Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook

This will be an excellent guide for our upcoming trip to New Zealand. It's only 96 pages but is very well designed with a detailed Table of Contents and Index to make it easy to read and to plan a self-guided tour. There are even some suggested day tour itineraries to help with planning as well as a 16-day itinerary that hits most of the major locations. GPS references are provided which is a big help because copyright considerations puts some restrictions on local site identification and exploitation (e.g. no permission to set up a Fanghorn Forest Pizza Parlor). Good usage of pictures and maps for such a compact guidebook and the site descriptions include some interesting New Zealand history.Note that the book covers the sites for the Lord of the Rings trilogy and was published before the Hobbit movies were filmed

You can purchase this book is some NewZealand stores and save carrying it with your luggage. I saw it at the airport. It was good at orienting you to where different scenes were shot. A head's up: Many places were used for background, while the action was shot in a studio or created on a computer. Also, many scenes in the movie feature scenes shot all over new zealand and since they are together in the movie you assume they are also together in real life. Example: when arwen rides away from the nazgul, the horse scene (shot with a double by the way) is in one area, the river she enters in another area, and the when she turns to face the nazgul, that river is yet somewhere else. I highly recommend the area around queenstown and glenorche.

I say it is okay because, after traveling to New Zealand and following the guide, many of the places are now closed to the public or the tour requires more than one. Yes, many of the tours just don't draw like they used to so be prepared for that. The tours I took were fantastic. Hobbiton is a must see, do the dinner tour. However, the South Island had the most closed. The ranchers got tired of the hassle is what the word is. The format is fine but the order in which the locations are listed don't always make sense on the ground. Some back tracking or not the logical sequence for the locations. If you take the time it is a good start for your Middle Earth Tour but definitely not the all inclusive as you would hope. Also, many of the listed sites are not film locations but places of beauty and interest. Be prepared to pay dearly for the flight tours, and there are lots of them.

I went to New Zealand with the book, hoping to see as many sites as I could. Everyone has the book, and everyone has the same comment - it gets you almost there. Almost just isn't good enough. But my first complaint is the scattered writing. Stick to the subject - the sites. One site is mentioned. Then a bunch of drivel, and suddenly you're reading about that site again, and this time it's different information. The book could have so much better organized. Why not put decent maps in a location guidebook? One example: we followed the written directions exactly and found ourselves at the park off Gemstone. Okay. So, where exactly along this park is the site? I searched for an hour for rock formations that matched the picture in the book and never found them. Same thing at "Rivendell". Got there, but what good is it if the exact sites are not given? We ended up going out again the next day on a tour, and told the tour guide about our trouble with the book. "Everyone says that," she said. "I see people out walking around with the book, trying to figure out the exact site. Finally they ask if they can follow me." Ian, you present this as being a location guide, and you got everyone to buy one. But I didn't go halfway around the world to get "almost" there. It needs better pictures, real maps, and better organization. Keep ALL the information about one site together, not spread here and there over several pages.Give directions from the major city, not from the previous site. And I am still steaming over Legolas's rock at Deerpark Heights. The picture shows the VIEW from the rock instead of the rock itself. You know how many rocks are at the location? Why is the world didn't you put a picture of the rock in there so we could tell when we were in the right place? I appreciate the fact that someone even wrote a guidebook. That said, it should have been done 100%. I paid 100% of the price for it.

This really is the only way to ever hope to find any of the film locations in NZ. Other guides & websites mention a few of the places, but this is the only book to collect all the info. in one place, & in a handy, travel-size book too.However, Brodie's directions are often vague & incomplete. Maps would help, but simply including specifics like "drive 15km up the mountain & look for the DoC sign that says XYZ" would be just as useful. The current directions only say "drive up the road to the film location" or somesuch. This book really seems geared to people using GPS.In NZ last week, I purchased the 'extended' version of this book, but I haven't had time to compare the text to see if it's been improved. However, the new version is a larger format, more of a coffee-table book, so it wouldn't be suitable to carrying on the road. Perhaps you could photocopy pages for traveling.

This was our guidebook when visiting LOTR filming locations. Doesn't get any better. On the occasions when we signed up for a "guided tour" (our rental car was not a 4 wheel drive) ... Low and behold, the tour guides were using this book too. If you are interested in LOTR you'll also find a substantial amount of useful information not necessarily related to filming locations.

Great movie. We just returned from New Zealand and got to see some of the movie set.

Was fantastic.We have just returned from The South Island and found lots of location sights.I reckon it saved us money on some tours that don't take you to the spots mentioned anyway. Wil use it when we go to North Island Can't wait

Really good book, using it as I travel NZ to find the best spots. This version is good because it is small enough for luggage etc but if you aren't planning on traveling or have space in your bags, it's worth upgrading to the larger one which has maps and pictures etc and is a lot better

We are going to New Zealand in October/November as a Honeymoon, so thought we'd get this book ahead of time to have a bit of a look to see if we were going near anywhere we could make a slight detour to.I have been flicking through it this evening and my initial thoughts are:1. The photography is excellent - including some with and without the digitally enhanced elements (ie the mountains with Minas Tirith in place and the mountains as they look normally) - so you do get an impression for what you might see.2. There's some interesting info about finding the locations, the filming and being extras etc3. There's info about where it is (inc GPS coords for specific exact locations), what the nearest towns are, how to find out more and where to stay/eat - if relevant.My main criticisms are - there's not really enough cross-referencing in terms of page numbers (ie p31 has the "eight essential locations" but doesn't tell you which pages to find out more) and the index is all single pages even when there are ranges - this makes it tricky to identify the "main" instance from "it's mentioned on the page". Neither of these are over-come-able but I am sat here with a pencil jotting a few page references in for myself (but then I work in publishing so maybe that has something to do with it!) Also, more comprehensive maps of locations would be useful - they are there zoomed in, but when you don't know the local geography very well it's tricky to judge where they are.I've not been or used it there yet though, so cannot comment on that aspect yet. But overall it looks like it'll make interesting reading - we just need to compare it to our itinerary!

I first saw this book on sale in New Zealand where it was quite expensive. On return to the UK, I ordered it from Amazon. The book arrived promptly, and in excellent condition. My criticism revolves around the mapping, or lack of it, in the book. Having just returned from New Zealand, I was able to relate to some of the locations alluded to in the book. However, the mapping found on the inside of the front cover and back cover cannot be used for the vast majority of the locations - the book's mapping does not have the requisite detail. The book does provide SATNAV coordinates, but I suggest the reader would benefit from buying a better/larger-scale map to compliment the read. It would be difficult to use the book to plan a touring holiday.

Lovely images and descriptions of locations from the LotR trilogy, and some great background information. Very good inspiration for my trip to New Zealand! Even contains a suggested travel itinerary. Only thing I am a bit dissatisfied with is that when you read about a location, the scene from the movie is described in the text, and is sometimes hard to find. It would be nice with a fact box with the scene, and possibly a small picture of the movie scene to compare. Note: if you are expecting a detailed walkthrough of how the movie was made, this is not the book - it is, as it says, a location guidebook.

I'm about to head to New Zealand. I'm also a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings films and I'm very keen to visit some of the beautiful locations used. This guidebook is fantastic: it gives you travel / transport tips and tells you exactly what to be looking for. I can't wait for the trip and I am positive that with this guidebook, I'll be able to see many of the locations used in a remarkable trilogy.The only reason this is not 5 stars is because I bought a second hand copy so it was a bit weathered.