Summer has arrived!

I'm not talking literally of course — just figuratively — and wearing my travel agent hat! Easter has always traditionally represented the start of the summer season as this is when tour operator summer charter programmes begin and winter charter series end. It is also then an appropriate time to remind people of the kinds of things that they need to think of/prepare for, before setting out on their overseas travels. What follows is a

When is the best time to go on holidays?

This is a question that is often asked of travel agents and the answer obviously depends on where in the world that you're intending on travelling to but as a general rule of thumb, if you talking about holidaying anywhere in Southern Europe, then May or September are usually the two best months in which to take your holidays and for the following three reasons: 1. The weather tends to be quite pleasant (like a

Hokitika & Fox Glacier

The weather up to today has been extremely good for this time of year — sunny days with temperatures that allowed me to walk around in my shirt sleeves although the evenings were cool enough. That all changed as soon as I crossed over from the East of the Island to the West. Now New Zealand (with the exception of the Omni-present southern alps and giant fern trees ) resembled Ireland because of its relatively

Queenstown — Day 2

Oh the joys of not having to pack and unpack again! That’s probably the worst part about any itinerary that has you staying just one night at each location. The guest house that we’re staying at in Queenstown has the most extraordinary views over Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables and the couple who run it are delightful. Indeed, the whole B&B ‘experiment’ has been a resounding success to date as the accommodations chosen have been

Queenstown — Day 1

It’s often difficult when preparing a multi-centre itinerary such as this one to decide on how long to spend in each place. Should it be one night or two? Will there be enough to see and do there to justify the additional night? From the outset, I had decided to overnight in Queenstown for two nights whereas almost every place else on the itinerary was getting just one night. As it turns out, I made

Milford Sound

If you look at both Queenstown and Milford Sound on a map of the South Island, they appear to be approximately 70 or 80 kms apart but because of the tortuous topography of this part of the south island, you have to travel almost 290 kms via Te Anau in order to drive between them. The last 60 or 70 kms between Te Anau and Milford Sound itself is a lovely drive and passes through

Aoraki — Mt. Cook

When planning my trip to New Zealand, I considered a number of different options — hotels, camper van and bed & breakfasts. In the end, I opted to go down the B&B route. My reasoning was twofold: (1) B&B’s by their very nature, tend to have more character than the relative anonymity of hotels; (2) You’re more likely to get a feel of a country by statying in someone’s home and benefitting from their local

Twizel

Did nothing yesterday as was too tired from all the travelling and anyway needed to rest before hiring my 4x4 today. Didn’t even bother going in to the city as there was nothing much left of it to see anyway. The devastation is on a much larger scale than appeared to be indicated by any of the reports that I had seen on TV. I stayed in a B&B in one of the suburbs out

The art of getting a quote that is both competitive in price and relevant to your needs starts with gathering all the right information about what you want to do (or think you want to do!).