Recommended guidebooks
 

Which guidebooks did you use for trips to Australia and New Zealand?

Thanks!

I think the best series for Australia and New Zealand is the Lonely Planet series. This series has separate books for specific regions of each country, e.g. in Australia there are books for New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, etc. and for New Zealand there are books for the North Island and the South Island. If I know where I'm going to go, I like these regional books because they have more specific information about that area that you won't find in the general "Australia" or "New Zealand" books.

My second choice, which is also a good, is the Rough Guide series. I often consult both Lonely Planet and Rough Guide when traveling.

About to leave on our trip to NZ and using the NZ Frenzy (South Island) guide book. Lots of good info on hikes, day trips and places to see. Doesn't have info on Restaurants and Accommodation, but I would highly recommend it for planning daily outdoor activities.

We used Fodors for Australia. We will be traveling to New Zealand this December and found the New Zealand Frenzy books which are wonderful! They contain a lot of detailed information that is not in the other guides or on the internet. I have used them extensively to plan our itinerary.

I agree with Longhorn by far the best guidebooks for this part of the world are Lonely Planet. The are the most detailed and go beyond the well-worn tourist tracks.

Agree with Lonely Planet BUT, I bought an Indonesian Lonely Planet in Australia, didn't bother to read it before I got there, (it was a rush trip), and the 8 relevant pages to Bandung where I was staying for 2 weeks were just missing. Fortunately I borrowed one from an American tourist when I got to Bandung hotel, his was intact. So always check.

For New Zealand I used to like Moon Handbooks for attractions and maps, but they are now out of date. Actually I find that you don't really need a guidebook for NZ. Pick up an Autoclub or Jason's accommodation guide at the airport. Also if you are an auto club member in your home country, you can get free membership in the NZ version (including maps, but the free maps aren't so good anymore). There is tons of info and brochures at the i-site offices which seem to be in every small town as well as at the DOC offices, eg in Queenstown. Plus much of this is downloadable before you go. There are wine guides, culinary guides, historic guides for just about every region. Just a bit of Googling and using the website www.newzealand.com is really enough, along with reading some of the good trip reports here. I'd recommend especially the one by indiancouple.

I don't use guide books anymore (I research online instead), but when I did, it was Lonely Planet all the way.

Like melnq8, I do 90% of my research online, backed up by the Information Centres in the areas we are visiting, and then the Lonely Planet.

We just returned from the area and are in the midst of writing our report for New Zealand. In preparing for our trip, we got a lot of help by culling the information on this site. Melnq8 was especially helpful! We also did a lot of online research. For lodging, we did check all of our choices on Trip Advisor, and were happy with all of them. One suggestion we might have is to book your lodging as early as possible, especially if you have particular places in mind. We were there in February, and although there were vacancies, they were places which would not have been our choices. Good luck in planning.

Not a guide book as such, but this 2015 publication which I've only just encountered and started dipping into should provide very interesting and informative reading for visitors and locals alike -

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...09-gkuihb.html

As the reviewer says, the author Bruce Gall has excellent credentials in Australian parks and wildlife management.

Mostly online research, but we usually travel with a Fodor's in hand and are generally happy with them.

Thanks Farrermog, that looks like a good read.

I've gone almost completely online for my research now too, but if I were looking for a Guide Book for Australia, I'd choose Lonely Planet.

I find Fodors too US centric.

We used Frommer's for our first trip to New Zealand, and Lonely Planet for our South Island trip last year.

Lee Ann

NZ Frenzy, without a doubt.

Lonely Planet is by far the most popular guide in Australian bookshops - as Bokhara says it's the best for Australia

I don't know if this matters, but the original poster, Marsh, was asking for guidebook recommendations in 2012, for a trip to Australia & New Zealand in October 2012. Marsh bought Lonely Planet.

Fodors.