Transport > New Zealand & Pacific Islands > New Zealand > Bus and coach travel > Scheduled coaches > InterCity Coachlines
InterCity Coachlines
InterCity Coachlines (tel (09) 623 1503) is New Zealand’s major national coach operator. Intercity coaches go to most destinations in both the North and South Islands. Although many travellers buy individual tickets, you can save up to 40% by buying one of the passes that are available.
Over the last few years InterCity has cut its prices while also upgrading its fleet to include flash new quarter-million dollar double-decker coaches.
InterCity now have $1 fares across their coach network and InterCity Coachlines also run promotions where thousands of free seats are released on routes across their network. They also have "cheap-as seats" promotions on random city-to-city routes that they promote through their Twitter and Facebook pages.
InterCity coaches have several types of travel passes available. The New Zealand Travelpass is an itinerary-based pass that allows travel along a preset route, while the flexipass and flexitrips passes allow for more flexible travel.
A great option for budget concious travellers, is to look at online specials – such as £1 fares and "cheap-as seats" promotions – and use InterCity's flexipass or flexitrips pass for any travel that isn't available at the discounted rate.
Travelpasses
InterCity have a range of fixed-itinerary Travelpasses based on popular travel routes with travel on InterCity coaches and Great Sights day tours plus the Interislander ferry and bonuses like sandboarding, Milford Sound cruises and tours to Cape Reinga in Northland.
Backpacker discounts are available to travellers with BBH, VIP and YHA hostel cards.
These Travelpasses include:
Flexipasses
InterCity’s flexipasses are an ideal option for independent travellers that don’t want to be tied down to a pre-determined itinerary.
With the flexipass you buy travel time that can be used on InterCity coaches and Great Sights sightseeing tours, the Interislander ferry and AwesomeNZ trips. Flexipasses give you between 15 and 60 hours of travel and you can top up your pass in increments of one, five or 10 hours if you want to travel further.
Flexipasses are more flexible than fixed itinerary passes as you can travel in any direction, backtrack and even sell your pass at any time.
| Travel time (hours) | price |
|---|---|
15 hours |
$115 |
20 hours |
$152 |
25 hours |
$189 |
30 hours |
$226 |
35 hours |
$263 |
45 hours |
$299 |
55 hours |
$407 |
60 hours |
$443 |
1 hour top-up |
$8 |
5 hour top-up |
$39 |
10 hour top-up |
$78 |
The InterCity flexipass is valid for 12 months.
Flexitrips
Flexitrips is InterCity’s newest travel pass. It is a great value trip-based pass that gives you from five to 30 trips on InterCity coaches. It is priced to compete head-to-head with the Naked Passport, except you have the advantage of nicer coaches than those operated by Nakedbus.com.
The InterCity flexitrip pass is good on InterCity's coach services (more than 120 departures per day) as well as GreatSights New Zealand tours, Fullers GreatSights Bay of Islands cruises and the Interislander ferry.
Pricing starts at $156 for the five trip pass ($31.20 per trip) and the per trip cost drops to $16.53 with the $496 30-trip flexitrip pass.
Trips are based on individual journeys, so each time you board a coach counts as a separate trip. This means that a journey where you have to change coaches – such as a journey from Kaikoura to Nelson with a change of coaches in Blenheim – will count as two separate trips.
It is a very flexible travel pass that is ideal for independent travellers. It lets you travel in any direction, backtrack and change your booking up to two hours before your scheduled travel time. However you can not make multiple return journeys between the same two destinations (so it is not suitable for people who commute frequently between two cities). Unlike most other transport operators, you are even allowed to sell the unused portion of your pass to other travellers; however, the person buying your pass may not be able to book routes that you have already travelled.
| Number of trips | price |
|---|---|
Five trips |
$156 |
10 trips |
$259 |
15 trips |
$329 |
20 trips |
$369 |
25 trips |
$436 |
30 trips |
$496 |
The InterCity flexitrips pass is valid for 12 months starting from when you first book travel against the pass.
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