It's the ultimate showdown Stray versus Kiwi experience which backpacker bus
should you take to travel New Zealand Plus we're giving you three tips to get
an awesome deal when buying your pass all of that coming up in this video
hi we're Robin and Laura the team behind backpackerguide.NZ helping you plan an
epic backpacking trip in New Zealand since we probably the only one that have
travelled extensively between both companies today we're comparing
backpacker buses by talking about stray and Kiwi Experience the two hop-on hop-off
bus company in New Zealand but first things first what exactly is hop-on hop
off hop on hop off is like a bus tour but more flexible and like Coach buses hop-on hop-off
take you on a guided tour along the specific route with an emphasis on
social experiences and activities around New Zealand let's take a concrete
example then every bus company in New Zealand does the same route between
Auckland to Paihia we'll walk through what exactly happens on the specific
trip when taking a hop-on hop-off bus between Auckland and paihia you'll
probably be picked up around 8:30 from your accommodation then you hop on the bus
for by the two-hour journey two Whangarei there you'll have about thirty
minutes to stretch your legs and explore the beautiful Whangarei Falls also
you'll be able to use the bathroom then you get back on the bus for the next leg
of the journey that would bring you up to a kauri forest there you'll have
another 30 minutes to stretch your legs and probably hug a massive kauri tree
then you are back on a bus for the last leg of the journey you're arriving Paihia
around midday which gives you plenty of time to choose what will be you paid
activity tomorrow you can choose between skydiving swimming with dolphins and
taking the best tour all the way to the top of New Zealand you will be able to
purchase all those activities directly from your bus driver on the other hand
if you were to take a coach bus which in New Zealand is either intercity of manabus
this would just be a straight trip between Auckland and Paihia with a few
quick pit stops along the way your bus driver will offer you commentary and it
will only take you about four hours to get up to Paihia you'll get
commentary's as well doing your hop-on hop-off tour but the bus driver will also
take the time to tell you more but the activities you can purchase from him in
your next destination and this is one of the main difference between hop-on
hop-off and classic bus tours like Contiki or G adventures activities are
not included aside from a few hikes and a couple of very cheap ones the other
major difference between standard bus tours and hop-on hop-off bus tours is
that with hop-on hop-off you get the opportunity to hop off the bus anywhere
along the route and we'll talk about this anywhere later but should you want
to spend some time exploring a particular area you get the opportunity
to do that with a hop-on hop-off bus as opposed to a standard bus tour where
they have set itineraries and set travel times with that out of the way let's see
how Kiwi experience and Stray stack up against each other round one
itinerary one way to compare the hop-on hop-off bus companies is by simply
looking at where the buses go are these the type of destinations that you want
to visit in New Zealand are these New Zealand destinations on your bucket list
essentially both companies follow the same routes around New Zealand with a
notable exception of the east coast of the north island that stray includes in
their most expensive passes but Kiwi Experience doesn't but that's not really
a big deal since you can purchase a hop-on hop-off like two of the East Cape
in rotorua through a company called East As on their main itineraries both
companies claim unique overnight stops over the other while being pretty close
to major landmarks that both stray and Kiwi experience passengers get to
visit for instance in the Coromandel Peninsula Kiwi experience stay in hot
water beach while Stay stays in Hahei which is literally a stone's throw away
from each other and both passages can go and check out the cathedral cove and in
Abel Tasman where both companies stay on the edge of the national park just in
neighboring town now speaking of unique stops both company have some real hidden
gems Stray stays in Raglan which is the surf mecca of New Zealand in Lake
Aniwhenua which is an awesome true Maori experience in Blue Duck station which is
a Kiwi farm and in Gunn's camp in the heart of the Fiordland National Park Kiwi
experience stays in Waitomo world-famous for its glow worms stays in River Valley
which is one of the best whitewater rafting you will get in the country in
Lake Mahinapua which is hard to pronounce but awesome as an overnight
stop and in Dunedin which is a City that Stray doesn't visit and remember that
you can hop off the bus anywhere along the main route even if the bus doesn't
officially stay there the night and we really recommend taking advantage of
that so that's the end of round 1 to some up both company have essentially the same
itinerary and about the same amount of unique stops so it all comes down to
personal preference what do you want to do the most for example I love white water
rafting so I go with Kiwi experience to go to River Valley
Laura cherishes any chance she has to connect with a Maori culture should she
pick Stay to go to Lake Aniwhenua with that we have to give a point
to both companies round 2 the people taking the hop-on
hop-off bus around New Zealand is also about the social experiences with
like-minded travellers so it's pretty important to know what type of
passengers you're going to be sharing your trip with while both company
attracts mixed crowd a pattern tend to appear in terms of passenger
Kiwi experience seems to attract bigger crowd of 18 to 25 years old mostly from
Europe the UK while stray attracts slightly older 20-something passengers mostly from
Europe the UK again they're everywhere
Stray passengers seems to be more into hiking and kind of natural or cultural
experiences while Kiwi Experience passenger are really keen on jumping on activities and
long night over the bonfire because every single bus crowd is different
here's our tip if you're not gelling with the crowd on your bus just hop off
for the next destination stay there a while and then when the next bus comes
pop back on and you'll probably have a totally different experience other than
that if we have to choose a winner according to bus size Robin and I would
probably go for stray because we prefer small and intimate groups whereas Kiwi
experience tends to have a larger group on the bus round three flexibility in
this round we're gonna look at the flexibility of both Stray and Kiwi
Experience network through two main conditions unlimited travel and
guaranteed accommodation yes both companies claim unlimited travel where
you can travel along the route as many times as you want for the same price
however this does come with some terms and conditions attached one of these
conditions is priority when you're travelling on the bus route for the
first time you are considered a priority passenger meaning that you simply book
your spot on the bus and it's pretty straight forward from there however if
you're traveling for the second third or fourth time on the same network you will
lose your priority status meaning that if a priority passenger needs your seat
you will have to give it up and take a bus at a later date
this often happens in summer that's right in summer the buses are usually
fully booked so it's a good idea to book your seat on the bus a couple of weeks
in advance and on another note the buses actually only travel in one
direction on the route so with unlimited travel you'll have to travel on the bus
again and again in the same direction simply because the buses don't go the
other way and one more condition yeah some of these sections are operated by
partner bus company rather than Stray and Kiwi experience you cannot redo
those sections and Stray adds one more condition stating that you cannot hop
off along those routes in short take this unlimited travel claim with a
grain of salt now about guaranteed accommodation when you are guaranteed
one night of accommodation in any overnight stop your arriving
it can be really tricky to extend your stay and get more night of accommodation
in summer or peak season yes the hop-on hop-off system doesn't really seem to
work in summer when the accommodation is usually fully booked after that first
night of stay and usually have to wait to the next available bus that's
actually not fully booked before you can hop back on the bus again and this sort
of takes the ease out of travel and why you bought the bus pass in the first
place so with such tight terms and condition we declare no winner
especially not the passenger round 4 price so with those nitty gritty issues
out of the way our final comparison is price Kiwi experience has a slight edge on
price because they include an activity in their national pass the milford sound
cruise which Stray doesn't and Stray also you need to pay an extra
70 to 80 dollars for accommodation on two of their overnight stops but never
buy a pass at full price they're always on sale always so make sure to check
what kind of deal you can get on the day you want to purchase now a good way to
compare bus buses is to actually try to work out how much does it cost you per
day of travel the easy way is to take the price of your pass and to take the
amount of suggested day of travel that's for example 30
then you're gonna divide the price by 30 and get a price per day of travel you
know that you can't give you a good idea Kiwis parents should be around $35 while
strain should be around $40 it's no surprise that Kiwi experience take the
win on this round because there are always cheaper and any comparison we can make
and that brings us to a deadlock to be honest Laura and I did not expect to come
up with the time we really thought we'd got a clear winner
out of those four rounds but here we are so last night we scrambled and went on
our Facebook group where you guys can exchange tips and talk to us and we
asked you to vote so on this Facebook group we turned to you guys people which
are actually currently traveling with Stray and Kiwi Experience and we asked you to
rate you experience with those companies based on value for money good times and
ease of travel which brings us to round five the readers vote but we don't
really have a script for that so here are the scores Kiwi experience was
scored by you guys six point one out of ten and Stray was scored by you guys
six point three out of ten for good value for money good times and ease of
use so here you are with a narrow win on round five Stray is our ultimate winner
but such a narrow win should come as a warning to you guys stray and Kiwi
experience are very similar and it's a little bit like picking ice cream
chocolate and vanilla everybody has an opinion everybody has a preference it
always come down to personal taste so have a look for yourself and make your
own decision also if you're short on time you may want to consider Contiki or G
adventure and if you do have a lot of time in New Zealand you may like the
flexibility of national coach buses like Manabus and intercity so make sure
to do your research but wait there's more as promised here are three tips to
save money on your backpacker bus pass first off book your bus pass when you
are in New Zealand overseas resellers on these bus passes
notorious for selling them at a much higher price than what you can find in
New Zealand and in the past we've even see Kiwi experience advertise different
prices to people visiting from overseas on their website compared to people who
are visiting from New Zealand second you want to book your bus pass in a low
season between April and August we see the patterns every year and you can save
up to 60% off when booking in the middle of the winter but wait it's ok you can
book up to 12 months before your first travel and you pass would be then
activated on your first travel giving you 12 months of travel so you have
nothing to lose just all not to save and three choose one of the seven national
bus passes that stray and Kiwi experience have to offer rather than
just the small sections of the country because these passes offer much greater
value for money and if you do want to venture off the main hop-on hop-off
route just get yourself a quick trip on intercity or manabus from A to B and
there is more where that comes from in BackpackerGuide.NZ we have
heaps of article about hop on hop off bus how to budget and even some more
ways to save money when you book so make sure to check it out it's www.backpackerguide.nz
so what do you think of the hop on hop off buses in New
Zealand did you try them did you like them comment below and share your
experiences with everyone and if you do have any other subject that you would
like us to cover with a BS free video like this one comment below let us know
we'd love to connect with you guys we really hope that this video was super
helpful to you and this would make your trip in New Zealand even easier we have
heaps of video like this on our channel so subscribe below and check out New
Zealand's biggest gap year where we challenge ourself to tackle 365
activities in only in 365 days it's absolutely epic and it will help you
make the best bucket list ever for your trip down under
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