Want to do the flight/cruise/flight from Queenstown to Milford Sound and return this November. What are the recommended companies we should be looking at? Any first hand experiences?

Aloha!

While I'm sure the flight would be exhilarating, the coach-cruise-scenic flight option would allow you to see Milford Road, considered by many to be one of NZ's most scenic drives, in greater detail, to get out and walk around a bit and take photos of places like Mirror Lakes, Knob's Flat, Eglinton Valley, and Homer Tunnel.

Real NZ is a great company to book with. I did Coach-Cruise-Coach from Queenstown to Milford Sound. The drive in, listening to the tour guide's hours of history and facts about New Zealand was my favorite part of my entire New Zealand trip last November. I did the overnight cruise. We had the option to fly back to Queenstown. It would have saved a lot of time, but I didn't check on the price. One plus for me was the weather was grey, white-out, and rainy coming in to Milford, but it was clear and beautiful leaving, so I'm glad I got to see it both ways.

Thank you for your suggestion and you are spot on. The first time we did this two years ago we drove in and stayed in Te Anau for two nights. This time we want to fly in and out so we can experience the flight and the beauty of Milford Sound again.

Now I understand why you prefer to fly rather than drive to Milford Sound.

Here are links to the three most popular companies that offer flight seeing trips to Milford Sound. All three offer: 1) Just r/t flight seeing trips, 2) Fly, cruise and fly back trips, and 3) Fly, cruise and coach back trips.

https://www.milfordflights.co.nz

https://www.airmilford.co.nz

https://www.glenorchyair.co.nz/desti...ound-glaciers/

We did the fly/cruise/fly back trip with Milford Flights and had a fantastic time. The views from the aircraft were tremendous - you could almost reach out and touch the peaks of the mountains..

Thanks for the links and recommendation. Just what I was looking for.

Aloha!