NZ Coach tours Tour Reviews

First Light Travel and our agent Jessika Turc Planned an unbelievable itinerary for our month long visit throughout New Zealand. We took their plan and drove both the North & South Islands. Every detail from wonderful & unique accommodations to private transfers, rental cars & activities. We could not have done this trip without their very detailed layout. It worked like clockwork…no glitches at all! Thank you First Light Travel.

Incredible trip. Exceeded all our expectations. Planning was perfect and First Light was very responsive. Photos and memories to last a lifetime. Best vacation ever!

If you are thinking about travel to New Zealand (especially if you want to fly fish) you need to work with Nicole at First Light Travel. My wife and I have travelled all over the world (Africa, several countries in South America, Japan, most of Europe, Vietnam etc) and we have always booked our own trips and excursions – it does not work like that in New Zealand (all 3 agents for my New Zealand trip which I interviewed told me I needed to work with an agent even if it was not them). That was the best advice I got and will share with you
From someone who has worked with lodging professionally for 30 years I can tell you the travel infrastructure in New Zealand is different. There is not as much information on the Web as most other countries. Booking for their summer (winter in the US) needs to be done 4 to 6 months in advance. Almost every town we were in we saw hotels flashing No Vacancy signs everywhere.
Most web sites provide lists of the best fly-fishing rivers to go to and are spread-out across the country. Even after fishing three of those rivers I do not know where to go next. Destination fishing lodges are few and can be quite expensive.
You need Nicole to help you plan your dream trip. She is professional, personable, a great listener to understand what you want your trip to be and truly cares about her clients.

We were looking for something special to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. We started to check out New Zealand on line and saw things we liked so we contacted First Light Travel. They came up with an itinerary on some of the things we wanted to see and they added to our list. The itinerary was what we had hoped for. It was well planned and everything was booked ahead of time. Our hotels, excursions and travelling were all lined up. This made for a relaxed and pleasurable trip .They also planned down time for us so we could do some exploring on our own. First Light Travel made this holiday something very special for us, we could not have done this on our own. We highly recommend this travel company. Thank you First Light Travel.

New Zealand and First Light Travel were both awesome. Just go. The 21-day self driving tour by First Light was the right pace and allowed us to explore as we wanted. Booking was simple and the accommodations were top notch. The excursions were so well planned and there was not a single issues over the 21 days. We are so appreciative to Anna C. for her timely and knowledgeable advice.

We had a wonderful time during our 24 days in New Zealand, our longest holiday ever. Our only regret was not staying longer. We rented a car and driving was very easy. I think people don't realize how rural most of the country is, and that you are usually driving on two lane roads, with lots of single lane bridges! Not like the autobahns in Europe! And the scenery everywhere is breath taking. The itinerary from First Light was perfect - drive times, locations, experiences. I don't think we would have had such incredible encounters if we had booked this ourselves. We thought this would be a once in a lifetime trip, but we might be back!

We were so very glad we chose First Light to help us plan our independent touring time in New Zealand. Our first contact was with Bernadette where she inquired about our interests and desires for our trip and engaged in dialogue to help us refine our trip. Then we worked with Katarina who saw us through the rest of the process and answered questions at the last minute and also while we were on our trip. We were thoroughly happy with their expertise and assistance throughout the whole process. We ended making a couple of changes which they helped us through very smoothly. We loved not having to buy tickets for activities and having our hotels prearranged and paid. There was also the right amount of free time to explore on our own or just rest which we worked out together through the planning process.

Our 21-day trip through the South Island of New Zealand was simply amazing, thanks to Micala at First Light Travel. She planned everything perfectly—fantastic sights, great accommodations, and incredible activities—all running like clockwork. We absolutely loved every moment and couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Highly recommend!

We had a great trip! Essentially, it was everything we had hoped and thought it would be. We especially loved the South Island (we thought this would be the case before our trip and it turned out to be so). Heidi listened well and heard us (activities we enjoyed, kinds of places we liked to stay). She patiently went back and forth with us and developed an itinerary that we thoroughly enjoyed. Now, having traveled to New Zealand, there are changes we would make (e.g., wouldn't stop in Rotorua, spending the time in Christchurch instead, maybe go to an outlying island for our stay in Fiji), but we would say that our itinerary allowed us to see so much of New Zealand in our 4 weeks visiting, soaking in the local flora, fauna, and culture. The itinerary also had some built-in free time which we appreciated and enjoyed. It allowed us to book some things on our own such as the National Museum (Wellington), Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony, Highlanders/Blues Rugby match in Dunedin, wine tasting (South Island), and just wander into and through interesting places (The Wool Company in Utiku, Foxton Beach, Cardrona).

New Zealand is a beautiful and welcoming country. Food was delicious and services informal but professional. Hotels, in general, lack charm and character but First Light's choices were all comfortable and clean with everything one could need available.