you're interested in a comparison of well-appointed hotels. Don't expect a book comparable to the "Europe on $XX / day".

This guide is an excellent introduction to New Zealand for the first-time traveler. The organization is helpful and the area details are of great value in planning self-guided itineraries.

We were able to focus our two weeks in the country on areas of particular interest because of this guidance.

I found the criticisms on Frommer's NZ mostly incorrect. At least, I did not have the same experience as the two critics. I consider this book reliable. Actually, certain information in the book closely assembles those on the leaflets found at the tourist information centers. Tourists can find many helpful facilities in NZ and anyone can have a pleasant trip in NZ without a guide book. However, the valuable parts of this book came from the writer. Adrienne is a New Zealander. I trusted the ratings, followed the recommendations, suggested itineraries ... and had a wonderful experience in NZ.

A friend and I had 5 New Zealand travel books between us on our trip. This was the best book by far. We would look at the other books then would always go back to the Frommer's. We ended up using it exclusively by the end of the first week. The information was accurate and easy to follow.

I picked up the 2006 edition and since I always plan parts of my trips abroad by selecting nice accomodations in an area of interest, I turned to the pages at the beginning on "Best Boutique Hotels and Small Lodges," "Best B&Bs" and "Best Luxury Accomodations) on pp. 12-15. "Luxury" apparently is Bill Gates or Warren Buffet luxury to Frommer, with rates around US $1,500 per night and some up to $7,000. I had to check to find whether these might be weekly rates, but they are PER NIGHT. Many of the B&Bs were US $300-$500/night, and none under around $150. Most of the boutique hotles were US $500-$700/night.

We are fairly affluent travelers, but these prices were so discouraging we wondered whether we even ought to be considering a trip to New Zealand. We don't pay such prices in the USA. Fortunately, prices elsewhere are not nearly so high, I just wish Frommer's could define "best" in a way that is more like "best value"