What you need to know when renting a car in Queenstown

There are already many blogs that tell you which rental car company to choose or what insurance to buy, so this is not what I’m going to cover today. I want to share how I plan my rental car experience in Queenstown, so you don’t have to spend time & energy doing research:)

Table of Contents

• 2 Tips for Non-Consecutive Car Rentals

  • 1. Are you able to find a desirable hotel right do …

  • 2. How early can you pickup your rental car?

• Context and Details

• 2 Tips When Using Rental car Company Jucy

  • 1. Be prepared to call them when you arrive at the …

  • 2. Arrange special drop off time if needed.

2 Tips for Non-Consecutive Car Rentals

There are 2 things to consider when you plan to rent a car for non-consecutive days:

1. Are you able to find a desirable hotel right downtown so you can save the rental car cost?

Hotels are popular in the Queenstown downtown, and may be booked soon or are not at your desirable price. So if you insist staying in downtown area to save rental car cost, your options for hotels would be limited. On the other hand, if you find better hotel options that is not right in the downtown area, you’ll need a car for easy travel.

2. How early can you pickup your rental car?

Stores in Queenstown close early around 5 pm, and many rental car companies in downtown close before 3 pm. So if you happen to join a long tour ending at 8 pm and want to pick up your car for tomorrow’s early road trip, you may not be able to do so since they may require you to pick up your car during their business hours.

Context and Details

Many people rent a car when traveling to South Island, and there are 2 ways of planning:

1. You want to rent for several days in a row for a full road trip experience in South Island.

2. You plan to rent for non-consecutive days since you won't need it during full-day tours like Milford Sound and prefer not to pay for unused days

My plan is to fly from Christchurch to Queenstown and drive back. With only 5 days in the South Island and less interest in the West Coast, a full loop didn’t make sense for me. In this case, I must choose one way to fly if I still want to do a road trip. And I chose to fly from Christchurch to Queenstown because it was cheaper than flying to Christchurch from Queenstown when I looked it up then.

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On February 18, I arrived at Queenstown Airport (ZQN) at 12:20 PM, and only planned to do town activities, like trying local foods. As for Glenorchy, it’s optional. I go only when having time and being in the mood. In this case, renting a car isn’t necessary when staying in the downtown area and when Glenorchy is skipped.

So if I don’t rent a car on 18th, for getting to Queenstown downtown from ZQN, I can just:

• Take a bus, which takes 25 mins and costs NZ$10 (Official website here)

• Grab a Uber, which takes 15 mins and costs NZ$36

And of course, money-saver like me will even calculate and compare the cost between Uber fee & rental car cost per day.

On February 19, I booked a Milford Sound Tour which lasts for about 12 hours from 6:55 to 19:20, so I definitely don’t need a car. As for getting to the pickup point of the tour, I can just walk there if I stay in downtown.

In short, I only need a car for 3 non-consecutive days or less. But after doing all the research, I chose to stay at an airbnb which takes a 7-minutes drive from downtown, rent a car for consecutive 4 days and picked it up at the airport, which makes my trip easier.

2 Tips When Using Rental car Company Jucy

I found this budget rental car company on Rentalcars.com, and learned it’s a local company and quite many people use it, so I decided to give it a try. It was a good experience, but I’d recommend you to pay attention to 2 things:

1. Be prepared to call them when you arrive at the airport.

The booking did mention calling to arrange a shuttle. But I assumed it ran frequently and I could just hop on, so I didn’t. It turns out Jucy is a 7-minute drive from the airport (not super close), so the shuttle does need to be pre-arranged.

Since I didn’t plan ahead, I ended up stuck at the airport for over 20 minutes and had to reluctantly buy a Skype Phone plan ($9.49) just to make one call. And I also wasted time searching for Skype Credit top-up options—only to find they ended the service in 2024. 🥲

💡Lesson learned: Don’t assume—confirm details early. Ask about alternative contact methods in advance to avoid delays and make your trip smoother.

2. Arrange special drop off time if needed.

On their website, after-hours drop off needs to be pre-arranged. But there’s no such note on my booking, and neither did I read the details on their website in advance. My official return time was 12:30pm, but I planned to drop the car at 5:30am for an early flight. I didn’t choose 5:30am during booking, thinking it’d be safer and I'd be charged for 4 days anyway.

When arriving at the drop off location at 5:30am, no staff were around. I could only took videos proving the car isn’t damaged, the fuel tank is full, and the key is left inside properly. Since their shuttle wasn’t available outside business hours, I took an Uber to CHC and emailed Jucy with the video proof. Luckily, they confirmed everything was fine.

💡Lesson learned: Be aware of your itinerary and make arrangement early so you won’t anxious about the uncertainty when you leave. Despite of the twist, I’d still recommend Jucy for their competitive pricing.