The ground route
A Franz Josef Glacier hike without a helicopter is a rainforest and river-flat walk up the glacier valley to a lookout facing the ice. Guided versions of that walk start at $63 for three and a half hours at Fox and $63 for three hours at Franz Josef. This page sets out what the ground route covers at both glaciers, what a guide adds that a car park map does not, and the point where walking gives way to flying.
Quick answer
The short answer. You can walk the glacier valleys at both Franz Josef and Fox: forest tracks, a braided river bed, and a lookout with the ice in front of you. Guided, that is $63 at Franz Josef or $63 at Fox, with free cancellation up to twenty-four hours before. The ice itself is reached by helicopter, from $455.
What the words mean here
The valley walk and the ice walk are two separate purchases, and only one of them needs a helicopter.
Two very different days go by the same name in this village, and the gap between them is the single most useful thing to understand before you book anything.
The first is the valley walk. You start from the car park or, on a guided trip, from the operator’s base in the township, and you follow the track through podocarp rainforest and out onto the flats of a glacial river. The valley opens as you go, the walls close in, and the track ends at a lookout with the glacier in view up the valley. It is a walk in the ordinary sense: shoes, a rain jacket, a few hours.
The second is the heli hike. A helicopter lifts you from the township onto the ice itself, a guide fits crampons and cuts steps, and you spend the hours between flights among crevasses, arches and blue ice caves. Same glacier, completely different product, and it is the only way guided time on the ice is sold here.
People searching for a Franz Josef Glacier hike without a helicopter are almost always asking about the first one, and the honest answer is that it is very good. The rainforest on this coast grows to the edge of the ice, which is unusual anywhere in the world, and the approach through it is most of what makes the walk memorable. What the valley track does not do is put you on the glacier — the ice is reached by air, and everything on the ground faces it from the valley floor.
Both of the guided valley walks sold here are built around that approach rather than around the viewpoint at the end. The Franz Josef trip is described by its operator as a walk through the rainforest and the glacier valley with a one-to-ten guide-to-guest ratio; the Fox trip is a gentle hike in the Fox Glacier valley with views of the ice and Mount Tasman, and the thirty-minute drive to the other valley is done for you.
On foot, with a guide
All four run on the ground, all four carry free cancellation, and the most booked of them is the cheapest thing on this site.
The most booked of the valley walks: 188 reviews at 4.7. A gentle hike in the Fox Glacier valley through rainforest in Westland Tai Poutini National Park, with views of Mount Tasman and a local guide on the geology, plants and birds. It leaves from the base in Franz Josef township, so the thirty-minute drive to Fox and back is part of the trip rather than something to arrange.
The valley walk at Franz Josef itself, rated 4.8 on 169 reviews. Rainforest, the glacier valley and the lookout, with a one-to-ten guide-to-guest ratio, which is the detail that separates it from the same ground walked alone. The operator describes it as stunning in clear skies and magical in misty rain, and on this coast the second case is the one to plan for.
A gentle track with bridges and streams through ancient forest to the mirror views of Aoraki / Mount Cook and Mount Tasman, guided, and rated 4.8. The listing notes it is best in the early evening, which is exactly when the water goes still enough for the reflection the lake is known for.
The old mining township on the coast, its history, the mountain views across the lagoon and the birds. A new listing this season, small group, and the only walk here that trades the glacier valleys for the shoreline they drain into.
If the aim is time in the same rainforest rather than a specific track: the Lake Mapourika cruise from $71, the kayak tour at $85 into a hidden rainforest creek, and the cruise-and-walk combination at $85 that lands on a private trail inside the Okarito Kiwi Sanctuary.
Fox or Franz Josef
Both townships sit under their own glacier, both have a valley track, and the drive between them takes about half an hour. Visitors usually have time for one on the ground, so the practical question is which valley to spend the morning in.
Franz Josef is the busier of the two. The village is bigger, the track network is better known, and the guided walk on this site — the Lookout walk — keeps groups to ten per guide, which is why it reads so well at 4.8 across 169 reviews. If you are staying in Franz Josef and want the classic version of this walk, it is the straightforward choice.
Fox is quieter, and the guided walk there is the one people actually book most: 188 reviews at 4.7, and the lowest price among the walks here at $63. Part of that is the trip design. It runs from Franz Josef township, drives you over, and hands back a half-day rather than a whole one. The listing highlights views of Mount Tasman, which stands behind the Fox valley and is not part of the view from the Franz Josef side.
If the stay allows both, the pairing that works is the Fox valley in the morning and Lake Matheson in the early evening, since both sit on the Fox side of the drive and the lake is at its best late in the day.
Weighing the valley walk against time on the ice itself?
Valley walk or heli hike→Book direct
Four guided trips on the ground, from $63, all with free cancellation.
★ 4.7 · 188 reviews
★ 4.8 · 169 reviews
★ 4.8 · 17 reviews
Deciding
Four honest cases, in the order people ask about them.
Take the valley walk. The rainforest is the point of it, guides run in the wet, and the lookout still works under cloud. A heli hike in the same weather is likely to be stood down, and a day with a cancelled flight and no walk booked is the worst version of this trip.
The valley walks are described by their operators as gentle, and the Lake Matheson track has bridges and streams rather than climbing. The ice, by contrast, is crampons on uneven ground for two and a half hours or more.
Book the ice. Guided time on it starts at $455 at Fox and $514 at Franz Josef, and the ice caves, arches and crevasses people come for are up there rather than in the valley. It is the only access sold, and it is why those two listings carry 363 and 399 reviews.
Do both, in this order: valley walk on day one so the trip is already worth it, heli hike held for the better morning. The flights go when the weather allows, and having the walk behind you takes the pressure off the decision.
Common questions
You can hike the glacier valley: a rainforest and river-flat track that ends at a lookout facing the ice. Guided, that walk is $63 at Franz Josef for three hours or $63 at Fox for three and a half. Guided time on the ice itself starts with a helicopter transfer, from $455.
The Fox valley walk takes you up the valley with views of the glacier and Mount Tasman, and the guided version is $63 for three and a half hours. Walking on the ice at Fox is sold as a helicopter trip with up to three hours of hiking, from $455.
What you are paying for is the guiding and the logistics: a one-to-ten ratio at Franz Josef, the geology and wildlife commentary, and on the Fox trip the thirty-minute drive each way from Franz Josef township. At $63 it is the cheapest walk on this site, and the most reviewed of them.
Three hours at Franz Josef and three and a half at Fox, as listed. The Lake Matheson and Okarito walks are four hours each, and the kiwi hatchery visit is forty-five minutes.
Layers and a rain jacket, and shoes you are happy to have wet. This is a rainforest coast and the guided walks run in the rain; the operators supply the local knowledge rather than the clothing.
Yes, and it is the combination most people are happiest with. The walk runs in almost any weather, the flight needs a clear window, so booking the walk first means the trip works either way. Both carry free cancellation up to twenty-four hours before.
The Fox Glacier valley walk, with 188 reviews at 4.7 — more than any other valley walk sold here, and at $63 it is also the lowest price among the walks.
Go deeper
When to walk the Franz Josef and Fox Glacier valleys — seasons, rain, daylight and the hours that give the clearest view up the valley.
Can you walk to the glacier?You can walk the free valley track to the Franz Josef Glacier lookout in about 90 minutes return.
Fox Glacier walksWalking at Fox Glacier — the valley track through rainforest, the viewpoints, Lake Matheson, and the guided half-day at $63 with transfers from Franz Josef.
Every walk at Franz JosefEvery Franz Josef Glacier walk compared — the free valley track to the lookout, guided walks from $63, and the heli hikes onto the ice from $455.
Free and self-guidedFranz Josef Glacier walk free: which valley tracks cost nothing, what the guided walks at $63 add on top, and when each one is the right call.
Getting hereWhere Franz Josef and Fox Glacier sit, where tours meet you, and why two nights beats one — planned around the weather.
Half-Day Walking & Nature Tour with Local Guide
★ 4.7 · 188 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h