New Zealand (Eyewitness Travel Guides) [Turtleback]

Kate Hemphill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2006

Recognized the world over by frequent flyers and armchair travelers alike, Eyewitness Travel Guides are the most colorful and comprehensive guides on the market. With beautifully commissioned photographs and spectacular 3-D aerial views revealing the charm of each destination, these amazing travel guides show what others only tell.

Product Details

• Turtleback: 400 pages
• Publisher: DK Travel (August 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756615712
• ISBN-13: 978-0756615710
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #346,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > Travel > Australia & South Pacific > New Zealand

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful, but needs a supplement, January 3, 2007

By 

Joseph Boone (Irvine, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: New Zealand (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Turtleback)

I love the Eyewitness Travel Guide series but they generally suffer from certain limitations and the New Zealand guide is no exception. It starts off with the standard historical chapter before getting to an area-by-area description and summary of both islands that form the country. This is where the book shines because it offers color photos on every page that are invaluable in helping you decide which sights are must-see and which ones you can skip if you are short on time. As you would expect, every region is covered, from Auckland in the north down to Stewart Island in the far south. All of the major attractions are covered although perhaps not as comprehensively as you might like.

Next, come the sections on hotels, shopping, restaurants, and other practical needs. These sections are not as comprehensive as you'll see in some other guides such as Frommer's New Zealand (Frommer's Complete). And this really is what it comes down to. The Eyewitness guides are not as detailed as most of the other guide books. They are, however, the only series to offer hundreds of color photos to help you visualise your trip and this is an invaluable planning tool. I highly recommend that you buy this guide as well as one of the more detailed books and use them both to plan your trip. That's the only way to get everything you need to plan a great vacation.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Use this DK travel guide like a shopping catalogue, August 10, 2007

By 

Judge Knott "judge_knott" (Upper West Side, NY, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Zealand (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Turtleback)

This DK travel guide to New Zealand is quite good at describing that island nation in a general sense, and offering lots of beautiful color illustrations and photographs of neat places to go. But it's not so great as an actual travel guide. First of all, it's a bit heavy to carry around. Second, it is broad, rather than jam-packed with helpful details. Third, it offers up mostly white-bread, been-there-done-that activities and sites.

I suggest that you consult this DK guide **before** you head to New Zealand, in order to get familiar with the country and to pick the mainstream places and monuments you want to see. Then leave it at home, and bring a more dense, helpful guide along with you (such as "The Rough Guide to New Zealand").

The DK guide to New Zealand will make a handsome souvenir reference once you return home.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New Zealand Eyewithess Travel Guide is great for planning, September 30, 2007

By 

James O. Kahan (Santa Barbara, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: New Zealand (Eyewitness Travel Guides) (Turtleback)

Eyewithess Travel Guides give the best overall overview of any travel book or other travel product - good organization; great pictures, maps and other graphics; interesting & concise text and descriptions about history, national foods and beverages, etc.; good suggestions for lodging and eating. They are excellet resource and reference books, but they are concise enough to give a relatively complete overview but short enough to quickly convey information, especially if you do not have a lot of free time.

I believe that carefully reading about a desination is important for planning any trip. The Eyewithess Travel Guides are the best way to obtain that overview and prioritize where you want to go. The New Zealand guide is enormous help to us with our planning.