I would like recommendations for tour companies for a land tour of new Zealand. My husband and I are very active and in our 60's. I have looked at a 19 day tour with Colette and am wondering about the quality of their tours? I would like ANY suggestions for tours to New Zealand. We will be traveling from Northern California and are thinking of going in October or November. Good experiences and bad? Recommendations greatly appreciated

Do not know Colette but October/November is going to give you some blustery cool to cold and wet weather.

I've seen a few reports on the escorted type tours and most are probably a bit on the sedate side, and so would you be active enough to consider something like http://www.flyingkiwi.com/

Hi there Harriet (and fellow Northern Californian!)

Colette is an "ok" tour company, but I'd recommend AAT Kings over them.

I just got something in today for a very good tour, (smaller) with air from SFO, (13 days, $2999),but it's for April, so it wouldn't fit in with your timeframe.

Check out AAT Kings and see what you think.

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Kiwi Specialist

A good local company is Newman's, operating under the auspices of Asia Pacific Touring Company. In the U.S., call 800-290-8687. The office is in North Hollywood at 818-755-6392.

My daughter and I just did a 17-day tour with them. Most of our travel mates were English or Australian. We really enjoyed our trip. It covered both islands and was fast, of course, but gave a good overview. The accommodations were quite good. Don't miss the 90-mile beach at Cape Reinga.

Colette is a very good tour company. I can't compare the others. You might be able to get some good deals right now as travel is down all over due to the economic crisis.

I would recommend just driving yourself. I am 62 and had a home exchange in Whangerai (Northland). I covered about half of the North Island in 2 1/2 weeks driving around myself. Some of it was day trips from my exchange house; some of it was overnights. NZ is easy to do yourself because the distances are manageable between the things you want to see. I did not get to the South Island (next time?), but I don't think you would have a problem there either.

If you are sold on an escorted tour, check the itineraries from each tour company and get an "all inclusive" package. You might pay more than one with a lot of optionals, but the ones with the optionals--with a lower base price for the tour--often end up costing more because you end up buying the optionals.

If you want an active tour, you might want to look at the trips with either Active New Zealand or REI Adventures. Both of them have a wide of ages on their trips.

Take a look at this link for reviews of Collette tours:-

http://www.epinions.com/reviews/1661...e_Vacationstte

Sorry, the link above is incorrect, it should be:-

http://www.epinions.com/reviews/1661...ette_Vacations

Although I don't like tours I am debating if I should take an escourted tour for my upcoming trip to Egypt and the Middle East. Collette has an itinerary that is interesting, I searched for reviews and found the reivews I have provided the link for a few days ago.

Hope this helps.

Tauck Tours regularly does a tour of Egypt. Both Tauck and Collette are classy tour coumpanies.

RJames (with apologies to HarrietRenee for the digression), we've been thinking about visiting the Middle East and although we usually prefer the DIY approach, in this case a small group tour looks like a good compromise. We've done one SG tour before, to Vietnam, and felt it was good value for money, with adequate time to escape the group and explore on our own while not having to waste time organising local transport, hotels, attractions etc. on the run.

So far we like the look of Peregrine - you might like to check them out and see if they match your preferences (www.peregrineadventures.com). We particularly liked their policy of putting their money into local community enterprises, especially good locally-owned hotels with character rather than the international chains. Their rates seem very reasonable.

BTW, I've had a report from someone just back from a tour of Egypt who commented that the experience was somewhat spoilt by being ecorted everywhere by armed security guards. Take that for what it's worth - I'm sure you'll get good advice on the Africa-ME forum.

Apologies [that I mentioned Egypt] to HarrietRenee.

LaurenKahn1 and Neil_Oz, thank you for the suggestions.

We've travelled with Big Five twice now. They do offer a few customizable land tours to New Zealand. http://www.bigfive.com/destin_showto...destination=44