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 (NZD220.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
The moment you set foot inside, you feel yourself charmed by the cool-and-quirky charisma of the QT Auckland boutique hotel. It’s brimming with unconventional design-led detailing, from fractal video artworks and found vintage objects to bespoke statement graphics and maritime-themed motifs. Not to be outshone by their setting, even the in-house team are dressed with a touch of theatre by a local fashion label. Top-notch dining and drinks attract in-the-know locals, who head skyward for the hotel highlight – a sparkling rooftop bar and one of the city’s finest spots for soaking up the hotel’s scenic Viaduct Harbour locale.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A One Tap cocktail for each guest on the QT rooftop, and late check-out till 12 noon
10am, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £122.18 (NZ$253), including tax at 15 per cent.
More details
Rates do not include breakfast, though à la carte options are available between NZ$10 to NZ$40.
At the hotel
Fitness centre, free WiFi, concierge, 24-hour reception, dry cleaning, valet parking. In rooms: Minibar with local products, Bose Bluetooth speakers, 55-inch television, Dyson hairdryer, pod coffee machine, tea-making kit, air-conditioning.
Our favourite rooms
With a total of nine different room types, choosing your favourite might pose a challenge. One that really stood out was an open-plan Junior Suite with a slipper bath tub in the bedroom (there are just a handful of rooms like this). Ask for a corner Executive Room and you get loads of extra space and dual-aspect windows. If only water views will do, opt for a top-floor Harbour Suite and watch the boats bobbing in the port.
Spa
There’s no spa, but the 24-hour gym is kitted out with top-notch fitness equipment.
Packing tips
Leave some luggage space for the Cabernet Sauvignon you bagged on Waiheke Island. Wrap it in that new merino wool jumper for added protection.
Also
Concierge staff here have been dubbed ‘Directors of Chaos’ and the hotel claims they’re the most ‘over-the-top’ concierge role New Zealand has ever seen. You be the judge.
Children
Little Smiths are welcome and connecting rooms are available, but it’s more for grown-up getaways.
Sustainability efforts
You’ll find filter-water stations on each floor and water bottles available to buy at reception. Bathrooms have large-bottle toiletries and guests can opt-out of housekeeping service (in return for NZ$20 and drinks vouchers).
For a side of drama, set yourself down next to the country-style open kitchen to gawk at theatrically prepped cuisine. For the warmer months, a table in the rear courtyard makes for pleasant alfresco dining.
Dress Code
Feel free to get spiffed up come evening, but easygoing Kiwis usually prefer to keep it casual.
Hotel restaurant
A mix of local diners, business meetings and guests congregate at the hotel’s quaintly-named Esther restaurant. It’s an airy and inviting space festooned with art installations inspired by Auckland’s maritime heritage. The Mediterranean-meets-North-African menus mean you can start the day with baked shakshuka, lunch on ricotta gnocchi and dine on Moroccan roast lamb, which is served to be shared. Freshly-netted seafood also features, plus head chef Sean Connolly is big on employing seasonal and home-grown ingredients for his artfully presented dishes.
Hotel bar
Esther has a snug corner for intimate tipples, but most hop in the lift and shoot to the sixth-floor Rooftop at QT. Here you can choose from a dozen vegan-friendly cocktails (aquafaba replaces egg whites) and gaze out over twinkling city lights and neighbouring marina. You can also nibble on mix-and-match mezze while a pick of Auckland’s top DJ talent helps set the mood to funk.
Last orders
11.30pm
Room service
They certainly take their room service seriously here with an impressive choice that ranges from light meals to set ‘in-room feasts’ served till late.
The hotel is located in Auckland’s buzzing Central Business District, just a block from its swish Viaduct Basin marina development.
Planes
Auckland Airport is 20 to 25 minutes by road from the hotel, with direct flights from transport hubs across New Zealand, Australia and Asia. Taxis from the airport to the hotel cost up to NZ$90, or the SkyBus runs to the CBD for just NZ$17.
Trains
The QT Auckland is a 10-minute walk from the city’s main railway terminus, Britomart Train Station. From here you can jump onto all four of Auckland’s inner-city metro lines, as well as a direct 11-hour connection to Wellington.
Automobiles
Top-notch public transport and scarcity of parking in central Auckland makes having your own set of wheels redundant. If you must, the hotel offers valet parking or there’s the Viaduct Carpark just across the road.
Worth getting out of bed for
If you’re looking to scratch your shopping itch, Auckland does not disappoint. You'll find yourself a mere stroll from the city’s finest cash-splashing spots, from the numerous polished designer boutiques at nearby Commercial Bay to dozens of independent outlets scattered around the Britomart neighbourhood. If you like what the hotel staff are wearing, pop into Maggie Marilyn, who designed their ensemble. The various wharfs that extend into the harbour are worth exploring, too. At the end of Queens Wharf, The Lighthouse is a neon-lit installation by Michael Parekōwhai. Further along the harbour, The Lightship is a contemporary art gallery which provides a dazzling light display at night.
Being a hop from the Downtown Ferry Port also means easy water access to Devonport village, with its pretty beaches, fish and chip shops and panoramic views from Mount Victoria. Ferries also connect directly to the beaches, olive groves and vineyards of Waiheke Island, where some of New Zealand’s finest wines are made. Book yourself in for a tasting tour for the full-bodied vino-experience.
Local restaurants
Neighbouring Viaduct Basin offers a slew of can’t-go-wrong eateries with the bonus of views over the marina while you dine. One such popular haunt is the right-side-of-hip Hello Beasty, with a sharing menu that fuses East Asian with New Zealand with aplomb. You’ll find some of the area’s finest seafood at Shucker Brothers, housed in the historic ferry building. Slurp up oysters on-ice, grilled or tempura-battered, before diving into anything from cider-steamed mussels to king crab linguine. Another top quay-view restaurant close by is Amano, where exposed brick and time-worn tables create a rustic-chic setting for seasonal Italian fare. An in-house bakery also makes it a top spot for buttery croissants and sourdough sandwiches to take-away.
Local cafés
If you fancy breakfast out of the hotel, just head a few doors down to Lawn Café for a real treat. From hot crumpets with maple butter to fluffy cheesy brioche, they’ve got a great menu of morning mouth-pleasers, plus smoothies whizzed-up while you wait. For a taste of Parisian patisserie, La Petite Fourchette was opened by a French-Kiwi couple who take their baking seriously. You won’t find a better croissant, macaron, or mille-feuilles in town, together with French roast par excellence.
Local bars
The neighbouring Britomart precinct counts among Auckland’s best areas for afterdark action. For a dimly-lit Manhattan-esque drinkery, Caretaker is as vibey as they come, serving expertly crafted cocktails over hand-carved ice to the strains of live jazz. Craft-ale connoisseurs should head to Brew on Quay, where they can pick from over a hundred homebrewed and artisan beers. Housed in an old police station, there’s heritage charm aplenty too, together with a hearty menu of pub-grub favourites.
As a returning New Zealander playing tourist, it was fascinating to see the transformation of Auckland’s waterfront since my days as a young travel consultant there. The grimy old mall with its sad food court is now a slick, spacious plaza with buzzy coffee roasters and covetable clothing stores. On either side, once-soulless corporate quadrants have become destinations in their own right: fashionable Commercial Bay, where Tiffany’s and Karen Walker mingle with top restaurants Ortolana and Amano, alongside glass atriums and leafy walkways; and the quiet sophistication of the new residential Wynyard Quarter.
Somewhere in the middle is my home away from home, recent addition and design hotel, QT Auckland. I’ve arrived early at the pearlescent lobby, but my luggage is whisked away without fuss, leaving me free to explore. By the time I return and enter my Executive King, I’m knackered from treading the streets and mentally diverging between past and present, and thrilled to be able to flop on the incredibly comfortable bed and be propped up by thick, stylish pillows. Here I am ensconced in a tapestry of textures – I don’t want to move. Thankfully the huge TV displays a menu, and a button on the phone says FEED ME. Room service arrives shortly after – a massive falafel bowl in a smart wooden box.
I recline on a pink bubble chair and gaze out the window at Aucklanders rolling past the end of the marina on electric scooters, looking amongst them for my younger self trudging home from work with bad Noughties hair. Only when a guest from the next room wanders into view in their hotel robe do I realise my window looks diagonally across their outdoor terrace; I hastily retreat to the bed to play with the QT app, which has everything from city guides to tutorials for the Dyson hairdryer in the bathroom. (This, along with the Kevin Murphy products and ring-lit mirror, means I’m suddenly excited to wash my hair.) I hang the eco-friendly housekeeping sign on the door to opt out of room turn-over, a fantastic incentive for which the hotel rewards a $20 food and beverage voucher.
The next day my travel companion arrives from Canada. Plans for a celebratory reunion cocktail on the hotel’s rooftop bar are scuppered by its being closed for a private event, but the ground floor restaurant, Esther, has an adjoining cocktail bar – its curved, shell-like walls creating an intimate ambience. And pulling up a barstool here means we don’t have to move very far when we’re ready for dinner.
Netted sculptures hang over the restaurant like deep-sea creatures, and we watch the chef in the sleek open kitchen backdropped by a display of dried fish carcasses – which, the waiter confirms, are real, and used for stocks. Nothing is wasted. Similarly, the sharing of dishes is encouraged. Keen for the Canadian to enjoy the best of New Zealand fare, I order a couple of Te Matuku oysters. We can’t resist the star dish: cloud-light pillows of ricotta gnocchi tucked in an ‘orgy of mushrooms’, worthy of its reputation. Steak tartare comes as a cooking demonstration, with a trolley of ingredients lined up and introduced one by one, though the performance is more memorable than the dish itself. We busy ourselves instead with a deliciously tender cauliflower steak and impeccably chargrilled snapper. Nearby on a different trolley a rum baba is being set on fire… quite the temptation, if we weren’t already full. That the oysters never arrived turns out to be a blessing.
Morning kicks off with in-room Nespresso (and an audible cheer from me on finding real milk in the fridge) while spying on the morning commuters. Down to the restaurant for breakfast: a plate of plump berries on a bed of granola and yoghurt is lovely, though a prod of the eggs in the Canadian’s shakshuka reveals whites which are wholly translucent, a sign of not giving them enough time. A polite request to pop them in for longer has them returned with a deadpan, ‘Here are your well-done eggs.’ I’m left hoping that for all the thrill and promise of Esther’s performance, today isn’t typical of the kitchen’s attention to detail.
No matter though: the hotel’s prime location means ample dining options on the doorstep (Shucker Brothers, Hello Beasty, White + Wongs). Auckland is, to me, a city still reinventing itself, and in a country that can feel slow to find its footing on an international playing field, it’s making leaps. QT Auckland is a cool young player indeed, one clearly establishing its own role at the heart of downtown. Believe me when I tell you this pocket of the city has come a long way – now an area worth exploring– and the QT is the fun and fashionable retreat you’ll be glad to come back to.
