Recharge in Queenstown on a 6-day Wellness Escape

Queenstown is the ideal place to slow down, reconnect, and discover new ways to relax and recharge. This itinerary incorporates ideas for hot pools, spa days, yoga, biking, wine tasting, and nourishing food with plenty of time for you to explore your own interests and any spontaneous whims. Take a week to recalibrate your energy and return to your daily life rested, reinvigorated, and inspired.

Day 1: Settle In & Warm Up

Make your first day in Queenstown all about slowing down and relaxing into Queenstown time. Here are few fun ‘could-dos’ to help you get a sense of place.

Get The Lie of the Land

Orientate yourself with a gentle walk around town. This Queenstown shopping walking trail is a handy guide to central Queenstown shopping, galleries, outdoor gear stores, and cafes. If you arrive at the weekend, and you’re into local food and craft here’s a guide to the local markets.

If you’re more interested in views than boutiques, the Tiki Trail is a short (but steep) 2km jaunt up the wooded slopes of Bob’s Peak. You’ll give your legs a good workout and be rewarded with panoramic vistas of Queenstown and Lake Whakatipu.

Grab a Nourishing Breakfast

After an hour or so wandering the streets and trails of Central Queenstown, you may be ready for a wholesome breakfast packed with local produce.

Bespoke Kitchen is perfectly placed for hill walkers at the foot of Bob’s Peak. The menu is full of delicious healthy options and baking. Vudu Café and Larder has been a local institution since the 1990s and one look at the generous savoury and sweet treats shows you why. Odd Saint has a sunny terrace and a fun international brunch menu. For more ideas check out this guide to the best breakfasts in Queenstown.

Relax with a Hot Soak

Recalibrate your inner clock to mountain time with a soak at one of the hot pools in central Queenstown. Bathe by Aluume is an urban oasis with private and communal hot pools open to 10:00pm at night. The luxurious Bathhouse Spa has hot soaking pools, a cold plunge, a steam room with earthy soothing scents, a Finnish sauna with a crackling fire, and infrared saunas. You’ll find both on Brecon Street.

Dine Seasonal & Local

The restaurant at Sherwood is one of the original garden to table Queenstown dining experiences. When the hotel reopened after its eco-luxe makeover in 2014, one of the jewels of the reimagined hotel was its large kitchen garden. Today, Sherwood grows most of its produce on site. The rest of the ingredients are sourced from local producers and foraged in the surrounding hills.

The Sherwood menu is hyper local, hyper seasonal, and hyper delicious. The place is a hub for happenings so look out for live music or poetry. Finish with a nightcap in the courtyard. There are more quintessentially Queenstown food adventures here.

Day 2: Slow Spa & Slow Food

One of Queenstown’s big draws is its luxurious day spas with lush massage treatments, wellbeing, and beauty therapies. Start your day at one of the best.

Recharge at Body Sanctum Day Spa

Release your stress and sore muscles, revive and relax with an indulgent retreat at Body Sanctum Day Spa. This award-winning inner-city haven on Atholl Street holds the 2025 crown for New Zealand’s best day spa. It’s a calm oasis with soft lighting, indulgent massages, facials, and body treatments.

Body Sanctum is famous for their hot stone massage and couples treatments, and their mountain menu designed for hikers is ideal for sore feet and shoulders after a day on the trails. Book one of their packages for a few hours of pure relaxation.

Discover Queenstown Gardens

Take your newly de-stressed self for a stroll down to the lakeshore and head out on the lakeside path around the Queenstown Gardens. Look out for the beehives, the vast glacial erratic boulders, and secluded sculptures. If you’re in luck, you may see the historic steamship the TSS Earnslaw cruising past on the lake.

The Queenstown Gardens are home to a spectacular Frisbee Golf course. You can hire discs from the Queenstown Ice Arena and play a few holes across the lush lawns surrounded by rose gardens and through windswept groves of pine trees.

If you want to stretch your legs more, continue on around the headland and take the Te Araroa Trail towards Frankton Marina as far as you fancy. Or cut back through the gardens and wander around the streets of central Queenstown. If you love art you can explore Queenstown’s trove of galleries and public art with this walking trail.

Enjoy a Slow Local Dinner at Rātā

Queenstown dining icon Rātā first opened its doors in 2012, and it’s been a hotspot for foodies seeking seasonal southern produce ever since. The restaurant had a quiet refresh in late 2025 to make it lighter, warmer, and even more inviting.

Rātā is known for wood fired flavours, ferments, and bold dishes with a witty hint of Kiwiana. Their new menu serves up classics like potato rosti with Kiwi dip and sourdough made with Speight's ale served with Marmite butter. Expect generous plates of local produce like blue cod, Royalburn lamb, and Wakanui beef cheek.

Day 3: Wine & Wellness

Today, explore two of the jewels in Queenstown’s crown. The Queenstown Trails are a 150km network of scenic offroad trails. The wine trail takes you into the heart of our local wine region, Gibbston, where you can sample our celebrated Pinot Noir.

Cycle the Gibbston River Wine Trail

Hire an e-bike and hit the trail to Gibbston wine region for spectacular scenery and equally spectacular wine. Queenstown to Gibbston is a 40km ride that takes 4-6 hours. There are a couple of decent climbs but an e-bike makes the hills a breeze and the stunning views along the way make for a memorable ride.

It’s fun to stop at Kawarau Bridge and visit the birthplace of commercial bungy. Even if adrenaline sports aren’t your buzz you’ll still enjoy the dramatic location with the historic suspension bridge crossing the precipitous river gorge. Watch thrill seeking bungy jumpers leap off a tiny platform and plummet 43 metres into the river below.

Visit the Wineries & Taste the Local Terroir

Once you’re in Gibbston, you can cycle between the wineries, tasting as you go. There are about a dozen cellar doors along the Gibbston River Trail. Some highlights include regional pioneer Chard Farm, which you’ll find across the road from the Kawarau Bridge. Peregrine’s architectural winery and organic wines are well worth a visit, and Kinross is the charming cellar door for five boutique wineries.

Spa and Dinner at Gibbston Valley Lodge

After an afternoon trying local vintages, park up your bike at the vineyard where the whole Central Otago wine phenomenon began. Unwind with a luxurious vinotherapy spa treatment and a restorative massage then kick back in the sauna and a soak in the hot pools at Gibbston Valley Spa before dinner at the Lodge Restaurant.

Here you’ll enjoy local, seasonal produce and vegetables and fruit gathered from the Lodge gardens paired with Gibbston Valley wines. Dine by the fire in winter or pull up a seat al fresco in the courtyard in summer. You can even stay in charming villas amongst the vines and marvel at the stars in the Gibbston Dark Sky Park.

Day 4: Explore Local Artists’ Studios

Queenstown’s magnificent southern light and majestic scenery makes it a magnet for artists. There are few nicer activities than day spent discovering the galleries and artist studios in the historic gold mining village of Arrowtown.

Start Your Day with Movement

On your way to Arrowtown, warm up your muscles and get your blood flowing with a yoga or movement session. Drop into the yoga studio at Sherwood for daily yoga classes, meditation, and Pilates. Their gentle morning yin practice is a delight.

Hustle & Flow is a reformer Pilates studio at Queenstown marina with views over the lake and the Remarkables. Nadi Wellness offer classes in breathwork, Hatha, Vinyasa, and hot flow yoga at the Queenstown Yoga Collective in Country Lane.

Explore Arrowtown Artist Studios

Meander onwards through beautiful landscape to explore Arrowtown’s art scene. Nadene Milne Gallery is an elegant contemporary art space in an 1860's colonial building. Visit Graham Brinsley’s studio and gallery in an old church and discover his landscapes exploring Central Otago’s light and landforms.

Birdwoods Gallery showcases the work of local sculptor Jack Stobart, whose hand-carved stone sculptures reflect the alpine landscapes of the region. Jasmine Clark’s Little Hut Gallery displays spectacular organic basket and fish traps woven in copper wire, bull kelp, and natural materials.

This guide to Arrowtown’s artists’ studios and galleries has more ideas for places to visit. Arrowtown is also a hub of independent boutiques, cafes, and great places to eat, and there are some beautiful walks along the Arrow River and in the hills.

Wind Down with an Evening Sauna

Recharge after your day of culture with an evening sauna and let the warmth do the work. At the Watershed Sauna, sink into cedar heat, take in the lake and mountain views, then cool off with a refreshing plunge for the ultimate reset. Over in Frankton, O-Studio Queenstown uses contrast therapy to boost circulation and reduce inflammation, with sauna and ice bath sessions or a deeply relaxing saltwater float to slow the mind. At Wellspace in Kawarau Falls, experience the deep heat of a wood-fired sauna followed by an invigorating ice bath and river swim. Join a community session or book a private experience and ease into your evening feeling calm, clear, and restored.

Day 5: Retreat into Nature

Book an overnight stay at one of the secluded Glenorchy wilderness retreats, where magnificent mountain locations are the perfect base to explore the beautiful area.

Kinloch Wilderness Retreat combines adventure with wellbeing. Kayak, horse trek, lace up your boots and go for a local hike, or simply wander into the bush for an impromptu spot of forest bathing. A yurt in the beech forest is a tranquil space to practice yoga or meditate. Relax afterwards in the hot pool and sauna nestled in bush before heading to the Lodge for hearty food with stunning mountain views.

The Great Glenorchy Alpine Base Camp pays close attention to the golden age of mountaineering with cosy hut accommodation, guided adventures, and remote glamping. Enjoy simple, nostalgic pleasures, stews cooked over a wood fire, a cold local ale after a hot hike, a spoonful of local honey in your coffee, before sharing dinner with the other guests around the fire at Base Camp Kitchen.

Day 6: Choose Your Own Adventure

After your day in the wild, meander your way back from the top of the lake and spend the day pursuing your own joy. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Stroll Through Nature at Moke Lake

15 minutes before you get back to Queenstown stop off for a walk at Moke Lake. This delightful 6km nature walk is a bit of a best kept local secret. Follow the track around the lake through grassland and after a short climb, you will be rewarded with stunning views overlooking the lake.

Head off on an Art Adventure or a Guided Tour

Book a full day painting tour with artist Raquel Carter as your teacher and guide. She’ll take you to paint on location in stunning scenic locations. Visit mountain ranges, alpine rivers, and dark forests and create a painted memento of your stay.

If painting isn’t your thing, local Queenstown guides can take you on a 4WD adventure to a gold mining ghost town, introduce you to stargazing and astro photography, or tell you stories of local characters as you stroll around the historic corners of town. This round up of local guided tours is full of fantastic ideas.

Get out on Lake Whakatipu

Paddle Queenstown on the main town beach will hire you Aqua Bikes and kayaks, but our favourite is a stand-up paddleboard. Pop on your swimsuit, sunblock up, and see Queenstown from a whole new angle. For a more peaceful paddling experience Paddle Queenstown also offer kayak and paddleboard experiences on beautiful little Moke Lake nestled among the mountains a few kilometres from town.

Take Yourself out on the Town

For your final Queenstown dinner try Blue Kanu for fun vibes, friendly service, and fresh flavours. The Pacific Rim fusion cuisine has light options like tuna tacos and oysters. Or head to Toast & Oak, a hidden gem of a wine bar with elegant, nourishing dishes. Treat yourself to the chef’s menu paired with exquisite wine recommended by the knowledgeable staff. For something lively by the lake, make your way to Queenstown Wharf Bar, where relaxed waterside dining meets vibrant energy, creative cocktails, and share plates made for lingering over as the sun sets behind the mountains.

Day 7: A Departure Ritual to Remember

Celebrate your last morning in Queenstown by getting moving in nature. The Bakery Run Club meets 8:00am on Saturday at the Boat Shed Bakery at Queenstown Marina for a friendly scenic 5km loop along the lake. It’s the only run club we know where your warm down involves coffee and pastry overlooking the lake.

If you’d like to leave a lasting memory of your trip, you can donate to local environmental action initiative Love Queenstown to support local climate, conservation and biodiversity projects. As you do, why not set an intention for a return visit to Queenstown to immerse yourself in the richness of Queenstown’s wellness scene?