Get Lonely Planet and Nz Frenzy | New Zealand (Country Guide)

Great overview and accurate reviews | New Zealand (Country Guide) | Charles Rawlings-Way et, al.

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	• New Zealand (Country Guide) Charles Rawlings-Way et, al. Lonely Planet, 2008 - 765 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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Good compromise between level of detail and portability

After one week in New Zealand I realized a travel guide was essential to get the best benefits from our journey. So I picked this book in a bookshop in Masterton. It was difficult to pick one, because there were several guides to choose from.
I did not regret my choice! From that day on, I carried it along with me wherever I went and I was always able to find useful information in it. It helped us to find interesting sights and accomodations we would certainly have missed without it.
We did not find any inaccuracy in the factual information. Recomendations are not facts, they are a matter of taste, but most of the time we found things that were listed as "Our pick" at least "pretty good indeed", even though our personal pick might be different.
My only regret is I did not buy the book BEFORE we started our trip. If I had done that, it might have saved me some problems I encountered in the first week, when I did not have it yet.
Now that I have returned home, I know it will be a great help in writing the blog postings about our journey.

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Get Lonely Planet and Nz Frenzy

We just got back from weeks in New Zealand! God it was great when the sun was shining, but the South was a bit wet. Anyhow, we bought a Lonely Planet, were given a Rough Guide, and when we got to Auckland we bought an Nz Frenzy. We liked Lonely planet more than Rough Guide, but they both cover almost exactly the same stuff, and neither gives enough details about trails and directions to beaches and waterfalls. The Nz Frenzy book was definitely our favorite to get us to cool spots on the North Island, but it only covers the North and there is no South one, so that was disappointing. Overall we agree that you should get a Lonely Planet for all the traveler essentials, but definitely get an Nz Frenzy if you have your own car/van on the North. Also you'll need a good map because it's just too hard to use all the little maps in Lonely Planet. Hope you find Kerosene creek and Tongaporutu on the North and Kaikoura's cute seals on the South. Cheers!!

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Great overview and accurate reviews

While driving our campervan around New Zealand, we referred to this as "the bible." Restaurant reviews were accurate, and when the LP designated something as "worth seeing" it typically was. We took the book's advice often and strayed as far as possible from the typical routes taken by other drivers. The only downfall of the LP was its lack of easily accessible street maps. So, if you're planning on doing lots of driving, I would recommend getting a road atlas as well...this'll save you a lot of time flipping from page to page and map to map. Enjoy your travels!

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Lonely Planet NZ is great....and....

I feel that I know NZ really well--I've spent 4 NZ summers and over 270 days camping and exploring the wonders of New Zealand. And, OhMyGod, the natural wonders of NZ blow me away!!

Lonely Planet New Zealand excels at examining and reviewing and lending insight into the places and activities and attractions that have been commercialized. LP knows cities, hotels, motels, backpackers, tours, restaurants, and museums. LP knows tourist attractions, jet boats, bungees, sky-dives, zorbs, helicopter flights, ferries. LP knows tour bus companies, resorts, amusement parks, and wildlife centers. LP knows hours of operation, prices, websites, and phone numbers.

Lonely Planet is filled with helpful info snippets about each town and what to expect from it--whether touristy or rural, or possibly just "don't bother". LP details the history of each town and region and gives you a general sort of "flavor" for each part of NZ.

In essence, if you are traveling to NZ for the first time, I would definitely encourage you to get an LP or one of its brethren (or an older copy). You'll DEFINITELY benefit from all of LP's maps and Auckland info and all the reviews of all the commercialized "tourist" attractions. Choosing which of the mainstream guidebooks is not any easy choice--I've looked at them all and own quite a few and I still can't tell you which one is "best"--they all vary and have their strong points. But you should DEFINITELY get at least one, even if you consider yourself a total seat-of-the-pants traveler (I've met SO many NZ travelers without any guidebooks, typically people on a round-the-world "Big Trip", and I feel that they just cheat themselves because all the "free" info they get from the Info-sites is often crap, and they end up at the touristy spots because they get no "free" info about anything that's not commercialized). Believe me, when you get to NZ you'll soon realize that EVERY commercial attraction or activity will be bombarding you with info and brochures...what you won't find info about is FREE places--the wondrous natural spots without admission prices, hours of operation, or parking lots filled with tourist buses...the "Real" NZ.

My major gripe with LP (and Rough Guide, DK, etc) is that they don't pay their authors enough and give them enough time to actually visit the uncommercialized beaches, forests, hikes, natural hot springs, mtn tops, caves, swimming holes, etc etc. They all expect their authors to spend their time in the towns and cities detailing the commercialized offerings at each locale--the restaurants, hotels, tours, etc.. This info is what these books are about--the "commercialized". Almost all the info about hikes and such in LP is just parroting NZ's "Dept of Conservation" brochures. It's easy to tell, once you've been in NZ a bit, that the authors have not actually walked to the peaks nor swam in the rivers nor soaked in the remote hot springs.

BUT, isn't this what you're going to New Zealand for?? To actually embrace uncommercialized and untouched nature? Aren't you imagining remote beaches, jungly fern forests, sweeping mountain vistas, glaciers descending to the sea, hot spring Shangri-las, crystal clear plunge pools under charging waterfalls, beaches where hot water bubbles thru the sand, beach coves fit to be cathedrals...places where there are no lines of tour buses...places where it's just you and unfettered nature?? Unfortunately, this is where LP lacks, as do the others. You'll want an LP for the extensive commercialized info, but don't think LP/RG/DK will guide you off the beaten path. They won't. They are the beaten path.

I learned from my years in NZ that just because LP/RG doesn't talk about the huge "hidden" waterfalls, hot springs, swimming coves, etc...doesn't mean that they don't exist. The country is FULL of "hidden" spots, most of which are completely overlooked by the major guidebooks. Their authors have no time (or possibly motivation) to find the sweet free spots.

There are plenty of sweet, free, off-the-tourist path spots...they EXIST and they're AMAZING. Don't get an LP and think that just because they haven't told you about any cool natural places between towns A and B, that there are no cool spots --it's just that their authors probably haven't found them in their hurry to get to the next town and get to reviewing the restaurants and hotels and such. What make NZ such an amazing travel destination for an English-speaker is that in NZ getting off-the-path is safe and generally worry-free...unlike in most of the Third World where off-the-path can equate to "take-your-chances". LP and their ilk treat NZ as if it were another Third World "scary" travel location, and only give you info about "safe" places. But NZ isn't like that--it's very safe to go find your own Eden...and wonderfully, there's an Eden at the end of many a road once you get away from the commercialized tourism and know which road to take.
I say GET A LONELY PLANET--you will benefit from it, no doubt. But know that NZ has so much more to offer than the commercial stuff LP presents. Go ahead, scratch the surface...NZ is a safe and wonder-filled country. Bring an LP, but then put it down and find some ADVENTURE!!!!

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Discover New Zealand

Glimpse Mitre Peak through the mist on majestic Milford Sound
Hold your nose and dip your toes in a Rotorua thermal pool
Shelter from windy Wellington with the arts crowd in a low-lit lounge bar
Enjoy a hangi - but stop short of getting a moko - on a Maori cultural tour

In This Guide:

Food & Drink chapter by Lauraine Jacobs, editor of award-winning Cuisine magazine
You asked, we listened - more budget accommodation
Content updated daily - visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler insights

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