Things to do in Napier
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Napier
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Summer is best for beaches, gannets and cycling, with February festival crowds and top prices.
Autumn is arguably best all round, harvest, warm sea into April, marathon in May, lower prices.
Winter is best for value and food weekends, worst for swimming and gannets, who are absent.
Spring brings returning gannets, arts festival in October and summer food and wine in November.
What's on
- Art Deco Festival Napier Mid February each year
More than 100 events, parades, Gatsby Picnic, vintage cars and dances across Napier.
- Mission Estate Concert February weekend
Large outdoor concert at Mission Estate that fills Napier and Taradale hotels.
- Hawke's Bay Marathon May
Marathon and shorter races finishing among Hawke's Bay wineries.
- Winter F.A.W.C. Food and Wine Classic June
Chefs, winemakers and long lunches across Hawke's Bay in winter.
- Winter Deco mid July
The smaller, cosier sibling of the February Art Deco Festival.
- Hawke's Bay Arts Festival October
Theatre, music and writers across Napier and Hastings venues.
- Summer F.A.W.C. Food and Wine Classic early November
The flagship Hawke's Bay food and wine weekend.
Best things to do in Napier
Art Deco Trust Guided Walk
A local led walk that turns pretty facades into the earthquake and rebuild story you then read yourself all stay.
MTG Hawke's Bay
Free museum whose earthquake exhibition gives the Deco streets outside their human cost and context.
Marine Parade
Napier's 3 km seafront promenade for sunrise, cycling and evening walks, but not for swimming.
National Aquarium of New Zealand
A compact aquarium with a walk through oceanarium tunnel, rescued little penguins, kiwi and tuatara.
Bluff Hill Lookout
The definitive free viewpoint over the port, city, Hawke Bay and the coast, best in clear morning light.
Hawke's Bay Farmers' Market
One of New Zealand's largest farmers markets, a Sunday breakfast and produce ritual 20 minutes from Napier.
Mission Estate Winery
New Zealand's oldest winery, founded in 1851, with historic grounds, tastings and a terrace over Napier.
Church Road Winery
The connoisseur Taradale tasting, serious Chardonnay and reds from a winery founded in 1897 with a museum cellar.
Where to stay in Napier
Marine Parade and the Art Deco Centre
first visits, no car, festival week
Deco streets, sea, tours and restaurants within a flat ten minute walk.
Ahuriri
evenings, harbour life and return visits
The old port village, quieter and restaurant led, five minutes from the centre.
Napier Hill
views, quiet and character
Residential hill streets above the centre, trading flat walking for views and calm.
Marine Parade south
families, value and parking
Good motels with kitchens and parking on a flat walk into town.
Te Awanga
luxury lodge and golf stays
Cliff top farmland 25 minutes south, a destination lodge rather than a city base.
Think twice about
- Onekawa and port industrial fringe
Trucks, warehouses and no evening life. Safe but dull, and you lose walkable Napier.
- Highway motel strips toward Hastings
Safe and adequate but anonymous, with a car park for a view and a drive for every dinner.
Best restaurants in Napier
Pacifica Kaimoana Restaurant
Napier's destination dinner, a seafood led set menu in a small house on Marine Parade with NZ wine matches.
Craggy Range Restaurant
Hawke's Bay's winery restaurant flagship at the foot of Te Mata Peak, built for a long produce led lunch.
Central Fire Station Bistro
Modern NZ bistro cooking in the restored fire station, the best all round dinner in the centre.
Bistronomy & Vinotech
A cosy European influenced restaurant joined to a boutique NZ wine shop, ideal for wine interested couples.
Mister D
Napier's beloved all day bistro, serious but unfussy food and one of the town's best wine lists for its size.
Hunger Monger
Ahuriri's seafood forward favourite, known for ceviche and snapper by the harbour.
F.G. Smith
Ahuriri's bright daytime fixture for brunch, cabinet food and coffee before a Cape or harbour day.
Vinci's Pizza
Napier's local pizza institution, best taken to a Marine Parade bench at sunset for the best value dinner.
Outdoor things to do in Napier
Gannet Safaris Overland
A 4WD safari across private farmland to the world's largest accessible mainland gannet colony, in season.
Gannet Beach Adventures
A tractor and trailer ride along the beach at low tide to the Cape Kidnappers gannets, a Bay institution.
Cape Kidnappers Golf Course
Tom Doak's cliff top course high above the Pacific, a world top 100 round and Napier's ultra tier day.
Te Mata Peak
A 399 metre summit with 360 degree views over plains, vineyards and coast, driven or hiked from Havelock North.
Hawke's Bay Trails
More than 200 km of flat trails linking coast, estuary and wineries, best ridden on an e-bike for tasting days.
Ocean Spa
Heated open air pools facing Hawke Bay, the locals soak after a cycle, a run or a festival day.
Waimarama Beach
The real Hawke's Bay beach day, a long surf beach with a summer patrol and Bare Island offshore.
Westshore Beach
Napier's calmer in town swimming beach, five minutes from the centre past Ahuriri, good for families.
Best hotels in Napier
The County Hotel
Napier's grand heritage hotel near Marine Parade, the classic luxury choice inside the city itself.
Art Deco Masonic Hotel
The postcard Deco hotel on Marine Parade, the place to sleep inside Napier's 1930s story.
Scenic Hotel Te Pania
A reliable seafront hotel with sea views, a pool and parking, five minutes from the Deco centre.
The Crown Hotel Napier
Apartment style harbour hotel in Ahuriri, with balconies and the suburb's restaurants on the doorstep.
McHardy Lodge
A grand 1890s residence turned boutique lodge on Napier Hill, with gardens, a pool and famed breakfasts.
Pebble Beach Motor Inn
Spacious modern motel apartments near the Aquarium, the value pick that does not feel like a compromise.
Criterion Art Deco Backpackers
A budget hostel inside a photographed Deco building on Emerson Street, unbeatable location at hostel quality.
Rosewood Cape Kidnappers
A luxury farm lodge above the cliffs with golf and spa, 25 minutes from Napier and in a price class of its own.
Is Napier expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | NZ$130 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | NZ$275 a person |
| Splurge | NZ$620 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Art Deco Trust Guided Walk: a few days ahead
- Mission Estate Winery: a few days ahead
- Church Road Winery: a few days ahead
- Gannet Safaris Overland: weeks ahead
- Gannet Beach Adventures: a few days ahead
- Cape Kidnappers Golf Course: weeks ahead
- Hawke's Bay Trails: a few days ahead
- Pacifica Kaimoana Restaurant: weeks ahead
- Art Deco Festival accommodation in the centre sells out many months ahead.
- Pacifica needs weeks in summer, Craggy Range and premium Church Road tastings need days to weeks.
- Book gannet tours early in your stay to allow a weather or tide retry, and golf at Cape Kidnappers weeks ahead.
Is Napier safe?
- Swim between the flags at patrolled beaches and respect the steep drop off at Marine Parade.
- New Zealand sun is fierce, wear a hat and sunscreen on the shadeless Deco walk.
- Lock cars and hide valuables at peak, cape and beach car parks.
- In a long or strong coastal earthquake, move to high ground such as Bluff Hill without waiting. Emergency number is 111.
Napier travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Marine Parade looks like a swimming beach but is not one, swim at Westshore, Ahuriri or Waimarama instead.
- Doing Deco self guided only misses the earthquake story, take the guided walk first.
- Trying six winery tastings in a day ruins the day, three chosen well is the local pattern.
- Napier Prison tours are listed as permanently closed in current listings, check status before planning on them.
Getting around Napier: public transport and more
- Walk the flat centre and Marine Parade, everything central is within about 15 minutes on foot.
- Ahuriri is a five minute drive or short taxi or Uber ride from the centre.
- Hawke's Bay Airport is about 10 minutes by car, with shuttles, taxis and rental cars.
- Rent a car or book a tour for wineries, Te Mata Peak, Cape Kidnappers and Waimarama.
- Cruise shuttles run from Napier Port to the Marine Parade i-SITE, walking off the port is prohibited.
Who Napier suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Good |
Make Napier your trip
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