Joan

We will be in Queenstown in March. Planning on taking one of the buses to do the Milford Sound tour. Still can't decide which one. Has anyone used the Bar-B-Que bus? Anyway, do I need to book our tickets in advance, if so should we do it now, or can it wait until we get there? Thanks.

carolyn

We went last February. Booked the tour when we arrived in Qtown, they were only sold out for the next day, two days later worked fine. We booked the Mitre Peak tour, which was a smaller boat. We got very personal service, we took a late afternoon cruise and there were only 2 other people, the captain and one crew member aboard. We were able to book the less crowded later cruise as we drove from Qtown to Milford. If you go by bus, I think you have to leave early in the morning. Drive if you can and make lots of stops along the drive into Milford. It, too, is a beautiful adventure.

rachel

if you can avoid it, i wouldn't do the day trip into milford from queenstown. It is a 14 hour (at least) day, and you are always amongst the large crowds. You spend most of you're time on the bus asleep because you are exhausted from you're early start! You don't get a chance to see what its really like. <BR>A lot of people prefer to start on one of the trips from Te Anau instead. Te Anau is the closet town to Milford/Fiordland (only 2 hrs from Milford instead of 4 from Queenstown)and is the best place to start your milford trip from. there is a really good company called &quot;trips 'n' tramps&quot; who for very similar $$ give smaller personalised trips in to Milford and back with a 'cuppa' in the bush on the way. they are just brilliant.<BR>as for booking, i would email them direct. don't know their email, check out www.fiordland.org.nz the regional tourism office. they would have the info you need for accom and tours.<BR>you may need to book about a week in advance, they are quite busy. if you can get their details i'd go directly to them.<BR>have a good trip

Christina

Just a word of advice..don't pay before the day you go. When we went in August and booked ahead of time with a &quot;well known&quot; tour company to Milford..they asked us to pay up front. Unfortuanately they charged my CC twice &amp; then because of weather the trip was cancelled. I got them to take one charge off, but then had to have my Credit Card company go after them for the second. <BR><BR>I'm sure this is a special circumstance but just be warned so you don't encounter the same headaches we did.<BR><BR>Also...try doing the fly-tour-fly from Queenstown...therefore you won't have such a long day.

LN

I would also recommend flying to Milford and return. The tour bus takes so long to get there. It's the same when you go to the Glaciers. The bus ride is horrendously long!!!. We met some people in Queenstown and they were on the tour bus with us until Mt Cook where they got off and took a helicopter to the Glaciers. They wre quite smart. It took us 8 hours to get to the Glaciers from Queenstown. I loved everything about our trip to New Zealand (except the looooong bus rides)!!!!!!