Fine Tours Testimonials

This was an absolutely amazing holiday, with realistic driving distances and well-chosen accommodation throughout. The forward planning of trips meant that we did not waste any time when we arrived at a new destination, which was important when only staying 1 or 2 nights. There were many nice touches, such as the excellent seats reserved on the Milford Sound Cruise and the TranzAlpine, picnics on two boat trips and the easy transfers on our arrival and departure (when we had no car). We particularly appreciated Neisha's pro-active response to the potential (and, as it turned out, actual) closure of the SH6 near Franz Josef when she quickly arranged a new route and good alternative accommodation which allowed us to complete our tour - when lots of other people were trying to do the same. Our favourite visit - among many - was the stay at Abel Tasman NP with its particularly welcoming accommodation and the lovely boat trip, including a special walk on our own from bay to bay. The only thing we would do differently is we would not have stayed at The George in Christchurch. The room was really nice and spacious but, although it had character, we did not particularly like being in the Annexe (Garden Loft) accessed by 32 stairs (no lift), and service at breakfast was very slow. However, this pales into insignificance amongst all the wonderful places we stayed, the amazing scenery, great excursions and lovely walks. (You're very lucky to work in Wanaka!) Thank you.

We LOVED our trip, it was AMAZING! My wife & I both agree this was our best vacation ever! From the moment we arrived until we were on our flight home every location, every transfer, hotel, & activity was perfect for us, we couldn't have chosen better. Thank you Fine Tours New Zealand and a special thank you to Janette for creating a perfect itinerary and providing us with a wonderful, memorable experience.

Harriet did a great job arranging our itinerary and quickly responding to our hotel situation in Queenstown. She provides great customer service and is good at communication. I will certainly contact her for our future trip to Australia. Thank you Harriet McGregor. Regards, Karen Strumar and family

Excellent communications and app was very useful. All reservations went smoothly which provided peace of mind since we travelled a long way to visit New Zealand. Thanks for a memorable trip.

Our tour was a bespoke one and Fine Tours easily arranged it all for us with no hassle. They listened to what we were after and when required were able to adjust things. The tour app was extremely helpful and all prearranged tours went smoothly. I can’t fault Fine Tour’s and would most definitely in fact have used them several times now and will in the future. Many thanks to them for a wonderful Honeymoon.

Our two week tour of the South Island was amazing. Stunningly beautiful, educational and varied. The lodgings were all excellent, especially Rainforest Retreat and Ranguinui. All of the pre planning allowed us to simply enjoy and take in the scenery and enjoy the friendly Kiwi hospitality. If we did it again I would opt for slightly shorter travel distances on some days but otherwise five stars!

Thank you for organising a great tour for the 3 of us. The Canadian visitors especially were most impressed of course with the scenery and the sheer beauty of the South Island. The weather behaved itself the whole 2 weeks starting from Christchurch down to our last day in Queenstown. All the guides and tours that you organised have been great and not only knowledgeable but adds a personal Kiwi touch to our experience. I could not fault any of them. The extra attention and care that each one of them showed with the different tours made us all feel special and they genuinely was passionate about their jobs. Overall we had a fantastic 2 weeks. Yes we would highly recommend Thrifty Tours and our personal consultant Kayla Bailey to future guests. Ima very happy and satisfied customer. Lorena

Nichole did an incredible job of helping to plan and book our dream trip to New Zealand. She listened to our goals for the trip and was always accommodating when we requested changes. With Nichole's help, we were able to make the most of our first visit to New Zealand with little to no stress. Our accommodations were excellent with most featuring incredible views, and our scheduled activities were always ready for us. Our experience with Fine Tours New Zealand and Nichole was a 10/10. Thank you for helping us to live out our dream trip!

What an amazing trip to New Zealand for my family of seven took this spring. New Zealand is truly one of the most beautiful and unique places to travel to in this world. But what made the trip even more special was all the help and guidance we received from Fine Tours New Zealand. They are simply terrific tour company based in New Zealand and we were so fortunate to work directly with Christina Brockie who helped plot a great trip on both islands over a ten day period( I wish we had had more time). She had great knowledge of things to do and see. She gave great suggestions but also so willing to listen to our ideas and look into all sorts of activities, places to stay, and how to get from place to place. Every tour group or tour she suggested was spot on including the Footwhistle Glow Worm cave tour, the tour in Hobbiton, the Eco thermal park tour in Rotorua with Elite Adventures, the Te Pā Tū Evening Cultural Experience at Tamaki Maori Village, the Tasman Glacier Helihike with The Helicopter Line, the Glacier Explorers Mt. Cook, the TSS Earnslaw cruise to Walter Peak including gourmet BBQ dinner and a farm tour, Shotover Jet Canyon Jet Boat Ride, and Milford Sound Coach, Cruise, Fly small group tour from Queenstown with Altitude. All the guides for all these adventures were so friendly and knowledgeable. We were also very fortunate to have private drivers for the long distance journeys between cities so we could enjoy the incredible views (and not worry about driving on the wrong side of the road). All the drivers were great particularly Russel who we had for several days on the South Island. He shared with us wonderful stories of New Zealand. And as on any trip a few things don't go as planned such as due to weather ( we actually got very lucky) when the star gazing tour was cancelled on Mt Cook or due to electricity failure for our dinner train car in Christchurch shutting it down for the evening. But Christina called us immediately and told us of the change of plans and gave us other suggestions on things to do. If you are considering a trip to New Zealand which is a spectacular place to visit I would highly recommend you try to use this superb travel company, Fine Tours New Zealand and ask for Christina. You will have a trip of a lifetime!! Richard Batz

Our New Zealand tour exceeded our expectations. We enjoyed all the recommended activities we signed up for. As with any trip, we always would have liked to have spent more time at some of our stops. We appreciated the attention to detail provided in our itinerary information and the travel App made it easy to be in contact when we needed help or clarification on something. Kudos to Neisha and her team for making this a truly memorable trip! Karen & John ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Had a great trip! Thank you for all that did. The organization was fantastic! Sheelagh

Very well organized and enjoyable. Pick up and drop off at hotels and airports were first class.

We were 100% satisfied with our tour! Chelsea did a fantastic job - excellent communications, top notch hotel accommodations and superb dining recommendations. We have travelled internationally many times and without a doubt, this was our best trip yet! We would highly recommend Fine Tours and have sent our itinerary to many of our friends.

We asked Fine Tours to create a customized 30-day itinerary for us, starting with South Island. It was a breeze! They took care of everything based on our preferences for lodging, interests, activities and timing. We had hotels, rental cars, ferries, activities and transfers all pre-arranged. Everything went off without a hitch! And they provided us with an app with our daily itineraries and lodging available all the time without internet. This was so helpful. Our specialist, Sabina, made sure that we were all set before we left and kept tabs on us throughout. Highly recommend Fine Tours for travel throughout New Zealand.

I had been trying to plan a trip to New Zealand for a very long time, but I was overwhelmed by all the possibilities and wasn't sure how to come up with an itinerary, let alone make all the arrangements. That changed when I talked to Tia at New Zealand Fine Touring. She listened to all my comments and developed a well-designed tour for us. She made reservations for all of our hotels, our rental car, our flight, and many tour packages. She even booked tee times for us on a few fabulous golf courses. While we were there, NZFT kept in contact with us to make sure we knew about traffic delays, changes in flight times, etc. It was the trip of a lifetime. I would highly recommend using the services of NZFT to plan a wonderful vacation.

We had the most wonderful time in the small group environment. Our guide Peter Monroe was probably the best guide driver that I have ever trouble with the whole trip was absolutely what we needed what we expected and more. I would recommend Pure Discoveries to anyone.

It was a great tour, well organised and curated. We saw the best of South Island and left with a good impression of wanting to return in the not too distant future.

Dear Christina, I was just putting a note together for you when yours came in. Like minds! Don and I want to thank you for all you did to make our New Zealand 2.0 trip so enjoyable. You even did a pretty good job on the weather! Your selection of activities and lodging was excellent. All transfers and rental car arrangements were flawless. We really appreciated that. Additionally, the upgrade to the Capitan’s Cabin for the whale watch was a big surprise. They treated us like royalty and the cabin/viewing deck is incredibly spacious. You should definitely encourage your clients to take this upgrade. Likewise with the overnight cruise in Milford Sound—one of the highlights of our trip. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with you over the past five years. We regret that we weren’t able to meet you in person in Wanaka. You and your team have been extremely responsive, especially in the chaos of our first trip in March 2020. Fortunately, NZ 2.0 was an incredible adventure with no real hiccups. Feel free to use us as a reference should any prospective client want to hear our comments directly. Thanks again and warmest regards, Diane & Don Silberstein

Harriett, Thank you so much for designing a trip for us that met all of our wants and desires. Here are a few of our thoughts: 1) Auckland Britomart was well located with good food and service; 2) The Best of Both Worlds tour was well done and seemed to give us a thorough overview of the city and surrounds; 3) On The Point was a fabulous resort with a room with an incredible view; great service, delicious dinner; 4) The glow worm tour was excellent, our guide, Stephen, was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot about the worms as well as other flora and fauna; 5) We ended up going to the Waimangu Volcanic Valley, which provided a good walk and boat ride which explained volcanism in NZ; 6) We enjoyed our hikes in Tongariro NP, seeing numerous waterfalls; we had a good dinner at The Cypress Tree in Ohakune; 7) QT Wellington was well located (across from Te Papa which was amazing!); 8) both WETA Studio and Zealandia were excellent picks; 9) You might want to keep a cautious eye on hotel in Nelson--it felt neglected and deteriorating, but we enjoyed being in Nelson and it was fine being in Nelson instead of the park; we found the Urban Eatery restaurant, which provided excellent food and service; the Abel Tasman tour was good for us, having a good mix of hiking and boat time; 10) The Punakaiki accommodation was a beautiful location, however there were guests in all rooms and the walls seemed thin, therefore not as isolated as one might expect; the Pancake Rocks were spectacular!; 11) Loved stopping in Hokitika, a fun little town where we found several gifts; 12) Te Waonui was a lovely property, again well located for our heli-hike; the food was well prepared and plentiful; we lucked out as the heli-hike was able to be run that day after 4 days of bad weather!; 13) the drive to Queenstown was beautiful, stopping at a number of waterfalls; note that the bridge to the Blue Pools is out indefinitely, so we were not able to see them; 14) The Central in Queenstown was well located and the staff very accommodating; we enjoyed Arrowtown; the trip on the TSS Earnslaw was a highlight--great food at the farm, beautiful gardens and fun demonstrations; we went up the gondola and rode the luge; we strolled through the botanic gardens on the peninsula, which was quite enjoyable; the Milford tour was another highlight, the smaller van ride over and the plane flight back was a perfect combination; plus the weather cooperated and we had a spectacular sunny day and were able to get up close to several waterfalls. Our surprise and joy was interacting with the lovely people of New Zealand--everyone seemed to have a smile and a helpful attitude!! Thanks again, Harriet, for creating this wonderful trip for us!! We would highly recommend New Zealand and will recommend your company in the future. Plus your app was very helpful in our daily planning. Tom and Linda Haefliger

Hi Chelsea, Sorry it has taken us so long to get back to you. We just want to say that we had a lovely time on the North Island. The itinerary you planned for us was exactly what we wanted, with very few one night stays and a few two and three night stays. This meant that we weren’t rushed at all and we didn’t try and do or see too much. The accommodation options were all very acceptable with an interesting mix of styles. The suggested activities that we chose were very enjoyable and in most cases we only had to tell them our name and the booking was there. All the towns we stayed in had their own unique atmosphere and we especially loved Paihia. The only minor hiccup we had was with the rental car trying to give us a vehicle without GPS, however, this was eventually sorted out. The reviews online for the Auckland city branch were almost entirely extremely negative so this came as no surprise. All in all, we would give Fine Tours New Zealand a ten out of ten for your organising and implementation of our itinerary. Many thanks once again and we would not hesitate to recommend your organisation to anyone we know us traveling to New Zealand. Regards, Mike and Josie Fitzsimons