Our annual survey shows how much Kiwis love getting away — especially to the beach, writes Shandelle Battersby.
We Kiwis are an adventurous bunch and our hunger for travel seems to increase year on year. Over the past couple of weeks we've been asking you about your travel plans and bucket-list destinations, what kind of trips you prefer, where you've been lately, and places you'd recommend to others. Thanks to everyone for your responses, they make for great reading.
With today (finally) marking the start of summer, our focus has naturally swung towards making the most of the golden weather, and the good old Kiwi beach holiday came in at number one as the ideal family holiday experience. For something completely different, second place was a tropical beach holiday. Yep, we sure love our sun and sand in this part of the world, even if we have to travel somewhere else to enjoy it.
That somewhere is likely to be the Cook Islands which came out tops as the Pacific destination most on our radar - Jetstar's new service starting in March should boost Rarotonga's appeal - with Fiji, Samoa and New Caledonia all hovering around the early teens and even the Solomon Islands piquing a few people's interest.
Exploring a big city is still the favourite type of holiday for 68 per cent of Kiwi travellers, but hitting the highway is not far behind at 63 per cent. In fact, a roadtrip with your partner came in at a resounding 41 per cent as the type of holiday you're most likely to take in the next year, maybe to the Bay of Islands, Wellington or the Coromandel which ranked as the top three destinations in the North Island you'd most like to visit.
