---

About our recommended hostels

Our recommended hostels in New Zealand are the ones that we would happily send our own friends and family to - if only we could get them over to the other side of the world. We rate them as the best and so thought it only fair that we recommend them to you good gappers...

How we select our recommended hostels

When picking our recommended hostels, we judge them on the following:

- Location - should be centrally based or close to amenities/attractions
- Proximity to airport and transport links
- Clean and spacious 
- Established
- Preferably with a bar
- Preferably with a reputable travel agent/operator attached
- Reasonably priced

Hostels that fit the above criteria are then compared and the overall winner presented with our gapyear.com gold award for all-round hostel excellency. 

Look out for...

Free beer alert!

The following hostels offer two free beers to gapyear.com members - that's one for you and another to help break the ice with a fellow backpacker. Or that's two for you and no friends...
Click here >> to download your free beer vouchers now!

Good one for the girlies...

See this symbol and it means this hostel looks after the ladies by offering female-only dorms and making safety top priority. Just state that you'd like a bed in a girls-only room when you fill in the enquiry form on the page.

Hostels we recommend in New Zealand...

:: AUCKLAND :: CHRISTCHURCH ::  QUEENSTOWN :: ROTORUA :: BAY OF ISLANDS :: WELLINGTON ::