The Rough Guide to New Zealand: Travel Guide with eBook

by Rough Guides

This practical travel guide to New Zealand features detailed factual travel tips and points-of-interest structured lists of all iconic must-see sights as well as some off-the-beaten-track treasures. Our itinerary suggestions and expert author picks of things to see and do will make it a perfect companion both, ahead of your trip and on the ground. This New Zealand guide book is packed full of details on how to get there and around, pre-departure information and top time-saving tips, including a visual list of things not to miss. Our colour-coded maps make New Zealand easier to navigate while you're there. This guide book to New Zealand has been fully updated post-COVID-19 and it comes with a free eBook.

The Rough Guide to New Zealand  Auckland and around, Northland, Waikato and the Coromandel, Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty, Central North Island, Eastern North Island, Wellington and the south, Marlborough, Nelson and Kaikoura, The west coast, Christchurch and Canterbury, Otago, Fiordland and Southland.

Inside this New Zealand travel guide you'll

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EVERY TYPE OF TRAVELLER
Experiences selected for every kind of trip to New Zealand, from off-the-beaten-track adventures in Poor Knights Islands, to family activities in child-friendly places like Farewell Spit, or chilled-out breaks in popular tourist areas, like Auckland.

PRACTICAL TRAVEL TIPS
Essential pre-departure information including New Zealand entry requirements, getting around, health information, travelling with children, sports and outdoor activities, food and drink, festivals, culture and etiquette, shopping, tips for travellers with disabilities and more.

TIME-SAVING ITINERARIES
Includes carefully planned routes covering the best of New Zealand, which give a taste of the richness and diversity of the destination, and have been created for different time frames or types of trip.

DETAILED REGIONAL COVERAGE
Clear structure within each sightseeing chapter of this New Zealand travel guide includes regional highlights, brief history, detailed sights and places ordered geographically, recommended restaurants, hotels, bars, clubs and major shops or entertainment options.

INSIGHTS INTO GETTING AROUND LIKE A LOCAL
Tips on how to beat the crowds, save time and money and find the best local spots for wildlife spotting, hiking and diving.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THINGS NOT TO MISS
Rough Guides' rundown of Hot Water Beach, Whatipu and Christchurch's best sights and top experiences helps to make the most of each trip to New Zealand, even in a short time.

HONEST AND INDEPENDENT REVIEWS
Written by Rough Guides' expert authors with a trademark blend of humour, honesty and expertise, this New Zealand guide book will help you find the best places, matching different needs.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Comprehensive 'Contexts' chapter of this travel guide to New Zealand features fascinating insights into New Zealand, with coverage of history, religion, ethnic groups, environment, wildlife and books, plus a handy language section and glossary.

FABULOUS FULL COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
Features inspirational colour photography, including the stunning Ninety Mile Beach and the spectacular Taieri Gorge Railway.

COLOUR-CODED MAPPING
Practical full-colour maps, with clearly numbered, colour-coded keys for quick orientation in Wellington, Milford Sounds, and many more locations in New Zealand reduce the need to go online.

USER-FRIENDLY LAYOUT
With helpful icons, and organised by neighbourhood to help you pick the best spots to spend your time.

FREE EBOOK
Free eBook download with every purchase of this guide book to New Zealand allows you to access all of the content from your phone or tablet, for on-the-road exploration.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Reference

720 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1998

About the author

Founded in 1982, Rough Guides Ltd is a British publisher of print and digital guide book, phrasebooks and inspirational travel reference books, and a provider of personalised trips. Since November 2017, Rough Guides has been owned by APA Publications UK Ltd, the parent company of Insight Guides.
With the company's personalised trip service encompassing over eighty destinations, and 200 guidebooks covering 180 destinations, Rough Guides is a multi-faceted travel platform, with global sales of 100 million guidebooks since their inception.

Reviews

[Caterina · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay guide to New Zealand. Only bought it because I couldn't find a Bradt one. Not repeating the mistake.

[Janine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of information but I didn't like the layout.

[emmy · Rating 2 out of 5]

i liked learning about New Zealand. i wish there was more imagery. i couldn’t see anything.

[Adam Nott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid Rough Guide. very useful for our month in New Zealand. I suggest supplementing it with one of the Camper Apps if RVing.

[Mojca · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

[between the covers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of great information, including bus options around the city. Note that this is free on Kindle Unlimited because it is an older version.

[Wayward Child · Rating 3 out of 5]

As long as I can remember, it has been a dream, a goal, an ambition of mine to move to New Zealand. I listen to their radio stations every day, all of my social media is set to a kiwi version, I watch their shows and try to pick up the accent, my auto correct is set to New Zealand English, I read their news, do their crosswords... You could say that I am (slightly) obsessed.
This book very nearly managed to ruin that for me. I've read far better guide books. I think this must be the single worst guide book I've ever read and it's unfortunate that it just so happened to be about the place I so long to see. Very thorough, but very "safe", lacking originality, chaotic at times. The number one complaint would be that there are virtually no photos. For a guide books of this size, number of pages and wide topic, there should have been a hundred times more photograph. I had to pause my reading every now and again and consult Google images to get a clearer, better notion of what was being discussed.
All these faults aside, I couldn't bring myself to give this book less than three stars, because, well... Let's face it - this is New Zealand we're talking about. Unfortunately, I haven't gone there (yet), but plan to in the very near future. Reading about all these amazing places, watching breathtaking videos and imagining what it would be like to actually go (live) there means that virtually nothing but New Zealand has occupied my thoughts lately. I even dream about it. Seriously. I literally dream about New Zealand at least two nights a week. Can't wait to actually go there and this guide book, though mundane and colourless at times, will be the starting point for my journey.

[Ambar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had these few months before set off to NZ. It was full of information about adventure activities in this country. I found the book lots better than Lonely Planet which concentrated more on North Island while I traveled in South Island only.

The best things about RG New Zealand is because it has extensively information about backgrounds of the places, stories behind the places and also good review about where we sleep and eat. Oh yes...most of the information are correct, apart from increasing fee from some (this book published 2006).

South Island took nearly more than 60% of the full contents which is quite truth that people tends to spend here. Start from the capital Christchurch, move to Cantebury then West Coast leading to Fiorjland and tip of the Southernmost Slope Point. Indeed I have great help from them. Oh also they review some Lord Of The Ring locations too...

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This rough guide was incredibly useful while backpacking around NZ. The 4th edition is a bit out of date (particularly with prices) but a lot of the phone numbers, addresses, maps and businesses were still accurate! Also, even though the descriptions of towns and tourist attractions were a bit sparce, there was always just enough information to make sure you had the basic necessities covered, whether you were in a medium sized town or 50 km away from the nearest civilization! I felt like it was a really well put together travel guide. My only complaint/hope for future editions is that there weren't many photos, and I think added more in to future editions would be immensely helpful since the country is known for scenery. I'm not saying plaster the book with pictures that give all the good parts away, but at least include a few highlights here and there.

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent a month traveling around New Zealand with one of my favorite people on the face of this earth. We each had different travel guides. We decided that Rough Guides are the best. They tell you about places to stay, eat and visit that are REALLY off the beaten path. Some of the other guides tell you more upscale places to stay, nothing unique, this is not the case with Rough Guides. We ended up seeking out some interesting places to sleep, an old prison, an old jail, a train car, a tree house and an old bakery (all of which are now hostels).
I am in the process of planning a trip to Dubai, Jordan, Israel, Cairo and Kenya.... i just ordered the rough guide for all of these places!!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just got back from a 10-day trip around New Zealand in which we used mainly this guide as a resource. It's the first Rough Guide I've ever used, and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with it, considering its suggestions were still relevant 3 years after its initial publication. I especially like that it includes a range of accommodation types (for those of us who are happy to be backpackers most of the time but like to "upgrade" sometimes).

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredibly comprehensive and helpful guide to the many sights and wonders throughout New Zealand. I'm contemplating a trip there in the fall and this was a hugely helpful overview of the various regions and highlights of each one. It's conversational, candid writing style is also an enjoyable change from the institutional language of most guidebooks. Highly recommended for armchair and real travelers to New Zealand.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

although i prefer the Lonely Planet and used it to supplement hte rough guide.. the rough guide is great for background history of places which i adore and read aloud to a certain someone's anguish at times hahaha i love torture!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I preferred the Lonely Planet book for New Zealand, but this Rough Guide still contained a lot of interesting information. Not sure why I bought both books, must have wanted to cover every little part of New Zealand.

[Robert Gerling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helped me a lot during my six months ins god's own country.
But i must say that i personally prefer Rough Guide over Lonely Planet.

[Barrie Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't really read it all! Useful when planning or touring New Zealand. My fifth time here, and always bring it. I recommend it to others.

[Agnes Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific. Very detailed.