Outside view of our room in the Matai Lodge at Top 10 Holiday Park Te Anau There are Top 10 Holiday Parks all over New Zealand, and we really weren’t sure what it was all about.…

Dirty room at Chateau Franz  We stayed at the Chateau Franz Backpackers hostel for a couple of nights in Franz Josef. This hostel was by far the worst accommodation we stayed at in New Zealand.…

View from our oceanfront room at the Purple CowWe stayed at The Wanaka Purple Cow YHA Hostel which was in stark contrast to the terrible hostel we had stayed at in Franz Josef.…

Front of the hotel - there's no sign that says it's the Novotel! We got a great rate at the recently opened Novotel in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square (90 USD per night booked through Expedia).…

171 On High hotel    This hotel was a bit of a splurge for us, at $110 USD per night. We called around a lot of the cheaper options, and many of them either didn’t have a private room, or did not allow children in the rooms.…

We spent two nights at the Ibis Wellington. Although the room and location was great, there were quite a few hiccups with the reservation itself. Clean, modern room at the Ibis WellingtonThe Good: The room was very clean, and modern.…

Room at the Tennyson Hotel, NapierWe only spent one night in Napier, and stayed at the Tennyson Hotel for 90 NZD. It was a bit of a gamble – there weren’t many reviews, and it wasn’t in the guidebook (we found it on Expedia).  We were having problems finding something else though

Us outside the Treks YHA - Our daughter's first hostel! Rotorua has many, many accommodation choices, and a lot of it falls into the category of budget accommodation. We chose Rotorua Treks YHA, based on the good reviews we had read.…

The room itself was very niceThe room itself was very nice We pricelined the Grand Hyatt close to Union Square in San Francisco for $90. Including the taxes and other fees, it came to $110.…

Deluxe Room at Sheraton KauaiDeluxe Room at Sheraton Kauai We spent one week at the Sheraton Kauai. It’s about a 25 minute drive from the airport to the Sheraton. At checkin, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that because of all the problems we’d had in Maui, we got