Hello all! My husband and I are planning a trip to Australia and New Zealand in mid-July for our 10th anniversary. We are going with an Air New Zealand package that goes to Sydney, Cairns, Auckland, and Queenstown. I've got loads of questions for the posters here that offer such great advice and first-hand tips, but I'll start with our major dilemna! We can't decide if we should go with the 4 or 5 star hotel package. The difference is $800 USD ($2200 pp. inc. airfare from LAX and hotel vs. $2600). The hotel choices are as follows: 4 star-Sheraton Four Points, Sydney; Oasis Resort, Cairns; Copthorn Hotel in both Queenstown and Auckland; 5 star-Sheraton on the Park, Sydney; Radisson Plaza, Cairns; and Heritage Hotels in both Queenstown and Auckland. If anyone has stayed at these hotels and has an opinion about whether the upgrade is worth it or not, I'd love to hear from you. As it's our anniversary trip we do want to be in a nice hotel, but, on the other hand, we want to be able to afford island trips, scuba diving, skiing in NZ, etc. as we're not the type to spend too much time lounging at the hotel. <BR>Thanks in advance for your input.<BR>Oh, and if anyone has any positive/negative comments about Air NZ and their vacation packages, pass them along too!

Hi Tiffany--<BR>I used AirNZ to get to/from LA to Sydney this past July and it was fine. My biggest gripe is that they didn't have individual TV screens like other airlines--not that it mattered, I slept most of the way ;-) Other than that, it seemed like any other international flight...(By the way, I paid about $900USD for the roundtrip and that includes taxes--the sale I grabbed came out around April)<BR><BR>I didn't use AirNZ to book the rest of the trip but did use a travel agent. My advice would be to try to plan things on your own and skip a TA all together. No TA can know everything so they end up doing the same research you do--the tips I got from posters here were more on target than much of the info she gleened. By not using a package, you also gain flexibility with hotel choices and are not locked # of days you want to spend in each place. In addition, Cairns is not the nicest spot in Queensland--I liked Pt. Douglas much better and it's only an hour away from Cairns.<BR><BR>You can do the internal air on your own---in pricing things out, check out the 'red e-deals' on qantas.com.au and virginblue.com.au. (By the way, I found cheaper fares at the Australia websites than the one w/o the .au) Some people have recommended the Boomerang Pass which you have to buy before you leave the States, but it was not more economical for me. I'm not sure if it was because I was visiting during their winter or because it's always cheaper...<BR><BR>Sorry that I couldn't help w/those particular hotels, but hope the other info is useful to you.<BR><BR>You're going to LOVE Australia! (NZ too but I haven't been there yet <BR><BR>Debbie

Hi, Tiffany. I flew United once and Air New Zealand once, and MUCH preferred ANZ. I agree, don't, don't, don't do a package. It can be alot of fun just learning about all the places and hotels to stay at. Take this site, for example. Very helpful, as I am planning our third trip the 16 of April, and all the help I received from this site has saved me a bundle. A few things I do recommend. The LAX / Sydney flights tend to be less booked, so waiting a while usually will save you alot of $$. (they just want to fill the seats ) Also, a very cool web site called wotif.com, as you will see mentioned here often, has the best &quot;last minute&quot; deals, but . . . I have been using Newmans South Pacific Vacations out of LA, and my agent &quot;matched&quot; the prices I quoted her off the wotif.com site. I was amazed. Guess she really wanted my business. She has us in Sydney at the Harbour Rocks, (great location near everything, like ferry, Opera HOuse, etc) At the Rydges Reef Resort in Port Douglas (highly recommended over Cairnes) and The Grand Hotel in Melbourne. We are only paying $91.00 av each night US. These are all 4 to 5 star hotels. Never made it to NZ (very jealous), but let me know how it was when you return. Have a great trip. Deb

Hi, Tiffany!<BR>Another vote for ditching the whole package-tour deal and doing it yourself. When you talk about an extra $US800 for the upgrade, you mean per person, don't you... that's three thousand Aussie dollars for the two of you to upgrade from a hotel like Four Points to one like Sheraton on the Park! Remember that if you are doing it yourself, many hotels charge the same price for a room for two as they do for a room for one; the ones who charge a little more (like the Grand in Sydney, which is $AUD90 for a single, $AUD100 for a double) are the budget choices which will save you heaps of money. My honest advice? Find the cheapest return flight from LA to Sydney, and buy that. While in Sydney, check the papers for the cheapest return flights to Auckland (should be about $AUD400 each) and to Cairns (a bit less than that, and sometimes you might get a couple of night's accommodation thrown in). Don't stay by choice at anything with &quot;Radisson&quot; or &quot;Sheraton&quot; in their name... or &quot;Marriott&quot; or &quot;Hyatt&quot; or &quot;Mercure&quot;. There are lots of places in Sydney that will give you comfortable rooms for less than 60 US dollars per night, and I would imagine that posters such as Liz can tell you the names of hotels around the well-liked Port Douglas area that will provide a similar deal. Then spend all that money you will save on the scuba diving and skiing that you came for. Good luck, and have a great holiday!

Thanks to Debbie, Deb, and Alan for your input. Although now that you've all said bag the package I'm a little more confused! I thought the price was pretty good but I didn't do much research on pricing out the flights separately. Alan--the $800 extra is actually for both--so $400 pp to go from 4 to 5 star. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places but best price I could find was a special webfare with Qantas to Auckland for $1400 pp. and then when I added on the lowest price for the Boomerang Pass to get me to Queenstown, Cairns, Sydney, and back to Auckland to fly out it adds up to $2082 pp. So to me the $2600 pp. that included all the air and hotel seems the better option. Do you think it's too early to find good flights for a July trip? Maybe that's the problem. I definitely see what you're saying about the down side of the package being locked in to a specific hotel. Also from what you and many others have said about Cairns, esp. the downtown area where the Radisson is, I think we'd prefer Pt. Douglas. Well--I guess it's back to the drawing boards for me! I'll check out the websites you mentioned first. Thanks again and if you think of any other tips for me let me know!!<BR>Tiffany

Hi, again, Tiffany!<BR>Sorry I misread your post and assumed that extra amount was per person.... I agree, that makes a difference! I still think, however, that you might do it cheaper yourself if you are not too fussy about how many stars your hotel has earned; your mistake in costing, I think, was in going with the Boomerang Pass, which is quite a highly-priced pass for what you get, and has had a bit of negative press in this forum in the last few days. I topped the most recent post for you, so look below this one. Of course, in a climate as volatile as air transport, it's hard to speak with any authority, but I think your chances of coming out here with no internal flights booked and then picking up a cheap fare from the newspaper or the Virgin Blue website are pretty good. Anyway, hope you get lots of good tips about the Reef, as in mid-July, this is surely the place in Australia to be. Good luck!

<BR>A tour operator can get better deals than you will find. I travel solo, but those ppdo packages sure look like a good deal, especially considering the convenience.<BR><BR>As to the upgrade, it seems to me that you answered you own question, since you said:<BR>1) we do want to be in a nice hotel<BR>2) we want to be able to afford ...<BR>3) we're not the type to spend too much time lounging at the hotel<BR><BR><BR><BR>