My wife and I are planning our first long haul holiday and wonder if you can help? We are in our 60s and are a bit green at this. It’s a trip of a lifetime and we’d like to know which travel companies we should contact with a view to arranging a three-week trip to New Zealand. Graham Fowler, Middlesbrough
Sunday Times travel expert Richard Green responds: It can be tricky picking your way through all the adverts and offers to find the right tour operator for you. Of course, a lot depends on what sort of holiday you are looking for and what sort of budget you have. However, here is a look at the best companies featuring New Zealand and the sort of trips they can help you with.
If this is your first long haul trip, you may prefer the idea of taking a group tour. This is very popular in New Zealand, and in the amount of time you have, you’ll be able to do a spectacular trip which visits some of the very best sights on bother the North and the South Islands.
Discover the World (01737 218 800) has a good reputation for group touring. It uses good quality coaches and knowledgeable guides on wellresearched itineraries. Expect to pay from about £2,075pp for a 19-day trip with all your transport and accommodation included, plus the international flights. Other good escorted group trips can be had from All Ways Pacific (01494 432747), Collette Worldwide (0800 804 8705), or Kirra Tours (0800 856 5494).
1st Class Holidays (0845 644 3545) also have some shorter escorted trips, but specialize in individual holidays suited to a middle budget. There’s a choice of traveling in a self-drive motor home, or doing a fly drive with a car and your hotels pre-planned, or even moving about largely by rail.
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Expect to pay from about £2,700pp for a 19day trip around both island, with a hire car, accommodation, and flights. Or try Trailfinders (0845 0585858), Austravel (0870 166 2020), or Travelmood (0844 815 9540).
If money is less of an issue, and you prefer to travel in luxury, where the tour operator pays huge attention to detail, you should call one of the tailor-made specialists, like Audley Travel (01993 838 820), which can put together the perfect trip for you, staying at a mixture of historic, opulent, or boutique style hotels, depending on your tastes. You should expect to pay about £3,500pp for three weeks with flights, a hire car, B&B accommodation, and some excursions.
Or try Bridge and Wickers (020 7483 6555), Tailor Made Travel (0800 988 5887), or Bales Worldwide (0845 057 1819)
A good tip is not to carry on with a long complicated call to a tour operator, if in the first few minutes you don’t feel entirely comfortable.
Even within individual companies, different people have different personalities and different styles of working, so if you aren’t entirely happy with the person you are speaking to, you could try calling back later and speaking to someone else. Dealing with the right person, as well as the right company, can make the world of difference.