About Thrifty Tours New Zealand

Louise had been exceptional making this tour work during this difficult time, with a lot of activities unachievable due to floods, works of natures and what have you. She must have waved her magic wand and booked me in to the places I have on my bucket list! My first time in South Island as a domestic tourist had been amazing and now I finally understand why overseas tourists save up to come here!

What a week it ended up being, with the COVID situation rapidly escalating the week of travel and each day bringing fresh news updates that brought lots of uncertainty to our plans! We were really thankful we had engaged Thrifty Tours to help us plan the travel - we initially had thought of planning it ourselves to save on costs. But as it turned out, engaging Thrifty Tours not only took a load off our minds during planning, being able to easily customise our plans without a lot of research on our side. The company also turned out to be an invaluable help during the trip when plans had to be changed last minute and eventually cancelled due to the COVID situation. It really helped to have them on board to help sort out the changes/cancellations/refunds so we could focus on finding our way home. Thank you for that, appreciate the good service!

Thank you so much for all your help. Our south island tour was simply the most wonderful experience, and we had 7 days of seeing the most outstanding scenery, and visiting some beautiful places, the south island of New Zealand is simply breathtaking. Everything was organised to perfection on our tour, thanks again to you - we never had to wait for any pickups, all staff we came into contact with were always friendly & courteous & coach drivers obliging, funny, enjoyed a chat & were all very careful drivers. The coaches on all the routes were very comfortable & all stops en route supplied lovely food & snacks. All accommodation booked by you was lovely & comfortable, the Rainforest Lodge at Fox Glacier was out of this world, stunning rooms set in the most beautiful New Zealand scenery & dinner in the restaurant that night there was great. The TSS Earnslaw trip was wonderful, a must for anyone to do, the BBQ lunch sumptuous & mouth-watering meats served up, the best beef & lamb we have tasted in a long while! The excursion to Milford Sounds breathtaking, what an amazing & serene place, took my breath away from the beauty of it all. Our lunch at the Hermitage another highlight, superb & it was a beautiful day that we were there so we got stunning views of Mt Cook. Accommodation at the Heartland was fabulous, my sister & I sat on our balcony with a nice glass of New Zealand wine overlooking the lake & The Remarkables, I will remember that moment for a long time, weather again nice & sunny during our stay there. Queenstown is a lovely place, vibrant & buzzing. I did the Gondola ride, worth every penny, loved it. TranzAlpine train journey from Greymouth to Christchurch amazing, very comfortable, and well worth the ride, stunning views from the huge windows. Thank you again, Louise, for all your help, patience & guidance & I would not hesitate to recommend Thrifty Tours to any of my friends here in the UK wanting to see the spectacular South Island of New Zealand in style.

Just to confirm that - after two re-bookings :) - arrived safely and (surprisingly) without delay back in Zurich. I had a very good experience with the trips you booked for me, many thanks again. I have very much appreciated the quality of the information you provided to me, the speed you answered to me, and, in general, your professionalism - really enjoyed being advised by you. All trips were done also professionally, with clear customer focus, and practically without any significant delays. Very knowledgeable guides, fantastic places, a very good experience all in all. I will certainly return at some point in the future, New Zealand is a great country...

It was great! Thank you for everything, especially for the hotel (Grand Millennium Auckland) we stayed in for our last two nights, it was a real treat :) I had previously read some comments on the internet where people had complained that they had to find their own way to the different tours or the guides on those tours were not good enough or the picnic lunches on the tours were not good enough... It was definitely not the case for us! We were picked up from the hotel and dropped off where we wanted, the guides were very helpful in every possible way (they were very informative and also did everything to keep us safe and happy), and the picnic lunches were some of the best food we had in NZ :))

We had a wonderful experience! Our accommodations were clean, up-to-date and comfortable. And all our transfers were seamless. We did have some confusion in Franz Josef as to our pick-up point, but we figured it out. The drivers were very informative and willing and able to adjust to the unique conditions that we encountered along the way. We were able to make all our stops - including Milford Sound - thanks to the road crews working overtime to get the roads open. We were blessed with good weather during our time in NZ (except for the last day while travelling in the bus - and then the sun came out for our view of the Franz Josef Glacier!) We were happy with our meals too. Everything seemed to go as planned! Thank you for all your help. This was a trip of a lifetime for us. And despite the Coronavirus starting to shut countries down, we were able to return to the USA without mishap.

Great way to travel around New Zealand, especially for someone who has never been there and doesn't have a lot of time for research. The tours and hotels booked were excellent. The Thrifty Tours app is incredibly useful. My consultant Emma was extremely helpful and responsive.

We both enjoyed our Bay of Islands Tour. The accommodation was great and the motel owner was friendly and helpful. The continental breakfast was good. The tours included in the trip were good. Since we didn't do Hole in rock cruise it was a long day waiting to go back to Auckland, we should've done some more planning to get back to Auckland earlier. But overall I would recommend to friends and family to do this tour if they travel to the North Island.Thanks to the staff at Thrifty Tours for organising the tour and quick response.

We loved the service provided by Thrifty Tours. Particularly, - Continuous communication with Emma. - The perfect scheduling and coordination of each activity. - Very well located accommodations. - That the conditions were clear at all times. It was our first time booking a tour online, and it worked perfectly. We like to travel at our own pace, and travelling with a group was not an option. On the other hand, it was not possible for us to coordinate all the accommodations, trains, coaches, etc. by ourselves. Thanks to Emma Shaw and Thrifty Tours to give us this great experience. We are looking forward to travelling to New Zealand again.

The coach trips were comfortable and informative. It was delayed, to begin with, but I suppose this happens. The hotel was superb. A lovely room and close to everything. The receptionists and waiting staff were very helpful. We had one meal at the hotel. Lovely views from the dining room and the meal was excellent. The buffet breakfast that was included couldn't be bettered. There were lots of choices. The bus driver told us about a very good curry restaurant at Franz Josef that we went to. The shuttle bus to the glaciers was good and we could go back when we wanted. Lovely bush walks near the glacier. Not much to see of the glacier but I had read up about this. I loved the hot pools and stayed there for about two hours. The trip to Greymouth was good and time to walk around Hokitika. The TranzAlpine train was delayed by at least one and a half to two hours. We weren't sure why. It would have been good to be told when it was leaving approx. so we could have had lunch in a relaxed way. Instead, we had to get a take out and sit at the station. The journey on the train was great once it got going. Also, a varied buffet service. That was helpful as we didn't want to be looking around Christchurch for food in the dark after we arrived at our motel. Overall, an excellent tour and obviously the delays couldn't be pre-planned. Thank you Chelsea for arranging it all and for answering my many questions so that I could have a clear idea of what to expect and also to receive the pdf and information on my phone was helpful.