Explore Queenstown Like a Local

Our 10 Must-Know Tips let you Save Money, Discover and Experience the Best of Queenstown

Updated 4 December 2020

Queenstown is arguably New Zealand's most popular tourism destination. But behind the bungy jumping and skiing is a small town with a lot to offer discerning visitors. Our guide, devised by locals, exclusively reveals the best of Queenstown that seen but rarely experienced on the ground. We cover walking trips, day drives, how local transport unlocks fantastic shoreline, how to save time and money on the ski field and how to save 50% on Queenstown's top restaurants.

As this is the first version of this guide, if you have tips you'd like to share, please contact our research team.

Ten Must-Know Queenstown Tips, Exclusively Revealed on MoneyHub

Eat at Queenstown's best restaurants for 50% off food

The First Table website lets diners book a table at participating restaurants and get 50% off the food bill. You'll pay $10 to secure the table, it's usually fixed at 8am, 12pm or 5pm (or around the time of the restaurant opening), and your party must be two, three or four people. While drinks are charged at full price, First Table makes dining out affordable. Each day, there's only one or two reservations per sitting per restaurant, and many are competitive.

Queenstown has some fantastic restaurants, and many of them are on First Table. Examples include:

Blue Kanu
The Bunker Room
Ivy and Lola's
Thai Cuisine
Rata
Pedro's by the Lake
Tatsumi
The Taj
Paddy Gaddy
Madam Woo

Our First Table Guide explains everything you need to know.

Book hotels directly (avoiding third party booking websites)

Booking.com, Trivago, TripAdvisor and other hotel comparison websites take as much as 20% commission on bookings. Hotels, suffering from a post-COVID-19 drop in bookings, prefer to have guests book directly. Our tip is simple - use a comparison website to find out what's available and what you like, and then book directly with the hotel or motel. Most will have a website, and you can often negotiate a better deal than what's listed on a hotel website.

Our suggested process:

Decide on the hotel you want to stay in and get a quote from a booking site for the dates. Take a screenshot of the quote.
Send the screenshot of the quote with the following script to the e-mail address of the hotel (most hotels have a dedicated website). You may also see a special offer for direct bookings made with the hotel - you can quote this in the e-mail you send.
If they reply with an offer you think is better, you may want to accept it and book directly. If you don't like the offer or don't hear back, you can book with the booking site as normal.

Hi (hotel name)

I would like to stay at your hotel for the dates of (insert dates) as per the screenshot below. We require a (insert room type) for (insert number of people staying) guest. I write to ask if you offer a better deal than the booking website offer below?

I look forward to your reply and staying with you.
Kind regards
(your name)

MoneyHub Senior Researcher Christopher Walsh shares a story:
“We went skiing in Queenstown in July, and friends had favourably referred us to the Swiss-Belsuites Pounamu. I visited their reception and they offered a great deal. Everyone who visited us loved our one bedroom apartment. Booking direct made a great holiday even better".

Have Dinner on a Boat

Arguably, the best view of Queenstown among the local eateries is bars is found at Perky's, the floating bar. Best visited when the waters are calm (it does rock in high winds), Perky's top floor has 360 degree views over the lake and town. Best of all, their $20 combo gives you a Devil Burger (like Ferg burger but different), chips and a wine beer, wine or soft drink. If you want to bring your own food, Perky's welcomes that too. We've included Perky's on this list as a stand-alone entry because it has wide appeal - from families with small children to groups heading out for a night in Queenstown.

Taste Central Otago Wines

Queenstown doesn't produce wine, but the neighbouring areas are rich in vineyards. Arguably, the best (and safest) way to see them is to book onto a multi-stop wine tour. You can do the hop-on, hop-off option, but this can mean you're waiting around when you'd prefer to be exploring other wineries. The alternative is to go with an all-in-one provider, and for about $200 you'll visit 3-5 wineries, have all the tastings, enjoy a lunch and be picked up and dropped off at your accommodation.

Some wine tours limit themselves to the Gibbston Valley area, but there's a lot more around Queenstown including the notable Bannockburn area, Bendigo, Pisa and Cromwell wineries. Popular providers include:

Roaring Tours - arguably the best value and most diverse, covering every region from Queenstown out to Bendigo
Appellation Wine Tours - focuses on Gibbston, Bannockburn and Cromwell wine sub-regions
Altitude Tours - Focus on Gibbston wine sub-regions
Wine Hopper Bus - DIY hop on, hop off service of Gibbston sub-region

Visit Arrowtown for $2

Hourly buses leave to and from Arrowtown and take about 25 minutes to get there from central Queenstown. You're dropped off in the middle of town and can explore the Chinese Miners huts, the Arrow River, the shops, restaurants and craft beer breweries. Best suited to a sunny afternoon or winter day, the town is popular with locals and is worth a couple of hours on the ground to see a slice of old New Zealand.

Save Money When Skiing

Know this first - NZSki, operator of the Coronet Peak and Remarkables, offers a 10% discount if you buy lift passes and lessons if you buy it online. This means quite a significant saving in dollar terms (as skiing is not a cheap activity). To benefit from the 10% discount, you'll need to register on the NZSki.com website. You can then buy what you want as you need it. You can then pick up an NZSki card at the Snow Centre in town, which means you can avoid the lines at the top of the mountain.

Our must-know skiing tips are as followed:

Save on gear rental: Gear rental up the top of the mountain costs around $50/day, but rental shops in town do it for around $25 (or less if you go for multi-day rentals).
Avoid the lines: If you rent skis or snowboards with NZSki and are coming back multiple days, you can store them in the 'Overnight Returns' section - this means you don't need to get fitted and line up the next day as you'll be given a token to swap for your skis the next day.
Ski half the day and save: If you don't want to ski all day, an Afternoon Pass (valid from 12:30pm to 4pm) is a good option. Snow tends to be softer and easier to ski in the afternoon, and a full afternoon pass is around $85 (adult) and $44 (children) if purchased online. If you're driving, you can have a better chance of finding a car park close to the chair lifts.
Avoid the drive: The NZSki bus is $25 return (adults) and saves a lot of hassle, leaving every 30 minutes to both Coronet Peak and The Remarkables. It also drops you right beside the chair lifts - no walking needed - and holds any ski gear you want to bring up.
BYO food: Most New Zealanders bring a bag with food and non-alcoholic drinks and leave it on the ski lodge deck. It's safe and dry, and park bench-type tables are provided to use. The food at both mountains is excellent, but if you're a big group, bringing your own can save time and money.

Explore using the Queenstown Ferry

The Queenstown Ferries service is a reliable, scenic and novel way to explore Queenstown. It's very simple, with four stops - the lakefront (CBD), Bayview (Kelvin Heights), the Marina (near Frankton) and the Hilton hotel complex. Fares are $10 per journey, or $15 return.

Suggested half-day ferry and walking trips include:

For $15 return, you can jet from town out to the Hilton, walk around the Frankton beach and then take the return boat from the Marina. If you wish, you can walk all the way along the Frankton-Queenstown track back into Queenstown.
Alternatively, for $15 return you can get dropped off at the Hilton, walk along the scenic Kelvin Heights beach track, and take the ferry back from Bayview to the Queenstown lakefront.
For a serious walk, you can get dropped off at Bayview and walk all the way around to the Marina.

Top Tip: For a great afternoon out, take the ferry to the Hilton Hotel (the last stop). From there, you can enjoy a bottle of wine at the Three Miners Cellar Door for as little as $24, with wine bottles from around New Zealand (Central Otago, Marlborough and Waiheke Island) on sale at "cellar door" prices. The well-valued wine tasting $10, or $20 with cheese or chocolate pairings, is also popular. After that, cross the scenic Kawarau River bridge walk along Frankton beach to the Marina. There, you'll find local-hangout Altitude Micro

Check out discounted activities

Bookme.co.nz offers a fantastic selection of tours and experiences in Queenstown, all discounted significantly from the standard prices. While the offer of a $1 Shotover Jet experience remains elusive, there's plenty of 20% - 50% off deals that make Queenstown more affordable. Updated daily, Book Me offers over two hundred options, including:

Tandem Paragliding over Coronet Peak
Quad Bike Adventures
AJ Hackett Bungy
Alpine Snow Landing Flight
Self Guided Bike Hire
Beer & Brewery Tours
Ice Bar Deals
Doubtful Sound Cruises
Fear Factory
Winery Tours
Kawarau River Jet and Shotover Jet
Kiwi Birdlife Park Queenstown
Lord of the Rings Tours
Milford Sound Fly-Cruise-Fly Tours

Is it better to book with Book Me or the operator?
It depends on the price - Book Me is often cheaper, and operators won't negotiate to match the Book Me price. Book Me bookings are always for a specific time and day; you must show up on time. Moving the time or day is often prohibited. If you book directly with an operator, you may have more flexibility (i.e. should the weather be so bad that you'd prefer to do the activity the following day. This means that it can be better to book on the day if what you want to do is weather-dependent, whereby Book Me deals may not be available.

Kinloch to Routeburn to Paradise to Glenorchy Self-Guide and Drive Tour

You'll need a car, and a full day, but the effort is worth it. You'll take in two rivers (the Rees and the Dart), as well as some of the most photogenic scenery in the South Island. There are some gravel roads, so slow speeds (and windscreen insurance) is suggested. A typical plan is as followed:

Leave Queenstown and drive lakeside directly to Kinloch. Park at the lodge (or DOC campsite) and explore the old wharf, have a coffee or breakfast at the historic Kinloch Lodge, and take in the remoteness.
Head from Kinloch to the start of the Routeburn track. It's a scenic drive, with valleys and mountains. You can then walk the track for about an hour or two and see the stunning crystal-clear Route Burn (river), Sugarloaf Stream and the Bridal Veil Waterfall.
After walking back to the car, head off to Paradise. You can't get lost here - there's only one road in and out. Lord of the Rings was filmed here and it does feel like Middle Earth. Be advised that rivers may need to be forded, and while they can be dry in summer, never cross a river in a car if there is any risk.
After getting to the end of the road (which may be due to a flowing river), head to Glenorchy and explore the quaint township. After a late lunch or early dinner, you can head back to Queenstown.

Know this:

Map: For a comprehensive route map, refer to this pre-planned Google Maps journey planner.
Top Tip: Wait for a sunny skies day to make this trip. Paradise in the rain isn't much fun. If you have a 4X4, you can extend the trip beyond Kinloch and reach the start of the Greenstone Track.

Earnslaw Sailing and Animal Feeding

A reliable option for anyone of any age, the TSS Earnslaw sails over to Walter Peak at least once a day. The iconic coal-fired steamer crosses the lake with grace, before docking at Walter Peak Station. Here, you've got two options - an all-you-can-eat meat meal, or a sheep and dog show followed by the opportunity to feed a number of different animals. You'll also get a morning or afternoon deal. MoneyHub favours the latter, and it's great for children to see (and feed) cows, llamas, goats, sheep, pigs, geese and whatever else is roaming around.

For more information, visit the Earnslaw Cruise website.

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