If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (NZD217.39), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
The architectural tide is turning in New Zealand’s southerly city with the arrival of Ebb Dunedin, a contemporary stay that’s a cleverly designed eco retreat from the land, with rooms dressed à la mode, light-filled lounges on every floor, centred around an atrium garden, and crowned by a retractable roof. But there’s flow as well as ebb at this boutique bolthole: the city’s influence washes ashore in interior-design nods to its fin-de-siècle architecture; a reverence for sustainable organic produce at the hotel’s café; and a hyper-local supply chain bringing Otago charm to everything from minibars to the hotel’s art-printed façade.
11am, but flexible, subject to availability and a NZ$40 fee. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £119.22 (NZ$250), including tax at 15 per cent.
More details
Rates are room-only but you can buy breakfast at Ebb-Cafe.
Also
The ground-floor reception, café and atrium garden make all communal areas accessible, with an elevator to reach the upper floors, and two adapted Universal rooms, suitable for wheelchair-users.
Please note
span id="docs-internal-guid-b626a4b9-7fff-b76c-e4cc-dde3e9f94cf0">There’s an additional processing fee for credit cards: 2% for Visa/Mastercard; 4% for American Express.
At the hotel
Café; mezzanine lounges; and free WiFi. In rooms: underfloor heating, air-conditioning, Art Series HD TV, minibar stocked with local snacks, Otago wines and pre-mixed cocktails; free coffee- and tea-making kit, bathrobes, and Ashley & Co bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Sydney-based Indyk Architects (who’ve also kitted out some of the QT hotels) were inspired by the city’s fin-de-siècle architecture to create contemporary interiors featuring natural stone, and oak joinery: colour palettes are largely monochrome, but incorporate soft-green accents (inspired by Dunedin’s verdigris rooves) and flashes of brick-red. In size, all rooms are equal, but we love the upgraded fabrics and finishes you’ll find in the Superior rooms on the top floor. The Suite is a two-bedroom beauty with striking gold-and-black bathrooms, a kitchenette, and fashionably dressed living space.
Spa
There are no spa facilities directly at the hotel, but Ebb Dunedin partners with Well + Being – a neutral-hued spa set over three floors that’s a three-minute walk away – for massages, yoga and holistic health coaching: check into the infrared sauna, take a mineral-infused soak in the float tank, or join a studio class.
Packing tips
With as many natural wonders on your doorstep as there are urban pleasures, a Dunedin trip is no place for formality: pack city threads at their most casual.
Also
You get free access to neighbouring 24-hour gym, Jetts, putting its cardio machines, free weights and pin-loaded equipment at your disposal.
Children
Ebb Dunedin is an adults-only stay.
Sustainability efforts
Ebb Dunedin takes a no-lightbulb-unchecked approach to its environmental responsibilities. Working with a new building, its owners were able to commission full-height double-glazed windows (for maximum solar heat and light); recycled concrete on a couple of floors; biophilic architecture centred around an atrium garden (for carbon capture and lowered cortisol levels); double insulation to retain heat, as well as natural timber joinery and non-toxic, low-VOC paints. (Coffee tables and pendant lights are also from upcycled materials.) The hotel has installed water- and energy-saving measures; eschews single-use plastic, and uses eco-friendly cleaning products, sustainable-bamboo toilet paper, biodegradable water bottles, and full-size refillable bath products from Earth-kind New Zealand suppliers Ashley & Co. At Ebb-Cafe, all food and drink is prepared onsite using organic produce, supplied locally (and in line with seasonal availability) wherever possible. And minibar items are curated to showcase New Zealand makers and producers, and bolster a local supply chain.
This is a light-filled but compact space where all tables are equal, but you may prefer your flat white amid the plants at an atrium table.
Dress Code
The ambience at Ebb-Cafe is to come as you are – no fashion steers are needed.
Hotel restaurant
There’s no restaurant at Ebb Dunedin, but casual dining is available all day at Ebb-Cafe – a glass-walled space off the atrium and the street that attracts locals as well as guests. A wall of glossy-green tiles behind the counter provides colourful contrast against monochrome concrete-top tables and black chairs, with further tables in the atrium’s garden. Breakfast is an à la carte affair featuring overnight oats, eggs on toasted sourdough, yoghurt and granola, and a full fry-up (meat or veggie). There’s a strong tradition of doing cafés well in New Zealand – and writer and chef Alison Lambert’s offering at Ebb is no exception: expertly brewed coffee; a surfeit of savoury plates from avo on toast to bacon butties to Turkish eggs. Light lunches include seed-flecked salads, potato rosti with pine-smoked salmon, beetroot and miso hollandaise, and jackfruit-topped arepas (corn cakes).
Hotel bar
By day at Ebb-Cafe, Kokako coffee, house chai, and a consummate selection of teas are served alongside a rainbow-choice of smoothies, and posh pop (Karma Cola, Kombucha, house sodas). You can also order a G&T, beer or spritzer; and the café’s wine list is a constantly evolving curation. After hours, take a pre-mixed cocktail or glass of Otago wine from your minibar to your storey’s mezzanine lounge – there’s one on every floor and all overlook the atrium.
Last orders
The café closes at 4pm daily.
Room service
You can order from the Ebb-Cafe menu between 7am and 3pm.
In Central Dunedin, north of the Octagon, Ebb Dunedin is a well located basecamp for exploring the city, harbourfront and wider Otago region.
Planes
Dunedin airport has regional connections to Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland and is a 30-minute drive from the hotel, who can arrange private transfers at extra cost. Christchurch, four-and-a-half hours north by road, is the nearest international airport.
Automobiles
The hotel has a private carpark: book in advance from NZ$25 a day.
Other
The city is served by both private jet and helicopter transfers from Christchurch.
Worth getting out of bed for
South Island’s second city has grown up on the hillsides at the head of Otago harbour, with wide tree-dotted avenues, low-rise buildings, and lamp-post-edged greens and parks. As well as laying claim to the award-winning modern architecture of Ebb Dunedin, the city is a rich trove of well-preserved Victorian and Edwardian buildings: decorative examples include Larnach Castle, the turreted Municipal Chambers, and ornately gabled mansion, Olveston Historic Home. Dunedin’s long-established Botanic Gardens date from the end of the century, too. Documenting the nature, culture and scientific heritage of the region, the Otago Museum comes with an indoor butterfly-filled tropical forest. A trip to Toitu Otago Settlers Museum explores the area’s cultural history through curious objects, from Victorian bank desks, to Sixties TV sets, to vintage cars. The city’s compact layout lends itself to cycling, or head out to Signal Hill, where the mountain-biking trails are rated island-wide. Downtown offers the expected cluster of cafés, restaurants and shops (and Ebb Dunedin is just behind Meridian Mall), but this city is as much a gateway to Otago as a destination in itself. The coastline this far south is wind-sculpted and dramatic: surfers beanie-tip St Clair, Aramoana, Karitane and (hopefully not) Murdering Bay. For swimming, try Brighton Beach, a 20-minute drive out of town. Caves and rocks abound at Long Beach; or time your visit for low tide to check out the sandstone arch at photogenic Tunnel Beach. You’ll want to pack binoculars, too: various penguins, seals and sea lions make the peninsula their home, and you can take a tour of a nesting seabird colony at the Royal Albatross Centre.
Local restaurants
In Maori Hill, shop-fronted No7 Balmac is a modern dining room of wooden tables and warm-glowing globe pendant lights that’s a culinary treat as much for vegetarians as for meat-lovers. We’ve got our eyes on three-cheese soufflé, coconut-potato samosas, cured-fish crudo or slow-braised lamb croquettes: mains include brined and barbecued pork chops, Fiordland venison, and stuffed, crumbed and fried aubergine with vegan mozzarella. On the Octagon, Prohibition Smokehouse is one for carnivores, its cuisine centred around dry-aged prime cuts (tomahawks, T-bones, short ribs and Black Origin wagyu), served in a modern space of faux-foliage hanging from the ceiling, mellow lighting, velvet upholstery and flashes of neon pink. Sharing plates are the way to go at Catalyst, an ethical café on Princes Street that’s open for dinner: pass around chicken in creamy Tuscan sauce; venison fillet or whole baked fish, accompanied by feta and pinenut giant couscous, caramelised carrots or Brussels sprouts slaw.
Local cafés
Ebb-Cafe may well be the only caffeine fix you need, but a 20-minute walk away in Dunedin’s warehouse precinct, there’s the option to mix things up at high-ceilinged, brick-walled coffee spot Heritage Coffee, which serves bagels made to order, corned-beef hash and brioche French toast, alongside chais, teas and coffees, plus an assortment shakes, juices and smoothies. Brunch is the masterstroke of modest-looking coffee shop Maggie’s on Stuart Street, serving hunger-sating plates such as syrup-drizzled stacked hot cakes, eggs benny or kimchi omelette.
Local bars
Pub meets lounge meets night club, Woof Bar is an inviting pitstop for drinks pre or post-dinner, and has a consummate cocktail list featuring monthly guest stars such as gin-and-marmalade breakfast martinis, and aromatic sazeracs, as well as legendary mojitos. A basement lounge of squishy leather armchairs, moodily lit candelabra pendants and lanterns, Pequeño is another atmospheric choice with a tapas menu and mixology wiles extending to peerless negronis, and an egg-white-topped Lemon Meringue with vanilla vodka and limoncello. An arched ceiling, subtle pride in its Scottish heritage, and a penchant for whisky are the abiding traits of Dunedin institution Albar on Stuart Street, which also stocks craft beers, New Zealand wines, and sells the house salted-caramel whisky by the bottle.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this contemporary urban stay in Otago and unpacked their Kokako coffee and possum knitwear, a full account of their coastal city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Ebb Dunedin…
In 2017 Dunedin family the Cazemiers settled upon a bare plot of land on which to realise their hotel dreams. Architect Gary Todd was commissioned to meet the owners’ brief for an Earth-kind pioneering stay that would bring together their passions for hospitality, high design and art. The award-winning result, Ebb Dunedin, is certainly that: 27 light-filled rooms, many of which have floor-to-ceiling windows; all rooms open onto the atrium garden at the heart of this free-flowing hotel – the outside of which is adorned with a semi-opaque Otago Harbour mural by Dunedin artist Simon Kaan. Next, it was the turn of Indyk Architects, who were inspired to dress Ebb’s contemporary interiors with striking monochrome furnishings, natural stone, and bespoke oak joinery, incorporating flashes of brick red and verdigris that echo Dunedin’s better-known Edwardian architecture. When you’re here for a city break, however, you want more than strong design: so how about a mezzanine lounge on every floor, a roof that’s open when the weather is fine, and a street-facing café with a stellar reputation for low-food-mile, seasonal, organic cuisine and expert brews. Ebb Dunedin’s tide is definitely on the rise…
