Queens­town Parkroyal Hotel, South Island, New Zealand

Queenstown, set along the gorgeous, blue-green Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by the beautiful Remarkable Mountains, should be on every New Zealand visitor’s itinerary. It offers golf, sailing, paragliding, jet boat riding, bungy jumping and more. The dress code is casual, with hiking boots common.

Here, we found the Queens­town Parkroyal Hotel (Beach St., Queenstown, South Island, NEW ZEALAND; phone +64 143 442 7800 or e-mail res1@queenstown.parkroyal.co.uz) to be a delightful surprise. We stayed there Feb. 23-26, ’04, following a cruise from Chile on the MV Discovery.

The rack rate for a desirable lakefront room was NZ$330 (US$255) plus tax; however, we booked through Expedia.com and it cost only US$144 including tax.

A word of caution — breakfast at the Parkroyal, like at most hotels, is pricey: NZ$16 per person for a Continental buffet for tour groups.

At the edge of the business district full of shops and sports activity vendors, none more than 10 minutes’ walk away, the hotel is ideally situated on the lakeshore across from the Steamer Wharf, home of the 1911 steamer Earnslaw and the center of most water sports in the area in addition to excellent restaurants and a casino. We liked the Loaded Hog (+64 3 442 9995) for lunch, the Boardwalk Seafood Restaurant (+64 3 442 5630) for dinner (US$55 per person including cocktails and wine) and Fraser’s Bar & Grill (+64 3 442 5111) for dinner (US$30 per person inclusive).

There are numerous hotels and backpacker lodges in Queenstown. Eichardt’s Private Hotel (phone +64 3 441 0450) is ideally located at lakeshore. The Novotel Gardens is nicely situated in the shopping area but has limited views. The Millennium (phone +64 3 44 18888) is a jitney ride away from shopping. Our choice will always be the Parkroyal.

MAX SMITH
Rye Beach, NH