LOCATION: 5 stars
VALUE: 5 stars
LIKELY TO RETURN/STAY HERE AGAIN: 5 stars
SERVICE: 5 stars
ROOMS: 3 stars overall
LOCATION: My husband and I were VERY happy with this location - it's always difficult to tell when looking on the map, but it's proximity was AMAZING. There's a small convenient store next door that was open every time we needed to stop in. A grocery store is a bit of a further walk up, but definitely walkable. And maybe 5-10 minute walk to a pharmacy - which was EXTREMELY helpful and we frequented often. It is across the street from Real Journeys - so if you book a tour through them, sometimes this was a popular meeting spot. It is walking distance to Lake Wakatipu (2 minutes probably) with an AMAZING lake-front view with plenty of restaurants (breakfast, lunch, dinner, casual dining to fancy dining) to choose from - Patagonia Chocolates, Fergburger among other popular eats are very close by
IHG: We booked using IHG points we scored after opening their credit card. They allowed us early check-in which was AMAZING straight from a 24-hour travel time (we did request this ahead of time) and we got a few other perks for being platinum elite members. This is more of an IHG qualm is that they always advertise your "free gift" as though it's something so BIG and usually its just 2 tiny bottles of water (if they remember to give it to us). This hotel remembered to give us our present and it was in a shiny, very professional looking envelope and it was just a card that said we get free wifi - which I am pretty sure was already included. Maybe it was high-speed. I dunno, I just don't like the heavy advertisement on why you should increase your status for a tiny gift that many resorts (not this one) but usually other resorts have forgotten to even give us
ROOMS: Overall, the rooms were clean and had a good layout. We were slightly disappointed that 2 of the hooks for our shower curtain were broken, so someone just looped 2 loops onto 1 hook each making the shower curtain short and caused a mess in our bathroom, but every time someone came to clean they never changed it. My husband is VERY sensitive to noise and the noise level in the hotel was perfect
LAUNDRY: we ended up doing our laundry on site - which I usually don't do while traveling and their laundry was convenient and very cheap. They had automated detergent dispensers as well, which was very handy
SERVICE: the staff was always very helpful with any questions and also helped us setup a Super Shuttle and taxi when we needed it. They were EXTREMELY helpful especially in setting this up TO the airport for our flight to Auckland, which is always tough traveling, 'cause I never know how much time to give. We used them several times to help us find the grocery store or other places and they had great directions.
BREAKFAST: We only had 1 free breakfast day included and it was ok, to me. My husband was pretty impressed. They did have a juicer on site with plenty of healthy items to choose from to juice. I try to do low-carb, low-sugar most of the time, so this was hard for me as it was mostly pastries and the only sustenance they had was not that appealing to me - fried rice, noodles, sausage, etc. They did have a order your own omelette/egg station which I should have taken advantage of and my husband loved. As a picky breakfast eater and with so many other choices nearby, to me the breakfast wasn't worth it. Breakfast places are so close that, you can eat breakfast outside of the hotel and still make it back for your tour start time (depending on the time)
We 100% will be back here (well at least plan on it). It was SO nice to stay this close to town. Plan to give yourself some time to even just walk around this amazing plus and don't overbook with tours. We did a Milford Sound, Kayaking and Bike Ride Tour while here and I will definitely be reviewing all those things - what fantastic place. read more