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Everything You Need To Know About New Zealand's Working Holiday Visa
Who hasn't dreamed of quitting their job, packing up everything, and moving to the Shire? As a lifelong LOTR nerd (yes, the kind who owned a Galadriel ring and made my then-boyfriend read the trilogy before I'd marry him), I devoured Hannah D. Cooper's new guide the second it published.
New Zealand offers working holiday visas to citizens of 42 countries, and the appeal is exactly what it sounds like: up to a year of temporary work and full-time exploring. There are age limits, savings requirements, and insurance rules to clear first, but once you're in, work is easy to come by. Employers there are used to the steady trickle of visa holders rolling through.
What I really wanted to know, though, was whether I could keep my own job going remotely while living there. The honest answer: it's a grey area. The working holiday visa isn't a digital nomad visa, and leaning on remote income as your main gig cuts against its whole point.
Cooper's guide covers the rest: what you'll need and every tool to turn "someday" into a plane ticket. She gets into how the work itself becomes the way you make friends and actually absorb the Kiwi way of life.
And even if a full year isn't your thing, her list of favorite places to go is worth the read on its own.
— Kelsey Wilking, newsletter editor
P O I N T S
How I Booked My First Trip With Points
Photo: Anna Church on Unsplash
It started with a home renovation, a Chase card, and a dream trip to Italy. Katie Begnoche at Daily Drop didn't set out to become a points expert. She just wanted to get to Rome without paying full price.
Here's how she pulled it off, what she'd do differently today, and the mistakes that still haunt her.
S T A Y S
Where to Sleep, Splurge, and Save
No affiliate links. Just solid finds.
Photos: Mandarin Oriental Palace, Luzern; Hutton Hotel; Ocean Eden Bay, Jamaica; The Strand Turks and Caicos
The Strand, Turks & Caicos: Take 25% off suites, villas, and residences at this oceanfront resort community on Cooper Jack Bay, where every all-ocean-facing room sits perched above the water's edge.
Hutton Hotel, Nashville: Nashville's original boutique hotel just wrapped a $40 million renovation, unveiling refreshed rooms, new dining and social spaces, and an elevated spa.
Ocean Eden Bay, Montego Bay: Save up to 30% at this adults-only, all-inclusive resort on the Jamaican seafront with 444 suites, six restaurants, a PADI dive center, and a spa.
Mandarin Oriental Palace, Lucerne: Celebrate 120 years of this storied lakeside Palace with up to 15% off.
T R A V E L
The Best Island in the Caribbean for Every Type of Traveler
Photo: Peter Krocka/Shutterstock
For the rum: Barbados. For late nights: Puerto Rico. For fewer crowds: Grenada.
The Caribbean is actually 7,000 islands arcing from just south of Florida to the coast of Venezuela. The official tourism map covers 30 of them, and honestly, any one would make a fine tropical escape.
But the right trip is about more than a pretty beach. For everyone who's ever mixed up Dominica and the Dominican Republic, here's the island that actually fits you.
E V E N T S
8 Cities to Celebrate Juneteenth Festivities This Year
Photo: Tippman98x/Shutterstock
Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, the day the last enslaved people in Texas were freed, the effective end of slavery in America. The holiday is both a celebration of Black history and culture and a way of keeping the national conversation on race alive.
From music festivals to freedom walks, these eight cities host some of the country's finest Juneteenth events.
S T A Y S
This Italian Island Resort Lets You Train With Olympians and Pro Coaches
Photo: Forte Village Resort
Forte Village, on the coast of Sardinia, runs 31 "academies" where guests can learn tennis, boxing, fencing, chess, sailing, DJing, scuba diving, mountain biking, and more across the 123-acre property.
There are eight lodging options plus private villas, 21 restaurants and bars, 11 pools strung along the coast, and gardens in every direction — its own tiny, self-contained Mediterranean village.
S U R V E Y
The Best Wellness Destination of 2026
We're collecting nominations for the best wellness destinations of 2026: places rooted in tradition, surrounded by nature, and built around experiences that leave you feeling genuinely different and refreshed than when you arrived.
Where should the world be looking next?
Travel Well
The Matador Editorial Team
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