I am comfortable with and enjoy planning our trips to Europe.
However, my husband and I are planning a 4 - 5 week trip to Australia and New Zealand. We will use FF miles for the airfare. However, I am overwhelmed trying to plan our trip. I've never used a travel agent. I would prefer one that specializes in New Zealand and Australia. Does anyone suggest an agent or have suggestions on the best way to find one?
And yes, I've tried google. There are hundreds of options to weed through.
Haven’t used them, but this person/group run an amazing Facebook group and offer consultations and/or planning as well. Look over under Get New Zealand Help on the right side.
https://nztraveltips.com/
Maybe not a “specialist” in Australia and NZ, but the Elizabeth Holmes Travel Agency is very well-regarded here in Seattle, and I believe they were (and maybe still are) recommended by RS.
https://elizabethholmes.com/australia-new-zealand/
But I will say that New Zealand in particular is very easy to plan on one’s own, using resources such as the New Zealand Facebook group above, and the very helpful people in the Tripadvisor New Zealand forum.
We did a combined trip to the two 10 years ago, using our Alaska Airlines and British Airways to get to Australia with Qantas, and then paid for inexpensive tickets on Emirates from Sydney to NZ and back to Melbourne. WE visited the South Island only, and spent 2 weeks there, focused on hiking. If you enjoy hiking, I highly recommend the Milford Track guided hike with Ultimate. The guides, lodging, food, and scenery were all top-notch. all we had to do was show up in Queensland on the appointed day, and they took care of the rest.
https://www.ultimatehikes.co.nz/multi-day-guided-walks/milford-track
We had been to Australia before, so did not need help with that. We just wanted to spend a few days enjoying Sydney, and then went to Melbourne after NZ for the Australian Open, which was a great experience. Highly recommended if you are a tennis fan and going in January.
Hi Paula, what has drawn you to the idea of visiting Australia and New Zealand? Using this as a starting point and building a trip around those wishes might help you decide how you would like your trip to look. A travel agent can probably put a trip together but unless you give them some guidance it may not be the trip that you would like. Australia is big, so unless you have a compelling reason to travel to Western Australia then concentrating on the east coast might be more efficient and is a shorter journey to or from New Zealand. Of course your own travel style will also dictate how you would like to travel. Do you prefer to travel independently or on an organised tour? Are you comfortable driving on the left or would you prefer to use buses, trains and planes? Do you like to linger a bit and see places in depth or are you happy to pack as many destinations in as possible even if it means frequent accomodation changes? My suggestion would be to have a look at some of the guided tours to see what they offer which might provide you with some ideas. If you decide to arrange your trip yourself then there are lots of people on this forum that can offer tips and advice. Happy planning.
