We spent three nights at the Scenic Suites Queenstown on Christmas week. To start, this was our first time in Queenstown, and we LOVE it! The city is idyllically set amidst spectacular mountain ranges, smack-dab on beautiful Wakatipu Lake. Scenic Suites is located on the slope of a mountain above the central tourist district -- it's an easy walk down to the restaurants and shops, and a good way to work of those calories walking back up. Being on top of that hill has the great advantage for some spectacular views. (Our suite was no exception!) The layout of the hotel is a bit of a puzzle, with the make-up of the complex in different buildings with different entrances. There is one main lobby that serves for both the Scenic Suites, as well as its sister hotel next door (the Heartland), which are all A-framed bungalows (kinda like mini Swiss chalets). The Scenic Suites are in the contemporary structure, which are laid-out like a grouping of layered boxes. We had a car rental, so we drove up to check-in, then drove to the secured underground parking lot. A porter was there to greet us and assisted with our bags and finding our room. It was a bit of a maze, at first glance (for us), but he found our room. This hotel has some very long hallways, all of them conforming with the slope of the hillside. The rooms are designed where you enter a main door from the public hallway, into a small vestibule, where there's door entrances for two rooms. (That design does make for a noisy vestibule depending upon your next door neighbor.) That said, once inside, our suite was huge! As we entered, there was a good-sized kitchen to our right (fully-equipped with four-burner gas stove, oven, Fisher & Paykel single-drawer dishwasher, garbage disposal, small refrigerator, even a washer and dryer). Essentially, this suite was as large as a good-sized, one-bedroom apartment -- you could literally live here comfortably! A nice-sized living room; nice-sized dining room; very large bedroom with king-sized bed; very large bathroom with separate tub and shower stall; even a very nice-sized balcony. The main room (in the dining room niche) had a full-sized wall of frameless glass; in fact, the whole side of the suite facing outward was pretty much glass windows. Naturally, the view was spectacular from our room -- and we didn't even have a room with the head-on views of Wakatipu Lake. Even without seeing the lake fully, we had a mountain range in front of us, with a partial water view. Everything in the room was modern and worked. Robes were provided; plenty of eco-friendly toiletries provided; iron and ironing board; extra pillows and blankets; all dinnerware and cutlery, pots and pans. And, too, all the kitchenware was clean and looked fresh -- nothing mismatched and/or old and dirty. (Personally, I thought this kitchen looked better than the one in our home when we first moved in!) Television channel selection wasn't the largest; but, most people don't come to Queenstown to stay in their rooms anyway. The only real negative would be the design of the frameless shower stall: Water kept flowing out from under the door, so you had to bathe with a floor mat right outside of the door to sop-up the water. No biggie, though. For our entire stay, housekeeping always had the room spic-n-span when we returned from our day trips. Everyone that we met, who worked at the hotel, was courteous and friendly. In sum, Scenic Suites Queenstown is a well-above average stay, that easily rates a solid 4-stars, with service being a terrific 5. 4 1/2 stars total from me. And at A$650 for our entire stay, it was well-worth the value! We'd definitely stay there again upon our return visit...! read more