May in Queenstown: Cosy Cafés & Crisp Autumn Walks
May is the quietest good month in Queenstown. Where to sit with a coffee, which flat walks are worth the drive, and what to know before you plan a day.
May is the quietest good month in Queenstown. The last of the autumn colour is coming down, the ski crowd has not arrived, and for a few weeks the town belongs to the people who live here. If you want the version of this place that is in the photographs without the queue that is usually standing in front of it, this is the month. It is also the month where having your own car stops being a convenience and starts being the plan, because a lot of what makes May good is thirty minutes out of town.
Where do you go for a slow coffee?
In town, Vudu Cafe is the one most locals name first, and it is the right sort of room for a cold morning and a long sit. Bespoke Kitchen sits above the town and is the quieter choice if you want to read rather than watch the street.
Out at Frankton, The Boat Shed is on the water at 847 Frankton Road by the marina, which is a five minute drive from the centre and a completely different view of the same lake. In May, when the Frankton arm goes flat in the mornings, it is the better of the two.
And The Bathhouse sits right at the entrance to the Queenstown Gardens, which makes it the obvious one before a walk. Takeaway coffee in hand, straight onto the path, lake on your left the whole way round. It turns into a restaurant and tapas bar in the evening, so it covers both ends of a May day. For the rest of the takeaway list we have been thorough about that in coffee with a view.
Which walks are worth doing in May?
The flat ones. May is not the month for a five hour climb, because the days are short and the tops are already cold, and the best of it is at lake level anyway.
Queenstown Gardens is the one you can do on foot from town, a loop on the peninsula with the lake on three sides of you and the last of the colour coming down over the paths. The loop around Lake Hayes is the next step up, flat the whole way, and on a still May morning the reflections do the work for you.
For something with a drive in it, Bob's Cove is 14 km out the Glenorchy Road, about twenty minutes from town, with a twenty minute walk down to the cove on an easy track. The car park that is impossible in January is empty in May, which is the whole argument for coming now.
The drive out there is half the reason to go. The Glenorchy Road follows the edge of the lake the whole way, it is sealed, and from mid afternoon in May the light comes in low across the water and turns the whole arm of the lake a colour you will stop the car for. If there is any daylight left when you get back up from the cove, keep going rather than turning round. There is no wrong place to stop on that road and in May you will have most of them to yourself.
And the Arrow River trail out of Arrowtown holds its colour later than anywhere else near Queenstown, which makes it the last good autumn walk of the year most seasons.
What should you plan around?
The light and the cold, in that order.
May days are short and getting shorter, so an afternoon walk needs to start earlier than instinct suggests, and being back before the light goes is worth building in rather than discovering. Mornings carry a frost by the end of the month, which makes the first hour on the road slower than the map thinks and the shaded corners genuinely slippery.
The other thing is that this is shoulder season, and some places take their own holiday in it. A café or a restaurant you read about in January may be closed for a fortnight in May while the owners go somewhere warm, which is entirely fair of them. Check before you drive for something specific, and have a second option.
Why does May need a car more than January does?
Because everything that makes the town busy in summer is what also makes it easy to get around without one.
In the shoulder season the shuttles run thinner, the tours run less often, and taxi waits get longer for the same reason everything else is quiet. Meanwhile the good part of May is Lake Hayes, Arrowtown, the Glenorchy Road and Frankton, none of which are in town. If you want more of the autumn version of this region, welcoming autumn in Queenstown covers the rest of it.
One thing to do while you are here having a quiet month. May is also when the winter bookings go, so if you are coming back for the ski season, this is the moment to book it. The quiet month and the busy one are closer together than they feel.
Book with Evolve Rentals and tell us where you are staying. We bring the car to you, which nobody else in Queenstown does, and in a quiet month that means you can decide what sort of day it is when you wake up and look out of the window.
FAQs
Is May a good time to visit Queenstown?
It is the quietest good month. The autumn colour is coming to an end, the ski season has not started, and the town is calm. Expect cold mornings, short days and a few places closed for their own break.
What are the best easy walks near Queenstown?
Queenstown Gardens on foot from town, the flat loop around Lake Hayes, the Arrow River trail from Arrowtown, and Bob's Cove, which is 14 km out the Glenorchy Road with a twenty minute walk down to the water.
Where is the autumn colour still good in May?
Arrowtown holds it longest, particularly along the Arrow River. In Queenstown itself the Gardens keep colour underfoot well after the trees have thinned out.
Do you need a car in Queenstown in May?
More than in summer. Shuttles and tours run less often in the shoulder season, and the best of May is at Lake Hayes, Arrowtown, Frankton and along the Glenorchy Road rather than in the town centre.