Where to stay in Queenstown: the best areas and hotels

Central Queenstown is small enough to cross in ten minutes and busy enough to fill a week. The lakefront is the focus: a pebble beach, a promenade of restaurants and bars, and the wharf where the old steamer TSS Earnslaw sets off across Lake Wakatipu. Behind it, the gondola climbs Bob's Peak for the view that sells the postcards, and every other shopfront will book you a bungy jump, a jet boat or a day trip to Milford Sound.

Stay in or near the centre if you want to walk everywhere and enjoy the nightlife, which is lively all year thanks to a steady supply of skiers and backpackers. Hotels along the lake on either side of town are quieter and have the better views. Frankton, by the airport, is practical for a first or last night. In winter the ski fields of Coronet Peak and The Remarkables are a short drive away. Book ahead: this is the busiest spot in the South Island.

About an hour from Queenstown over the Crown Range, Wanaka is what many people hope Queenstown will be. The town curls around the southern end of its own long lake, with the peaks of Mount Aspiring National Park lined up behind. There is plenty to do, from hiking Roys Peak to skiing at Cardrona and Treble Cone, but nobody is shouting about it, and the evenings are for a glass of local wine and an early night.

Places to stay are low-rise and relaxed: a lakeside hotel with spa tubs, a sauna and bikes to borrow, a resort facing the Southern Alps with its own day spa, and a friendly lodge with a garden. For real stillness, a lakefront hotel on neighbouring Lake Hāwea, 15 minutes' drive away, has lake and mountain views from every room. Several have ski storage for winter.

Cromwell sits beside Lake Dunstan where the roads from Queenstown, Wanaka and the east coast meet, which makes it a handy base and a cheaper one. This is fruit and wine country: the surrounding valleys produce some of New Zealand's finest pinot noir, roadside stalls sell cherries and apricots in summer, and the old gold-rush buildings of the heritage precinct line the waterfront.

Accommodation is mostly well-kept motels and apartments, many with kitchens, set near the shops or the golf course. The smartest option is a lakeside apartment resort with a restaurant terrace. Stay here if you plan to tour the vineyards, or want to split your days between Queenstown and Wanaka without paying resort-town prices. Do not expect nightlife.

Dunedin, on the east coast, is a long drive from Queenstown and a complete change of scene. Founded by Scottish settlers and made rich by a gold rush, it has some of the best-preserved Victorian and Edwardian architecture in the country, from the eight-sided central plaza known as the Octagon to a railway station so ornate it looks like gingerbread. A big student population keeps the cafés and bars busy.

The wild Otago Peninsula begins at the edge of town, with albatrosses, penguins and sea lions in residence. Hotels are central and characterful: a boutique stay in an elegant Victorian building, a landmark hotel with a history going back to 1883, and a contemporary design hotel built around an atrium garden. Two nights is about right.

Oamaru is one of New Zealand's nicest surprises. The harbour quarter is a set of grand nineteenth-century buildings carved from pale local limestone, now home to galleries, bakeries, bookshops and a proudly eccentric steampunk scene. At dusk, little blue penguins come ashore near the harbour, and the town turns out to watch.

It is a natural overnight stop between Dunedin and the north. Most accommodation is in spotless, friendly motels within walking distance of the cafés and the historic precinct, some with spa baths and full kitchens. For something special, an 1889 lodge set in manicured gardens offers antique-filled rooms and serious dinners for a handful of guests.