Helicopter Tours Queenstown: Twenty Listings, Three Different Days

See it before you pay for it

What twenty minutes, fifty minutes and a whole day each buy you

From the street you see the ridge above the lake; from the cabin you look straight down the Wakatipu Basin, along the spur of The Remarkables, over the canyons of the Shotover River, and on the longer runs into the icefalls of Mount Aspiring National Park and the waterfalls of Earnslaw Burn. That spread is the whole reason people search helicopter tours Queenstown and then cannot choose: the twenty-minute flight and the nine-and-a-half-hour Milford day are sold on the same page and have almost nothing in common. Every short listing here includes an alpine landing, and the spot is the pilot’s call on the day; no listing on this page states what the sky will be doing during your slot.

Side by side

Over the town, out to the glaciers, or across to Milford Sound

Here is the map of the whole page, because helicopter tours Queenstown gets booked as though the twenty listings were interchangeable. The first group is the short flight over town: twenty minutes onto the spur of The Remarkables at $200, the same twenty minutes with another operator at $232, twenty-five minutes with the landing spot left to the pilot at $226, thirty-five minutes around the whole basin at $285, thirty minutes with a snow landing at $291, and forty-five minutes with two landings at $408. The second group flies west instead of up: fifty minutes to the glaciers of Mount Aspiring National Park at $477 or $491, fifty minutes to blue ice at $526, an hour over the hanging glacier and waterfalls of Earnslaw Burn at $585, and the same valley with a picnic under the ice at $644. Two more in that group add something on the ground: a tasting circuit through Gibbston over seven hours at $564, and a guided snowmobile run in the Garvie Mountains at $692. The third group is the Milford day, seven listings from $739 to $1,077, and the choice inside it is how many landings you get and whether a cruise on the fiord is part of the fare. Pick the group first; the price inside each one moves by minutes in the air, not by anything else.

Before you book

What the fare covers and what it does not

A seat, the minutes the listing names, a pilot who talks you through what is under the skids, and on the short flights an alpine landing written into the programme — that is what you are buying when you book what the search box calls helicopter tours Queenstown. There is nothing to climb and nothing to carry. Every one of the twenty listings lifts off from Queenstown itself, so no transfer to another town is involved, and the longer Milford listings state their own mix of flying, landings and cruise time. Where a listing offers Free cancellation the card says so. What no operator states is the weather: an alpine landing depends on conditions on the day, the pilot decides the spot, and a slot can be moved. Read the conditions on the listing you are actually booking.

What people said afterwards

1,142 reviews across the helicopter tours Queenstown listings

These are the operators’ own numbers on GetYourGuide, shown as published. The twenty-five-minute flight with the landing spot left to the pilot carries the most, 303 reviews at 4.9. The fifty-minute run to the glaciers of Mount Aspiring National Park has 223 at 4.9, the twenty-minute landing on the spur of The Remarkables has 219 at 4.8, and the Milford flight that includes the cruise has 190 at 4.9, the longest record of the Milford group. Eighteen of the twenty listings carry a rating; two are too new to have one, and we say so on their cards rather than filling the gap. We do not write reviews and we do not average other people’s into a score of our own.

What it really costs

From $200 to $1,077, and what moves the number

Three things set the price of helicopter tours Queenstown. The first is minutes in the air: twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty-five, fifty, an hour, and then the Milford listings that run from an hour and a quarter to a whole day. The second is how far west you go — the glaciers of Mount Aspiring National Park and the hanging glacier at Earnslaw Burn start at $477, more than twice the cheapest landing above town at $200. The third is what happens after the flight: a cruise on the fiord, a picnic under the ice, a snowmobile, a tasting circuit. Milford is about 290 kilometres away by road, which is the whole reason the $825 listing exists and why the longest day here reaches $1,077.

The honest answer

Is the Milford day worth four times the twenty-minute flight?

If you have one morning and you want to stand somewhere you cannot walk to, the $200 flight onto the Remarkables Spur does exactly that, and 219 people have rated it 4.8. If the point of the trip is Milford Sound, then our pick of the twenty is the $825 listing: four hours, a flight across Fiordland National Park, a landing in the fiord, a cruise on the water and an alpine or glacier landing on the way back, rated 4.9 across 190 reviews — the longest record of any Milford listing here, and the only reason it is our pick. Milford is about 290 kilometres from Queenstown by road, so the flight is not a luxury version of the drive; it is what turns two days into an afternoon. Between those two sits the part of helicopter tours Queenstown people miss: the $477 fifty-minute run west to the glaciers of Mount Aspiring National Park, rated 4.9 across 223 reviews, which is a different landscape from the ridge above town rather than more of the same. We are paid the same whichever listing you book.

What it is really like

Three trips, not twenty: a peak above the town, the glaciers to the west, and the day that reaches Milford Sound

Twenty listings, three trips

A peak above the town, the glaciers to the west, or the day that reaches the fiord

Every listing below lifts off from Queenstown, and the fare is mostly a measure of two things: minutes in the air and how far west you go. Twenty-five minutes puts you on an alpine spur above the lake; fifty minutes reaches the ice of Mt. Aspiring National Park; four hours reaches Milford Sound and adds a cruise on it. Where a landing is named, it still depends on the conditions of the day.

Practical

Plan the flight

Four decisions, in this order. First, which of the three products you actually want: a landing above town, a glacier run west, or the Milford day — the price gap between them is five-fold, and nobody enjoys discovering that after booking. Second, the minutes: twenty is a real flight and a real landing, but forty-five buys Skippers Canyon and the Shotover River as well, and fifty buys a different range altogether. Third, the day itself: an alpine landing depends on conditions, the pilot chooses the spot, and slots get moved, so leave a spare day near the end of your trip rather than booking the flight for the morning you fly home. Fourth, when to book: these listings run through the year and the popular short flights are the ones that go first, so a week ahead is the sensible margin, more in the school holidays. One thing worth knowing about geography: everything on this page leaves from Queenstown itself, including the flights to Milford Sound, so you do not need to move to another town to take any of the twenty listings that helicopter tours Queenstown turns up.

Best time

When these flights run

The listings behind helicopter tours Queenstown run all year, which is unusual for this kind of flight and the first thing to know: there is no closed season to plan around. What changes through the year is the length of the day, how much snow is on the landing spots, and how far ahead the popular short flights go. One listing sells itself on the snow season and says so; the glacier and Milford listings run whenever conditions allow. We do not forecast conditions and no operator can, so read each listing’s own note before you pay.

Worth knowing

Six things the twenty Queenstown listings do not spell out

Common questions

Twenty minutes or a whole day, and whether you get to stand on the mountain

Why trust this page

How we put this together