Te Anau Lakeview Holiday Park & Motels — Hotel in Fiordland Community

I do not recommend staying at the Te Anau Lakeview Holiday Park unless you are a family looking for a quiet or prepared to be in bed by 10pm every night.

Our group of friends arrived on the 27th of December for the New Year period. From the moment we arrived at the camp, we felt the manager was looking for any excuse to kick us out. Multiple times we saw the manager lurking behind our boats, tents and gazebos at night until we made a noise and caught him watching us through his house windows.

We spoke to other campers who were also asked to leave early for the most ridiculous reasons or were leaving early due to the manager and his staff members’ behaviour. We note this negative behaviour and attitude was only directed towards the younger / non family campers.

We had to have music completely turned off by 10pm, which we were happy to comply with, but were then told at 11pm that we weren’t allowed to talk and we needed to go to bed.

A few days into our holiday we were then pulled aside and met with accusations from the manager that we were the cause of a serious crash on the Manapouri-Te Anau Highway because we were standing on the fence line of the campground and that was distracting to the driver (the crash was no where near the camp, and we didn’t even see a vehicle while standing there). When we raised this incident with the manager to voice our issues with his accusation, we were met with hostility and denial.

On New Year’s Eve, we had to have all music off by 12.30am, even though the speaker volume was lower than our speaking volume (as was the case on all nights). When we asked if we could move our speakers etc. across the road to the park, the manager was happy for this to happen so long as we were not at our camp site, but the staff member that was with the manager became aggressive and began swearing at members of our group because we didn’t immediately comply with their demands to pack up and go to bed, which we weren’t ready to do given it was 12.30am on New Year’s Eve.

The next afternoon we were asked to pack up and leave the camp early because we were ‘aggressive and abusive’ towards staff, but no accountability was taken from the manager for his or his staff members actions.

We are by no means party people (we even had a young baby with us) and we’re only looking to have some background music on.

We constantly felt harassed and on edge. Their behaviour was unwarranted and completely unacceptable.

We will not be back and we absolutely do not recommend...

Don't know anything about a Lakeview, we got a tin shed view. On checking in I was somewhat disappointed to find our powered site was right up against a massive shed that towered over our camper. Also there was no access to water at our powered site.

We had booked our stay well in advance but did make a change a few days out to bring our stay forward by one day. Initially I assumed the park must have been very full that night and I suppose someone has to get these sub par overflow sites, this time it was me...

But no. The park didn't fill up at all. And late that night and early the next morning I could see there were many excellent, elevated powered sites, that would have accommodated our camper, and even provided the "Lakeview".

I had nothing but good natured dealings when talking with the staff there so I was baffled as to why we were unnecessarily served this awful site.

I left very early that morning so later emailed the park my concerns and respectfully and genuinely asked why I had been given this awful site - they didn't even bother to respond.

So, you might want to check whether you're indeed getting access to a lake view or a tin shed view. And whether your site has access to water.

(My rating also reflects the fact you ignored my follow up email enquiry.)

Response: please take the time to re-read my review. I never emailed asking for a "move". I emailed after I had left early the next morning when it was totally clear to me there was no reason at all for us to be in that dreadful site.

And you're being misleading about the access to water. The nearest tap was across the road way, on another site's pole that contained their power also - And in any event was too far away to reach our motorhome once parked up.

Your comment that families enjoy this site is baffling. Perhaps you enjoy putting families with children...

What's good: Location was fantastic, right in front of the lake - you can walk to town while enjoying the beautiful lake view. Laundry was $4 per wash with warm washing option available. Plenty of clothing lines for you to dry your clothes. I'm a single traveller and appreciated that they have the option of single rooms, unlike most other places. Toilets and dining areas were sparkling clean especially after the staff does daily cleaning. Kitchen had plenty of sinks and food prep space but it does get busy around the evenings. Plenty of parking space right outside the block with single rooms. Fantastic water pressure and hot water everyday. Mini fridge provided at each block made it convenient to access food without walking all the way to the kitchen.

What's not good: The single rooms were positioned such that you get the morning/evening sun very strongly. There is no fan provided. I opened the windows but when there's no wind, my room became a literal sauna. There's also no doorstopper to keep the door open for air to circulate, except for the chair in the room. Everyday when I came back, my room felt like an oven. I had to put the new sheets on my own, something I didn't expect to do with the price I paid for the room. The toilets in the single room blocks were unisex and there will be males and females using the toilet at the same time. I wasn't used to this and so felt slightly uncomfortable. There are no sanitary bins in each cubicle so ladies will need to exit the cubicle to throw sanitary pads away at the bin by the toilet door. Wifi was slow but good enough for basic use of messaging apps - just don't watch or upload videos. Kitchen sinks were slightly narrower than usual which made washing big plates / utensils clumsy as the water will...