Fodor's New Zealand, 7th Edition : The Guide for All Budgets, Where to Stay, Eat, and Explore On and Off the BeatenPath

Rating:
Summary: Relatively Unenlightening Guidebook
Review: Most Fodor's guidebooks are relatively good, but I found this one to be middling at best. The sparseness of maps and total absence of photographs (although they do manage to insert a color glossy advertisement for American Express) really hurts this book. New Zealand is a unique place and deserves substantially more detail than it receives here. Interestingly, Fodor's also publishes a book titled "Fodor's Exploring New Zealand" which is quite good, provides much better coverage of matters of interest, and has numerous excellent color photographs. Of the two, I would definitely opt for "Fodor's Exploring New Zealand," which is a much more user friendly and informative guidebook.

The best feature of this book is the "Smart Travel Tips" section which briefly summarizes important travel information about New Zealand travel, such as driving and flying information, money, mail, and tax laws, etc. This section is at the very beginning of the book and is really the only reason to even consider purchasing this book as the information in concise and crucial to travelers. Most of this information is available in other, better, guidebooks, though. Because of the deficiencies in other areas of this book, I recommend either "Fodor's Exploring New Zealand" or another guidebook.


Rating:
Summary: Sketchy information
Review: The information in this book is sketchy, at best. I was VERY disappointed when I received the copy I ordered. I should have stuck with Frommer's for information on New Zealand.

Rating:
Summary: Fodor's New Zealand
Review: This book is a must have for anyone travelling to New Zealand. The places that are listed to stay are wonderful at any price. I find that this book was extremely helpful in my travel planning for my trip to New Zealand. Full of a lot of travel facts and information you need to know. It has information on everything from tandem paragliding to information on who to call for ferry service. A very good and informative book!

Rating:
Summary: Fodor's New Zealand
Review: This book is a must have for anyone travelling to New Zealand. The places that are listed to stay are wonderful at any price. I find that this book was extremely helpful in my travel planning for my trip to New Zealand. Full of a lot of travel facts and information you need to know. It has information on everything from tandem paragliding to information on who to call for ferry service. A very good and informative book!

Rating:
Summary: Poor guide to New Zealand
Review: Unlike other Fodor's guides, this one was disappointing. The George, one of the nicer small hotels in Christchurch wasn't listed, restaurant recommendations were few and disappointing and Local destination spots if they were mentioned, contained no useful information about accomodations etc. Lonely Planet New Zealand and Rough Guide New Zealand were much more informative.