A Family Guide to Copthorne Wellington

6 Reasons to Stay at Holiday Inn Auckland Airport

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that we are currently enjoying a family holiday in QLD, yaaaaaay! It's been a while since we've taken the kids on a plane, so we did some pretty thorough planning beforehand.  Maybe/probably over-planning, but hey, it helps keep travel anxiety in check :-).

Something that made the trip feel less overwhelming was a Park, Stay & Go booking with Holiday Inn Auckland Airport.  We are already big fans of the Holiday Inn brand - they are super reliable, comfortable and cater well to families - and this particular deal is practically essential for traveling families, leaving you to focus on final packing decisions and last minute travel details.

1.  Secure car parking while you are away.  Park your car, and leave it!  This is a pretty big deal.  Arriving at the hotel and knowing that all you need to worry about is ensuring your alarm goes off in the morning - definite tension releaser!  Cars are secure in the parking lot, and simple enough to collect once you return from your holiday, with no extra fees associated (if you collect within a 21 day period).

Holiday Inn is situated very close to the airport, and is part of the Yellow Bus shuttle circuit.  Tickets can be purchased from a ticketing machine in the hotel lobby, and the bus picks you up just outside the main entrance.  At $6 per adult, and with children riding free, this is the perfect option for getting you to your flight on time.  Upon return, the Yellow Bus will bring you back to the Holiday Inn to collect your car.  So easy!

2.  Great food.  Another thing you won't have to worry about is figuring out dinner and breakfast, and if you have an early flight, you can have breakfast sent to your room before the restaurant opens.  We skipped breakfast (we had a super, super early start), but really enjoyed our dinner!  Seafood heaven! Seriously ace oysters and that baked fish was so. good.

If you prefer, they also have an a la cart menu too, with pasta dishes and other options.

3. Super comfortable rooms.  These felt quite roomy and led out into a very pretty courtyard, the perfect spot to stretch legs after a long car journey.  The rooms were well equipped, and each had fresh fruit and water waiting for us.  This was such a nice touch, and well appreciated.  There are different options for pillow softness, and as ever, the beds were amazeballs.

If you feel like having a dip there is a lovely looking pool (we were too chilly this time, maybe next!), and a fitness centre for a quick pre-flight work out.  We did neither, but soaked in hot bubble baths, watched a bit of sky, and pretended we were getting enough sleep for the crazy busy day ahead.

4.   Kids stay and eat free.  We enjoyed adjoining rooms this time but we've never had trouble staying in a double room either, so if you want to save some money for the rest of your trip, this is a good option.  There is plenty of outdoor space for kids to burn off some energy before crashing out, and a Disney channel when they're ready to settle down. 

Naturally buffet dining is every kind of ideal for fussy kids, and you'll be glad kids eat free when your really fussy/tired kid declines everything.  Eleanor impressed the staff with her selection of seafood (Northland kid right there!) and was pretty much in holiday heaven before we'd even set foot on a plane.  

5.  The staff are gorgeous.  Both times that we've stayed at a Holiday Inn, we've found the staff exceptionally friendly and helpful.  I'm not sure if this is part of their training, or whether they just hire the nicest people, ever!  Perhaps both.  Either way, they made us feel completely relaxed and at home.

6.  Free wifi (with IHG membership - which is also free!).  Nothing annoys me more than having to pay for internet, knowing full well I have unlimited data at home :-P  Okay, some things do annoy me more, but still...  I love knowing that anytime I stay at an IHG hotel I can connect for free, for the duration of my visit.  Boom!  Especially handy when you want to do web check-in or any last minute planning/communicating.  And of course, instagram to your heart's content!

Friends of ours leaving for their holiday a day or two after us, ended up in a dive of a hotel not far from here.  We compared notes and conclusively agree that Holiday Inn Auckland Airport has all of our future bookings for overseas trips. 

Our rooms were complimentary in return for this review.  All opinions expressed are entirely my own.  Thank you IHG and Holiday Inn for starting our holiday off on the perfect note.

Millennium Hotel Rotorua

We recently booked a mystery hotel through Wotif, for a quick overnighter in Rotorua. I would've been dubious about the idea but several friends recommended it, and when I checked it out I realised there was very little risk involved.  We knew the star rating, hotel vicinity and basic facilities (all the important ones - spas, free wifi etc).

As you can see, we ended up in a really horrible hotel *wink*. Really, we were very happy to end up at Millennium Hotel (we were going to book there anyway), and at $100 for a double room, the price was pretty unbeatable. I'm now so sold on this idea, and we'll definitely be using Mystery Hotels in the future.  

The Rooms:  Ours were really simple and comfortable.  The bathroom was luxe and the beds were perfect.  There really wasn't much decor to speak of, but every necessary item was provided, including plenty of storage space.  We were located on the third floor, and thus had a view (of the shopping district - and pretty night lights).

We went with a double room once again, and again, it was perfect.  There was a little noise the following morning, but well after we had awoken so it didn't bother us.  Our only difficulty was navigating the hotel to find the spas.  Once we'd figured that out we were totally sweet :-)

The Facilities:  Millennium has a ton of excellent facilities, including a fitness centre, spa pools and therapy rooms, a mega heated pool and two restaurants.  Not to forget the bar, which we pretty much can forget about when we're hotel-side with our kiddos.

The spa pools were amazing, set in a lovely, tranquil room that felt at once private and still easily accessible.  They hold poolside cultural performances on a nightly basis (I believe), but the night we stayed this didn't happen and so we pretty much had the big pool to ourselves.  Yuss!  

I was really tempted to get a manicure while we were there, but in the end we were just in too much of a rush.  Next time, definitely :-)

The Service: We really didn't interact with anyone much during our stay, which was exactly what we wished for.  On a few occasions we needed a small amount of assistance and they were very, very sweet.  Like that time I locked us out of our room after a morning swim.  Or that time I spilt lots of soft drink on the carpet... 

The Location:  Centrally located, we were minutes from the lake, museum and a bunch of other attractions.  We had no difficulty finding the hotel and had we stayed longer, could easily have found our way around central Rotorua on foot.  The hotel is temptingly close to the Polynesian Spa, which I would love to try one day, and walking distance to a host of restaurants and cafes.

Perfect for: families.  We noticed that Millennium Hotel seemed popular with family groups, and it's not hard to figure out why.  There is plenty here to keep kiddos happy while you relax.  Obviously the pool and spas are favourites, but they also have this cute courtyard garden, perfect for sunnier days than we had.  The sky channels include Disney, so there's always that as a back up.

Our kids are quite easily pleased, and the tunnel and elevators were probably their highlight.  It was bitterly cold so probably safest to enjoy these 'attractions', rather than brave the courtyard.  

From the website it looks like Millennium Rotorua has relatively well-priced rooms (and some bonus deals) most of the time, so we would definitely book in here again.  I kinda love the mystery though, so who knows where we'll stay next time...