Customer Reviews

New Zealand (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

NEW ZEALAND achieves the same for that country, packing all into a pocket-sized tote which is just easy enough to take along, yet compromises nothing in the amount of detail offered. From driving and walking tours to cultural insights, these books can't be beat and are top choices for destination-oriented travelers wanting visual excitement paired with practical facts.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This book is no help planning a trip to new zealand at all. I ended up discarding this book and buying the Frommers (fodors would also be better). Although DK is great for sightseein in a city, this Counrty book did not help you plan a trip, was very confusing, and skimmed over popular cities (queenstown, the most popular tourist attraction in south island receive 1.5 pages !) Skip this awful guide.

Liked it for what I needed it. It only gives a VERY BRIEF overview of what there is to see and to do. You basically just get a general idea and then you have to do some more research yourself. I was lucky I was visiting a friend who lived there. Not a good guide book if you're going on your own and need to rely on it.

Liked the abundance of photos.

It seemed like they included mostly all very touristy attractions. There's other things to do in NZ that are very cool and sometimes even free and should be mentioned.

Also, I wish they had talked a little bit more about camp grounds and hostels. I found that to be a great alternative to pricey hotels while traveling around.

Additionally, you also have to get a more detailed map of the major cities (usually I found them for free at the I-Sites) and the roads if you're traveling by car.

No mention in the book about the tour buses like Kiwi Adventures. Would have been useful to know about but I'm glad I didn't use those buses after all.

Also, they don't really mention any of the Lord of the Rings sights. You can buy the (very pricey) LotR tour book in NZ.

Tongariro Alpine Crossing deserved a double page on its own in my opinion but they just gave it a brief mentioning when they talked about the general area.

I am going to visit to New Zealand this summer ( winter in NZ). I ordered this book " New Zealand (eyewitness travel guide )" from amazon.com. I like this guide, it has very explainable.You can find where to stay, where to eat and transportation data in NZ.
Thank you.

Great guide. The book helped me to decide on the most interesting excursions to take on my trip. A must on your trek to New Zealand.

This is a nice reference guide when walking around town -- there are good pics and maps and it's a pretty light book. However it does not provide many recommendations on where to stay/eat so it's not too helpful in the planning stage except to get you excited about what you are going to see. Probably could've gone without it, but giving it 3-stars for being pretty... :)

The DK books are always great, if a bit heavy because the pictures are so good. Another benefit, if you don't get there the guide makes you feel like you have been there anyway.