Queenstown sits in a bowl of mountains and cold glacial water, and its campgrounds run from full-service holiday parks to bare gravel beside a lake. The six Queenstown campgrounds below cover that whole range, from a hot tub near the airport to a first-come pitch on the Glenorchy road. Choosing well matters here, because freedom camping across the Queenstown Lakes district is confined to a few signposted areas and needs a certified self-contained vehicle. Book a site, pick up a campervan in Queenstown and let the mountains take care of the rest.
1. Driftaway Queenstown
Driftaway sits at 11 Lake Avenue in Frankton, where the Frankton Arm narrows, barely five minutes from Queenstown Airport. Its split-level facility hub gives you bathrooms, kitchens, a barbecue area, a guest laundry and a ski-drying room that earns its keep from June onwards. Sites take tents, motorhomes and caravans, and the lakeview pitches go first, so ask for one when you book rather than on arrival. Private hot tubs look straight down the arm, and the swimming beach at the front gate is why families keep coming back. With shared facilities this good a simple campervan goes a long way, because you can leave the showering and the cooking to the hub.
2. Hampshire Holiday Parks – Queenstown Lakeview, the closest to town
Formerly known as Queenstown Lakeview Holiday Park, Hampshire Holiday Parks – Queenstown Lakeview is the most central of the Queenstown campgrounds, and the distances on its own site make the case. The lake is 100 metres away, the Ben Lomond track begins 180 metres up the hill, the Kiwi Birdlife Park is 200 metres on and the mall is 300 metres. Sites suit campervans, caravans and tents, backed by a kitchen, a laundry, barbecues, a tour desk and storage for your bikes and skis. The ground sits above the town centre, so you can leave the van parked and walk to the Skyline Gondola, Fergburger and Queenstown Bay. A roomy motorhome such as Milford the Luxury Mercedes suits this kind of stay, sleeping six and carrying its own shower and toilet.
3. Moke Lake Campsite, the DOC site to book ahead
Twenty minutes from town, Moke Lake Campsite is the Department of Conservation ground people picture when they imagine camping in this valley. It no longer runs first come, first served. DOC requires a booking and keeps no spaces for campers who turn up without one, so sort yours before you leave Queenstown. A night costs $18 for an adult and $9 for a child aged five to seventeen, infants stay free, and your DOC Campsite Pass is valid here. All 75 sites are non-powered, dogs are not allowed, fires are banned outright and the tap water goes off from May to September. Non-powered is not the same as certified self-contained, so you need water and battery aboard but no warrant card to stay. Turn off the Glenorchy road 6 km west of Queenstown, then follow roughly 7 km of gravel that becomes 4WD-only in winter. A Land Rover Defender picking up in Queenstown handles that surface well, though its owner rules out off-road driving, so stay on the formed road.
4. Queenstown Top 10 Holiday Park
At 70 Arthurs Point Road, seven minutes’ drive from the centre, the Queenstown Top 10 Holiday Park trades the town for the river valley and the mountains above it. Sites take campervans, caravans, sleeper vans and tents, and a free courtesy shuttle runs into town through the day, with the last one around 7.15pm so you can eat out. There is one private hot tub rather than a pool complex, and you book your time slot at reception. The shared kitchen has a woodburner for cold Otago evenings, the bathrooms have underfloor heating, and the children get a jumping pillow, a climbing wall and giant chess. Shotover Jet and the Onsen Hot Pools are close by, and Coronet Peak is up the road for ski days. Skippers Road turns off that same climb, and hire agreements routinely exclude it, so read the road restrictions in yours before you plan any driving beyond the sealed routes. If you are towing a South Island loop, the caravan ‘Family adventure’ sleeps six, is self-contained and collects from Rolleston outside Christchurch. At just under eight metres you will need a proper tow vehicle behind it.
5. Queenstown Holiday Park Creeksyde
Queenstown Holiday Park Creeksyde sits at 54 Robins Road, a five-minute stroll from the town centre, in leafy grounds on the edge of Horne Creek. The Spijkerbosch family opened it in 1988 and are still running it, with care for the environment built in from the start. Powered sites sit among the gardens, alongside kitchen facilities, WiFi across the park, parking and storage, and a spa bath and sauna for cold evenings. Pets are allowed on sites here, which is unusual this close to a town centre and worth knowing if your dog is travelling with you. The exception is the holiday period from 23 December to 3 January, when the park’s own terms exclude pets and day visitors alike. Central, quiet and green is a hard combination in Queenstown, so book ahead for January and for the ski season, and treat Christmas and New Year’s Eve as the nights to secure first. If you want a van you can plug in, browse campervan hire in Queenstown and match it to a powered site.
6. Twelve Mile Delta Campsite
Twelve Mile Delta Campsite sits where Twelve Mile Creek spills into Lake Wakatipu, 12 km west of Queenstown on the Glenorchy road. This is the DOC campground for you if you would rather not book. All 100 sites are non-powered and first come, first served, at $15 an adult and $7.50 a child per night. Your DOC Campsite Pass is not accepted here, so budget for the nightly fee on its own, and fires are banned year-round. Dogs on a leash are welcome, which makes this the obvious pairing with a pet-friendly camper. The seal runs as far as the delta and the tracks between the sites are narrow gravel, so take the last stretch slowly. Regenerating forest surrounds the pitches, the Mt Crichton Loop track starts nearby, and the delta stood in for Ithilien in The Lord of the Rings. DOC also asks you not to pitch directly under the trees. Otto fits a night like this, a pet-friendly two-berth out of Queenstown with an awning, an outdoor stove, camp chairs and solar on the roof.
One last practicality is worth more than any packing list. Around Queenstown you book a campground rather than freedom camp. The district council’s bylaw confines freedom camping to a small number of signposted areas and a few rural roadside spots. Conditions apply at every one of them, and all of them need a vehicle certified as self-contained. Since June 2026 the green warrant is the only certificate that counts, and a portable toilet no longer qualifies. Certification belongs to the vehicle rather than to you, so the owner’s warrant card decides where you may legally stop. Camping outside the rules in a van that is not certified carries a $400 infringement fee, which buys you several nights on a powered site. Book one of the six campgrounds above and the only thing left to choose is your view.
Do you have your own campervan or caravan? You can earn from it between your own trips by listing it with Camplify, and the guide for owners explains how that works.
Cover Image: Driftaway Queenstown
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