All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
18.09.2023 - 19:33 / lonelyplanet.com
In Lonely Plan-It, we take you step by step through how we planned some of the most complicated travel adventures. Here, Craig McLachlan explains how to make the most out of your biking adventure to this South Pacific paradise’s deep south.
New Zealand has gone mad for cycling, with off-road, unpaved, purpose-built bike trails now found throughout the country.
Enthusiasts can thank a government initiative to attract international visitors, get Kiwis out on their bikes to explore their own backyard and to re-energize struggling rural regions. While there are now 23 spectacular “Great Rides” (Ngā Haerenga New Zealand Cycle Trails), the absolute highlights are down south around the Southern Lakes resorts of Queenstown and Wanaka, and in nearby Central Otago.
Cycling is possible all year long, so think through what works best for you.
When considering your trip, keep in mind two factors: that New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere, meaning the seasons are opposite to the northern half of the globe, and that it gets colder the further south you go. The Southern Lakes and Central Otago region’s hub is Queenstown, latitude 45°S – halfway between the equator and the South Pole. (This is the equivalent of southern France and northern Oregon in the northern hemisphere.)
While Queenstown and Wanaka are ski resorts, there’s seldom snow at lake level, even in mid-winter. This means that most of the day-trip bike trails are accessible year-round – though locals consider the warmer months of the year (October to April) prime biking season. Queenstown Airport receives direct international flights from Australia; the region is particularly popular during the New Zealand and Australian summer school holidays in December and January. Book accommodation and flights well ahead if visiting in these months.
February, March and April are the ideal months to visit, with local families back at work and school. Even better, there’s warm, settled weather in February and March, plus stunning autumn colors in April.
All you need is a suitcase with the right clothes for riding.
New Zealand is a long way from anywhere, and virtually all international visitors arrive in these remote islands by plane. There’s no need to take your own bike: Queenstown, Wanaka and the Central Otago towns of Cromwell and Clyde have everything visiting cyclists could require. Rental outlets offer both off-road e-bikes and regular cycles, while outdoor stores stock everything you could possibly need while out on the trails. In short, all you need to pack is the appropriate clothing.
An abundance of routes is yours to explore.
If the idea of staying in an internationally renowned, year-round resort and mixing in your biking with a huge variety of other
All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
A land of snow-capped mountains, mirror lakes and lush forest, New Zealand comes up on many travelers’ bucket lists.
Combining a series of once-in-a-lifetime experiences into a single around-the-world trip can feel like the ultimate expression of luxury travel. It can be a daunting prospect though, with many contending factors to consider. Here's how to start planning the ultimate round-the-world trip.
With 15,000km (9320 miles) of coastline, New Zealand is heaven for beach lovers. Its diverse shores dish up everything from lazy days and blazing sunsets, to active adventures such as swimming, kayaking and surfing.
Spectacular and diverse, New Zealand (also known as Aotearoa) is one of the world's most memorable destinations.
Journeying to New Zealand and exploring Aotearoa is a good choice any time of the year – but your experience will vary depending on what season you choose to visit.
It’s almost impossible to understate the allure of the Amazon.
New Zealand is launching a new tourism campaign with Kiwi director and actor Taika Waititi to attract visitors after the sector was hammered by Covid-19 and border closures.
Now that the summer is officially behind us, the airline industry is already looking ahead to next summer, when scores of Americans are expected to jet off to popular destinations across the world.
It's October, which means the leaves are changing, giant skeletons are taking over suburban lawns and people are apple-picking pretty much anywhere an apple grows.
I’m standing on a steel walkway 440 feet above Sydney Harbor when a voice crackles over my headset. My guide tells me to look right and take in one of the world’s most stunning skylines.
It was blip in the long, bumptious history of urban micro-travel, but it was a watershed moment nevertheless: Working pretty much around the clock on August 30-31, the trucks from Lime, Tier and Dott — the three remaining "free-floating electric scooter" (FFES) operators in Paris — rolled through Montmartre, the Marais, Pigalle, Chateau Rouge, St. Germain and districts both more and less fashionable to corral their combined total of 15,000 pieces of rental stock strewn in classic toss-the-thing, devil-may-care mangles, as pictured above. September 1 was the deadline, decreed by the April referendum in which Parisians rose to vote on the future of the rental versions of the things. The vox populi was very nearly unanimous: The full-on ban of rental scooters earned an astonishing eighty-nine percent of the votes.