Tour Reviews

“The itinerary Shelley put together allowed me to see and experience everything I wanted to during my time in New Zealand. As a solo traveller of a certain age, I felt well looked after without the stress of being part of an actual tour. Thank you, Shelley. I will definitely advise anyone interested in visiting New Zealand to contact you.”

—Denise M OConnor, USA

“Thanks Jane for your assistance when planning our trip. We had enough to experience but not too much, like you guided us. There is still room for additional experiences from NZ, maybe in the future. Everything went well and according to the plan, exept for second car rental. They have tried to charge us afterwards for damages that we did not cause. They were not willing to come and inspect the car with us when picking up and when returning. Please give feedback to the Europecar, very unprofessional. All in all fantastic trip. Thank you.”

—Janne, Iiris, Juuli & Teemu Rajalahti and Stella Ritamäki, FIN

“We found the tour well planned, allowing us to visit the most interesting places in the South Island and moving place to place never being in a hurry. Always enough time to enjoy each location.
Everything worked out perfectly without any difficulty whatsoever. Chelsea has been very useful throughout the experience. In the beginning by proposing an excellent tour itinerary and by suggesting the best way to take advantage of our time.
An excellent trip very enjoyable organized very well and without encountering any problems, we will strongly suggest to friends.”

—Franco Anselmi & Maria Bertinieri, AUS

“You represented us well! We got our sense of Auckland back and headed to a favourite place for dinner. We enjoyed checking out the wineries on Waiheke and then we were on our way to Coromandel. That was a fantastic little town, and the Anchor Lodge was wonderful. It is very well managed, and the pod was just perfect for the three of us. We enjoyed driving all over the peninsula and saw much over the days that we were there.
We got up to Russell on December 19th and were totally enchanted by the village, but especially the Arcadia Lodge. Peter and Greg provide a delightfully comfortable and impressively excellent experience. We have never seen such excellence.
We easily learned our way around, and the took the ferry to Paihia so we could get our bearings on that side of the bay.
We really enjoyed the Christmas Dinner that you reserved for us at the Sky Tower! It was impressive. Before we knew it, we were at Auckland Airport, waiting to fly out. You did a great job on our behalf, Kaz. This was a bittersweet trip for us, having seen so much of your beautiful country four years back with our son making us a foursome. There was not too much left on the North Island for us to see, and Coromandel was a great place to start out. Russell, however, was the perfect place to end up! Thank you so very much, well done.”

—Carol & William Daly and Shaunna Phillips, USA

“Nicole Andrews was excellent in helping us create wonderful memories and experiences while visiting New Zealand. This country is absolutely beautiful with so much to offer. In our short time there (10 days), Nicole put together an eventful itinerary for us that created the type of experience we wanted from this trip. It helped a lot that all transportation, room accommodations and activity bookings were arranged for us in advance so that we could spend our time and energy enjoying the activities and the commute between places.They were also great with sticking to our preferred budget.

We were nervous about traveling to New Zealand because the country is so big and we didn't know where to start with planning our vacation. Fortunately, we booked with Fine Tours and they provided a full itinerary with all the necessary details that made the process smooth overall.

We did encounter some hiccups with flight issues (unrelated to Fine Tours) and inclement weather that hindered a part of our vacation, however, Nicole and the other agents communicated with us proactively and moved things around to ensure we maximized our time.

One of the best experiences for us! We highly recommend that you use Fine Tours NZ!”

—Miranda Alegre & John Sablan, GUM

“Christina was awesome in helping us plan our trip. Our hotels and itinerary were perfect and we had a wonderful time. It was great to work with someone who lives there and knows first hand about the areas. It was nice to know we had someone local in case we had any issues, which we didn't. My sister used New Zealand Fine Tours and I am glad that she recommended them to us. They are a very professional group of people.”

—Nancy & John Winters, USA

“We loved our 19 day trip to New Zealand!
What a beautiful country with amazingly wonderful and friendly people. The places that you arranged for us to stay ranged from very good to amazing. Peppers on the Point and the Hermitage were absolutely fantastic and most of the others were a pleasure to stay at. The only one that was not quite as good was the Great Ponsonby Art Hotel although the people there were friendly and helpful. The only thing that we would change a little was the three day stay at Queenstown. We really needed only two days there.
Thank you all so much for doing all of the logistics for our trip. It enabled us to have a great time every day and to take home wonderful memories. We have told our children that if they ever can't find us for an extended time, just look for us in New Zealand since we will probably have gone there to live.”

—Regan & Susan Stinnett, USA

“We just returned from a fabulous 17-day self driving tour of New Zealand arranged by Fine Tours. Besides the breathtaking beauty of the country, what made the trip such a memorable one was the excellent planning and services provided by the agency and, specifically, the agent who worked with us, Nicole Andrews. It started out with Nicole responding to our inquiry over the website in a day. This pro-activeness in recommendations and timeliness in responses became a hallmark of our dealing with Nicole. My husband and I are limited in our physical ability. It is important for us that our agent understands our needs and pays attention to our requests. In planning our itinerary, Nicole took into consideration reasonableness of the driving distance and the number of activities to undertake daily. We were able to enjoy the activities and scenery everyday without feeling rushed. It is important for us to optimize our trip so we get to see as many noted sites of this beautiful country. We believe the experience of Fine Tours is the primary reason they could quickly identify the sites we should visit and the towns we should stay. It was not possible to visit all the sites on both islands in the time we had. With their input, we felt comfortable with the trade-offs we had to make. We drove about 1,400 miles in 17 days which was manageable and we got to visit all the famous sites with plenty of time to make stops at scenic vistas. As much as possible, Nicole arranged for us to stay at hotels at the level we requested. She also tried to make sure our rooms have a good view of the lake/ocean/harbor. We saw so many beautify sunrises and sunsets during our trip. Lastly, it was the seamless collaboration of the Fine Tours team that made them a standout. We had to make a couple of minor changes when our agent was out of the office. Her colleague took care of our changes as if we were their clients. We did not feel at any given point that we had to worry about our requests not being met. I would recommend Fine Tours to arrange a tour of New Zealand in a heart beat. They have different programs for different budgets and different interests. We are grateful for their excellent planning and execution so we successfully checked off a item on our bucket list 15 years in the making.”

—May & Win Van, USA

—We have no regrets booking with Fine Tours and highly recommend them.

“My husband and I wanted to go to New Zealand for our 20th anniversary trip but had no idea where to start nor did we have the time to do all the research. The travel planner quickly got back to us with a sample itinerary that encompassed the North and South Islands. She took the time to talk to me about our interests and preferences in accommodations. We quickly realized that we couldn't hit all the places we wanted in the 14 days. The planner patiently helped us narrow things down and came up with an itinerary that really fit our interests. We ended up spending most of our trip in the South Island and it was spectacular. This travel company was always quick to respond to any inquiries that we had and booking was very easy. The itinerary they provide was very detailed and included estimates on driving times and cost for petrol. They also provided a mobile app that laid out our entire itinerary on a day by day basis which included the accommodations, rental cars, private transfers and any booked activities as well as information about the city we were in. Before the trip, we were given instructions on what to do and where to go upon arrival at the airport. The trip went flawlessly and the itinerary was perfect. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a representative who had our trip packet. We loved every accommodation and really just wish we could've stayed longer. We have no regrets booking with Fine Tours and highly recommend them. They are pretty thorough with details and everything was very organized. Thanks travel planner and this travel company for a memorable anniversary trip. There are so many memorable parts to our journey! The scenery all around the South Island is just breathtaking even in rainy weather. Waking up to a view of Mount Cook and kayaking Milford Sound have to be in the top. ”

—Mary Irene & Robert Osowski, USA

—Wonderful trip with many very special memories

“Absolutely wonderful itinerary and tour!! Everything was planned and communicated extremely well by Shelley and all worked like clockwork!! Wonderful trip with many very special memories: People, scenery, LotR movie sites, tour guides, interisland ferry, accommodations, car rental, etc were all excellent and as described! No hidden costs! The documents provided were exceptionally clear and presented great detail to ensure we had the right expectations, and everything surpassed them! Really very organized and an outstanding tour! Thank you for all of your expertise and planning on our behalf, Shelley! A wonderful trip through New Zealand and once-in-lifetime trip to Middle Earth! THANK YOU!”

—Carolyn Kiel & Theresa Rodrigues, USA