Lonely Planet New Zealand (Travel Guide) by Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet New Zealand (Travel Guide) Reviews

• 
  Laura

  Excellent book which can be extremely useful as a trip planner specially when is the first trip to this fabulous country.
• 
  Elena T

  This guide helped me out a lot while planning my trip to New Zealand and it managed to amuse me while doing so. It had most little towns I visited figured out pretty well, recommended restaurants were truly excellent. There were however a few inaccuracies, missing information, such things didn't cause major problems while there but they were quite a nuisance so one star off.
  All in all I would still recommend this guide. It is great value for money and quite easy to carry around.
• 
  Ryan

  Roll on September!
• 
  Eastofoz

  A good guide especially in terms of what to see. Lots of detail and the general info is very well-done as well as interesting to read. It could have had more info on hotels and restaurants though. It's ideal for backpackers or people traveling on a small budget.
• 
  Mithila Holla

  Very good book with a lot of minor details. Helped me plan my solo backpacking trip in New Zealand. Loved it a lot. Thank you :-)
• 
  Maria

  I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend Lonely Planet guides when traveling. I have only ever bought this one for when I went to New Zealand (and there may even be a newer version of it out now), but I found it extremely helpful. When I went to New Zealand, I bought two guidebooks. This one, and the Eyewitness guide. I could see that this one had a lot of information, but the Eyewitness guide had a ton of pretty pictures... haha. At first I only used the Eyewitness, but then when I picked up Lonely Planet, I realized how much more useful it was and hardly ever used the Eyewitness guide again. I kicked myself for not consulting the Lonely Planet from the very beginning.
  
  It turns out you don't really need pictures in a guidebook because you will see everything when you get there and this one has great descriptions that make up for the lack of pictures. It listed all the things there were to do in a town, where to stay, what to eat, and contact information for coordinating all of it. It was truly a godsend when I was booking and figuring out what there was a to do in a town and where to stay and it helped us find the best places. It even comes with maps of each town that show you where the bus stops are and where all of the listed eating and sleeping places are so you can figure out how far your accommodation will be from the bus stop. And they list many things in price order so that you can easily find the activities and such that will fit your budget. It's also helpful that in the beginning of the book, they have a few summary pages of the main attractions so that you can plan where you want to go and where not to.
  
  The pictures in the Eyewitness guide were pretty, no doubt, but it didn't give me any of the information I needed. There was a section on accommodations and such in the back, but I never used it because it was in the back of the book (not organized well) and the list was not as extensive as lonely planet.
  
  So anyway, whenever I travel again, Lonely Planet will be the only guide I use. =)
• 
  Sarah

  Lonely Planet is great, lots of great ideas for places to explore this summer!
• 
  Bexx Louise Bullock

  It’s quite good as guidebooks go, however it totally fails to mention that the weather in New Zealand is pretty much just like the UK; shit, cold and wet the majority of the time. Especially in the South Island, North is warmer but still rains a lot. I wouldn’t recommend camping out here either, the rain is one problem but there’s also hardly any free campsites and you get fined for camping practically everywhere. All in all not that impressed with New Zealand as a country.
• 
  Kristof Claes

  The information about the traffic rules should be a lot more extensive. They say that most of the traffic accidents in New Zealand happen with tourists, but they don't talk about why... At least explain some of the peculiarities of the traffic.
  
  In general we were satisfied about this lonely planet.
• 
  Jamie Carlin

  Interesting set of highlights for New Zealand, and has given me plenty to think about in terms of planning a trip out there! Based on what other people have said I'm a bit worried about the lack of anything other than suggestions in the vein of 'oh it's easy to find mid-range stuff here' for accommodation, but other than that it looks to be a good guide!
• 
  Riley Dawson Hushak

  No, I did not read it cover to cover. But used and read a good portion of this book on our recent trip and I would definitely recommend it—we took probably 60% of our activity and restaurant recommendations from this book and we had an amazing time. Maybe the most accurate travel guide I have ever used in terms of expectations matching reality!
• 
  Inga Narijauskienė

  Ši knyga buvo puikus draugas ruošiantis kelionei į Naująją Zelandiją ir lydėjo mus visas penkias savaites būnant ten. Turėjom ir daug kitų informacijos šaltinių, bet šioje knygoje visada galima buvo greitai surasti trumpą ir aiškią informaciją apie kiekvieną šalies kampelį, naudingus patarimus bei reikalingus žemėlapius. Super.
• 
  Paulina

  Just finished planning my 2023 trip with the help of this guide. For now it seems like a great source of information but I'll update this review after the holiday. Hopefully everything will be up to date.
• 
  Violetta

  Useful
  
  Found it very convenient to reference this book on our recent trip to NZ. Used it to plan events in between the big stuff we planned on our own.
• 
  JoJo

  Informative in summary with useful sections of itineraries.
• 
  Dawn Roe

  Great option for planning travel to New Zealand.
• 
  Mojca

  4 - 4½ stars
• 
  Myridian

  This book was incredibly useful during our trip. While the information on culture was good, thr relatively few glossy pictures made it something I didn't pick up as much. Once we arrived though, a day didn't go by that I didn't consult this book. It never lead us astray either. Particularly on the south island the book was great. There the towns were small enough that the reviews were pretty exhaustive and always useful.
• 
  Jessie

  An old edition, so an amount of the things they recommend aren't applicable, mostly restaurants, but also some hikes that are closed due to safety concerns or to combat Kauri dieback. Most of the restaurant reccs are far too fancy for me, even a lot of the accommodation reccs are too high end. But the guide is great for pointing out interesting things in cute little towns you might otherwise overlook.