Incredible Topdeck trip. Experienced the beauty of New Zealand and provided a variety of adrenaline adventurous activities. Created an everlasting group with fellow members of the group tour and just had the best time getting to know and sharing this experience with new friends. My tour guide Robbie John made this trip enjoyable and provided a lot of knowledge at each stop.
In-depth tour. Great for adrenaline junkies. A few extra days here and there would have been perfect. My trips leader Robbie John was awesome - so knowledgeable and knew all the best stops.
The TopDeck trip was incredible! It was amazing to experience the beauty of the country and challenge myself with the array of adventurous activities on offer. The members of the tour formed a close group and it was fun to share new experiences with new friends. The tour guide was also very knowledgeable and made the trip seemless and enjoyable.
Robbie John was a great guide!
Fantastic trip, our guide Guy was very good. He was very knowledgeable on everything, and booked everyone onto all the activities they wanted, and I felt very safe with him as our driver and guide.
The only reason I took off a star was because of the awful state of some of the accomodation. Particularly Nomads, after our stay in Nomads in Wellington, where the Accomodation was filthy, and the beds unsafe (not unrealistic standards I think), we were so upset to find out we were staying with them again for four nights in Christchurch, when the itinerary still had LYLO hostel on it (which is of a much higher standard). The breakfast in Wellington was awful and made a lot of us sick, the breakfast in Christchurch was lovely. It was very good having breakfast provided in the mornings. The bathrooms in the Blue Dolphin Accomodation were all broken. And the facilities in the rock climbing accommodation were all dirty.
The activities were great fun, the experience in the Māori village was a great way to get everyone comfortable with each other on the first night.
It would have been nice to have gone down a bit more south, considering there’s a lot of driving, a few more hours wouldn’t make a difference.
Overall, I had a great trip, saw so much of the beautiful country and had so much fun with the other travellers.
Thoroughly enjoyed this trip!! Our guide Guy was brilliant & super knowledgeable. We were incredibly lucky with the weather so managed to do pretty much everything on the itinerary. New Zealand is incredible and I would 1000% recommend this trip as we got to see so & do so much!
It was a very fun trip! It was definitely a lifetime experience in NZ. Our guide Guy was very nice and fun. He always told very interesting facts about NZ and gave very good recommendations for food, action, etc.
Our tour guide, Guy, was absolutely amazing. Very fortunate to have had him during our stay in New Zealand! Loved the trip, so much to do and see, would 100% recommend to anyone who is thinking of going
Amazing trip overall! So much activity and things to do, the guide was well knowlaged and took us to ask the good spots. The accommodation was OK, some places better than others though, but not too bad for hostels.
I would highly suggest having Queenstown at the start or earlier in the tour. Having it so late meant that by that time my budget was spent and I wasn't able to do as much as I would have liked, I would have preferred using my budget in Queenstown and being a penny pincher in the smaller stays beforehand. My tour apparently was one of the last under that itinerary, so the information we were giving in our paperwork didn't match some of the activities or accommodations, not a complaint, just a statement. Overall it was a good tour, I would recommend it, but I won't be repeating it.
Guy our tour guide was the best one I’ve ever had he was great, super knowledgeable and really good social fun joking with the group. Such a shame he is leaving big big miss
I’ve done several Topdeck tours and this one would have to be my favourite. You get to see and do so much yet it is not the slightest bit rushed and you get plenty of down time if you want it. Plus we had the best tour guide EVER. Guy is so knowledgeable and I loved his commentary. Very approachable, full of tips and tricks and great fun! He made everything that extra bit special.
Great tour to experience the best New Zealand has to offer, I’ll definitely be going back again at some point. Lucky enough to get a great tour guide in Guy, he was very knowledgeable and passionate about his country. He gave great recommendations about things to do, places to eat, where to go out for a night out and most importantly kept us all safe. The views/landscapes were amazing, better in person than in pictures moment. It was great to meet new people and see a new country.
Only one of my extras was cancelled due to weather, which unfortunately couldn’t be helped and was understandable.
It would be great if you had the option to upgrade to a private room, especially seeing as most of the places you stay do have them.
Also rathe than ending in Christchurch it’d be nice to have more time there in the first visit stop, then end the trip in Queenstown.
Great value for money! Our driver even squeezed in a few extras when he could!
Awesome trip, amplified by awesome trip leader. Activities were so much fun and the places you go are just breathtaking. 10/10 would recommend.
Loved all the stops, however I hoped we would have more time in Franz Josef. Maybe worthwhile looking at going in more of a circular trip, rather than zig zagging down both islands.
Our guide cowboy was super helpful. Always had great suggestions of the best places to go, so we could maximise our time at each stop.
The tour was well done and I had a great tour. I did notice it wasn’t as longer as the trip I planned to do before Covid. I noticed compared to my previous trips there wasn’t as much included in the itinerary but I loved that our tour guide took us to some awesome places when activities were cancelled due to wet weather. I had a great time it’s just next time I would like less free days.
Guy, our tour guide was fantastic.
I was supposed to take this trip multiple times before and during COVID but due to government restrictions in Australia and New Zealand I wasn't able to take the trip straught away. Topdeck was very helpful with this and made it hastle free even with the confusion and cancellations.
The Topdeck app needs serious improvement but served its purpose to get us in touch until we were able to make group chats on other platforms.
The itinerary was not up to date so my budget was thrown off, there was no wifi or charging ports on the bus, and some of the accommodation was questionable. Nomads in Wellington in particular🤢
But the group, guide and sights mafe up for it.
Our guide/driver Guy was extremely welcoming, funny, knowledgeable and kindhearted. Alongside him were some amazing people I got to meet and experience the beauty of New Zealand with. The freedom and ability to do certain activities or have free time while having accomodation and transport sorted made the trip so much more enjoyable.
The trip was awesome! Beautiful scenery and the tour guide/ bus driver knew so much information, was friendly and made everyone feel comfortable (thanks Guy!) The trip felt slightly rushed and unorganised. Our guide also told us that the trip itinerary we were given when we booked was over 7 years old and we shouldn't read it!! TopDeck could have at least updated this, especially when some of the activities were $200 different from the expected to actual pricing. Also stated in the itinerary we were meant to have many orientation walks and other included activities, however, we only had one walk the entire trip, and it was very short and unnecessary as we arrived at 4 pm and were leaving the town at 8 am the next morning. Would be much more appreciated in the towns we had full days in. Also, the app is outdated and barely worked. Travellers tried to contact topdeck or the trip leader but turned out the trip leader didn't even have access to the chat! The app also logged out almost every time which was very annoying when trying to organise dinner or meet-ups with the other people in the group. Also wasn't a fan of how they organised payment for the additional activities on the trip... It would've been much better if we got told at the start how they went about it, as many of us took out copious amounts of cash to pay for them but then turned out we could just transfer.
More prior planning from TopDeck would've made this trip perfect! But highly recommend this trip!
Trip was exceptionally organised, social for sure and all round fun! It would be appreciated though to have the downloadable trip notes updated so there was a better/ more certain idea of what we were getting up to on the trip each day, and more group dinner bookings would have been fun. Hands down have had the trip of a lifetime with no regrets and since day 1 was already keen to do this again!
it was good value for money
This was my first top deck tour and to sum it up it was amazing! Lots of things were ticked off my bucket list during this trip. The trip leader was wonder very knowledgeable about the places we went to and they also knew how to have a good time and have a laugh with the group. The trip is very fast paced and there's always something to do, though you can choose to have some downtime which is also nice. The only downside for me personally is I wish we had more group dinners so we could all sit-down together and get to know everyone throughout the trip and not just at the end. However I have come away with so many great memories and friends from around the world. Such a wonderful experience for my first tour! Definitely doing another
Great trip, can’t fault it at all - just wish it was 20 nights and wasn’t as rushed. Stuffy hostels (but not Topdecks fault) AMAZING TRIP
My only recommendation would be to stay a few extra nights in a few places like, Franz Josef Glacier as we got bad weather the 1 day we were there and lots of people missed out on activities. The dive to Milford sound was also really long, it would have been nice to stay in the town before hand so we weren’t travelling so much. Although they didn’t change my amazing experience it might be cool to extend the trip. 17 days wasn’t enough, it was just so much fun :)
très bien dans l'ensemble, dommage que tous les participants n'aient pas payé le même prix et qu'une remise est faite à l'approche de la date donc les gens qui ont réservé longtemps à l'avance paient le prix fort.
Not having enough spots for everyone to do an optional activity is not good enough. I went on this trip for three activites, none of which I was able to do. There were many things in the itinerary that we didn't do? Most of the walking tours didn't happen and we didn't visit Arrowtown which I was very much looking forward to. The accommodation was appalling in some locations. The tour leader was a fantastic driver but very unprofessional. I wouldn't travel with Top Deck again after this experience.
Simply the travel costs and accommodations would have made this trip worth the price. On top of that there was expert knowledge provided and several activities offered.
Perfect amount of time overall and in each place.
I swam with dolphins one day, then flew in a helicopter to a mountain top the next! AMAZING!
Trip was amazing and planned really well. However there were people on the trip with the worst snoring in the world and made sharing accomodation unejoyable
The add on activities were way overpriced and I'm still asking myself for what kind of trip I paid so much money.
Sick as bruh!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Absolutely amazing tour with an exceptional guide. He was full of knowledge about all the places we visited, and when weather got in the way of our plans, he came up with alternatives. Made so many new friends and nothing felt rushed but we got to see so much of the country. The places we saw were beautiful, but the people was what made the trip. Amazing first solo travel experience and I'm already keen for more. Cannot thank Guy (our guide) enough for all that he did for us. Had so much fun, and never once felt stressed - just like it should be on holiday!
It was a great place to visit , New Zealand is a place to go if you're want to do action and adrenaline sports , the weather on the other hand is almost unbearable , it can sunny one and the next raining and snowing
The north and South Island was done really well. Lots of fun
The itinerary was great, we visited so many of New Zealand's greatest attractions (the scenery has to be seen to be believed), our guide had an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of his country, and most of our accommodation was comfortable. The trip started off on an incredibly high note with blackwater rafting through the Waitomo Caves and our stay at a traditional Māori village, and each subsequent destination made me wish I hadn't waited so long to visit New Zealand.
This is my second Toodeck trip, however, this trip was run by Kiwi Experience and it was not what I expected. I still had a great time but the trip was not as seamless as my previous trip. My understanding is that New Zealand is just starting tourism again and Topdeck has a temporary agreement with KE to manage the New Zealand trips. Additionally, I felt that that 17 days was not enough time! Some locations felt very rushed and it would have been better as a 21 day trip.