One of the major benefits of having a tour guide when travelling around New Zealand is the insider knowledge they’re able to share with you. At Silver Fern Holidays, we work closely with hand-picked tour guides to ensure you’re going to be travelling with passionate Kiwi’s who are excited to share their beautiful country with you.

Because we travel in small groups, we’re able to offer more flexibility than larger tour groups. This means none of our tours are ever exactly the same, something our travellers absolutely love. Every experience will be completely unique to you and your group. If you’ve reached a destination a little early, your driver guide might show you their favourite local coffee shop, or one of New Zealand’s many hidden gems that the internet just won’t share with you.

A major stress when organising self-guided tours is needing to deal with admin like renting cars or buying train and bus tickets. You don’t need to worry about any of this when joining our small group tour. Our tour guides are also experienced drivers, so you can just sit back, relax and soak up the scenery while they take you where you need to go.

Is it better to travel alone or in a group?

What we have found during our years organising tours and tailor-made holidays in New Zealand, is that there’s no ‘better’ way to travel. It will just come down to how you enjoy travelling.

There are however a number of advantages to travelling in a group. Travelling in a group allows you to experience New Zealand with other like-minded travellers. You can also enjoy the experience of one of our travel guides and see New Zealand through a local’s eyes. We also purposefully keep our groups small so you’ll still have plenty of opportunities to ask questions and have time on your own to enjoy the sights.

On the other hand, travelling alone can give you more freedom to curate your own holiday schedule. This means if you plan to visit somewhere like Hawkes Bay and decide you need longer to see it all, you can! If you feel that you’d prefer to travel alone, we can help you build your perfect itinerary filled with unforgettable >New Zealand experiences.

What are the different roles of a tour guide?

A tour guide’s main job is to ensure that you have an incredible time exploring New Zealand. Of course, it takes a lot of work behind the scenes to make this happen!

Our driver guides will transport you in one of our 16-seater Pure Discoveries vehicles. Where possible, we take the roads less-travelled so you can enjoy the beautiful natural scenery. Our guides will ensure you keep to your itinerary so you’re able to see everything you’re meant to, and maybe even some hidden gems along the way!

Your driver won’t just take you from A to B, that’s not the Silver Fern way! All of our drivers are hand-picked by us and love sharing their beautiful islands with travellers. As you travel, our drivers will be able to tell you local stories, show you their favourite places, and importantly, give you a true taste of Kiwi humour.

Are tour groups worth it?

If you’re looking to make friends with other passionate travellers, tour groups are a great way to meet and explore with like-minded people. That’s not to say you need to be a social butterfly to enjoy a group journey as all of our small group tours have a maximum of 16 travellers per group. This means you can still have an intimate travel experience with time to explore the sights by yourself.

A tour group ensures you have an itinerary that has been planned by expert travel guides to get the most out of your time in New Zealand. All of our drivers have experience sharing their beautiful islands with travellers and can offer a unique, local perspective you can’t utilise when travelling solo.

Can you see New Zealand in 2 weeks?

New Zealand is filled with beautiful sights and rich culture. The North Island is home to the country’s vibrant capitalWellington and the beautiful port city of Auckland. The South Island is a popular destination for thrill seekers with the adventure capital Queenstown, but there’s also Dunedin with its unforgettable nature and wildlife.

This means there is a lot to see, especially for such a small country! To fully explore both islands, we would recommend longer than 14 days. Our 23 day Kauri small group tour is perfect for taking you through the snow-capped alps, tropical rainforests and everything in between. This is a wonderful tour to learn about the history of New Zealand, which the Maori call Aotearoa.

We appreciate that time and budgets can be limited though. This is why our passionate team have created shorter tours that still allow you to see New Zealand’s plentiful sights on a tighter schedule. Our shorter small group tours focus on either the North or South Island so that you don’t have to rush and can fully enjoy each place you visit.

The Koromiko 11 day tour is our shortest, focusing on the stunning sights of the North Island from the Bay of Islands down to Wellington. Our 14 day Mount Cook Lily tour shows you some of New Zealand’s most awe inspiring sights such as the Fiordland, the majestic Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers and, of course, the incredible Mount Cook.

If you’re struggling to decide which island to visit, get in touch with a member of our team and we’ll be happy to talk through your travel needs. Whichever group journey you choose, we’re sure you’ll fall in love.

Small Group Tours by New Zealand Experts

Choosing a small group tour means you don’t have to worry about organising travel at all. With every one of our small group tours, we’ll arrange all of your transportation. We can even organise your initial flights to New Zealand! If you’d like to find out more about any of our tour packages, please do get in touch.