Wake up and smell the coffee. Or the bacon or the blueberry muffins.
If you’re looking for a new, comfortable, clean, stylish, and affordable hotel in a great location in Auckland CBD, then this post is for you.
I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on Wyndham Street. It’s part of the IHG family of hotels and attached to voco, on the corner of Wyndham and Albert Streets. In fact, they are on the former site of the NZ Herald building, which got bowled after they moved out, and these hotels rose up like phoenixes.
voco also has a cool rooftop bar, Bar Albert, which is great and makes my list of the best rooftops in Auckland for a drink.
But the reason for my stay was because I’d been sent a press release about the Holiday Inn Express’s scented alarm clock. Yep! An alarm clock that does not make a sound, but a smell. (Cue every man in New Zealand offering to provide the same experience for their long-suffering partners…)
I thought this sounded like a bit of fun, and a great blog topic, so I reached out to see if they had a spare room available and lo, they did.
So husband and I packed an overnight bag and off we set, about 30 minutes from our home for a night in the Big Smoke.
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First let me start with the location
It’s two blocks from the Sky City precinct which includes the Sky Tower and casino, plus the restaurants on Federal Street. When the Convention Centre opens, you’ll be three blocks from there.
You’re one block from Queen Street, for a stroll down to Commercial Bay for shopping and the epic food hall on the top floor there, which also has several of Auckland’s finest restaurants located inside – like Ahi and Origine.
And from there it’s just a short stroll into the Viaduct in one direction, or Britomart in the other.
What are the extras?
Great question: the very generous buffet breakfast is free! You have cereals and yoghurt and juices, tea and coffee. But it also includes hot food like scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, pancakes, plus croissants and toast and spreads.
The same restaurant for brekky is open for dinners too, although a very small menu. But they had the rugby on, so we sat down for a salt and pepper squid starter and a wine.
Parking is available next door in the Wilson Car Park. It’s $58 for 24 hours, when you get your parking ticket endorsed at reception.
What is nearby worth noting?
Right across the road on Albert Street you have The Shakespeare, which is a pub, restaurant and micro brewery. They have seating upstairs too and I’ve been to a private event there before – if you’re looking for that kind of space.
Across the road on Wyndham Street is one of my favourite Auckland restaurants, Culprit. They offer a five-course chef’s choice menu as well as a la carte, and if you use First Table and eat early, or take the last sitting, you can get your meals for 50% off. Right beside that is Goat, a new Indian restaurant that my friends have been to and loved.
But walk less than 10 minutes to Federal Street, gazing up at the Sky Tower, and see if you can get a table at Al Brown’s Depot. They had a 30-minute wait when we went, so as we were only wanting a drink, we went across the brick laneway to Huami, a Chinese bar and restaurant.
I had their signature Flox Tail cocktail, complete with a rice paper kingfisher on top. Kinda sweet and sour, with a bit of vegan froth (not egg whites) – the way I like a cocktail!
But tell me about the scented alarm clock!
Yes. The clock. This is the reason I stayed after all!
So in a world first, the Holiday Inn Express is the first hotel to allow guests to wake gently with the smell of either coffee, bacon or blueberry muffins, rather than a blaring sound ripping them from their slumber, or a phone call from the front desk.
Quirky indeed. We got into our room, having pre-booked the scented alarm as they don’t come standard in each room.
The room itself was very nice. White double sheeted linen on the bed, four delicious pillows and space for two overnight bags. Floor to ceiling windows and we had a view of the Sky Tower. The frosted glass bathroom has a clever door which either closes off the shower or the loo, depending on where you want your privacy.
The alarm was placed beside the bed so the first thing I did was open each tiny bottle of scent for a sniff. The bacon smelled a bit like a smoky whiskey. The blueberry muffins were a little too strong for me right out of the bottle, and the coffee was amazing.
I decided to fire up the bacon immediately so I could film it. There was water in it already so all I had to do was add five drops of my chosen scent. Here’s my video – and my ultimate verdict…
Before bed I washed out the water tray and moved the clock over to the mini bar area, as I didn’t want it puffing in my face first thing in the morning. However that meant having to reset the clock, and then set the alarm – with coffee drops this time.
At that point, I got totally confused and while I managed to set the time, I did not manage to set the alarm correctly to go off at 6.15am (I really wanted to see if it would wake me).
Suffice to say, I woke at 7 (thanks to the black-out blinds!) and turned on the alarm myself. Within moments a waft of coffee filled the room. It smelled great.
I think it would definitely wake me, and with the black out blinds, would be a good idea. Would I rely on it if I had a meeting to get up and go to? Probably.
But I think I’d prefer it to actually make me a coffee at 7am!
*I stayed courtesy of Holiday Inn Express, but this review is all me.
