Is it better to be in the central city area or to stay a bit outside of town? We are staying two nights in Queenstown, arriving from Te Anau, and want to do the Dart River safari, Deer Park Heights, Skyline Gondola & luge, eat at Little India & I don't know what else!

We usually stay centrally in a town so that we don't have to worry about driving after a long day of sightseeing, and possibly drinking--which does not go well with driving! But it seems the activities in Queenstown involve driving out of the city...

From Queenstown we go to Oamaru.

I'm sorry if this reads like a silly, trivial question but having never been there, it's hard to know what is the best thing to do!

Thanks!

Hi Nola -

We prefer to stay outside of town as we've found some hotels in Queenstown to be a bit noisy, since many of them are located on busy roads. As a wine drinker though, I certainly understand your concerns about driving. On our last visit, we stayed in Arrowtown, which is about a 20 minute drive from QT.

One year we stayed in Bella Vista Motel - it's located near the gondola, in a quiet location, yet walking distance from the center of town (and Little India). It worked well for us.

There are many nice hotels located on the waterfront too - most are close enough to town to walk, yet away from the busy streets.

There are certainly advantages to being close to town.

We stayed at what is now Peppers Beacon and can thoroughly recommend it. It is a lovely location facing the lake, yet an easy walk to the centre of Queenstown and all the restaurants and shops.

We also walked to the Gondola and Luge from our apartment, and it is an easy walk to the visitor centre where a lot of the rafting trips etc depart from - apart from day trips to more far flung areas, we never took the car out of the garage.

They often have very good offers on Wotif as well, so great value.

We stayed about a mile from town at The Point. We enjoyed the view and quiet. We drove and walked into town.

Thanks, ya'll. We are going to stay in town because we think we're going to enjoy not 'having' to use the car for a couple of days. I checked with Dart Safari and they'll pick up at our accomodation, which is great. We're booked at the Glebe Apartments and hopefully they'll be quiet and nice.

ozgal, the Peppers Beacon looks fabulous but out of our budget, unfortunately. Early March is still high season for prices...

Good choice staying in town. I was in Queenstown for a week last Dec and enjoyed staying close to the town center (at the Queenstown Mews). Everything was within easy walking distance and it's nice not to have to drive when you need to get into town for dinner, shopping, etc.

The Dart River safari is a nice tour. If you're doing that, no point in doing the Shotover Jet since you get so much more time on a jetboat with the Dart River safari.

jcwc01, we're only doing the Dart River safari. I'm a LOTR fan and it takes you near some of the sights in the movie which I'm excited about although my hubby is more excited about the jet boat part. I know it will be a full day but I'm really looking forward to it. I'm glad we settled on staying in town. I like being able to walk to dinner after an active day.

I see you're a LotR fan. If you haven't done so already, buy a copy of Ian Brodie's The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook. We found it very helpful on the North Island.

Lee Ann

Thanks, Lee Ann, Ian Brodie's book is on my Christmas list (along with the HEMA NZ map). I can't wait to get it.