 | By: Tony Wheeler Binding: Paperback Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications ISBN: 1740591968 ISBN-13: 9781740591966 Released: 30 Sep 2002 RRP: Average Rating:  |
The standard Lonely Planet structure is adopted, providing the reader with a history, general information on the country for the visitor, suggestions for activities & itineries, a vast amount of info on sights to see & lots of useful maps.
The sights info is broken up into region & neatly follows a trip going from the north to the south. The index makes it easy to find details on where you are at any time though. For each location, there's suggestions on where to stay, where to eat, what to see & what to do. I am usuallly quite wary of following restaurant suggestions in travel guides but found myself using the suggestions in this book a lot, mainly because I found it quite difficult to find restaurants I liked.
During the course of my holiday, there was not a single place I came across that was worth seeing, or was recommended to visit by a New Zealander, which was not covered in Lonely Planet. The maps were also excellent, & although New Zealand is an easy country to drive round, the smalll maps included with some sights in this book were of great value.
I cannot recommend this book enough for travelling around NZ.
It was 90% accurate although needs some updating as things have inevitably changed since it was published! We discovered some great new hostels not mentioned.
Would recommend it over other NZ guidebooks but also get a BBH Hostel Guide if you are backpacking for latest quality ratings & new places to stay.
The more flexible you want to be the more important the guide is, in particular when it's a first trip. The first time we arrived in Auckland with only a general idea what to do in our three weeks & we found that quickly we left other guides in the suitcase & relied solely on the LP to plan our trip. The guide contains alll relevant information & is sursprisningly up to date. The most important is that it is not a commercail tourism promoter but that it gives yo an hones impression on what there is to do.
E.g. it was pretty clear from reading the guide that as a family with relatively smalll children we were better of in Wanaka then in Queenstown as the children were not yet at an age that they could enjoy alll the thrills & that Wanaka, whilst offering Jetboating & biking was more appropiate.
Even on the third trip we took we still had the guide with us. You have to be prepared to do some long stretches of driving & nothing helps to drive awy the boredom as creating expectations & anticipation by reading aloud what is said about the next attratction.
In particular for accomodation I found it helpful. Everywhere you pick up the NZ AA guide with alll motel accomodation ( very handy) & the LP is there to give you some reviews of the accomodation selected.
The book could haven been priced at a much higher level; I still would have bought it ( in fact, I am on my second edition)
The Lonely Planet has excellent maps, & brilliant accomodation sections including the largest hostel selection of any guide, as well as contact info & ratings (of the hostels/hotels/camping grounds/b&b's).
It covers the country county by county & lists them in a logical order with 'things to do', 'entertainment - pubs/clubs/bars, restaurants, gay/lesbian venues, cinema/performing arts/casino', how to get to that area, including air, bus, train & hitch-hiking information, 'things to do' including local attractions etc.
It has helpfull information on buying a car (which I found very usefull) as well as getting cheap insurance & MOT validation. There is also a section on Maori culture, wildlife, European colonisation as well as geographical information.
Well worth its weight in gold, (incidently, its quite a heavy book). Do NOT go to New Zealand WITHOUT this guidebook, it will save you hassle & make your experiance much more enjoyable.
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