Hello - I'm looking for some advice on picking a Milford Sound cruise please.

I'm looking for
- a day cruise (a.m. early start preferably) - just a cruise as we'll be driving there
- a smaller boat - not interested in kayaking or other activities - my interest is photography

I'm a bit bewildered by all the options and would appreciate some recommendations from personal experience.

Many thanks

Rob

When are you going? We have been on a couple of cruises at Milford in winter and spring and were able to just turn up on the day and pick one.

This November. I'd rather book in advance tbh

R

The main difference between the various Milford Sound "day cruise" options is the length of the cruise - between 1.5 hours up to 3 hours. Depending on the operator the first cruises of the day departs around 9:30am to 10:30am with other departures staggered throughout the day. The ships themselves are relatively small holding between 75 and 100 passengers.

They all basically do the same tour, sailing from the dock area located at the southern end of the fiord along one side of the fiord toward the Tasman Sea and returning to the dock by way of the other side of the fiord. The longer length cruises go a bit further toward the Tasman Sea vs. the shorter cruise that make their turnaround earlier.

We did the cruise on two different occasions with two different operators and found no appreciable difference. I wouldn't worry about "which one is better" as they all have friendly crews, offer similar refreshments while on board and give you the same views of the various points of interest along the fiord.

Pick the operator that has a departure time and length of cruise that best fits your travel plans for the day of your visit.

Many thanks - that's really helpful

R

Also - where is best to find and book a cruise please - I've been looking at milford sound dot co dot NZ

but I'm not clear if this covers all the cruise operators - so am I looking at all the options?

Thanks again

Rob

IIRC, they all have pretty good reviews on Google and elsewhere.

Be ware though, depending on where you're staying, it's a very long day trip. It takes hours to drive to Milford Sound, then you do the cruise, and then you have a long trip back.

I did it once from Te Anau, which is not as long a trip to Milford Sound. But still at least a couple of hours each way.

You might look into whether you can book last minute, once you have an idea of what the weather is like. When it rains it rains a lot. Some people may prefer it, rationalize that the waterfalls have more water falling. Myself, I prefer sun.

The other time, I took a flight from Queenstown, costs more of course but maybe it was double the price of the land tour? In any event, I made sure to pick a sunny day and it was simply spectacular, flying to and back from Milford Sound. Even the flight approaching Queenstown on the return flight was stupendous, flying over the lake.

But the other great thing, it was half or less than half the length of the road trip. So you had the afternoon to spend in QT and surroundings.

I did a day trip a few years back by coach from Queenstown; yes long day, but beautiful and really worth it! A highlight of my trip. I arranged the whole trip, unusually for me, through a travel agent and was very happy with the arrangements.