Interactive map Click a route for times, fares & info…

See New Zealand by train…

Whether
you’re an overseas visitor or a born-and-bred New Zealander,
trains are the best way to travel between New Zealand’s three main cities,
Auckland, Wellington and (with a little help from the
Interislander ferry) Christchurch. 
Trains are also the way to reach the North Island’s
Tongariro National Park, the South Island’s west coast at
Greymouth, the whale-watching and dolphin-swimming centre at
Kaikoura or the Marlborough vineyards at Blenheim.  See
the route map opposite.

Unlike domestic flights, the trains take you at ground level
past superb scenery that can’t be seen by road, in civilised
comfort that cramped and uncivilised long-distance buses
can’t match.  So ditch that short-haul flight and
actually see New Zealand!

New Zealand’s long-distance
trains are operated by Kiwi Rail’s passenger division, originally called Tranz Scenic but
returned to public ownership in
2008 as KiwiRail Scenic and in 2017 rebranded yet again as Great
Journeys of New Zealand.  Who knows what it will be called next year?  This page explains
routes, train times, fares, the best way to buy tickets, and
what there is to see on the journey.

COVID-19 update:  The TranzAlpine resumed 4 July
and the Coastal Pacific resumed in late September
running Tues, Wed, Thur.  The Northern Explorer resumed in October 2020.  Check entry
restrictions into New Zealand.

Train
times, fares, tickets…

 
Auckland
to Wellington by
Northern Explorer train

 
Wellington to Picton by
Interislander Ferry

 
Wellington-Picton-Blenheim-Kaikoura-Christchurch by
Coastal Pacific train

 
Christchurch – Greymouth by
Tranz-Alpine train

 
Christchurch – Timaru – Dunedin – Invercargill

 
Christchurch – Queenstown – Milford Sound

 
Dunedin – Queenstown by Taieri Gorge Railway

 
Flights to New Zealand

 
Hotels & accommodation in
New Zealand

 
Useful country information: currency,
time zone…

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The Northern Explorer (formerly
Overlander)…

This is an amazing journey, and one
of my favourites, so ditch that domestic flight (or nightmare
bus journey) and ride the Northern Explorer from downtown Auckland to city centre Wellington,
stress-free and in comfort at ground level.  Stop off if
you like at the Tongariro National Park.  This is an epic 681 kilometre (423 mile) journey right across the interior of
the North Island, taking you in a single day past every kind of scenery there
is, from coastline to volcanoes to mountains, from lush green
farmland to thick New Zealand rainforest.  It will take you the
length of the historic
North Island Main Trunk Railway,
completed in 1908, over such feats of engineering at the
Raurimu Spiral,
Turangarere Horseshoe and Makatote Viaduct.  It’s one of
the world’s great railway journeys, yet is remarkably
affordable!

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The Interislander
ferry…

It’s one of the
most scenic ferry crossings in the world, and easily the best way to travel
between New Zealand’s North and South Islands – a genuine experience, not a mere flight.  There
are up to 5 daily sailings across the Cook Strait between
Wellington and Picton, crossing time 3 hours.  The
08:25 sailing from Wellington and 13:15 sailing from Picton connects with the
Coastal Pacific train to/from Christchurch,
see the Wellington-Christchurch timetable below.  The Cook
Strait has a reputation for choppy seas, but in reality only a third of
the crossing is actually in the Strait itself, most of it is in very sheltered waters, and in my
experience it was rock steady on the big, modern and stabilised ferry Kaitaki.

Interislander
sailings from
Wellington:  08:45, 14:45, 17:00, 20:00.

Interislander
sailings from
Picton:  06:55, 10:45, 13:45, 18:45, 22:00.

Crossing time is 3 hours.  Times vary by season,
so check
ferry fares & timetables for your date at

www.greatjourneysofnz.co.nz/interislander.

In Wellington,
the Interislander terminal is a long walk north of the
railway station, but a free shuttle bus clearly marked Interislander leaves from platform 9 at the railway
station 50 minutes before each sailing.  The journey
time is 5 minutes.  Foot
passengers must check in at the terminal at least 30 minutes
before sailing time.  All heavy baggage is checked in
so only hand luggage is carried on board.  Passengers
connecting with the train to Christchurch can check in bags
in Wellington all the way through to Christchurch.

In Picton, the Interislander terminal is 200 metres from the station. 
All heavy baggage is checked in so only hand luggage needs
to be
carried on board.

The 08:25
sailing from
Wellington & 13:15 sailing from Picton connect with the
Coastal Pacific train to/from Christchurch.  You can book
combined Wellington-Christchurch ferry & train tickets 
online at

www.greatjourneysofnz.co.nz,
but see the advice bee below
to get the cheaper tickets.  Both
these sailings are normally operated by the Kaitaki, the
largest ferry in New Zealand waters.

The Kaitaki may look familiar to
ferry travellers from Ireland or the UK.  She started life
in 1995 as the Isle of Innisfree on the Irish Ferries
Holyhead-Dublin and Pembroke-Rosslare routes, and later the
P&O’s “Pride of Cherbourg” on the Portsmouth-Cherbourg
route.  The
Interislander ferry company was started in 1962 by New Zealand Railways, hence its close connections with
the train service to Christchurch.  Another ferry
company also operates several daily ferries between
Wellington and Picton,
www.bluebridge.co.nz, but these ferries don’t connect
with the train to Christchurch.

Kaitaki
Plus first class lounge:  For an extra NZ$45 paid
on board, you can access the Kaitaki Plus lounge with quiet
seating, power sockets, free WiFi, complimentary alcoholic
and non-alcoholic drinks and a free light hot meal. 
Over-18s only.  On the down side, the views from the
lounge are slightly obstructed, and you may spend much of
the crossing on deck, gazing at the scenery!

A voyage on the
Interislander…

• The ship sails
  out of the Interislander terminal at Wellington and
  describes a wide arc out of Wellington harbour, with views
  of Wellington’s seafront.

• It
  passes the suburb of Seatoun on the right and exits the
  harbour into the Cook strait separating the North and South
  Islands.  Also on the right are some wicked-looking
  rocks, including the Barrett Reef where the
  Lyttelton-Wellington overnight ferry

  m/v Wahine
  came to grief in a storm in 1968.

• The crossing of
  the Cook Strait itself only lasts an hour, and at the other
  side the ferry passes between narrow headlands into the Tory
  Channel.  Named after the “Tory”, a migrant ship which
  passed through the channel in 1840, the Tory Channel is one
  of the Marlborough Sounds, a narrow channel between Arapawa
  Island on the right and a strip of mainland on the left.

• The ship slowly
  follows this channel, through an ‘s’ bend, entering the
  larger Queen Charlotte Sound and finally arriving at Picton,
  a small town and the railhead for the South island.

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The Coastal Pacific…

The Interislander ferry and connecting Coastal Pacific
train are easily the most comfortable and scenic way to travel
from Wellington to Christchurch.  It’s also very cheap,
with inclusive train+ferry fares from just NZ$139. 
Named TranzCoastal until 2011, the train has now regained its
original name Coastal Pacific.

* = Runs daily from late September until late April, for exact dates see

www.greatjourneysofnz.co.nz.  The Coast Pacific used to run daily
all year but was reduced to running in the New Zealand
summer season only.  It was planned to restore all-year-round running, but
this didn’t happen in 2019 after all.  The train was suspended
after the earthquake damaged the line, but resumed running in December 2018.

COVID-19 UPDATE:  The Coastal Pacific was suspended in early 2020 due to
COVID-19 but should resume in late September, running on Tuesdays, Wednesdays &
Thursdays in both directions.  Check

www.greatjourneysofnz.co.nz.

One class of seating, cafe-bar, open-air
viewing platform.

There are other
Wellington-Picton Interislander ferry sailings, see

www.greatjourneysofnz.co.nz/interislander,
only the rail-connected sailing is shown here.  It leaves Wellington at
08:45 on some dates, and northbound times vary too, so always check for your
date of travel.

* Starter fare = limited availability,
non-refundable, changeable until 24 hours before departure if you pay any
difference in fare.  These cheap fares
disappear from the Great Journeys of New Zealand
website when it is viewed from a computer outside NZ, so
either use the Tor Browser workaround explained below or buy
by phone!

Children aged
2-14 travel at reduced fare,  Infants under 2 travel
free.

How to buy tickets…

You can buy Wellington-Christchurch combined train+ferry tickets (or tickets
between any other two stations on this route) at KiwiRail’s
official passenger train website

www.greatjourneysofnz.co.nz
with print-your-own tickets, but their cheapest Starter & promotional
fares will only appear if you give your computer a New Zealand IP address – even
though anyone from any country is entitled to buy them.  You could of
course just go ahead and buy a $169 or $199 fare (as KiwiRail would of course
prefer you to do!), but if you’d rather buy a $99 or $109 or $129 fare if it’s
available (and who wouldn’t?), then that’s perfectly legal and it’s easy to do –
The necessary workaround to give your PC a New Zealand IP address is explained
below…

1.  What you see if you book just using your PC normally:

2.  What you see if you book with the Chrome Hola!
extension installed and switched to New Zealand, as explained below. 
Much cheaper prices magically appear!

How to buy cheaper tickets online from outside NZ:  Anyone from any country is
entitled to buy the cheaper fares shown in the second screenshot, although they
don’t appear unless you give your PC a New Zealand IP address.  So
here’s how to do that:

Option 1, use a VPN and
simply select New Zealand as your browsing location.  Then go to

www.greatjourneysofnz.co.nz
and book your Kiwirail Great Journey, and be amazed at how cheaper prices
magically appear that weren’t there when you browsed with your normal IP address
which reveals your home country!  Using a
VPN is the ideal solution here, but
you usually pay a small monthly fee for a
VPN.  However, a VPN useful
for all sorts of things so worth having one,
see more info on VPNs and which one
to choose.

Option 2, if you don’t want to pay for a VPN, use the free Hola!
extension for Chrome.  It’s free, but disable Hola when you’ve finished
as if left running it has some vulnerabilities.

(1)  Go to http://hola.org
and install the Hola!
extension for Google’s Chrome browser (obviously, if you don’t already use
Chrome on your PC, install it first, it’s a great browser). 
Hola! is a browser extension which allows you to surf using an IP address
located in a country of your choice.  I use Hola! to watch BBC iPlayer
catch-up TV on my laptop
when I’m in the Netherlands at my in-laws, as the BBC annoyingly blocks iPlayer when
a computer is located outside the UK.

(2)  Open your Chrome browser, and you should now see the Hola! flaming head
logo top right.  If it says ‘off‘, switch it on.  Click it and it
should say ‘Select A Country‘.  Click ‘More…’, then look down the list
and pick ‘New Zealand‘.  It should briefly say ‘Browsing from New Zealand‘ and
then a
New Zealand flag should appear top right in place of the Hola! logo. 
You are now browsing with an NZ IP address!

(3)  Now go to

www.greatjourneysofnz.co.nz
and book your Kiwirail Great Journey.  Cheaper prices
may now magically appear which weren’t there when you browsed normally…

Or buy via an international phone call instead:  If you’re not
sufficiently computer-savvy, you can buy all the cheap prices if you call New
Zealand.  Call Great Journeys of New Zealand telesales on + 64 4 495 0775, as
all fares are available by phone, potentially saving money even allowing for the
cost the call.

Or book by phone, call 0800 872 467 (in NZ) or  00
64 4 495 0775 (from outside NZ)…

From outside New Zealand, call Kiwi Rail on +
64 4 495 0775, remembering that NZ is 13 hours
ahead of the UK in the UK’s winter, 11 hours in summer – you should be able to buy the full range of
fares including Webstarter and Starter fares, although recently people have said
staff have been funny about selling the full fare range if they know you’re not
in NZ.  When you’re
in NZ, call them on their free-phone number, 0800
TRAINS (0800
872 467).  Insist on a Starter or Webstarter or abort and book online as
above!

Alternatively, if you live in the
UK or Ireland you can arrange New Zealand train tickets or passes &
reservations with
UK-based train travel specialist International Rail, call 0844 248 248 3.  From outside the UK +44 844 248 248 3.  Lines open 09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday.

What’s the train like?

The Coastal Pacific uses new AK panoramic
sightseeing coaches built in KiwiRail’s Dunedin workshops in
New Zealand in 2011-2012.  These replace the old rebuilt
1930s & 1940s carriages used until 2012. Photos courtesy of James Chuang

Comfortable seats, most facing direction of travel,
some in bays of 4 around a table, all lining up with huge panoramic windows (note the roof
skylights too!), with loads of legroom even if you’re over six feet tall.  Seats are not
always allocated
at booking, but by the train manager before departure. 
However, if you book by phone (or book online and then call
KiwiRail’s freephone number when you get
to NZ and quote your booking reference) you can make a seating
request.  For example, four friends or family
travelling together could request one of the few bays of 4
seats facing each other around a table, keen photographers
could request a
seat close to the viewing
platform.  Requests can’t be
guaranteed, of course, but it doesn’t hurt to ask! 
All your heavy baggage is checked in to the baggage van,
only hand luggage may be taken into the seating coaches.  All seats in the
new ‘AK’ cars have power
sockets for mobiles, laptops or cameras (New Zealand voltage
and plug, of course). 
Larger
photo.

New Premium class… 
From 20 October 2020, a new Premium class carriage will be added to the Coastal
Pacific, with extra-legroom extra-width reclining seats arranged 2+1 across the
car width (the usual cars have seats 2+2 across the car) and included food &
wine, served at your seat.

Cafe-bar: 
In the centre of the train is a counter selling tea,
coffee, wine, beer, spirits, snacks & light
microwaveable meals at reasonable prices.  I can
recommend a cream tea in the afternoon, and a
glass of Sauvignon Blanc! 
You can buy at the counter and take your food & drink back to your seat, but
staff also come through the train taking orders for delivery to your seat.  Bring cash,
as cards are sometimes not accepted if the credit card
machine is out of cellphone range. 
Larger
photo.

Open-air viewing platform: 
At the Wellington end of the train (rear going north, behind the locomotive
going south) is a large open-air viewing platform, ideal for seeing and
photographing the scenery, with no glass in between you and it.  Children
must be accompanied.  The viewing cars now have additional rails to prevent
you leaning out.

What’s the journey like?

Travel tips…

• Shuttle bus for ferry
  departures and arrivals at Wellington:  The
  Interislander terminal is a long walk north of Wellington
  city centre, but a free shuttle bus (clearly marked
  ‘Interislander’) operates from platform 9 at the railway
  station 50 minutes before each ferry leaves, journey time
  5
  minutes. 
  Tickets can be bought with cash or credit card from the
  ticketing station.  Similarly, a shuttle bus meets each
  ferry arrival and will take you to the railway station as
  soon as everyone has reclaimed their baggage (although
  there’s no shuttle bus for ferry arrivals after 9pm).

• Check-in & baggage:  You
  must check in to the Wellington Interislander ferry terminal
  at least 30 minutes before departure.  At the ferry
  terminal, all bags except hand baggage must be checked in. 
  If you’re connecting with the Coastal Pacific train, you can
  check your bags all the way through to Christchurch. 
  Similarly, when checking in at Christchurch, you can check
  your bags all the way through to Wellington Interislander
  ferry terminal.  Your bags will automatically be
  transferred between ferry and train at Picton, and you
  reclaim them at your final destination, either Wellington or
  Christchurch.

• Make a seating request: 
  If you book by phone (or book online and then call Kiwi
  Rail’s freephone number when you get
  to NZ at least the day before travel, quoting your booking
  reference) you can make a seating
  request.  The obvious request to make is for seats on
  the left-hand side of the train going south from Picton, or
  the right-hand side coming north from Christchurch, as this
  puts you on the coastal side of the train where most of the
  scenery is.  Keen photographers
  could also request
  seats at the northern (Picton) end of the train close to the viewing
  platform.  Requests can’t be guaranteed, of course,
  but it doesn’t hurt to ask!

The journey
aboard
the Coastal Pacific…

• The 3 hour, 92km crossing of the
  Cook Strait is one of the most scenic ferry rides in the
  world.  You sail in a wide arc out of Wellington
  harbour and across the open sea of the Cook strait itself,
  before passing between headlands into the Tory Channel,
  named after the migrant ship ‘Tory’ which navigated the
  channel in 1840.  The ship
  follows this narrow channel between the island of
  Arapawa and the mainland, all the way to Picton at the head
  of Queen Charlotte Sound.

• At Picton, the station is just a
  200 metre walk straight ahead of you.  Look out for the
  ‘Edwin Fox’, a preserved 19th century sailing ship in a
  museum on the left.  It’s the ninth oldest wooden
  sailing ship in the world, and you can see it
  from the road even if you don’t have time to go in to the
  museum.  At the station, the small wooden station building now
  houses a ‘Subway’ fast food place, a travel agency, and a
  small check-in desk for the train.  Seats on the train
  are allocated there.

• The train leaves Picton station
  and curves around valley out of the town.  Within half
  an hour you’re in the middle of vineyards in the Marlborough
  wine region.  You’ll pass one of the main Montana
  wineries, with its huge stainless steel tanks.  The train calls at Blenheim, the region’s
  main town.

• Soon after Blenheim, the train
  climbs hard up a long gentle pass through grassy hills.

• Within an hour of leaving Picton,
  snow-capped mountains appear in the distance on your right,
  and you pass over what used to be a double-decker combined road and rail
  bridge over the Awatere river, with the railway on top and roadway
  underneath.  The road deck has been removed now that a
  separate road bridge has been built.

• Just over an hour from Picton you
  skirt Lake Grassmere.  Salt is produced here, by
  letting sea water evaporate in large salt pans.  You’ll
  see piles of harvested salt on the right.

• About an hour and a half after
  leaving Picton the train reaches the sea.  It now runs
  right along the coastline for about 98 km.  You’ll see
  beaches, cliffs, rocky headlands, in places draped with
  low-lying sea mist. 

• Although parts of the line are
  much older, the Picton-Christchurch railway was only
  completed in 1945, although work on this coastal section
  started in the 1930s.  Until then, overnight ferries
  had linked Lyttelton (the port of Christchurch) direct with
  Wellington.

• The train stops at Kaikoura, the
  South Island’s main whale-watching and dolphin-swimming
  centre.  The whale-watching centre is now housed in the
  old station building.  the train stops for several
  minutes here and you can get out and stretch your legs.

• The train continues along the
  coast.  Watch out for the seal colonies just feet from
  the train.  the seals tend to be the same colour as the
  rocks, but with a  bit of practice you can spot huge
  numbers of them!

• Just over 3 hours from Picton, the
  train swings inland again, through green hills and pretty
  valleys.

• The train passes through the
  Christchurch suburbs and arrives at Christchurch station. 
  This is now a small modern single-platform rail terminal,
  opened in 1993 in an unremarkable industrial estate built on
  what was once the massive Addington Railway Works. 
  Much of New Zealand Railways’ locomotives and rolling stock
  were once built there, although there’s little left to show
  for it..!  The new station is some 3km from the
  city centre, but taxis and shuttles (shared minibus taxis)
  are available. 
  Until the recent earthquake,
  Christchurch’s original
  station (well, the building opened in 1960 though built
  to a design first published in 1938)
  still stood on Moorhouse Avenue to the south of the
  city centre where it had become the ‘Science Alive’
  entertainment centre.

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The TranzAlpine is the most scenic train journey in New Zealand, and one
of the most scenic train trips in the world.  Not surprisingly, it’s become
the most successful of all the Kiwi Rail Great Journeys passenger train
services, very popular with tour groups because of the spectacular crossing of
the Southern Alps between Christchurch and the South Island’s west coast at
Greymouth.  It’s a fantastic trip, though in my opinion neither as epic or
as historically-significant as the
Auckland-Wellington Northern
Explorer.

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Once important cities, Dunedin and Invercargill have
declined in importance and apparently no longer justify a
proper train service
to the rest of New Zealand.  The last
Christchurch-Dunedin-Invercargill train service, the daily
“Southerner” over the South island’s Main South Line, was
withdrawn in 2004.  Nowadays, anyone wishing to
reach these towns must endure a long bus journey from
Christchurch.  Here are
the main bus services, although an additional bus may run on
Fridays and Sundays.  Please check times before
travelling at the bus operator websites,  www.intercity.co.nz.

Fares & how to buy tickets…

 Christchurch-Dunedin costs
NZ$33-$46.  Christchurch-Invercargill costs NZ$35-$67.  You can check fares and book
bus tickets online at www.intercity.co.nz.

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There were never any train services to Queenstown, although
historically you might have taken a slow train from
Invercargill to Kingston (the preserved Kingston Flyer train
uses part of this route), then a steamer across Lake Wakatipu
to Queenstown, a route on which Queenstown’s famous 100-year
old working steamship Earnslaw would have worked. 
Today, there are bus services operated by several companies. 
You need to change buses and overnight in Queenstown if you
are travelling to/from Milford Sound.

Fares & how to buy tickets…

 You can
check times, fares and book bus tickets online at www.intercity.co.nz, www.newmanscoach.co.nz
&
www.toplinetours.co.nz.

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The Taieri Gorge Railway…

The most rewarding way to travel between Dunedin and
Queenstown was via the Taieri Gorge Railway’s Track & Trail
train/bus link, but sadly they no longer offer this train-bus combo (perhaps you
could arrange a private transfer between Pukerangi & Queenstown using a
Queenstown taxi service?).  However, you can still ride the Taieri Gorge Railway (www.dunedinrailways.co.nz),
a preserved railway running daily year-round tourist
trains through spectacular scenery over part of the old
Dunedin-Cromwell branch railway.  Leaving from the
beautiful and much-photographed 1906 railway station in
Dunedin’s town centre, it travels a few kilometres south
over the South Island Main Trunk Line (still well-used for
freight but sadly with no passenger service) before
branching off inland through the scenic gorge that gives the
line its name.  The train terminates at Pukerangi, 58
km from Dunedin, extended to Middlemarch on summer Fridays &
Sundays, 76 km from Dunedin. 
Highly recommended!  The Taieri Gorge Railway now also
operates a tourist train called the Seasider along the
main line between Dunedin and Palmerston.

Covid-19 update:  The
Taieri Gorge Railway has currently ceased operating..

* = The railway no longer offers an
integrated bus connection.

Fares & how to buy
tickets…

To check times, fares
& buy tickets, contact the Taieri Gorge Railway on

www.dunedinrailways.co.nz or call (03) 477 4449.

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Make
sure you take a good guidebook.  The Lonely Planets
and Rough Guides are easily the best out there for the independent traveller. 
Both guides provide an excellent level of practical information and historical
and cultural background.  You won’t regret buying one of these
guides..!

Click to buy
online at Amazon.co.uk…

Lonely Planet
New Zealand   
Rough
Guide to New Zealand

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Some recommended hotels…

• In Auckland, the
  Airedale Hotel or
  Mercure
  Auckland Hotel are both sound
  central choices, the latter right near the Britomart station
  and Devonport ferry terminal, though not the cheapest options. 

• In Wellington, the
  Shepherds
  Arms Hotel is a cosy gastro pub just 15 minutes walk from Parliament and the
  city centre with friendly staff, great food and good beer. 
  A top choice!

Other hotel sites
worth trying…

www.tripadvisor.com
is a good place to find independent travellers’ reviews of the
main hotels, and it has the low-down on destination sights &
attractions, too.

Backpacker hostels
in New Zealand…

www.hostelworld.com:  If you’re on a tight budget,
don’t forget about backpacker hostels.  Hostelworld
offers online booking of cheap private rooms or dorm beds in backpacker hostels in
many places in New Zealand at rock-bottom prices.

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Overland travel by train & bus
around New Zealand is an essential part of the experience,
so once there, don’t cheat and fly, stay
on the ground!  But a long-haul flight might be unavoidable to reach New
Zealand in the first place.

1) 
Check flight prices at
Opodo,

www.opodo.com…

2) 
Use Skyscanner to compare flight prices & routes
worldwide across 600 airlines…

3) 
Lounge passes…

Make the
airport experience a little more bearable with a VIP lounge
pass, it’s not as expensive as you think!  See

www.loungepass.com

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Always take out travel insurance…

Never travel overseas without travel insurance from a reliable
insurer, with at least £1m or preferably £5m medical cover.  It should also cover
cancellation and loss of cash and belongings, up to a sensible
limit. 
An annual
multi-trip policy is usually cheaper than several single-trip
policies even for just 2 or 3 trips
a year, I have an annual policy myself.  Here are some suggested insurers. 
Seat61 gets a small commission if you buy through these
links.

In
the UK, reliable insurers include

Columbus Direct.

If you have a pre-existing medical condition or are over 65, see
www.JustTravelCover.com
– 10% discount with code seat61.

You
can use

Confused.com to compare prices & policies from many
different insurers.

 
 
   
If
you live in
Australia, New Zealand, Ireland or the EU, try

Columbus Direct’s other websites.

 

If you live in the USA try

Travel Guard USA.

A Curve card
saves on foreign transaction fees…

Most banks give you a poor
exchange rate, then charge you a currency conversion fee.  A Curve
MasterCard means no foreign transaction fees and gives you the mid-market
exchange rate, at least up to a certain limit, £500 per month at time of
writing.  The balance goes straight onto one of your existing debit or
credit cards.

How it works:  1.
Download the app for
iPhone or Android.  2. Enter your details & they’ll send you a Curve
MasterCard – they send to most European addresses including the UK.  3.
Link your existing credit & debit cards to the app.  4. Now use the Curve
MasterCard to buy things online or in person or take cash from ATMs, just like a
normal MasterCard. Curve does the currency conversion and puts the balance onto
whichever of your debit or credit cards you choose.  You can even change
your mind about which card it goes onto, within 14 days of the transaction.

I have a Curve Blue card myself
– I get some commission if you sign up to Curve, but I’m recommending it here
because it’s great. 
See details, download
the app and get a Curve card – they’ll give you £5 cashback through that
link, too.

When you’re travelling you often use free WiFi in public places which may not be
secure.  A VPN means your connection to the internet is encrypted & always
secure, even using unsecured WiFi.  In countries such as China where access
to Twitter & Facebook is restricted, a VPN gets around these restrictions. 
And lastly, you can select the geographic location of the IP address you browse
with, to get around geographic restrictions which some websites apply – for
example one booking site charges a booking fee to non-European visitors but none
to European visitors, so if you’re not located in Europe you can avoid this fee
by browsing with a UK IP address using a VPN. 
VPNs & why you need one explained. 
ExpressVPN
is a best buy and I use it myself – I’ve signed up as an ExpressVPN affiliate,
and if you go with

expressvpn.com using the links on this page, you should see a special deal,
3 months free with an annual subscription, and I get a small commission to help
support this site.

 

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