We had the best time for my 40th birthday. Clean, comfortable and large rooms. The spas were a real bonus. The hosts were so friendly and helpful. Everything was so easy! The location is brilliant as it is across from the water with lovely views and a short 10 minute stroll to town. Loved it!
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We had a penthouse room. The room was a great size and very clean. The view was great, the location was great. The hosts are wonderful and super friendly. Would definitely be back. Situated across the road from the beach
Fantastic accommodation - Santani and Tanja made us feel welcome from moment we got there. Great location too. We enjoyed the penthouse apartment with its amazing balcony to watch the world go by. We will definitely stay again when in the Bay
We were pretty specific in the area we wanted to stay for our weekend away in Napier with Motel de la Mer being smack bang right in the middle. But possibly like many others we read the Tripadvisor reviews and were a bit put off by "big bad john". Well let me put things straight right from the start - its "long gone john" and welcome new owners Tanja and Santani. GREAT hosts. Friendly. Helpful. And super nice to deal with. Even we had to growl them to not make up our room after our first night which they insisted on doing anyway. Tanja and Santani might look too young to be running a motel but trust me, they run a good ship and should be commended for how they are doing, not tagged with bad reviews from previous owners.
We had 1 of the 2 top level rooms (on the left as you look up from the road) and apart from the warning at the bottom of the stairs warning that steps may be slippery when wet, we had nothing else in the room to worry about. Everything was perfect. Unfortunately we had such a busy weekend we didn't get to enjoy the spa in the room. But I reckon we used every thing else and nothing disappointed. Especially the view out the open front doors at sunrise.
Allegedly there are only 9 car parks for 11 rooms but we managed to get a park both nights we were there so can't comment.
So take our advise and stay here if you're looking for somewhere central near the beach with a view.
(ps: don't dine at Drift next door unless you're really hungry and don't care too much about atmosphere or hosts or how the food looks. Our Grabone dinner and breakfast filled a gap. But we wouldn't go back again.)
We stayed here for 3 nights in one of the two "Penthouse" suites. The owners were lovely and always called us by name whenever we spoke, which was very nice. The suites are quite large, with a living room and balcony, small kitchen, separate bedroom area with a spa bath, and a separate bathroom with a shower and vanity unit. They were very clean, the shower worked well, bed was comfortable and the room easy to heat with its own heat pump and controls (it was winter). Netflix is available to use with your own login. The room was serviced daily.
The balcony had a restricted view out to the ocean. The living room had plenty of natural light and sunshine (when it wasn't raining!). Restaurants and the main shopping centre were all within walking distance, as is the lovely seaside esplanade walkway. We enjoyed our stay and would stay again.
Celebrating my daughter's 18th birthday she wanted to be able to take her family away for the weekend and decided on Napier after searching for the most accomodating and most central (walking distance)and the most cost effective we came across MOTEL DE LA MER...I could not have asked for anything better and if you have been to Napier you will know options available are endless for motels in this area...but I have NO issues on giving this Motel AAAAA++++ review!! as the experience made for the lasting memories that my whole whanau who could attend will never forget Thank you Motel De la Mer staff❤❤ thank you Tanja and Santini
