Travel Budget New Zealand: How Much does a Road Trip cost?
Taking a road trip through New Zealand has been on our wish list for a long time. During our world trip we drove through the entire country in three weeks with a rental car and tent. What travel budget should you consider when making a road trip in New Zealand?
General travel budget New Zealand
For the costs below, it is important to know what type of trip we have made through New Zealand. We traveled with two people during the month of December (21 days) with a rental car and a tent. This could certainly not be called luxury! We mainly cooked ourselves at the campsites.
Overview travel budget New Zealand
In total we spent approximately €2644 (excluding flight tickets), which amounts to approximately €63 per person per day. Below you can see roughly what we spent this on. The 2023 price level applies to this, we did not receive any discounts or other offers.
- Accommodation (17%)
- Food & drinks (25%)
- Transport (58%)
- Activities (4%)
- Other expenses (6%)
Flight tickets
The price for an airline ticket depends on so much that we do not mention prices here. View the best offers via Skyscanner. There are no direct flights from Europe to New Zealand!
Transportation New Zealand
It depends entirely on your own wishes and travel budget which transport is suitable for your New Zealand tour. We opted for a budget option, so a small car. We rented this from Sunnycars. This option was a lot cheaper than a camper when we booked. Of course you do compromise on luxury!
We paid a total of around €1,500 for transport during the entire tour. This includes rental car, petrol, parking costs and public transport/taxi. In the end, this was the largest expense of the entire road trip New Zealand!
Expenses for accommodation New Zealand
In total we paid approximately €437 for the overnight stays. That is around €20 per night for two people. Certainly not much, if you consider that we have occasionally booked a hotel. We ended up camping for a few nights at a free spot.
Activities
Once you are in New Zealand, you will also want to do the activities that you have planned. In the end we only spent €112 on activities. This is due, for example, to the fact that the weather was very bad when we were at the glaciers (then you are not going to make an expensive trip) or that we walked the Tongariro hike completely for free! Many activities in New Zealand are free anyway. Consider, for example, the hike to Roy’s Peak in Wanaka.
TIP: book you tour at Millford Sound via Bookme. You’ll receive a nice discount!
Food & drinks
We did normal shopping in New Zealand. The prices are considerably higher than in the Netherlands. We also didn’t save on coffee, because we could not make it ourselves at the campsite. Total costs for three weeks of food and drinks: €396.
Other expenses
In New Zealand we had slightly more other expenses than in the other countries we visited during our world trip. For example, we had to buy a tent and other camping equipment. You also pay for an electronic visa if you want to enter the country. In total we came to €168.
