How travel friendly is Northern New Zealand? Does a US citizen need a visa to visit?

Question

How travel friendly is Northern New Zealand? Does a US citizen need a visa to visit?

Answer 1

NZers in general are known to be very friendly and helpful.

But as for travel-friendly... like the rest of NZ, you'd be best to hire a car. There's lots of hotels and backpackers all over NZ now.

Money is easily changed at any bank or those tourist foreign exchange booth things.

Credit cards are widely accepted - Visa and Mastercard being the most popular types in NZ.

If you want to rent a car, there's the usual Hertz, Avis, Budget (hertz.co.nz, avis.co.nz, budget.co.nz) but also an independent car hire group called Rent A Dent. Its not as bad as it sounds, they have fairly recent cars (perhaps a bit older than Hertz etc but certainly not old bombs!). www.rentadent.co.nz.

Or... for something different, rent a spaceship! http://www.spaceships.tv/ Its basically a large people-mover car thats been converted into a cosy sleeping/cooking/driving vehicle.

Answer 2

If you are a US citizen then you can travel to New Zealand for up to 3 months without a visa.

New Zealand is a small country. Travel there is easy and the people are friendly and welcoming.

Answer 3

You shouldn't need a visa at all. All of New Zealand is very travel friendly. If you're after a guide, the Lonely Planet New Zealand book is excellent.  There isn't a lot of public transport in the cities, but most people will have no problem getting around at all as there is always transport to the main attractions and resourceful people find ways of getting to the others.  The people are very friendly so you shouldn't really have any issues.