One Day in Queenstown With Children
Kids and Queenstown
Queenstown is all fun and adventure, but what if you’re travelling with kids? Can you still enjoy Queenstown? The short answer is a resounding YES.
Almost all adventure activities are child / family-friendly, and in fact, when you are travelling with youngsters then, Queenstown is the sort of place where you can tire them out with epic adventure days, feed them locally, put them to bed early with a Wakatipu based babysitter and then head out for your own fun!
Let's look at a day in the life of a family touring Queenstown
Rise and Shine
Firstly, Spinnaker Bay Apartments offer great in-house breakfast & dining options, but should you be staying elsewhere and are not afforded the ease of in-house breakfasting, then there are plenty of excellent cafés that open early and cater to families with great children’s breakfast menus and options.
A great website dedicated to 'Kids' in Queenstown called Kids Go New Zealand has an extensive list of breakfast locations...
Activity Time
Probably the most apparent activity choice is luging up on the Skyline Gondola. This is a seriously good fun event for all the family with iconic views and lunch/dinner options. But don’t discount other great activities that have made Queenstown famous, like the Shotover Jet, Bungy Jumping, Mini Golf, Go Karting, Chipmunks children's playground, Trampolining, Thrill Zone for Laser Tag, Fear Factory, and Odyssey Sensor Maze.
Lunch / Afternoon Tea
Again, there are so many cafés – and it's almost guaranteed that you’ll find a café close to your morning activity. Don’t sweat it – there is always somewhere to get food and eat.
Worth mentioning as they are becoming iconic are two must do's treats for the kids:
1. Cookie Time for amazing cookies, presented in many innovative sugar-laden ways and;
2. Balls and Bangles for some seriously creative doughnuts!
More Activities - Walks
Generally, all of the waterfront walks are easy and well worth the adventure. The Frankton trail, the Peninsula Bay walk and the walk out to Bob’s Cove are all spectacular in their own right… can be achieved from town and are easily accessible by buggy. From Arrowtown, check out the Millennium Trail and the Gibbston Wine Trail.
The Queenstown Trails Trust has a neat little filter tool on their website which allows you to scale the types of walks best suited to your family and their fitness levels, while DOC covers all of the information on 'other' walking options.
Dinner
To be honest, there are dozens of options in which you can eat with your families of all ages. Probably our favourites for families are Lone Star Queenstown, the Shelter in Frankton’s R Park, Fat Badgers Pizzeria or Winnies in Queenstown. There are so many choices though – so pop into our reception area and ask one of our staff for a recommendation.
Nanny Services
There are a few services in Queenstown that are all really reliable with well-vetted staff. Check out Babysitting Queenstown or Around the Clock Childcare. There is also a super helpful service called Tots on Tour which offers parents who wish to travel without equipment (cots, buggies, strollers, baby backpacks etc.) – but want to hire it locally.
Recap
So, to recap…. wake up and eat at your accommodation or a local café. Head out for a fun activity such as luging, have lunch, go for a walk on one of our great walks, enjoy a cookie or doughnut, rest, have dinner at one of Queenstown or Arrowtown's great restaurants, hire a nanny so the kids can sleep off such an epic day, then head out and enjoy the multitude of diverse restaurants or bars that literally never sleep in Queenstown!
Enjoy!