Hampshire Holiday Parks - Queenstown Lakeview — Local services in South Island

18-26/06/2025

We stayed here for 8 nights. To be honest, this place feels more like a carpark for campervans than a campground — it’s quite packed. The amenities meant for campervans are surprisingly not that close to the van sites, so unless you actively request it, you’ll likely end up far from the facilities.

On the positive side, the bathrooms, kitchens, stovetops, fridges, and sinks are cleaned daily and there are enough of them — at least during the off-season when we visited. I’m not sure how well it copes during peak periods.

A few things I personally found important and well-managed: • Hot showers with strong water pressure and no time limit — very important! • Plenty of stoves and fridge space so you don’t need to queue or worry about food going bad due to overcrowded fridges.

However, a major issue for us was the cleaning time. We were in Queenstown for skiing, and we needed to leave early every morning. But the kitchen is closed for cleaning between 5:30 and 7:00 or 7:30 (not sure which). One of the staff strictly wouldn’t let us use the kitchen during that time, which was a huge inconvenience. Isn’t cleaning usually done after check-out time? Early departures are common in Queenstown — this setup really doesn’t make sense.

There are also a lot of stray cats around the campground. Some tourists feed them, which really impacts the environment. I wish the campground could do more to educate or remind people not to do this.

Also, some guests leave their personal items in the showers to “reserve” them. While I understand this isn’t entirely the campground’s fault, it would be helpful if the management put up reminders that these are shared facilities — not private rooms. In a tourist-heavy town like Queenstown, people need that reminder.

Other than that, the location is great — you can walk into town. Around $40 a night is quite affordable...

Amazing location, decent campsite with a few minor issues. My wife and I tent camped here for 9 nights, so we got pretty familiar with the place. Overall we enjoyed our stay.

Pros: The location is fantastic. A five minute or less walk into the center of town. Fairly cheap for unpowered sights. Decent showers with good water pressure and no time limits. the kitchen and dining area is pretty large. Kitchen and bathrooms are cleaned daily.

Cons/improvement suggestions: the use of free kitchen utensils was very confusing. There are a few very limited dishes and cooking items that seem to float around the kitchen, but there are no signs in the kitchen explaining if you can use them or where you can get more. We ended up asking the front desk for individual pieces of cutlery and dishes. We stored them with our food in the kitchen but they were constantly moved around by other guests and the cleaning crew. There should be more signs and instructions on this. Several others were confused by this as well. Wifi is strong when it works but it often disconnect automatically. It will also occasionally send a message that your usage for the day is over, even when you have barely used it. Frustrating at times. There never seemed to be enough soap? In both the bathrooms and kitchens there was almost never any soap in the dispensers the entire time we were there. A bit baffling. A bench for clothes and a shower curtain in the shower stalls would go a long way. Mostly minor stuff but these are all fixable things that I’m sure other guests...

I booked two adjacent pitches for four people (two vehicles) five months in advance. I wanted pitches without electricity. However, there were no available adjacent spots, so I paid an additional $100 for two pitches with electricity to be NEXT TO EACH OTHER. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we were placed at opposite ends of the campsite

I went to the reception to explain the situation, but we arrived late (6:30 PM), and the campsite was full. The man at the reception kindly told us to come back the next day, as there would be free spots and we would be together.

The next morning, I went to the reception to request the change, but this time a young woman told us it was impossible to change our spots, even though there were plenty of free pitches available in the following days. She kept repeating the same thing like a parrot instead of offering a solution. I asked for a gesture of goodwill, but I believe her vocabulary ran out quickly because, as mentioned earlier, she just kept repeating the same thing over and over: 'The campsite is full, I can't do anything,' even though I had changed the subject. 😂

The amenities were dirty. It was really expensive for what it was, and don’t expect to see the campsite’s lake because its view is non-existent.

The only positives were the man at reception, who was kind, and the location of the campsite. Otherwise, just...