On the road
New Zealand self drive holidays, explained properly
Self drive tours, self drive packages, fly drive holidays: three names for the same thing. A New Zealand self drive holiday is a road trip with the booking done: the rental car, every night’s accommodation, the ferry if the route crosses the strait, the headline activities, and a day-by-day plan, arranged before you land and paid for in one place. You drive. Nobody else is in the car. The days between the bookings are yours.
That is the whole product, and it is worth being plain about it, because the forums are full of people asking whether it is worth paying someone to book what they could book themselves. Sometimes it is not. This page says what is in the price, what is not, which routes it suits, and when you should just open a booking site and do it yourself.
What the price includes, and what it does not
| In the price | Not in the price |
|---|---|
| The rental car for the full trip, with standard insurance | Fuel, which on a 10 day South Island loop is around 1,300 kilometres of it |
| Every night’s accommodation, named before you book | Meals other than the breakfasts the itinerary lists |
| The activities the itinerary lists: a Milford cruise, a glacier walk, the TranzAlpine | Optional activities, which are quoted separately so the base price means something |
| One-way car fees where the route ends in a different city | Insurance excess reduction, which the rental desk will offer and you should usually take |
| The Cook Strait ferry with the car, where the route crosses | Flights to New Zealand, and the NZ$100 visitor levy most passports now pay |
| A day-by-day plan in the app, and a person to call when a pass closes | Parking in Queenstown, which is its own small industry |
Every itinerary on this site says which activities are included and which are optional, and counts only the included ones. That distinction is the most common source of disappointment with self drive packages sold elsewhere, and it is the one thing we would check first on any quote from anyone.
The car, and the campervan question
Most self drive holidays run on a compact or intermediate car, and for two people with two bags that is right. Four adults or a family want the next class up, because the boot on a compact does not take four suitcases and a chilly bin. SUVs earn their price in winter for the ground clearance on the Crown Range, and not otherwise.
The campervan is a different holiday, not a different car. It is more expensive per night than a car plus a motel outside the peak, it is slower on the passes, and since the rules changed it is harder to park for free than the brochures suggest. Campervan or car runs the numbers both ways; the short version is that cars win on cost and flexibility for most trips, and vans win on freedom camping romance and on school holiday bed shortages.
The three routes we book most
- The 10 day South Island loop, Christchurch to Queenstown. The TranzAlpine or Arthur’s Pass, the glaciers, Haast, Wanaka, Milford from Te Anau, Mount Cook. It is written out day by day here, and it is the trip most first-time visitors are actually planning.
- The 14 day South Island circle. The same spine with Kaikoura, Nelson and Abel Tasman and the upper West Coast added, and a second night in Wanaka. The full circle is the one we would book ourselves.
- The 10 day North Island, Auckland to Wellington. The Coromandel or Waitomo, Hobbiton, Rotorua, Taupo, the Tongariro Crossing with its spare day, and the capital. Day by day here, and the gentlest driving of the three.
Both islands in a fortnight exists and we sell it, with the ferry replacing a driving day. It is a busier trip than any of the three above. Three weeks is where both islands get done properly, and the 21 day version has actual rest days in it.
The rules that keep a road trip a holiday
- Plan to 200 kilometres or three hours a day, and add a third to every map time. Rural highways run at 70 to 80 kilometres an hour in practice, and every leg has stops you did not plan.
- Two nights per base wherever the route allows. Drive day, explore day, drive day: that rhythm sees more by moving less.
- Never drive far on landing day. Jet lag plus the other side of the road is the one genuinely risky combination the country offers.
- Leave one day a week unassigned. Fiordland and the passes belong to the weather, and the spare day is how you win the negotiation.
- Carry chains from May to October if the route crosses the Crown Range or the Lindis, and know that Queenstown Lakes now fines $750 for not fitting them when the sign says so.
Driving in New Zealand covers the side of the road, the one-lane bridges and the speed maths. None of it is hard. All of it is different from home.
When booking it yourself wins
Read any forum thread on the subject and the loudest answer is the same. A reply on a Tripadvisor thread about a 14 day South Island package put it in nine words.
You can just book it all yourself and save a lot.
NZPOPPY, Tripadvisor New Zealand forum
It is often true, and here is when. If you are travelling between April and November, when beds are open everywhere and a change of plan costs nothing, do it yourself. If you enjoy the planning, do it yourself; a lot of people do, and a couple in their seventies on the New Zealand travel subreddit built a month across two countries that way and preferred it. If your route is one city and a couple of day trips, there is nothing to package.
A package earns its keep in three situations. January to March, when Te Anau, Franz Josef and Mount Cook sell out months ahead and the walk-up traveller sleeps in Gore. When something goes wrong at 7am, because a closed pass is our phone call rather than your morning. And when the alternative is a fortnight of evenings on booking sites that you would rather spend elsewhere. On price, ours are the operator’s own published prices; the planning is not a fee on top, which is the part the forum answer usually misses.
What it costs, in real terms
The card at the bottom of each itinerary shows the current per person price in your currency, twin share, and it moves with the season. What the price does not show is fuel, which is the biggest cost you pay on the road. A 10 day South Island loop is about 1,300 kilometres; a 14 day circle is closer to 2,000; the North Island route is under 900. Budget for that on top, plus meals, plus the optional activities you actually intend to do.
What a New Zealand trip costs puts the whole budget together, flights included. Our New Zealand self drive tours are every route we run in this shape, filterable by island and length.
Quick answers
Trips that fit
Southern Explorer Christchurch to Queenstown
10 days across the South Island, from Christchurch through to Queenstown, self drive, with every night booked ahead. Strong on adventure.
Taste of the South Island
8 days across the South Island, starting and ending in Christchurch, self drive, with every night booked ahead. Strong on classic driving tours.
A Taste of the North Island
10 days across the North Island, Auckland away to Wellington, driving yourself, with the route planned for you. Strong on classic driving tours.
