New Zealand or Chile?
The practical differences, drawn from our own write-ups rather than from a brochure. We are not going to tell you which is better - they are different trips. What follows is what actually changes between them.
Places written up here 414 20
UNESCO listings among them 7 4
Cost level High Mid-range
Busiest month in our write-ups January March
Currency New Zealand dollar (NZD) Chilean peso (CLP)
Plugs and voltage I - 230 V C, L - 220 V
Everyday languages English, Maori Spanish
Driving side left hand side right hand side
Region Australia and New Zealand South America
Capital Wellington Santiago
New Zealand
Understated competence outdoors; Maori culture is living context, not performance.
What we have written up
- A and P Shows tradition
- Abel Tasman National Park national park
- Agrodome farm attraction
- Akaroa old town
- Alexandra Blossom Festival festival
- Aoraki / Mount Cook mountain
All 414 places in New Zealand →
Worth knowing before you go
- Cards everywhere; cash is rare
- Sandflies rule the fjord country - repellent is strategy
- The i-SITE visitor centres are genuinely useful
Chile
Reserved, orderly and proud of it - the un-Caribbean end of Latin America.
What we have written up
- Chilean Cuisine dish
- Chilean Wine Country winery region
- Chiloé island
- Cochamó Valley viewpoint
- Easter Island archaeological site
- Humberstone Saltpeter Works ruins
Worth knowing before you go
- Cards are universal in cities
- Tipping: the 10% propina sugerida on bills is standard to accept
- Domestic flights beat buses for the huge north-south hops
Counts describe this site, not the countries: "places written up here" means how many pages we have finished, and it keeps growing. Currency, plugs and languages are practical facts and change rarely; check anything visa-related with the relevant official source before you book.