All Reviews
Relaxing Journeys

The Doubtful Sound Overnight Cruise was a magical experience! We spent 8 weeks in New Zealand and this was the thing I was most excited about…it did not disappoint! The staff, though small, was efficient very friendly and knowledgeable. The food was wonderful! The scenery is simply stunning and I loved kayaking and swimming. We were greeted in the morning by a pod of very playful dolphins. Just delightful. I would highly recommend taking this cruise!

I had a wonderful time. The booking process was smooth and everything was well organised and effortless when I arrived. My agent was so helpful and went above and beyond when I ran into some difficulty on the trip. Would use agaian and would highly recommend!

We enjoyed the boat very much and the crew. The paperwork is slightly misleading as it indicates you only have to pay money for ‘extra alcohol’, when in fact no alcohol is included. We loved the boat, but felt it was a bit rushed to fit everything in. We didn’t enjoy all the confusion around the secure car parking at Te Anau. The confusion is we booked our tour with you ‘Relaxing Journeys’, but were to collect our car park pass and pay at ‘Real Journeys’ , then go to the car park and park, then wait to be collected by Fiordland Discovery. Far too many variables in this equation and very confusing as the two company names Relaxing and Real journeys are nearly the same but totally different. I would definitely make a change to this as it was very stressful for us. Otherwise we loved the boat, the crew, the food, the accommodations and the scenery. Amazing!!!!

A couple of the motels (Queenstown & Franz Joseph) did not fully meet our expectations. Only one of the units had a safe or air corn which had we known would of led us to ask for alternative options. The pick up and drop of our car with Thrifty was reasonably painless when compared to some firms and the car was clean and performed well.

We thought this trip would probably be the highlight of our five week trip away and it certainly was, and we haven’t finished yet! It was just spectacular and so well organised and the whole trip went like clockwork, we loved the tranquility and the sound of silence we experienced on the morning after was just so moving and so special. The staff were so accommodating and versatile and the food was excellent. Would love to do this again. Couldn’t recommend highly enough. It’s a must!

Really enjoyed the north island tour, but the in the south we spent to much time on the coach and not enough time at destinations, arriving at hotels with not enough time to prepare for dinner and socialising.

Toni was great as well as the drivers Kevin & Riki. Learned a lot about New Zealand and also about the Maori.

We shared a small family cabin, and whilst there were only 3 of us, it was really tight and claustrophobic at night, especially as we couldn’t open the window. I think we were near the main engine room and could her the motors running. But it was clean and neat.
The overnight tour is really quick, would have liked to spend more time on the boat with another opportunity for water activity such as kayak the next day, it just felt a bit rushed and were sorry to leave so early the following morning!

All the transport options went very smoothly, especially the Thrifty pickup at Greymouth. All the rooms were excellent, especially the Able Tasman Lodge which was exceptional.

Everything went extremely well, well planned, one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. The crew, boat and views were superb. Thanks for everything.

Excellent service from first email to end of trip at airport. Toni was excellent at answering emails and dealt with my queries promptly! Give this girl a raise/promotion! (ed. – noted). Cruise with Rob and the boys was a great experience – genuine kiwi hospitality and scrumptious dinner! Not to forget the spectacular views!

The country is sensational!! Accommodation was basic; however, very clean. The best presented unit was in Wanaka Distinction alpine resourt where we had access to pool, spa, barbecue and many other complimentary things for comfort including dishwasher, washing machine. The weather was hot +28 and we would appreciate if units have air-conditioning inside but none of them had. The worst experience was with car hire through Thrifty cars. They’ve given us a heavily damaged car! We were told the car was damaged but driveable and they have already photographed all damages. I asked to see the photographs before signing in the car, the guy said he didn’t have them!!! How can you rent the car without inspecting a damage??? So I refused, I said that we would like to take our pictures before renting this car so the guy took us to the car which was like 5 minutes of walking in heat conditions. Guess what we counted 7 damages and deep grazes on car which weren’t even showed on their drawing!!!! So we took all pictures and the guy witnessed everything (he wasn’t happy you could tell)! We documented on their lease form and marked additional damages on their drawing. Having mentioned all this the provided GPS unit didn’t work neither so we had to use off line maps for most of our trip. I will never book with Thrifty cars again! As for Relaxing Journeys, the company is very good and helpful.