Rotorua's lakefront boardwalk on a clear day. Photo / Laura Smith
Rotorua is in the top three places Kiwis want to visit this school holidays, a Booking.com survey has revealed.
And Mount Maunganui is fourth on the online travel agency’s list of “trending/emerging destinations”.
The school holidays run from September 28 to October 13. Some visitor accommodation in Rotorua was almost full for this weekend, while demand throughout the coastal Bay of Plenty was “moderate”.
Tauranga City Council says the city has activities “for every age and interest” while Rotorua Lakes Council has daily events at the Rotorua library.
Rotorua’s All Seasons Holiday Park manager Tracey Thornborough said the park was nearly booked out for the holidays.
“It’s good because it wasn’t looking like that about a month or two ago, and then all of a sudden it’s just bookings and even campsites are starting to book up.”
Thornborough said bookings were mostly domestic. The international market had picked up slowly, with Americans, Canadians and Australians.
Thornborough suggested Kuirau Park and the Agrodome as child-friendly activities.
“I’ve also pushed the treetop walk, mountain biking and just going down to the city centre and the lakefront.”
Top 10 Holiday Park Blue Lake owner Kelsi Hira said the park had some large school groups staying during the holidays.
“The majority of our room types are sitting somewhere around 70 to 75% occupancy over the school holidays.”
Bookings were about 85% domestic travellers for the next two weeks, she said.
She recommended the Buried Village of Te Wairoa, the Redwood Tree Walk, and Duck Tours.
Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park manager Mark Hales said it did not have as many bookings as it normally had as many people waited to see what the weather was like.
Hales recommended walking tracks at Mauao and visiting the beach or shopping at Bayfair and The Lakes if the weather was bad.
“When people stay with us, they get a discount off the local rate at the hot pools ... "
Sarah Meadows, owner of Wanderlust NZ and Mount Maunganui’s Pacific Coast Lodge, said she did not have many school-aged children coming to stay, noting her bookings were 70% international and 30% domestic.
“The school holidays don’t affect us but we’ve had a very, very, very quiet winter.”
Tourism Bay of Plenty general manager Oscar Nathan said bookings and demand for accommodation providers throughout the coastal Bay of Plenty looked “moderate” for the school holidays, similar to last year.
Nathan said accommodation bookings for the first week of the school holidays were tracking higher than the second week, which reflected the tendency for shorter booking lead times. As the second week approached, those bookings were expected to increase.
Nathan said the destination skatepark in Mount Maunganui, which opened earlier this year, had been a “hit” with “all types of roller wheel users”.
He also recommended McLaren Falls Park, which had an 18-hole disc golf course, Te Puna Quarry Park for picnic spots a butterfly house, and the Historic Village.
A Tauranga City Council media release said the city had activities “for every age and interest” during these school holidays.
“Lights on Tauranga” is on for the first week of the holidays every night from 5 pm to 10.30 pm in the CBD. On October 5, there would be neon face painting, glow circus performances, a free photo booth and “roaming entertainers”.
A Young at Heart Festival event is taking place on September 30 from 10.30 am to 12.30 pm on the beach in front of Moturiki Island in Mount Maunganui. Participants can craft large-scale sand drawings or tackle a 10-metre-wide Sudoku puzzle.
Classic Flyers is offering family activities daily from 9 am to 3 pm, including riding a fire truck, doing arts and crafts, or racing around Torpedo Park on pedal plans.
The Incubator Creative Hub’s school holiday programme has activities including movies, disco, art and sewing workshops.
The libraries have activities including playing with Lego, watching a movie and a Tuvalu Storytelling and Fatele evening.
A Booking.com press release said Auckland, Christchurch and Rotorua were the most popular destinations for Kiwis planning travel during the school holidays.
This was based on New Zealand user searches between September 8 and 15 for check-ins for the school holiday period.
Meanwhile, Mount Maunganui ranked fourth on the list of “trending” domestic destinations alongside Auckland, Christchurch and New Plymouth. Rotorua ranked third alongside Wānaka.
This was determined by analysing year-on-year search volume changes between 2023 and 2024 on Booking.com to highlight emerging interests.
Data on the RotoruaNZ accommodation insights dashboard showed some visitor accommodation was nearly full for the weekend of September 28 and 29 with bookings for the rest of the school holidays around 50% capacity for apartments and houses, and a little less for rooms.
Bay of Plenty road policing manager inspector Logan Marsh said the district had an increase in people travelling during school holidays – and police wanted to see everyone get to their destination safely.
Marsh encouraged people to plan their journeys before they leave, using the NZTA journey planner, checking planned roadworks and allowing for extra time for unforeseen delays.
He urged drivers to ensure everyone was wearing seatbelts, not driving while impaired or fatigued, not allowing themselves to get distracted and driving at a speed within the limit that is safe for the conditions.
“Speed continues to be the single biggest factor in whether the driver and their passengers walk away or are carried away from a crash – whether they’re at fault or not.
“Anyone who risks the safety of themselves or others can expect police will follow through with the appropriate enforcement action.”
NZTA Bay of Plenty journey manager Simon Sinclair said some roadworks had been timed to take place during the holidays when commuter traffic was reduced.
This included the closure of SH30 Sala St in Rotorua for road rebuild works starting on September 30 between 8 am and 4 pm daily for two weeks.
The road closure would be in place between Scott St and McIntyre Ave, with temporary traffic management in place, allowing resident access only. Detours would be available.
Sinclair said contractors had been repairing an underslip on SH36 through the Mangorewa Gorge. The work was expected to finish on October 4.
The Pekatahi Bridge on SH2 north of Taneatua will also be closed for maintenance from September 30 to October 4.
Rotorua NZ was approached for comment.
Kaitlyn Morrell is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.