BBQ/picnic area

Reviews of Awaroa Lodge

4 out of 5
Awaroa Lodge
11 Awaroa Bay, Abel Tasman National Park, Awaroa Bay, Taaman

Reviews

8.8

Excellent

Rating 10 - Excellent. 54 out of 96 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 29 out of 96 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 9 out of 96 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 1 out of 96 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 3 out of 96 reviews" "

8.8/10

Cleanliness

8.8/10

Staff & service

8.4/10

Amenities

8.4/10

Property conditions & facilities

9.0/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

6/10 Okay

Valda, Woodbridge

Traveled with family
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Five star price for a 3 star experience. Rooms are dated and not clean. Cleaners left mud from their shoes on the floor. Dining staff especially Emma was attentive and the food was good.
Stayed 3 nights in Mar 2024

10/10 Excellent

shaun

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Excellent food happy freindly staff amazing experience in the abel tasman walk
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

10/10 Excellent

Myles

Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
A fantastic lodge in a magical national park. It doesn’t just rely on the surroundings however. Great well kept (and very spacious) rooms. Good food and drink options all day with a great dinner menu and setting. Highly recommended for a memorable vacation.
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2024

10/10 Excellent

Jennifer

Traveled with family and small children
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Amazing night at the lodge. Staff were amazing. Food was great. Comfortable bed.
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2023
Response from Awaroa team on Dec 5, 2023
Thank you for the great feedback Jennifer.

10/10 Excellent

Jason

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Glamping on a high note along one of New Zealand’s Great Walks. Friendly and very helpful staff. The food was amazing!
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023
Response from Awaroa team on Dec 5, 2023
Thank you Jason, we are happy to know that you enjoyed the visit.

6/10 Okay

Michael

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Underwhelmed
Pre arrival staff were excellent in advising a walk back to entrance of Abel Tasman NP and arranging transport to and from Lodge. This high standard was not maintained after our arrival e.g. waiter forgot to order my wife’s main course. Also, on our return from a walk we found our choice of herbal tea was restricted to one type (which we didn’t like), one tea spoon, no complimentary biscuits in the room. Plus by 9pm having only arrived at lunchtime I’d exhausted the free wi- fi limit. At breakfast the next morning we even had to pay for a coffee. Given the cost of a room for a night all this smacked of stinginess. On checking out I was asked how my stay had been and I said OK. There was just acceptance of this comment by staff when I would have thought a polite enquiry was needed
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2023
Response from Julz on Feb 22, 2023
Hi MichaelI am sorry to read of your underwhelming experience. It is certainly a user pays system here. We charge individually for each item, so if you don't need it you don't pay for it. This includes coffee and indeed WIFI. I am unaware of anywhere that one would expect a free coffee in a café, hotel or otherwise. Certainly our cafe has a wide range of teas and if you ever return you should feel free to request a certain type of tea if desired. It is hard to cater to all tastes and we do provide three tea flavors in rooms to try and cover all bases as much as we can. You should certainly have had two tea spoons and it is regrettable that your waiter made a mistake. Apologies for that.

10/10 Excellent

Michael

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Wonderful stay in an idyllic setting and beautiful hiking and views. The staff and food were next level! 10/10
Stayed 3 nights in Jan 2023
Response from Julz on Feb 7, 2023
Great review. Thank you Michael, we are very glad you enjoyed the visit.

2/10 Terrible

Stephane, Ho Chi Minh City

Disliked: Amenities
the hotel impose to take a boat to go there, 100$ per person. no road. It's mentioned in a very small part of the description only. be careful. and no refund when you make a mistake
Stayed 1 night in Jan 2023
Response from Julz on Feb 7, 2023
Hi StephanieYes, given there is no road, you do need to get a boat. Something we publish on all literature associated with staying here. Unfortunate that you had not planned that but we certainly are not able to offer a refund in a situation on which a guest does not show up for their booking. while we can make sure everyone has a great time while here, getting them here is not something we can completely control. I hope you get a chance to return another time.

10/10 Excellent

Karen

Stayed 1 night in Jan 2023
Response from Julz on Feb 7, 2023
Thank you Karen.

10/10 Excellent

Josephine

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
A must stay.
This is a special place and experience. A must visit. The lodge to the national park to the exceptional customer service. A bucket list for everyone. Expensive but worth every penny.
Stayed 1 night in Jan 2023
Response from Julz on Feb 7, 2023
Hi JosephineGreat to read your review, thank you for taking the time to share your experience.

10/10 Excellent

Erin

Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Great service, decent food, rooms were lovely
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2022
Response from Julz on Jan 3, 2023
Thank you for the review Erin. We are glad you enjoyed the stay.

10/10 Excellent

Rachel, Auckland

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Such a beautiful place to stay and highly recommended. We parked at Kaiteriteri and took an Abel Tasman Sea Shuttle out to Awaroa Bay which in itself was amazing as it’s picturesque and you get a bit of commentary and sight seeing along the way. The porter is there with their quad bike to take your bags up to the lodge and they’re waiting for you in your room once you’ve checked in. The room is large with seperate sleeping and lounge area and a great bathroom. A deck looks out onto wetlands and bush and it’s so quiet and peaceful. Staff are friendly and the food at restaurant delicious.
Stayed 4 nights in Oct 2022
Response from Awaroa team on Oct 12, 2022
Thank you for this lovely review Rachel. We are very glad to know you enjoyed the stay.

4/10 Poor

John

Traveled with partner
Liked: Amenities
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stunning landscape! Even with windows closed, room had dozens of mosquitoes. Staff not receptive to concerns about dangerous boadwalk.
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2022
Response from Julz on Feb 23, 2022
Hi John Thank you for coming to stay and leaving a review. Sorry to hear that there were issues with the environment. Most of the windows in our rooms have bug screens but it only takes a minute for them to sneak in. Our boardwalk has both signage and anti-slip pads to alert to the potential hazard, along with hand rails. Still though with that amazing view, it is easy to miss those warnings. I hope the stay was other wise enjoyable.

10/10 Excellent

Thomas

Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Great place, really lovely people.
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2021
Response from Julz on Dec 14, 2021
Thank you Thomas, really glad to hear you enjoyed the visit.

10/10 Excellent

SEUNGWOOK

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
clean & tidy. great service
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2021
Response from Julz on Oct 26, 2021
Great review. Thank you for coming to stay and we hope to see you again.

8/10 Good

Michelle

Traveled with family
Liked: Staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
We had a group of 2 families, 4 adults and teens 14/15/16/17/18. Ideally we would have liked 2 x family rooms, but online booking back in June showed none available, and would only let us put a maximum of 2 ppl in each room, so we ended up with 5 rooms (quite a bit more pricey). Then when we were there we saw unoccupied family rooms and some of the rooms we were allocated had a Queen a single, so would have accommodated 3 people... bit disappointing that the online booking did not match the actual capacity and availability. Possibly they had some later cancellations due to COVID restrictions. Enquired on arrival if we could shuffle things a bit, but understandably it was too late by then as rooms had already been made up and they obviously couldn't sell the 'surplus' rooms this would have created. They did say that some rooms were currently undergoing renovation and they were waiting on furniture to arrive. Restaurant food and service was great - rooms were great. Toilets off the restaurant were a bit tired.
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2021
Response from Julz on Oct 19, 2021
Hi Michelle You are right that we could on most cases accommodated you in more suitable rooms. Unfortunately we have been waiting on new furniture to arrive since August. We expect this to finally show up this week so we will be able to finish off the refurbished rooms and get all of our rooms in use. So hopefully next visit we will be able to fit you in more comfortably. I am glad to hear that you enjoy the stay though and thank you for coming to visit.

10/10 Excellent

Steven

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Amazing - can’t wait to return
We had an amazing stay. The staff couldn’t have been better, so friendly and helpful. We had a massage on the on-site spa. It was incredibly good and just what we needed after the walk. The pizza bar nearby was also excellent.
Stayed 1 night in Jan 2021

10/10 Excellent

Aaron

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 2 nights in Nov 2020

10/10 Excellent

Barbara

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
We will be back
Wonderful lodge on the Abel Tasman Track. A treat to celebrate a few days walking and staying in huts. Beautifully appointed rooms with excellent shower. The glowworm walk just our from our unit was a magical experience.
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2020

10/10 Excellent

Kae

Traveled with family
Liked: Staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great place in the middle of nowhere
An amazing place to relax. Everyone was very nice, especially the lady at reception. Had a great massage and food at the restaurant was good. My daughter liked feeding the eels and the little adventure to see the glow worms. Small criticism is the extra blankets in the cupboard smelt a bit musty so we didn’t use them.
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2020

8/10 Good

Verified traveler

Stayed 2 nights in Jan 2020

8/10 Good

Verified traveler

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2019

10/10 Excellent

KiwiMontreal, Montreal

Business traveler, Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
We had a tremendous stay here, 25 years after I had rocked up to the cafe as a uni student desperate for a beer during my hike. This time I came back with my partner to enjoy the tracks in a bit more comfort. VERY impressed by many different aspects at the lodge. Food was extremely good - we ate here for three evenings and had very interesting and delicious food. Having eaten at Michelin star restaurants I am not easily impressed, but I sure was by the fresh ingredients and innovative dishes- in the middle of a national park no less! Special shout out to the restaurant managers when we were there who were excellent at providing high quality service as well as training up new staff with care. Excellent by the glass variety of wines at reasonable prices. Rooms were really nice and spacious. A very large thanks to Fran at the front desk who dealt with a number of customers' concerns re getting Sea Shuttle or other transport out in stormy weather- she was informative, calm, and cheerful throughout. If you are a runner, the tracks around are great for a variety of fitness levels of flat or hill running, while the tramping/hiking is clearly amazing. Thanks to the whole team for a very memorable stay- we hope to be back within another 25 years!
Stayed 3 nights in Dec 2019

8/10 Good

Verified traveler

Stayed 1 night in Nov 2019

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveler

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
The staff were friendly and genuinely helpful. The food in the restaurant was lovely.
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2019

10/10 Excellent

João

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Hidden Nature Hotel
The lodge is absolutely gorgeous! We had a beautiful time here very relaxing, you can really enjoy the Abel Tasman walks and beautiful places if you stay here! You can ser beautiful birds and wake up listen to the birds! The staff is really friendly and helpful, thank you very much to everyone to making our trip to New Zealand even better! I would give a suggestion to the management, it would be great if you could have more free choices over breakfast and snacks, the menu is good but good improve, giving the guests more free choices! All good hope to come back one day!
Stayed 3 nights in Nov 2019

8/10 Good

Verified traveler

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Stayed 2 nights in Oct 2019

10/10 Excellent

Fiona

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2019

10/10 Excellent

Anthony

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great place to visit
Lovely remote situation towards the end of Abel Tasman track. Excellent food and surroundings. Bathroom a bit dated. Overall a lovely stay.
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2019

8/10 Good

Verified traveler

Traveled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Loved the seclusion and quietness of the environment
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2019

8/10 Good

Christie

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Haven in the wilderness
We stayed after two days of hiking - perfect break in the middle. Hot showers, fabulous meal and comfortable bed - bliss!
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2019

8/10 Good

Bengt

Liked: Staff & service
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2019

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveler

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 3 nights in Feb 2019

10/10 Excellent

Kathleen

Liked: Staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
The place is stunning and the journey there adds to the joy. The staff was incredible. Only complaint is the bathroom was moldy and not all that clean and the ambiance in the dining room at night was rough once the light outside dimmed. They have track lighting that points right in the diners’ faces. BUT, it is worth all minor issues because you are truly away from it all. The staff were very smart about local hikes and helped with all issues ASAP. I would love to go back for longer than one night. Amazing unique place.
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2019

8/10 Good

Ben

Liked: Room comfort
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Used to be great, now it's "quite good"
We have stayed here numerous times, but not for a couple of years. It's one of our favorite escapes and we try to get here once a year if we can. If you love special off-grid places like the Abel Tasman park and want to infuse yourself in the environs, in comfort, this is the place to stay. It is unfortunately, not as good as it used to be. The rooms are well overdue for refreshment and overall cleanliness standards have fallen, but the prices haven't. The staff are young and inexperienced and you don't feel like an exclusive guest, sometimes an annoyance. We've stayed in several luxury eco-resorts and have been lucky to know what the experience could be. It would only take a few tweaks to return to past glory. That said, it is the best option in the park and our experience would not stop us from returning, albeit with adjusted expectations. Of most need of urgent attention is the Wi-Fi - you get 200MB per day per user free. The rate card for this is $10 (x2). But you can buy 20GB for 2 users for $13, so why not just give guests that?
Stayed 2 nights in Feb 2019

8/10 Good

Dave

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Something missing
The location cannot be beaten. The lodge was nice, clean and staff were friendly but it was missing something. No coffee plunger in the room and very small fridge and no kitchen. Restaurant and pizza bar was fine but if staying more than 2 nights, they have limited options. Not an eco-lodge or a luxury lodge and not sure what it was aiming to be.
Stayed 4 nights in Jan 2019

2/10 Terrible

Verified traveler

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Don’t stay there
Worst place I ever stay after spending so much money. We woke up with over 200 mosquitoes in the room (no kidding) room was dirty and terrible service. We were overcharged for meals (be careful) and my toddler almost got hit by buggy. We never got any apologies for our experiences. It’s 5 star location, 5star restaurant and 1 star serve and 2 star room. I would not recommend anyone to stay there. Just visit there for meals. It’s not worth it.
Stayed 2 nights in Jan 2019

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveler

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
We had a terrific room that looked straight onto the bush. Lovely bird song. Amenities were fine and staff always happy to provide more if needed. Very well situated for walks in the N.P. and water taxi stop offs. Our luggage was brought to our room and delivered to the beach which was appreciated. Meals were really delicious. Not inexpensive but standard very good.
Stayed 3 nights in Jan 2019

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveler

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Wondering location . The whole place is a setting in paradise. The staff run the place amazingly well considering they are obviously running on minimal staff. We have been twice now and love the place. However there is a feeling of it being slightly neglected. The dining room needs a good clean ( in the conservatory) and the rooms need some basic maintenance the sliding fly screen doors are so full of and and dirt that each unit has to bang the doors shut as they don’t slide on the runners probably. This may not sound like a big deal but the units are very close to each other and it’s very noisy. The outside furniture need a definate up grade they are old a unde stable. The room service was pretty poor we did not get tea or milk replaced and we only got the room serviced once .. it is important to say these things it’s not a cheap deal. The restaurant food is amazing but again they ran out out of food on the menu daily and the waitresses had to deal with the embarrassment of telling us. The management really need to be over stocking rather than under stocking they are well aware of how many people are staying as most rooms are pre booked .. I felt the staff were under pressure and did an excellent job of covering up for the management failure .. the price of the restaurant food is average between 30 and 40 dollars a meal so it really should run bettter .. we will go back as we live the area but for the overall price of 3 nights did not reflect the prices that we paid .
Stayed 3 nights in Jan 2019

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveler

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Fabulous location in the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park - peaceful and relaxing.
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2018

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveler

Traveled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Beautiful remote beach setting with access to magnificent hiking on Abel Tasman track. Spacious room with private deck. Great restaurant. Absolutely outstanding, friendly staff!
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2018

10/10 Excellent

Janina

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Just awesome
It was fantastic :) Restaurant closes at 8 pm. Breakfast between 25-30$ pP. Really tasty!
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2018

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveler

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Fantastic location, well worth the walk. Food was great along with the service
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2018

10/10 Excellent

Kelly

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
OMG this was amazing!!!
Slight adventure to get to Awaroa Lodge as not able to get there by car, so boat or helicopter or walking over either side of high tide! Felt like we were in an island paradise as scenery and setting was just phenomenal. Totally recommended!!!
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2018

10/10 Excellent

Isidoros

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
awesome stay
was a great stay away from everything. peace and serenity. great location. chance to hike, trek, swim or just relax. would definitely go back
Stayed 2 nights in Nov 2018

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveler

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2018

10/10 Excellent

T, Concord

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Beautiful, comfortable, quiet. This place is the place to go for a personal or couple retreat. The boat ride to get there makes it all the more special. We are planning to go back.
Stayed 2 nights in Nov 2018

8/10 Good

Jo, NZ

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
Great staff ..... each and every one of them we dealt with. Very friendly and professional. Excellent service. Was called before we arrived to offer organising water taxi transfers which I thought was great. Huge thanks to the lovely woman from Reception who took us down to the boat as we were leaving via alternate route in pouring rain. Beautiful dinner in the restaurant .... all 4 of us were very impressed with our meals and lovely to eat in front of the fire on a cold stormy night. Our room for 4 people was very spacious and comfortable, double story with 3 queen beds and 2 singles, all very comfortable and fantastic pillows. We enjoyed the luxury after walking the Abel Tasman track. , Only negatives were no ventilation in bathroom and with no shower door water everywhere. And terrible breakfast which was big disappointment after night before. The place is in a beautiful setting but looking a bit faded and the updates like the laminated wood flooring don’t do the place justice. Still, all in all a lovely stay and we would definitely stay again.
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2018

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveler

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Wonderfully isolated location in the middle of the woods
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2018

10/10 Excellent

Brodi

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Unique Stay!
This is a really unique lodge in a really unique part of the world. Most people are hiking the Abel Tasman. We took it by water with a catamaran for the day. The service was excellent. Dani put up with the a pro. The rooms are big and cozy. We had a balcony with lots of sun. There is a heater in the bathroom and a towel warmer. I do wish they offered more variety of beers. Not everyone loves craft beers. The food is excellent. We were disappointed the pizzeria was closed.
Stayed 3 nights in May 2018