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Travel tips needed

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2020 9:45 am
by webberg
I've decided that early in 2022 - say Feb to June - I'm taking a sabbatical.

My wife and I have always wanted to visit New Zealand and I have a few pals there. My wife has family in Aus and that will have to be on the list as well.

The sort of big picture plan is a month in NZ and perhaps the same in Aus.

After that we think Aus will be moving into autumn/winter and therefore we will be moving north to stay in the warmer parts.

Has anybody done anything similar and willing to share some tips or recommendations?

Particularly, travelling around NZ by camper van seems to pop up on lots of websites. We've never used such a beast before and whilst it will be just the two of us, I'm unsure about the benefits and disadvantages of a mobile "home" for a month.

I'm told that Vietnam/Cambodia is very pretty and worth a visit?

Basically in intelligence gathering mode and value personal experience and views more than I trust most travel sites and attached reviews.

Re: Travel tips needed

Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2020 8:42 am
by Wolfmiester
Hi Graham,
really late reply to this one!
Not been to NZ, and only Sidney in AU. But from the 2 visits to our son the rest of Oz and an extended trip to NZ is a must, can't wait until we have the time to take.
We have done Vietnam and Cambodia though, and I would highly recommend it.
Nearly 2 yrs ago now, and we joined some friends on an already booked "package guided tour" for 18 days.
The history is incredible, the food superb, and the people the most friendliest and caring we have ever met.
Wish we'd had more time.
We went with 'Trailfinders', so not cheap, but very good quality (as I say, we were invited on an already booked trip and decided to go. Probably would not have gone with them if we'd chosen ourselves). The choice of 'backpacker' stylie is still very much an option, and if I went again I think I'd mix it up a lot more.

Re: Travel tips needed

Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2020 10:38 am
by webberg
Thanks for this.

We're so far only at the "we must go there" stage and will work out the travel and other stops as we go.

We are though looking at West Coast USA and perhaps driving from San Fran to Seattle. Anybody done that?

Re: Travel tips needed

Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:51 pm
by JonT
I don't usually dip into the Sanctuary, so I missed this I'm afraid.

We spent a month in NZ quite a long time ago and had a fabulous time. We spent most of our time on the North Island given we only had a month, and didn't get any further South than Christchurch on the South Island. We moved around a lot, probably not spending more than a night in any one place other than a few days in Auckland, which is an amazing city.

In terms of travel, we just used public transport (both trains and buses) for part of our journey and hired a car for the rest. My personal preference is to do this and move from hotel to hotel. I seem to remember that we pre-booked some and played the others by ear as we decided where to head for next. This worked perfectly well for us. The hotels were all reasonably priced and we found some real gems (and a couple of stinkers). When we became tired of hotel food we rented a lodge on a lake for a couple of days and cooked our own food for a change.

Coincidentally we have also done a Californian road trip, but in the opposite direction to your proposal. We started in San Francisco and ended in San Diego, We followed pretty much the same pattern - hiring a car and moving from accommodation to accommodation, but this time each stop was 3-4 nights to allow us to take in more of the cities that we were visiting. We mixed up Airbnb apartments where we could cook etc with hotels where we were eating out.

Jon

Re: Travel tips needed

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2020 7:23 pm
by webberg
Thanks for all the above.

Our second Covid lockdown has meant that our trip seems impossible at the moment.

If we do go, then a trip around the US may be a more practical proposition.

Perhaps starting in Texas, then west coast and then through the mid west and the north before the East Coast.

(our son lives in Maine so we would have to fit that in).