Unique Sleeps: Sherwood, Queenstown New Zealand

Unique Sleeps: Amazing hotels hand picked by Expedia Experts. Sherwood Queenstown, New Zealand

This is the first time I’ve checked in to a hotel and been greeted with a pint of milk. Welcome drinks, cold towels, warm towels, snacks, even a massage, but milk is a first. That’s because we’re at the Sherwood, one of Queenstown’s newest and quirkiest hotels.

It turns out the milk comes from down the road. Sort of. The Sherwood’s entire philosophy is based around sustainability, and community. A local farmer produces the milk, which is bottled up and given to guests for their morning muesli, also produced locally.

The Sherwood sits outside of the main Queenstown CBD, but you won’t be missing out on any of the action because it makes its own. An outdoor fire pit and amphitheatre is the setting for plenty of live music gigs, which move inside to the Sherwood bar during the colder months. There are regular lectures and daily yoga sessions – the early morning stretch class is perfect for a pre-ski warm up. Community is key, the hotel wants to connect with its guests, encouraging visitors to stay for a few nights rather than just pass through, so they can experience the culture the Sherwood has created.

It’s not a hard task to be convinced to stay on at the Sherwood. The hotel’s kitchen is well known for being booked out, filled to the brim with artists, celebs trying to fly under the radar and locals who know the chef’s menu is one of the best around. Like the rest of the hotel, the kitchen does things a little differently, with a “tantric menu” designed around tasting different dishes like melt in the mouth chicken liver pate, fresh green spaghetti and a chargrilled lamb rump. Local and often from the hotel’s stunning kitchen garden, the produce is out of this world. The weekend brunch and daily breakfast tables are heavy with locally made seeded breads, jams, pastries and cured meats.

The hotel itself sits in the U-shape you’d recognise from old school motels – the Sherwood has taken an outdated shell and given it new life through cool recycled features like cork walls, Italian army blankets for curtains, and funky filament lamps. Sprawling down the hillside, lake front rooms look across the road to Lake Wakatipu, with two bedroom lofts, quad bunk and even suites providing a variety of different sleeping arrangements.

Whether you want to eat, drink, sleep, ski, stretch, or relax, the Sherwood should be on your bucket list.

Lisa was the guest of Sherwood Queenstown