How Much Does a Trip to New Zealand Cost? Actual Trip Budget!

I’d always heard that New Zealand was an expensive place to visit where morning coffees and fuel fill-ups could leave you bankrupt. But how bad is it really? How much does a trip to New Zealand cost?

While I’ve been travelling on my own dime and blogging about it for over a decade, I almost never track my travel spending. I do save up for trips and I’m naturally frugal. I usually have a vague idea of what things might cost and do a good job at shopping for deals and saving where I can.

But I’ve never kept a detailed trip budget until now. Curious if New Zealand was really as expensive as everyone said, I decided to track every single expense from our April 2023 three week trip to New Zealand.

Spoiler alert: Our three week trip to New Zealand cost $12,481 NZD ($10,438 CAD, $7,700USD, €6,990, £6,133)! 

Obviously how much you spend on a trip is going to vary wildly by the type of traveller you are. Someone who flies to New Zealand from nearby Australia, hitchhikes, camps and cooks all their own meals is going to spend a lot less than someone who flies first class from Europe, stays at luxury hotels and splurges on helicopter flights and private tours.

I’d like to think the trip to New Zealand (also known as Aotearoa in te reo Maori) my husband, Colin, and I took was somewhere in the middle of those budgets!

Below I’m sharing our real New Zealand budget – what we actually spent on everything from flights and hotels to gas, laundry and pies – to give you an idea of what it costs to travel New Zealand and plan a budget for your own trip!

I’m also sharing my top money saving hacks for New Zealand and what was worth splurging on (plus what wasn’t!).

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning if you click through and make a purchase, I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Is New Zealand expensive to visit?

New Zealand isn’t cheap! Activities, car rentals and accommodations can really add up, making a trip to New Zealand very expensive.

Eating in Aotearoa, whether in restaurants or even buying things from the grocery store, can be pricy as many of their goods are imported. You also have to factor in the cost to get to New Zealand; it’s a high-cost flight from most places in the world.

All that being said, there are ways to save money while travelling in New Zealand (check out more of my New Zealand here!). The biggest draw of Aotearoa is the natural landscape and luckily, most of it is free to explore and discover.

You may also come out ahead if your home currency is stronger than the New Zealand dollar.

What are New Zealand prices like?

Of course, prices in New Zealand vary greatly depending on what you’re doing and where you are.

Generally speaking, a regular coffee at a cafe will run you $5-8 NZD, and a main course at a restaurant will be $20-25 NZD at a cheaper place or $35-45 NZD at a mid-range place. Cost of fuel in New Zealand seemed to be about $2.50 NZD per litre when we were driving in April 2023.

Activities range from free walks to hundreds or thousands of dollars for heli-hikes and overnight cruises. New Zealand accommodation costs also run the gamut from free camping (aka freedom camping) to luxury hotels. We stayed in quite moderate hotels/motels with private bathrooms and kitchenettes in the $150-200 NZD/night range.

Unlike in North America, tipping is not expected in New Zealand (though it is appreciated and sometimes a service fee is already added) and taxes are already included in the listed price.

But let’s get to the real prices as we breakdown my actual budget and spending for 3 weeks in New Zealand!

PS: All of the numbers below are what we paid for our April 2023 trip and the currency conversions at that time. While this post has been updated in 2024, I’ve left the currency conversions and prices as is to reflect what we actually spent. 

The cost of flights to New Zealand: $1073+ NZD/person

For this trip we had two long-haul flights (Vancouver to Auckland return with a stop in Fiji both ways). We got a great flight deal with Fiji Airways for only $1073 NZD ($897 CAD, $662 USD, €600, £527) per person for the round trip flight from Vancouver to Auckland and back.

I actually had the flight purchased for about $100 CAD less per person (and the original deal was like $300 CAD less per person, but that one went fast!), but we had to change our dates and the price went up slightly. But usually, this flight goes for about $1500 CAD, so we still did well.

Of course, long-haul flights to New Zealand will vary greatly depending on where you’re flying from, when you book, how much baggage you bring, economy vs business, etc. Check out my post on scoring flight deals for your best chance of booking cheaper flights.

We also did two short-haul flights from Auckland to Queenstown and back. We flew down to Queenstown with Air New Zealand and back up with JetStar, adding minimal bags. For all four one-way flights (2x AKL to ZQN, 2x ZQN to AKL) we paid $536 NZD ($448 CAD, $330 USD, €300, £263).

We also paid for a few extras to help make the long flights from Canada to Fiji more comfortable. We bid on the “Bula Bubble” upgrade (and won both times!) which gave us a third seat between the two of us.

For a 12 hour flight, having that extra bit of room to move around and sleep was totally worth it! We paid $715 NZD ($598 CAD, $441 USD, €400, £351) for a third seat on both of our long-haul flights.

We also decided to splurge on lounge passes during our long layover in Fiji on the way home. We’re not usually lounge people but it was so nice to eat good food, have strong wifi and be in a comfortable environment, especially after a very bumpy flight out of Auckland.

In fact, I think we may have to look into a credit card with lounge access because we liked it so much! Lounge passes cost us $72 NZD ($60 CAD, $44 USD, €40, £35) each.

The cost of accommodation in New Zealand: $164 NZD/night

We mostly stayed in budget hotels or motels that offered us private rooms, private bathrooms, kitchenettes and wifi. We also looked for free parking, laundry facilities and refundable rates. All of our hotels were just out of the city centre (usually within walking distance) and rated well for cleanliness and comfort.

I think we did a great job of finding places to stay! There was only one place I didn’t love (but it was the only hotel in the small town of Mossburn and we only had to stay one night). We booked most of our hotels through Booking.com, along with a few on Airbnb and other booking websites.

While we could have saved money by backpacking New Zealand, camping or sharing rooms in hostels, we value the comfort of a private room with a bit more space.

In total, for 18 nights of accommodation we paid $2,956 NZD; an average of $164 NZD ($137 CAD, $101 USD, €92, £81) per night. 

The cheapest place we stayed was $120 NZD per night (40 Winks guesthouse in Otorohanga) and the most expensive place was $273 NZD per night (Aoraki Mount Cook Alpine Lodge in Mount Cook Village) Check out my full review of our accommodation in Mt Cook here!

Top tip: Book early! We booked most of the accommodations for our April 2023 trip in November 2022. This allowed us to shop around for the perfect place and secure early bird pricing. It was also very helpful in areas where there weren’t a lot of options, as we didn’t want to miss out on the one hotel in town.

Because all of our bookings were fully refundable, we could switch out any place along the way if we found something better or our plans changed.

New Zealand car rental costs: $62 NZD/day

Most visitors to Aotearoa choose to rent a car as it’s truly the best way to discover the country outside of the big cities. While there are some buses and trains in New Zealand, the routes are limited. Coach tours are another option, but can get expensive and offer less flexibility than self driving.

We were a little bit intimidated to drive on the lefthand side of the road but Colin picked it up immediately. (I don’t drive so left it all in his capable hands.) His biggest issue was turning on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal the first few hours!

It was so nice to have a car to be able to set our own schedule and pull off at whatever viewpoints we felt like. It was also nice to listen to podcasts together and conveniently be able to have snacks and jackets in the backseat.

We had two rental cars, one on the North Island and one on the South Island, for a total of 16 days. The total cost of both car rentals, including full coverage insurance, was $1000 NZD; an average of $62 NZD ($52 CAD, $38 USD, €35, £31) per day.

I think we got a steal of a deal on these rentals and it’s all thanks to Discover Cars. I was hearing horror stories of people paying upwards of $120 NZD per day for cars (let alone the cost of campers!) and that was if they could find any rentals available in the first place.

Discover Cars allowed us to make fully refundable bookings at a great rate and offered really affordable full coverage insurance.

To prove how great Discover Cars is I looked up the cost to rent a car for a week in Auckland: $415 with Enterprise, $424 with Snap, $1182 with Hertz and only $310 with Discover Cars!

Seriously, it’s worth looking at Discover Cars if you’re renting a car!

Should you rent a car or camper in New Zealand?

We decided to rent a small car and stay at hotels rather than rent an RV or campervan we could sleep in. For us, we felt we’d be more comfortable sleeping in a larger space and having full bathrooms.

Plus, I actually think it may have been cheaper to rent a car and stay at hotels when you consider the cost of campervan rentals and gas.

And since it was Colin’s first time driving on the other side of the road, we figured it’d be better to start in a small car! But I can definitely see the appeal of renting a camper, only having to unpack once and being able to move around a bit more. We’ll probably go that route on our next trip to New Zealand!

Cost of fuel in New Zealand: $15 NZD/100 km

The other big cost when renting a car in New Zealand is gas. As I mentioned above, cost of fuel in New Zealand seemed to be about $2.50 NZD per litre; it also appeared to be cheaper on the North Island than the South.

I highly recommend downloading the app Gaspy which allows you to search for gas stations (and bathrooms!) and see current prices. I was shocked how much gas prices changed from town to town or even one end of town to the other.

For example, gas was in the $2.30s in Mossburn but in the $2.70s in Queenstown – so fill up in Mossburn on the drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound!

I didn’t keep track of how many kilometres we drove but looking at our route on Google Maps, I believe it was about 2200 km. So over our 16 days with the cars and 2200 km in Aotearoa, we spent $339 NZD ($284 CAD, $209 USD, €190, £167) on gas; an average of $21 NZD per day or $15 NZD per 100 km.

Other transportation costs in New Zealand

We didn’t have too many other transportation expenses outside of our car rentals and gas. All of our accommodation had free parking (important if you’re renting a car!) so we only had a few expenses in the days before/after we picked up our cars.

Our other transport costs in Aotearoa were:

• 2x SkyDrive tickets from Auckland Airport to the city centre: $17 NZD/person
• 3x Uber rides in Auckland: $68 NZD total
• Parking in Hamilton: $6 NZD
• Parking in Milford Sound: $26 NZD
• 2x Bee public transport cards in Queenstown ($5 for the card, $5 credit): $10 NZD/person
• One very sad speeding ticket: $120 NZD

Eating & drinking costs in New Zealand: $46 NZD/person/day

You may have heard that eating and drinking in New Zealand is expensive – and you would be right! If you’re eating out at restaurants, stopping at cafes each morning and ordering drinks each night, it’s really going to add up. Even the New Zealand prices at grocery stores can be pretty shocking.

We did a good mix of eating out and cooking our own meals. For breakfast we would either go out to a decently priced cafe or make breakfast in our kitchenette. Lunch was usually out at a cheap place like a food court, burger joint or pie shop.

And for dinner, more often than not we got takeout from an Asian eatery and ate our dinner in bed watching TV! In fact, I think we only went out to a restaurant for one dinner the entire trip.

We definitely saved money by not eating at fancy restaurants, cooking some of our meals, and usually skipping the drinks. I can count on one hand the number of alcoholic beverages we ordered (though I might need two hands for the number of coffees).

That being said, we did want to try the local cuisine and not go bare bones eating cereal and instant noodles every day. Luckily some of our favourites, like meat pies and Whittaker’s chocolate, were very affordable!

In total we spent $1847 NZD ($322 to groceries, $1525 to eating out) on food for two people over 20 days; an average of $46 NZD ($38 CAD, $28 USD, €26, £23) per person per day. I think we did pretty well! I had thought we’d spend $60 NZD per person per day, so am pleased we came in under that budget.

While going out to more restaurants may have been fun, I don’t feel that we missed out on anything. Plus, I just really enjoy a night of eating dinner and watching TV in bed after a full day of exploring!

The cost of activities in New Zealand: $32-58 NZD/person/day

Everyone’s activity budget in New Zealand is going to be different. You could easily arrive and spend no money on activities, exploring beaches, waterfalls and hiking routes for free.

Or you could spend big on helicopter flights, private tours, museums and spas. I think we did a great mix of free/low cost things while still splurging on some once-in-a-lifetime or can’t-miss opportunities.

My biggest tip with activities in Aotearoa is to book early, especially if you’re visiting in busy season (Nov-Feb). We booked most of our activities for our April 2023 trip in November 2022.

And while that was probably a bit early, most bookings were fully refundable so we could have easily changed our plans. I’ve heard lots of sad stories of people missing out on activities because they waited until the week of to try and book.

Another tip is to anticipate delays for any weather-dependent activities. Luckily, we had the best weather and nothing was delayed or negatively impacted on our trip. But I’ve heard of people who have missed out on scenic flights or hikes because of bad weather.

If possible, stay in a place for a few days and book the big weather-dependent activity for day one. That way, if it gets delayed, you’re still in town and able to try again the next day.

Lastly, I’d highly recommend looking on BookMe or Klook for your activities in New Zealand if you want to save money. Both sites offer discounts allowing you to book popular activities on a budget.

For example, we were able to book the Deluxe Lake Spa package at the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua for $76 NZD for both of us – regular price is $140 NZD!

In total, we spent $2338 NZD on activities over our three week trip; an average of $58 NZD ($47 CAD, $35 USD, €32, £28) per person per day.

Our biggest splurge was our overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound, which technically combines an activity, food, transportation and accommodation. If you remove that from our budget, the total is $1262 NZD or $32 NZD ($27 CAD, $20 USD, €18, £16) per person per day.

Here are all of the paid activities we enjoyed (prices for two people):

The cost of souvenirs & gifts from Aotearoa: $112 NZD

Obviously souvenirs and gifts are optional; if you’re on a very tight New Zealand budget these might not be included. But we like to have little mementos from our travels, like magnets that we display on our fridge, and wanted to get small gifts for our moms.

In total, we spent $112 NZD ($94 CAD, $69 USD, €63, £55) on souvenirs and gifts.

Miscellaneous expenses in New Zealand

Last but not least, a few miscellaneous expenses factor into our total trip to New Zealand cost. These included two rounds of laundry ($12 NZD), motion sickness medication ($26 NZD) and our SIM cards and phone plans ($36 NZD).  We didn’t have to buy travel medical insurance, as it’s included in Colin’s work benefits.

I do want to share the awesome deal we got on our phone plans, courtesy of Sarah and the New Zealand Travel Tips (NZTT) blog and Facebook Group. In this post, Sarah details how you can score 4GB of free data with Skinny Mobile.

We followed her instructions, buying $2 SIM cards at the airport, choosing the cheapest monthly plan ($16 for 1.25 GB + calls/texts) and entering the code for free data. Which gave us 5.25 GB of data each, plus lots of calls and texts, for just $18 NZD per person!

So… how much does a trip to New Zealand cost?

All right, let’s find out how much a trip to New Zealand actually costs. These are our total costs for each category in NZD (New Zealand dollars) from our three week April 2023 trip for two people:

• Long-haul flights: $2146
• Short-haul flights: $536
• Flight upgrades: $859
• Accommodation: $2956
• Car rentals: $1000
• Gas: $339
• Other transportation: $274
• Eating & drinking: $1847
• Activities: $2338
• Souvenirs & gifts: $112
• Miscellaneous: $74

So our three week trip to New Zealand for two people cost a grand total of $12,481 NZD ($10,438 CAD, $7,700USD, €6,990, £6,133)! 

Or to break it down: $312 NZD ($261 CAD, $193 USD, €175, £153) per person per day. If you remove our long-haul flights and flight extras, our costs on the ground totalled $9,476 NZD (or $237 NZD per person per day).

While $12,481 is a HUGE number, I actually think we did fairly well considering everything we got to experience and enjoy in Aotearoa. As I mentioned, you could easily have done this trip a lot cheaper or a lot more expensive depending on your travel style.

While planning our trip to New Zealand, I had done an estimate of what I thought we’d spend and arrived at $12,735 NZD (I did the original math in Canadian dollars but converted it for this post, which is why my estimates are so specific). I’m impressed that I got it so close – we came in $300 under my estimate!

In case you’re interested, below is what I thought we’d spend VS what we actually spent in each category.

As you can see, we went above my estimates for flights (because we added the extra seat and lounge passes) and activities (because we booked some stuff in person). However, I had accounted for extra spending by adding a buffer. The lesson? Always add a buffer to your budget!

What is worth splurging on in New Zealand?

Of course everyone will have a different opinion on what is worth splurging on. In my opinion, it’s always worth it to pay for comfortable, safe and well-located accommodation. I value getting a good night’s sleep, being able to walk to restaurants and attractions, and not cringing every time I step into the bathroom.

I would also say splurging on a car rental in New Zealand is well worth it. As I stated above, this country is known for its beautiful landscapes and the best way to experience them is with your own wheels. Plus, you can get a great deal with Discover Cars. (Yes, that’s an affiliate link but it’s also just a stinking good deal!)

As far as activities go, I think the top three paid activities in New Zealand worth splurging on are:

1. Hobbiton movie set tour
2. A glowworm caves tour
3. Cruises on Milford Sound and/or Doubtful Sound

Can’t decide which cruise to go on? Find out if you should cruise on Milford or Doubtful Sound here!

PS: You can actually combine Hobbiton and a glowworm cave tour in Waitomo on an awesome day trip from Auckland!

What is not worth splurging on in Aotearoa?

The biggest spending regret I have is our speeding ticket! But besides that, there’s not too much I regret. We had a couple of meals that weren’t amazing, including an expensive UberEats meal the night we arrived in Queenstown, but for the most part the food was awesome.

While I enjoyed Skyline Queenstown, that might be the only activity not quite worth the splurge. I opted not to do the luge ride (not my thing), so I paid $52 NZD just for the gondola ride up and down. The gondola ride itself was scary (at least it was for me!), so I was mostly in it for the views from the top.

The views were beautiful but were they worth $52? Probably not. We saw better views for free during other parts of our trip. And there’s not a ton to do up at Skyline Queenstown if you’re not luging, paragliding, mountain biking, etc., so it really was just an expensive and scary gondola ride for me.

Colin, on the other hand, went on three luge rides at the top, paying $73 NZD for the gondola plus luge rides. He loved the luge and felt it was well worth it. I’m not sure he would’ve gone up on his own, so I’m glad I went so he could have that experience.

My advice would be to go for the luge, if you’re into it, or else skip Skyline Queenstown and save your money.

10 ways to save money on your New Zealand budget

After all that money talk, it’s time to share some of my best New Zealand budget tips to help you save on your total trip to New Zealand cost!

1. Get Skinny SIM cards and plans: Read this post and see my tips above about how to get 5.25 GB of data, plus talk and text, for less than $20 NZD!

2. Rent your car through Discover Cars: We saved so much money booking our New Zealand rental cars through Discover Cars and the booking process was a breeze. I highly recommend them!

3. Download Gaspy: The easiest way to find cheap gas anywhere in Aotearoa is with Gaspy (free app)!

4. Use First Table for dinner reservations: While we didn’t get a chance to use it, you can check out First Table for 50% off when you reserve the first or last table of the night at participating restaurants.

5. Book accommodation in advance: Tourism is once again booming in Aotearoa so it pays to book ahead to guarantee availability and secure the best prices. Almost every place we stayed at had a “no vacancy” sign (and this was in April aka shoulder season) so don’t wait until the last minute to book.

6. Skip beverages: If you want to save money in New Zealand, skip the beer or cocktail at dinner and limit your coffee stops. Water is free and readily available throughout the country.

7. Shop at Pak n Save: Pak n Save is the cheapest grocery store chain in New Zealand and offers some great deals. If you’re planning to cook your own meals, or even if you just want some snacks, I recommend finding the closest Pak n Save.

8. Eat cheap: When you do eat out, look for cheaper alternatives. Savoury pies are a Kiwi staple, absolutely delicious and usually available for $5-10 NZD per pie. Asian takeaway shops can also be very affordable and delicious.

9. Look for your activities on BookMe or Klook: Both sites offer discounts on popular activities so it’s worth having a look to save on your New Zealand budget!

10. Opt for free activities: Some of the most beautiful places in New Zealand are free to experience. And often there is a free alternative to a paid activity, such as seeing geothermal activity at Kuirau Park, a public park in Rotorua, instead of paying to enter one of the private geothermal areas.

Final thoughts on how much a trip to New Zealand costs

Since I don’t usually track travel expenses, it was really eye-opening for me to track everything we spent and see all our New Zealand trip costs add up. While the final sum was quite large, I’m happy that it was in line with what I thought we’d spend. It’s good to know my natural frugality works!

I think we found ways to save money on our trip to New Zealand without sacrificing the things that were most important to us. Skipping expensive activities, like bungee jumping, wasn’t a big deal since we’re not big adrenaline junkies. Similarly, it was easy for us to cut back on dining and drinking expenses since we prefer takeout and Netflix most nights.

By making those easy cuts to our New Zealand budget, we were able to prioritize things that did matter to us – like comfortable accommodation and once in a lifetime experiences in nature. In the end, Colin and I are comfortable with how much we spent and, most importantly, the things we chose to splurge and save on.

I’d love to know, what do you think of our New Zealand trip budget? Did we spend too much or should we have splurged more? And what New Zealand budget tips do you have for future travellers?

Planning a trip to New Zealand? Check out these posts: