Best hotel in Auckland (on a budget)!

Advantages: beautiful location, fantastic staff
Disadvantages: you cannot walk to the city

...We decided to book Spencer on Byron as our first stop in New Zealand as this hotel had the best reviews on a rival site, and was within our budget at about £40 per night. We landed in Auckland at 11 pm, tired after a 24 long trip from London. As Spencer on Byron is right across town, we got a good look of Auckland at night - beautiful. The taxi driver actually asked us how come we had picked that hotel as most tourists want to be closer to the city. At this stage we started to feel a bit worried about our choice, as in my experience taxi drivers are a good source of information on where to go and what to do. However, after a 35-40 minute long drive much of it through green luscious suburbs, we arrived at the hotel. The taxi ride cost us $80, including tips (you do not need to tip in New Zealand, but old habits die hard). As we...

annaroos1 17.04.2006 · Read review
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Review of Spencer on Byron Hotel, Auckland

Kingsgate Hotel, Greenlane,Auckland,

Advantages: comfortable quiet rooms,hotel situated conveniently for access to the City CBD, and 20 minutes maximum from Auckland International Airport
Disadvantages: poor timing on our part, we arrived at reception early evening just after 2 parties,quite a wait as a result

...We arrived at Auckland International Airport from Fiji in late afternoon.It took a while to clear immigration and customs,and ,more prolonged, to clear the checks of the NZ Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Quarantine service, as we had 2 wood based gift products purchased in Nadi. Hire car,courtesy of EZY,was picked up from the airport information desk and airport car park. The 3 star hotel was reached via an easy drive on good quality dual carriageway roads ( the South Western Motorway and Hugh Watt Drive) in 20 minutes, and through the Royal Oak district. Greenlane is a pleasant leafy residential suburb of Auckland, adjacent to Cornwall park. There is a good bus service into central Auckland, and importantly the hotel is well placed for access to the Southern Motorway which we used to head south to Rotorua...

wanlan 25.06.2006 · Read review
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Review of Kingsgate Hotel Greenlane, Auckland

Auckland City

Advantages: Great place to see views of city
Disadvantages: It is a city and New Zealand is so much more beautiful to go rural

...General over view: Auckland was my first destination when I arrived in New Zealand, traveling into the city and seeing the Sky Tower for the first time was really cool, I remember thinking I made it! I am really here!! The City is big but easy to get around using the tram system they have in place. It is a very clean and friendly city, if you don't have long I would recommend a couple of days here. The Sky Tower is the main thing to see and do and is a great place to get great views, I also recommend taking a ferry trip to one of the near by islands. A great hint and tip for you is to take the Stray Bus free city tour, this was great to see what Auckland has to offer you, and you can book onto the tour through your hostel. They pick you up from the hostel and first take you to the Sky Tower, here they will ask if anyone wants to...

LIZKEMPO 10.04.2008 · Read review
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Review of Auckland & Northland (New Zealand)

Auckland

Advantages: everything within easy access, friendly people, great atmosphere, plenty to do.
Disadvantages: becoming a victim of its own popularity.

...Those who just pass through Auckland on their way to the thrills on offer in the rest of the country don't know what they are missing. Auckland has it all - beautiful beaches, mountain ranges, volcanoes for the nature lovers, and fabulous restaurants and night life for the more outgoing. I meant to spend just a few days there whilst I found my feet but ended staying for four months, then returned again after seeing the rest of the country and spent another year there. On arrival there are plenty of places to stay, suiting all budgets. I started off in the YHA hostels at the top of Queen Street, which are much quieter than many of the others situated downtown. I quickly found like-minded people and found a place to rent for a reasonable price - if you need an agency there are a few on K-Road. Nice places to live which are close to...

blahblah2 11.05.2007 · Read review
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Review of Auckland & Northland (New Zealand)

Great Auckland

Advantages: Wide range of Activities available
Disadvantages: Long Distances to travel

...to the magic of the place. The size of New Zealand is approximately the same size of England, Ireland Scotland and Wales, but has a population of just 3.8million of which 1.4million live in Auckland. The city of Auckland is very spread out and has very few high rise buildings except for the City Centre where the Sky tower overlooks everything for miles around, it is said that wherever you are in Auckland you will be able to see this structure, you can also jump off the building, obviously with ropes attached and you will descend 260m to the base (not something you would catch me doing). The city is very tidy and has many shops and restaurants with hotels everywhere, the unit of currency in New Zealand is Dollars and you can get about 2.7dollars to the £, we found that living costs were very cheap, petrol was about $0.70c per litre £0.25p...

robert23 19.04.2004 · Read review
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Review of Auckland & Northland (New Zealand)

Auckland / Northland highlights.

Advantages: big city, islands, picture perfect scenery ...
Disadvantages: Auckland traffic is a killer

...Auckland. I visit Auckland a couple of times a year for various reasons and always manage to find a new side to this city on every visit. This sprawling city is the largest in New Zealand and approx 1/3rd of the countries population live there. This makes for an interesting multi-cultural city but it is pretty much undistinguishable from most other major world cities. The thing that does make Auckland special is its setting. The city is located on a natural harbour and is made up of lots of interesting bays and coves. Auckland is known as the City of Sails and after familiarising yourself with this city you will see why. There are hundreds of yachts moored in various harbours all over this city and on a summer weekend the harbour is awash with water craft of every description. TRANSPORT I always have my own...

casnz 22.07.2004 · Read review
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Review of Auckland & Northland (New Zealand)

Auckland Sky Tower

Advantages: Views
Disadvantages: You will not want to leave

...If you are thinking of going to Auckland then visiting the Sky Tower is a must do! It is not that expensive to go up and once you are up the tower the views are amazing. You go up in an elevator, and when you get to the top you enter the main circular observatory tower which has massive glass windows all the way around giving you a 360 degrees view of Auckland, some of the best views are of the world famous harbour and Mount Eden, a dormant volcano. If you are the dare-devil type then you can do the sky jump, by leaping of the tower and falling 192m with a 16 second free fall, and reaching speeds of 75kph. The Sky Tower is an amazing building with incredible views....

Ben_1907 12.09.2008 · Read review
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Review of Sky Tower, Auckland

Sky Tower, Auckland, New Zealand.

Advantages: Beautiful hotel, friendly staff, clean hotel.
Disadvantages: NONE

...My husband and I stayed three nights at sky tower in Auckland, New Zealand in 2005. The Sky Tower is 328 metres and the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. The hotel is huge but all the staff were very friendly, when I needed to contact my family by emails and was unable to get the hang of the computer, a young lad from the front desk came to help me do it. The internet was free to hotel guests and was widely used by most of our party. To get to our room we went up in the lift on our arrival but the lift stopped at a much lower floor and wouldn't move. When we all trooped back to the front desk where we told that we had to insert our room card in a slot in the lift to access our floors, only guests were thus able to go near the rooms. There are two brilliant casinos on two floors where I won lots of cash; all...

parkfields44 04.09.2007 · Read review
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Review of Sky Tower, Auckland

Hotel International

Advantages: Location, breakfasts
Disadvantages: Poor rooms

...I recently went on a cultural girlie trip with a friend to Paris. I was left to do all the booking. I was looking for a reasonable hotel, near a metro stop, which included breakfast. I came across the Hotel International on various travel sites and it seemed fairly highly rated so I booked us in for three nights. LOCATION: The hotel is located 6 Rue Auguste Barbier in the 11th Arrondissement. The nearest Metro stop is Garcourt which was a two minute walk away and it was a five minute walk to Republique which gives good links to other lines. It's not really central enough to avoid the Metro and walk to the attractions but it was located so close to a stop that it seemed ideal. PRICE: Prices vary depending on size of room and season. There are singles, doubles and triples available. We paid Euro254 for the whole time...

tartlette83 17.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Hotel International, Paris

Don't rock the boat! Only 4 hours from Auckland!

Advantages: Great scenery, lots of activities, value for money
Disadvantages: Long way from anywhere! A bit dependent on the weather!

...If you are ever in Auckland I definitely recommend this "Rock the Boat" trip. The "Rock" is a boat offering overnight cruises on the beautiful Bay of Islands in the very north of New Zealand about a 4 hour drive north of Auckland. The captain and his friendly crew will meet you at Paihia wharf at 5pm or 4pm in winter to give you a bit extra sunlight. As you board the boat, all the crew meet you and ask your name etc and make you feel really welcome! I was actually a bit embarrassed because I didn't remember some of the crew's names even when they knew mine and they had everybody on the boat's names to remember and I only had a few to remember but it really did make you feel welcome! The people on the boat where a mixture of backpackers, holiday makers, singles, couples and people travelling alone so if you are worried about...

Allyalcock 01.06.2006 (02.06.2006) · Read review
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Review of Auckland & Northland (New Zealand)