rick253

Sky City Grand seems very good, though haven't seen the rooms. Very central, and ideal for casino! Joining the Casino "Club" is free and gives you discounts, including hotel.

buddhaman

There are a couple of very decent hotels , very central that I am suprised have not been mentioned.

The first is Quay West on Albert Street which is very convenient to all that you would need in Auckland. Five minutes , if that to the sea and not much more to some gay venues. The suites are very comfortable, just ask for a high floor and sea view.
The second Hotel is the Ascott Metroplis. Once again , very central and infact Flesh a gay club is a couple of seconds away. This is a high rise hotel with beautiful park or sea views, depending on which floor and what side you are facing.

Hilton is very nice too but a bit unatmospheric., in my opinion but can have amazing sea views. The new Sky City Hotel as opposed to older sky city hotel has nice rooms but very poor views from rooms.

It really just depends what budget you want to spend etc . Another decent for a couple of days hotel is the Crowne Plaza. Hyatt is fine , but a bit out of the centre of town and up a steep hill.

Look at www.wotif.co and www.ratestogo.com to compare prices and deals.

Any more questions, feel free to ask

kyushuman

Any updates to this thread?
I'm going to be in Auckland and/or CHC/WLG for a few days in July.
Are there any other recommended hotels, clubs, bars, or extracurricular activities that can be currently recommended?
Thanks!

holtju2

K road if my memory serves right.

anabolism

I highly recommend Ron's Tour Host service, especially for first-time visitors. He'll pick you up at the airport and drive you to your hotel, and give you an orientation tour of Auckland on the way. He shows you the gay bars and restaurants, and he only charges what a regular taxi would! He also offers half-day tours of Auckland or the west coast.

I visited Auckland for the first time in January, and was really impressed by how friendly, helpful, and informative Ron is.

Also, I stayed at the Hilton, and found it enjoyable. It's a fairly small hotel, but the rooms are nice, the breakfast is great, and it's in a good location. It was easy to walk or take a bus or ferry anywhere I wanted to go, including some gay areas, beaches, etc.

GregJDL

I get across to Wellington for work two or three times per year, so the following is from a "semi-regular business traveller with the occasional night and weekend off" point of view.

Bars and clubs - hmm, haven't had much luck there, not that getting to the local gay hangout is always top of my list but I do like to check out the locals when I can, and I still haven't cracked the Wellington scene yet, if indeed there is one. The standard line from the Wellingtonians is that all the city's bars are gay friendly so there's no need for anything exclusive.

Having said that, I have tried "Pound" on a couple of visits and both times I was the only patron apart from a couple of people playing pool. I believe that there's an adjacent nightclub but my Pound experience wasn't successful enough to warrant any further exploration!

Purely in the interests of research (a-hemm) I've also scoped out two saunas/SOP venues - Club Wakefield and a place which I think was called The Sanctuary. Club Wakefield was sensational the first time that I went (or at least I had a sensational time with a friendly farmer) but the venue itself was strictly average. The Sanctuary was quite well set up on my first visit but almost empty (this was on a Thursday or Friday night) and by the time that I attempted a return visit, was no longer operating. Club Wakefield on my second visit (again on a weekend night) was dead. And for what it's worth (and when all else fails ), the video entertainment in both places was always geared towards twinks, who are at the opposite end of the scale from my taste in men.

So for gay stuff, my experience has been hit and miss.

But as a great place to visit, Wellington comes high on my list and I always look forward to getting back there. Friendly people, great food and wine, small enough to explore on foot, clean air, beautiful scenery. And much more sophisticated and busy than my own national capital! The best thing that I have done there is also the cheapest - walking. Wellington has a set of walking trails fanning out from the city, all clearly signposted. I've done a couple of these and they are a great way to orientate yourself, get some exercise and see the sights. Maps for these are available at any tourist office and also on-line.

Cedar Jet

AKL= HILTON
WLG= INTERCONTINENTAL

Both tried and trusted after several trips.
I rest my case

CJ

DavidDTW

I stayed at the Crown Plaza in Auckland. The room was basic, but location is great. There was a thread over in the IC forum about upgraded rooms being much nicer for people with status.

And as a side note, NZ is worth much more than just a few days!

djjaguar64

I would try for the Hyatt and look for the wekend cert rate. Let me know if you need more info. You pay about US135 per night. We stayed at the CP but its nothing special. And by the way I think gay life is either underground or non existent. We found one miserable bar on the main strip, disgusting.

Jimmy67

sorry for not enjoying your time too much.

I was onjce excluded from a NZ flight MEL-AKL-LAX-FRA becuase of unruly behaviour int he lounge at AKL and had to stay over for a night.
I took the Skycity Grand Hotel and asked the japanese guy at the reception where the "gay bar" for that thursday evening was.

I ended up at a place called family on K road which was pretty busy for a thursday night.

Unfortunately i didnt use me bed at all, as i joined a Maori guy to his uber trendy flat in the new harbour area, with a view on to the hilton and returned to my hotel for check-out.

however i was wuite suprised about new zealnd and Auckland and i go with my partner in feb for 3 weeks for north island a 4 days Rarotonga

Wireless

This thread will also be useful (*cough*UA*cough*).

No decent starwood options?

kyushuman

LOL.
Actually, there is a new Westin opening around July 1st.... it's not cheap (10K pts per night, and opening rate of NZ$280, but it looks nice.

Anglo Large Clawed Otter

Yep. Got my Reservations in for New Years (NZ$480). Will be watching over the next months to see if the price drops (am not holding my breath for New Year's week)

Wireless

excellent, thanks. I guess that means no corp rates quite yet. hmmm.

In SYD, we had a great serviced apartment from Meriton. Do they do that sort of thing in AKL?

Perhaps I should spend some time with Google and the SPG website.

splatnz

Only downside to the new Westin (which does look great, went past it yesterday) is that it's on the wrong side of the viaduct, so it's a fair walk to restaurants, shops etc.

Most of the gay clubs at the moment are around K Rd and the Langham is a very good hotel, so I'd stay there.