New coach travel pass for New Zealand
March 14th, 2009 by Tim Uden
I’ve just added information about the new Naked Bus New Zealand coach pass to the BUG website.
The Naked Passport is the simplest of New Zealand’s coach travel passes where each pass is valid for a set number of trips so it is obviously better value on longer trips.
Passes are NSD $157 (£59) for five trips; NZD $260 (£98) for 10 trips; NZD $330 (£124) for 15 trips; NZD $370 (£139) for 20 trips; NZD $437 (£164) for 25 trips; NZD $497 (£187) for 30 trips. There is also an Unlimited Pass that costs NZD $597 (£224) for as many bus trips that you fit into one year.
A travel pass costing around £8 per trip may not sound like a good deal when you can buy tickets on Naked Bus from only NZD $1 (38p) each. However those cheap seats need to be snapped up around a month in advance and last minute seat on a route such as Auckland-Rotorua can still cost NZD $42 (£16).
Flexibility has a price, but with the Naked Passport at least that price is still very affordable compared with the alternatives.
The Naked Passport is better suited to independent travellers who don’t want to plan everything months in advance, while travellers who don’t mind booking a set itinerary weeks in advance just to get the cheapest fares will do better with individual tickets.
A compromise between flexible travel and getting the best deal is probably the best way to use this pass. For instance you can plan a rough itinerary and pre-book a handful of tickets in advance to get the cheapest seats and then buy a Naked Passport to use on last minute travel when prices are higher. This means that you still have an independent element to your trip, but pre-booking some tickets in advance can mean the difference between buying a 20-trip pass and a 25-trip pass and it can save you up to £20.
Alternatively, travellers on a one-year working holiday visa can get a lot of value out of the Unlimited Naked Passport bus pass, which lets you make as many bus trips as you can handle within a one-year period all for less than $600.
The Naked Passport passes are really good value, especially when a one-year unlimited pass costs around the same as two weeks of car rental; and if you rented a car you would still be up for fuel, insurance excess and parking.
What are the cheapest days to travel?
July 29th, 2008 by Tim Uden
It is commonplace for airlines to use a yield management pricing structure and other forms of transport such as buses and trains are also starting to use this pricing system. Basically this means that the advertised prices refer to the cheapest seats, which sell out first; leaving the more expensive seats for those who don’t book ahead. In other words busier travel times are more expensive than off-peak times unless you book well in advance.
Naked Bus (a New Zealand-based low-cost intercity bus operator) reveals that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are generally the cheapest days to travel as there are fewer other people travelling on these days and less competition for the cheapest seats.
Obviously the cheapest days and more expensive days to travel depend on the mode of transport and whether it is a leisure or business destination; but in most cases Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the cheapest days to travel.
Travel to weekend break destinations will be more expensive on Friday nights, Saturday mornings, Sunday nights and early Monday mornings and air travel to business destinations usually costs more early morning and in the evening, but is often cheaper around midday (especially midweek).
You’ll save money by booking well in advance, but often it is difficult to book too far in advance especially if you want to keep an element of spontaneity. However it always pays to be flexible with your travel days and check a couple of days either side of your planned travel day to ensure you don’t miss out of a bargain.
Naked Bus – the Ryanair of New Zealand bus companies
December 7th, 2007 by Tim Uden
Naked Bus is a year-old bus operator with a nationwide network of bus services to most destinations in New Zealand. What makes Naked Bus a good deal is that they – like Megabus in the UK and USA – operate with a yield-management pricing system just like budget airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair. So basically you can ride the bus around New Zealand with prices starting at $1 per trip (plus a 75c booking fee) as long as you book far enough in advance. Although booking everything so far in advance can kill the spontanious carefree spirit of independent travel, the cost savings make it a real bargain.
I rode the Naked Bus from Christchurch to Blenheim (about a six-hour trip) and overall it was a good experience and I would certainly consider travelling with Naked Bus again. It was just a crappy old minibus, but newer full-size coaches operate on many routes. I paid $24 for the trip, but there were $1 fares available if I wanted to take a bus later in the day, although I was on a tight schedule so I paid extra to leave on the early bus.