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New Zealand Bus Travel

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Cheap Bus Travel New Zealand

Travelling to New Zealand? The best way to get around NZ is by long-distance bus. There are only about 4 railway routes in NZ so travelling by rail is not an option. Hiring a car or campervan is a popular option but expensive, and not necessary - there are frequent bus services to all destinations and all the accommodation and activity providers will come and pick you up and drop you off. Plus travelling by bus you get to look out the window and sight-see instead of having to keep your eyes on the road and you get the chance to meet new people. Did I mention it is very cheap?

There are many many different long-distance bus providers in NZ, they are all listed on the Bus and Coach Association New Zealand website. It's rather fragmented and regional in nature so ask at the tourist information centre in the town you are visiting about the local and regional services.

This page will focus on the two nationwide bus companies, Intercity and nakedbus.com. Intercity are the established operator with the largest number of routes and departures, while nakedbus are the budget operator rather like MegaBus in the UK.

Nakedbus.com

Cheap bus travel NZ - but you can keep your clothes on!

Nakedbus.com have a variable price structure - the cheapest fares are only $1 (plus booking fee). Once all the $1 fares are filled then the price increases to the next level and once those are filled the price increases to the next level. So if you book early enough you can get an amazing bargin. The easy to use booking form shows you the current price of the trip and the price of other trips close to that time and date so you can choose to travel at another time if it is cheaper.

The booking fee is only 70 cents for web bookings and about $3 for agent bookings. At least 10% of fares are $1. The maximum price is always cheaper than Intercity's fare. Each fare is made available six weeks out from the date of travel, so for the cheapest fares visit their website just after midnight!

nakedbus are a good alternative to bus passes for backpackers and travellers bus travel. The booking fee is per credit card transaction, so you could book 10 different $1 fares in one go and only pay one 70 cent booking fee.

nakedbus also have a loyalty program called nakedrewards where you can save up points and earn free bus travel.

nakedbus.com have recently expanded into day bus tours with a tour of Milford Sound that includes a boat cruise. This is on the same pricing model so there are even seats available at $1! Again the most expensive fare is cheaper than the competition.

Intercity vs Nakedbus

Nationwide long distance bus fare comparison

The two nationwide bus companies have been having a bit of a battle:

  • The established big guy on the block is Intercity. They used to have a monopoly so they have grown used to setting fares as high as they like and not having to provide good customer service because they used to have no national competition.
  • The new budget bus network, nakedbus.com launched in 2006. They are are cheaper than Intercity on all their routes and have caused Intercity to lower some of their fares.

In particular Intercity at first lowered the price of their services that left at the same time as nakedbus.com buses. So if you wanted to travel from Auckland to Rotorua at 11am the price would be different from if you travelled at 9am!!

Then, because nakedbus were a web-only-bookings company Intercity reduced the price of all their web-booked fares. However fares booked at an agent, ticket office or phone were the same high price.

But they still haven't reduced the price of all their routes all the time.

New Guestbook

  • drstuey Oct 21, 2010 @ 6:17 pm | delete
    Hi spammers, just to let you scumbags know that I have zero tolerance for spam and I will delete your comment as soon as I notice the notification of new comment email in my crowded inbox. So don't bother posting your comment.

    To real people, you are welcome to post and I look forward to your comments.
  • Mike_neko_73 Dec 15, 2009 @ 5:13 pm | delete
    I made several reservations and payments for my guest through the website in September 2009. but the bus driver of 'Atomic Shuttles' which operates in South Island in co-operation with Nakedbus refused to give the ride to him, for the reason that the bus driver did not have my guest's reference number both in his list and in his mobile phone. Surprisingly, the driver did not have an office to make a contact with, and demanded my guest make a phone call to 0900 number, although my guest did not have a mobile phone which was able to call 0900. The bus driver refused to call saying he was NOT ALLOWED to do so. My guest had to travel on that day definitely, so ended up paying cash to the driver, although all the credit-card payments were approved and went through. In retrospect, this event seems to be common given the info on their website. My guest is requesting a refund of the payment that he had to pay to the driver, since this was obviously caused by the driver, or his company, or Nakedbus. The driver had a hand-written list of 3-digit numbers - which did not resemble the reference numbers of Nakedbus - and ordered my guest to find the number himself. Furthermore, the driver did not load luggage himself but let customers load all the bags into the bus, which looked unsafe and unusual from the normal practice of bus companies in NZ. In fairness, this kind of event, i.e. the bus driver did not have the reference number, has happened to me several times in NZ in the past five years of my stay here when the payment was made in advance by credit card. However, in every case I had the ride given the possible mistake of the companies concerned in the operation which often involves several transport companies. The bus company, Atomic Shuttles rejected to give the ride to my guest, insisting that he did not have the number, although my guest had the evidence of payment, the bus ticket. I am going to cancel all the tickets I bought in order to avoid future troubles.
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drstuey

Hello world. I'm a long term contributor to user-generated content websites (e.g. wikipedia) beginning with imdb.com back in 1993 when it had a email interface!... more »

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