Our top pickMost booked
25 min25-Minute Alpine Landing
★ 4.8 · 693 reviews
- Ice pinnacles and crevasses from above
- Alpine landing in the Southern Alps
- The cheapest flight that lands
- Free cancellation
$232$9.28 / min
Check availability→ The honest comparison
Franz Josef helicopter or the valley walk: what each one actually gives you
The valley walk is free and takes ninety minutes. The helicopter costs $232 and takes an hour. They are not competing products — one shows you where the glacier used to be, the other shows you where it is.
Quick answer
The short answer. Do both, in that order. Walk the valley first — it is free, it takes ninety minutes and it gives you the scale of what has gone. Then fly, because the walk stops several hundred metres short of the ice and the part worth seeing starts above that. If you can only do one and the budget allows, fly.
Side by side
- Valley walk
- Freeabout 90 minutes return
- Where it ends
- A viewpointseveral hundred metres short of the ice
- Helicopter flight
- $232about an hour door to door
- Where it goes
- Over the icefalland onto the névé on most flights
- Heli-hike
- $529the only way to walk on the ice
- Weather risk, walk
- Lowthe track is open in rain
- Weather risk, flight
- Realcloud below the tops grounds everything
What the walk gives you
Scale, and a free ninety minutes
The Franz Josef valley walk starts from a car park at the end of the road and follows the riverbed up to a viewpoint. It is flat, well marked and takes about ninety minutes there and back.
What it gives you is scale. You walk up a valley the glacier used to fill, past markers showing where the ice stood in different decades, and you arrive at a barrier with the terminal face several hundred metres beyond it. That distance is the whole story of the last century, and you feel it on foot in a way no photograph does.
What it does not give you is the glacier. From the viewpoint you see the grey end of it and a slope of rubble. The blue ice, the crevasse field and the icefall are all above and beyond.
Why the track stops where it does
Not a policy decision
The barrier is not there to sell helicopter flights. The terminal face retreated up its own valley and left behind loose rock and unstable ice that shed regularly. Guided walks onto the ice from the valley floor ended for that reason and have not come back.
Which means the guided glacier walk still exists — it just starts with a helicopter now. That is what a heli-hike is.
If you can only do one
It depends what you came for
Fly if you want to see the glacier. The valley walk shows you an absence; the flight shows you the thing itself, and on most flights puts you on it for ten minutes.
Walk if the budget is the constraint, or if the weather has taken your flying window. It is a genuinely good ninety minutes and it is free.
Heli-hike if walking on ice is specifically what you came for. It costs more than twice the scenic flight and it is the only way to do it.
Every flight, current fare
What flying costs, against a free walk
The cheapest flight is $232 and takes an hour of your day.
| Flight | Time in the air | Price | Lands on the ice | Cost per minute | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18-Minute Twin GlacierFranz Josef and Fox, no landing | 18 min | $232 | None | $12.89 | New |
| 25-Minute Alpine LandingIcefall, then a landing on the snow | 25 min | $232 | One | $9.28 | 4.8 · 693 |
| 30-Minute Franz Josef & TasmanFranz Josef and Tasman, with a landing | 30 min | $235 | One | $7.83 | 4.8 · 84 |
| 35-Minute Two GlaciersTwo glaciers plus Aoraki / Mount Cook | 35 min | $291 | One | $8.31 | 4.9 · 527 |
| Shackleton 50-Minute EnduranceFranz Josef, Tasman and Shackleton | 50 min | $468 | One | $9.36 | 5.0 · 2 |
| Heli-Hike, 2.5 Hours on IceGuided walk on the ice | 4–8 h | $529 | Two (in and out) | $3.53 | 4.8 · 398 |
| Extended Heli-Hike with LunchThe full day on the glacier | 8 h | $911 | Two (in and out) | $2.76 | 5.0 · 1 |
Book direct
If you decide to fly
Walk on the iceBooks out first
4–8 hHeli-Hike, 2.5 Hours on Ice
★ 4.8 · 398 reviews
- Two and a half hours on the ice
- Helicopter transfer both ways
- Guided, with boots and crampons
- The only way onto this glacier
$529$3.53 / min
Check availability→ 
Cheapest seatNo landing
18 min18-Minute Twin Glacier
- Eighteen minutes over two glaciers
- Franz Josef and Fox in one flight
- The shortest flight on offer
- Free cancellation
$232$12.89 / min
Check availability→ Common questions
Helicopter or walking
Can you walk to Franz Josef Glacier?
You can walk up the valley to a viewpoint, free, in about ninety minutes return. You cannot walk onto the ice — the track ends several hundred metres short of the terminal face.
Is the Franz Josef valley walk worth doing?
Yes, and it costs nothing. It gives you the scale of the retreat in a way the flight does not. It is not a substitute for seeing the glacier itself.
Why can you not walk on Franz Josef Glacier any more?
The terminal face retreated and left unstable rock and ice behind it. Guided walks from the valley floor ended for safety and access is now by helicopter.
Helicopter or heli-hike?
A scenic flight for the views and an hour of your day, from $232. A heli-hike, from $529, if you want to walk in the crevasse field with crampons and a guide.
How long does the valley walk take?
About ninety minutes return from the car park, on flat, marked track.
Can you do both the walk and a flight in one day?
Easily. Fly in the morning when the air is calmest and walk in the afternoon.
Go deeper
More on flying at Franz Josef
On the ice
The Franz Josef heli-hike
What it is, what it costs, and whether it is worth it
What it costsFranz Josef helicopter prices
All seven flights, and the column that decides value
CompareWhich flight is best
Which of the seven to actually book
The glaciersGlacier helicopter tours
Franz Josef, Fox and Tasman from the air
The landingThe snow landing
Which flights land, and what it is like
Two villagesFranz Josef or Fox Glacier
Which one to base yourself in