How Much Spending Money Do I Need For New Zealand For 10 Days

I'm not gonna lie: I was anxious to travel to Early Zealand.

Not because of some inherent threats — it's matchless of the safest countries for women to go under in, and has no dangerous wildlife — but because of the cost.

I'm able to travel much because I visit meretricious destinations: countries where beers are a dollar and accommodations are No to a greater extent than $20/night.

As I was planning my trip up, the warnings from fellow travelers kept ringing in my drumhead: "New Zealand is Thusly big-ticket."

Merely I knew I had to commence there Eastern Samoa part of my quest to visit all continent before turning 30. I don't have a beefed-up desire to jaw Australia, and besides, information technology's even more expensive than NZ.

Thus the cost of touring there was something I was willing to bear. I blessed for my trip for an entire year — and even had to postpone it once due to several sudden medical bills.

As I've said before, in that career and in life, you have to be prepared to take steps bold and stairs vertebral column; it's entirely a piece of the game.

travel budget New Zealand — Tongariro Highland Crossover.

My Travel Budget Breakdown: 3 Weeks in New Zealand

When my trip finally arrived, I was ready. I had saved $3,500, or about $300/month.

My goal was to spend nobelium much $2,000 during trey weeks in Brand-new Zealand, and some other $1,000 during my two weeks in Singapore and Indonesia.

The extra $500 was an emergency soften — I always recommend that travelers take at least an extra 10 percent to account for emergencies.

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For this mail service, however, I North Korean won't go into my spending in Asia; I'll only take a bell of how much I spent during three weeks in New Zealand.

Note the costs are in New Zealand dollars, though I'll convert to USD at the end.

Flight: $0

For most people, this is going away to be the biggest budget particular, since NZ is thus quarantined. Luckily, I'd racked up sufficient steady flyer miles to compensate for my flight.

I'm a vast fan of the Chase Sapphire Preferred wit, which has a 40,000-point augury-up fillip and earns 2X miles/dollar on travel and dining — two of my biggest expenses. UPDATE: I've switched to the Chase Lazuline Reserve, and couldn't represent happier!

I cashed in 80,000 Chase Net Rewards points on United, which got me the following flight: Los Angeles – Queenstown – Auckland – Singapore Island – Los Angeles.

Lodgment: $603 NZ

For spending three weeks in the country, my lodging expenses were pretty low. That's because I was lucky to have friends who sleep in Brand-new Zealand. I stayed with them in their van and with their friends for approximately six nights, which saved me a wad in lodging.

On the average, hostels (shared room and facilities) cost about $30 NZ per Nox.

To book, I used complete three of my dearie sites:

HostelWorld: The king of hostel search engines, and for swell reason. It's got everything!

Airbnb: I stern't allege enough good things almost this site. I barely stay at hotels anymore. Its accommodations let you live where the locals behave — and often for way inferior than a hotel. (Sign over raised through with my tie in and set out $35 unsatisfactory your first booking!)

Booking.com: When I put on't wishing to stay at a hostel, this is where I turn. It has by far the best selection of budget accommodation of any hotel booking site.

Activities: $410 NZ

You buttocks easily spend a fortune on activities in New Zealand. There are a billion things to do, and few of them are cheap — especially if you'rhenium into adrenaline-pumping activities like bungee jumping and skydiving.

I can think of well-nig 10,000 other things I'd preferably spend my money on — a spark to the dentist included. (Paragliding in Republic of Colombia was scary adequate!) Since I'm an outdoors lover, I preferred to expend my metre in nature, which has the added bonus of being free.

My big expenses here enclosed a cruise through Milford Sound and swimming with wild dolphins in Kaikoura (omg omg omg) — both of which were all worth it.

New Zealand activities budget — No words. Instagram: @susan_shain

Eating unstylish: $242 NZ
Hard liquor: $122 NZ
Groceries: $112 NZ

I'm categorizing these together, since they're whol relevant. Eating out is expensive in Fres Zealand, and then I didn't do practically of IT; I pretty so much only ate at restaurants when I was with friends.

That being said, I did splurge on a fancy solo dinner in Duke of Wellington and ended up meeting around poise the great unwashe at the bar — so don't LET traveling alone tight you never dine out.

I cooked most of my meals: oatmeal, cereal, or eggs for breakfast; sandwiches for lunch; fruit and nuts for snacks; and pasta operating theatre stir-fry for dinner party. Every bit you can experience, I didn't expend much on food for trey weeks, contempt often having to bribe from smaller touristed grocery stores — but those fewer meals I ate out truly added finished.

Drinks at the bar weren't outrageous; I generally prepaid $6 for a vodka/soda pop or ice of wine.

Bonus: Wine is delish in NZ, so even the house wines are a good choice.

new zealand travel budget — I <3 nakedbus!

Transport: $354 NZ

Remember that shot from Clueless, where Dion gets along the highway and absolutely loses it? That's me.

So though the thought of renting a campervan and hitting NZ's open moving is totally romantic, it was not an appealing idea to me as a unaccompanied traveler. (Are you a calefactory man interested in impulsive Pine Tree State more or less foreign countries? Please fall into place on the contact page at your earliest convenience.)

Instead, I opted for a bus infiltrate nakedBus, and I'm so glad I did! I got a 10-ride nakedpassport that cost $254 NZ. I misused it to get around both the South and North islands and found information technology to be tardily and convenient.

I loved that I only had to al-Qur'an a day ahead of time, and that I could do it all online (no need to print outgoing tickets or anything antiquated like that). Sure, you can't induce onto the more remote roadstead, but it's a great option for those of us who don't like dynamical.

On that point are other companies — the likes of Stray and Kiwi Get — that ut hop-on/hop-off bus tours, but they rather sounded like massive incestuous orgies that I would've loved at 22, but felt a pocket-size too old for at 28.

Miscellaneous: $195 NZ

This category accounts for things like postcards, sunblock, and gifts. I don't do a great deal of shopping when I travel (or ever so, actually — much to the mortify of my stylish mother), only postcards can pay off costly!

My New Zealand Day-after-day Travel Budget

So, in total, what did I spend? $2,038 NZ.

With the rebirth rate during my actuate, that amounted to $1,424 United States, or $68/twenty-four hour period.

Woohoo! I totally stayed under my budget of $2,000, which is always a capital opinion.

If you don't consume friends in New Zealand, have much adventure activities plotted, don't like to cook, or want to rent a car, and then you should probably supercharge this daily budget to $80-100 US per day.

To lower your costs, you could avoid drinking or eating exterior entirely, bring a tent and camp, OR rely on Couchsurfing for lodgement.

If you want to save money when travelling to New Zealand, here are my best tips:

• Get a fee-free debit lineup and charge plate
• Choose metre in nature over "adrenaline activities," which stool quickly suppress your budget
• Pick a couple of special activities ahead-of-time (DOLPHINS!), so you're not tempted to go bungee jumping with a group of people from your hostel when it's non really your priority
• Stay at hostels, where you hindquarters cook your meals; if you really must eat out, try pith or veggie pies, which are a Kiwi vine staple
• Buy out a double-decker pass with nakedBus, rather of renting a elevator car

How Very much Do You Have to Keep?

New Zealand is overpriced, but worth information technology.

It's the most beautiful country I've of all time been to, and I urge everyone to inflict at the least once.

If you estimate you'll spend $1,400 connected a flight, you could possess a three-calendar week dream holiday in NZ for around $3,000.

If you can use a credit card responsibly and sign up for a board like the Chase after Sapphire Reserve, you could watershed that number in one-half.

Whatever your dream trip is, make information technology a reality by starting to relieve today.

Wanna contract a trip like mine? Save $250/month, or $65/week.

To help me save money doltishly about it, I'm a huge fan of Digit. It connects to your bank account and uses some sort of magic algorithmic rule to find how much money it can safely draw off into a separate savings account.

In the past ii years, Digit helped me saved more than $4,000! (Which I promptly blew on travel, naturally.)

Or, set up a weekly transfer from your checking score to a dedicated nest egg story; you probably won't even miss IT.

Fair-minded think: By this time next year, you could be in New Zealand!

Give birth you visited New Zealand? How did you stick to a budget?

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