Recommended travel company for Australia and New Zealand trip in Feb/March?

[GpigsAreGo]

We’re hoping to book a longish (4-5week) trip to Australia and New Zealand in Feb - March 2023, and wondered if anyone had any recommendations for who to book with?

We need to go to Perth WA first for a family celebration and spend maybe a week there in total. We’re then hoping to fly to New Zealand and spend 4 weeks or so exploring North and South islands.

We aren’t keen on a full-on driving tour visiting every single tourist attraction but would prefer to stay for several days at a time in fewer locations. I’m hoping that there might be fairly good value motels, small hotels and guest houses that we could stay in. We’re not completely against hiring a camper van but I worry we would get bogged down in grocery shopping, toilet emptying etc .

We are keen to visit the Bay of Islands, Rotorua, Marlborough wine area and do some hiking, but we’re not interested in adrenaline activities!

Can anyone recommend a travel company who specialises in this sort of thing? It’s so difficult to assess quality, value for money etc from a website!

I would have a look at Trailfinders as they should be able to put something together for you.

I'd also suggest Trailfinders.

thank you both for suggesting Trailfinders, I will try and visit one of their travel centres and see what they come up with!

The NZ TripAdvisor forum people are very helpful and do a great job providing feedback on proposed itineraries - they're all locals and know what's happening 'on the ground'

Sounds like a great trip - we plan on doing similar next October/November, although our 'call in' would be Sydney to see DS. I shall be watching this thread with interest! Have fun planning.

Trailfinders good, they even rang the hotel to check we were all right when a severe weather event happened on our Australia trip.

Yep, another vote for Trailfinders. My mum and dad booked a trip with Audley Travel which was cancelled due to covid. When they went to rebook they got quotes from both Audley and Trailfinders and the latter was almost £3k cheaper.

Also Travelbag are good. We've booked two trips to Australia with them.

We did a similar trip many years ago (pre marriage!), as part of visiting relatives on a Pacific island.

We used Trailfinders, and have done since for USA twice and Canada, they will give you an outline itinerary to your suggestions, then you can hone it further to your requirements. You can email them initially, then go in a shop and chat, or do it all via email etc. I too got a quote for a USA trip from Audley, they were much more expensive.

We had a motorhome when we were in NZ, it was a company called Maui who operated them then, and I think possibly still do. Different size vehicles. I had never camped before and was fine with it. The South Island particularly was very quiet (we were there mid March) and plenty of sites. I don’t remember being bogged down with food shopping but we must have eaten!

We've not long come back from a 4 week trip round Aus and used Freedom Australia and NZ. No problems at all apart from a couple of flight changes before we went (not their fault) and a couple of delays on the way round (again, out of their control). They were always on the end of an email or phone for any queries before our trip too,

A quick question. Is it cheaper to use a company to pull things together, rather than plan your own flights/hotels etc. We spent 6 weeks in Australia earlier this year that we organised ourselves, but it was expensive - although we did choose some 'different' accommodation. Wondered if using an agent might make it cheaper in NZ where we hope to visit at the end of next year.

Sorry OP is that's a hijack!