The most incredible place. Milford Sound. The question isn’t whether you want to go there, the question is, how close to Milford should you stay? Milford itself may have a couple of backpacker huts that you can reserve in advance, but there isn’t a town or a hotel.

Many tourists join a tour from Queenstown. It’s doable! And I almost went with that option. One of the best decisions we made for our trip was to stay in Te Anau. It’s so much closer to Milford Sound. So instead of 10(!) hours on a tour bus, you’re looking at more like 4.5. And the tour we took was just excellent. It was perfectly paced with so many great sights along the way. Because we took the tour on our first day in Te Anau, we learned about other great things to do there just on that one day. Plus, Te Anau is the most delightful town on the most beautiful lake.

Here’s the tour we took: http://www.fiordlandtours.co.nz/our-tours/milford-sound-fiordland-extraordinaire/. 100% recommend this company. I’m not associated with them in any way, and I don’t gain anything from this – it’s just an excellent way to see Milford Sound! To make it even easier, I gave them our AirBnb address so they could recommend a meeting point nearby. Sasha, the tour guide, came and picked us up from our accommodation!

I found this tour the same way I find most of our travel choices – it has a very high rating on Trip Advisor.

Enjoy. It really is an amazing day.