South Africa (St. John Rugby Festival)

There are lots of articles, research and evidence purporting the benefits that touring provides. Many write of the international perspective and personal character-building that teens develop in their formative years. We’ve experienced this first hand as tour organisers. The value of being able to be somewhat independent, experience new cultures, meet new friends and bond with team mates will pay dividends throughout an individual's life. If you still aren’t sure here is an academic resource that describes some of the benefits.

Yes, you could. This is a common question. With all the information available on the internet, surely you’d be able to organise your own tour, right?

We’ve had some people do that, but they often come to us in the end because we’ve built up a trusted network of experts that others may not have access to. Because expert coaching and local knowledge are things money can’t buy.

The other aspect that many busy teachers and volunteer coaches don’t take into account is the extra workload in making individual contact with all the service providers, not to mention a potential lack of local knowledge. Teachers and coaches often report that it’s just easier and more stress free to work with Total Tours.

We know you’ve got a lot on your plate. In fact, Phil Robson was a teacher for 20 years and understands the challenges you face. Summed up, people say that what they like most about Total Tours is the expert coaching, meeting world class athletes and the ease which they can book tours by.

You can always just shoot us a quick message with some idea of the following information and we can get you started. To start, you’ll need:
Numbers – how many on tour? __________
How long?__________
What time of year?___________
Leisure or competitive or educational type tour ?___________Then just shoot us a message with those details and we’ll sort out some suggestions for you!

If there are special dietary requirements within the team please let us know. We’ll do our best to work with the service providers to ensure that these can be accommodated.

The group touring numbers will depend on the sport. Rugby, for example, is 15 a -side. We suggest a minimum number of 20 players. There is no maximum, but keep in mind that most of the coaches we use are 49 -52 seaters. Economies of scale work in your favour with larger groups and can make quite a difference with transport especially. Some ways to get bigger groups: group several teams (different codes) from one school or club together; group several age groups of the same sport together; group parents and coaches in for a leisure / sport tour.

Our accommodation is always 3+ star level. Sometimes we utilize school boarding facilities. Depending on when your tour is booked this is a really great way to experience “a day in the life of a kiwi kid”. These types of accommodation are highly sought after and often booked up early. We have great relationships with accommodation providers all over the country and they know what our teams require and can ensure that you get the best service during your stay. If you have any special accommodation requirements, please do not hesitate to get in touch to enquire about facilities. We’ll do our best to work with the service providers to ensure that requests can be accommodated.

All of our quotes typically exclude airfares. However, we can definitely sort flights for you to make it easier. We’re also ok if you’d like to look into it yourself and perhaps use some connections within your team community to get access to some great flight deals.

We cover the whole of New Zealand, both the North Island and South Island. We provide tour packages to Australia, Fiji, Argentina, South Africa and Japan.

Of course, there are quite a few variables to factor in when determining costs. We have found over the years that a ground package (no flights) that costs between $1,800 and $2,500 NZD pp works for most groups. We always quote in NZD, so there maybe some credit to gain from a currency fluctuations if it is in your favour.

While this doesn’t happen very often, we recognise that in sport injuries can occur. We also recognise that sometimes unforeseen illness sets in. New Zealand has a very accessible health care system. We encourage everyone travelling to get travel insurance before they leave (we can help you with that if you have any questions).

Often when you get health insurance as a group you can get better pricing. New Zealand’s health services are comparable to any other first world country. Our emergency services are top notch, as many travel here for adventure tourism. Nobody is turned away at the A&E (Accident and Emergency Room) at our Public Hospitals.

Medical care in New Zealand is both public and private. The ACC (Accident Compensation Commission) will cover most of the costs for any accident injury and this extends to visitors. Visit this link for further information.

‍As quoted directly from the New Zealand Ministry of Health website“New Zealand has around 40 public hospitals spread across the country in cities and larger towns. With minor exceptions, such as some kinds of cosmetic surgery, hospital treatment is free for those eligible for health care services. Nobody can be refused emergency care because they are unable to pay.”

We take great pride in New Zealand as the greatest adventure nation on earth. Every year people come from all over the world to experience our natural wonders and explore our untouched lands. For most of our tours, the sport they have come to compete in is central to the value of the tour. Together, we also recognize the importance of including other activities to complete the tour experience. These include:Fun and excitement/adventure
Cultural education
Team building
Personal challenge
Geographical education
Historical educationOur tours generally have 4-7 excursions. These can be discussed and selected to suit the nature of the group.

This is a very important part of the tour experience - getting good evenly matched oppositions. We work very hard to find sides that are well matched to visiting teams. This is an inexact science but we have many years of experience and we know the right questions to ask to find out what level the team is playing at. We also work closely with coaches to ensure that there is the capacity on match day to modify sides if needed.