New Zealand Travel Forum

We are arriving in Oct 2008 & still can't decide whether to hire a motorhome or a car & hotel. We know there are good & bad points to both. Motorhome - can unpack for whole trip, eat etc whenever want to but how easy is it to get supplies, go out to dinner etc? With car & hotel you live out the suitcase the whole trip but are central for eating & sightseeing in town. We have heard there is some hotel voucher scheme where you only have to book your room 24 hours in advance & so there is more flexibility with your itinerary. Does anyone know about this? Any advice greatly appreciated.

Dont know about the scheme you are talking about but we can recommend seeing NZ from a motorhome.

We did 2 weeks on the south island in Feb 2007 and had a ball. The only place we needed to book in advance was Queenstown. Most places you can ring a day ahead and book to park the motorhome.

http://www.top10.co.nz/

We booked with these guys a few times.

Cheers
Col & Sue

This question comes up permanently, and it can only be answered by those who finally travel. In a motorhome you have to be comfortable in a small space in wind and rain, hail and sunshine, and not mind sitting on each other's lap all the time, the small space etc. Driving is a little bit more stressful than a normal car, and it is not really recommended to travel on unsealed roads with them, and in some mountain areas I would certainly not use them. However, you are flexible.

BUT: In October you are also flexible in a car because this is before the start of the season, and booking ahead is not necessary. If you know where you will be the next day you can call the evening in advance, so you would not need to search for accommodation and so get more travelling and sightseeing and relaxing out of each day. There are plenty of free accommodation guides available at the airports already (AA, Jasons), so this is completely straight forward.

What I absolutely would not do is travelling with those hotel vouchers because I would not stay in hotels. I prefer motels because they are (apart from some exceptions like the Bellavista chain) much more spacious, and prepare your breakfast yourself - which saves a lot of money - or even cook sometimes. If you want more contact with locals stay in B&B's - however, they are often hugely overpriced.

Whatever you decide, getting supplies is no issue. There are big supermarkets in the cities where you can stock up if you travel by motorhome, and small supermarkets in smaller places, and dairies, and you also get food and drink etc. at all petrol stations. Restaurants are everywhere.

Another thing is that a motorhome uses a lot more petrol than a car, and petrol is getting more and more expensive. A litre costs NZ$ 1.80 at the moment. And the rent is higher. In October you can get a car from $ 29 per day. So the car/motel or hotel option is not more costly than travelling by motorhome.

You will spend the smallest part of your time in towns where it is not so convenient to navigate around in a motorhome, so this should not deter you to travel in one if you really like it. There is good public transport in all major cities, so you will get to the centres easily. A compact campervan would be a good alternative.

Sissi

As there is virtually no information about you on your site it is difficult to know where you come from which would help a lot in our answers. I suspect the UK so will assume this. Fuel is very expensive down here now, unleaded from AUD$1.50 to $2.00 a litre depending how far outback you go. There is great distances between places. A motorhome uses a lot of fuel probably somewhere between 15litre per 100km to 20+L/100kms. You may need to travel 300 to 500kms a day. Supplies are no problem unless you are in very remote areas and if you are you had better know how to read a map accurately. I think a car may well be the best way to go. Not knowing how many there are in your party I cannot give you suggestions on vehicles. If you use a car I can recommend staying in cabins or cottages as they are a fun and reasonable way to live. Many of these are completely self contained and even air-conditioned. They cost anywhere from $60.00 to $100 per night, again depending on how many people in your party. Tell us more and we can tell you more.

Very personal question as the answer will depend a lot on the type of person you are. We have chosen a campervan from bedmobils.com for our trip as they are small enough to drive around New Zealand easily and big enough to have some space and for sleeping. As it was a very cheap transport option we thought that we also have enough money left to spend for hotels if we needed to. Well, we never spent a night in a hotel after all, as our camper had an extremely cozy bed and was clean as. Wished the accommodation in Australia would have been as good. So good luck for your decision. We have definitely made the right one.

We drove around NZ in a sleeper van from www.escaperentals.co.nz very cozy for 2 of us and it ran like a dream. We would do it again in a flash.

Col & Sue