Sanctuary Palms

My husband and I stayed at Sanctuary Palms for 2 nights at the very end of a 3-week trip traveling around the South and North Islands. I had been there in 1986 and wanted to share many of my experiences with my husband (who was my boyfriend back then). Paihia and the Bay of Islands were definately on our must see list. We booked the Moulin Rouge apartment and it was wonderful! Perched high above the the town, it offered breathtaking sunrises each morning and the sights and sounds of the town and water activity below in the evenings as the sun set. We highly recommend Sanctuary Palms for anyone looking for private luxury and outstanding amenities. There are so many activities available to tourists here. One stands alone, however - sailing on the R. Tucker Thompson. We spent 5 and a half hours on this working tall sailing ship. It was definately one of the most enjoyably, relaxing days during our time in New Zealand.

The apartments were in a spectacular location, but up a steep narrow road and driveway. Not good for walking into the town as there is no footpath and it's very steep on the way back. The room was well set up with a small kitchenette but the dining options in the Paihia township were outstanding. Don't bother cooking! There are endless possibilities for things to do in and around Paihia - the most interesting is to get across the bay to Russell.

This place is not a 4 star hotel. We paid almost $AUS700pn for the Pacifica suite but got something labelled 'room 4' - there is no way of knowing if this is what you paid for... The entry to our suite was a single damaged painted door in the garage. Our car park was in the weather at the side of the garage, narrow and next to a vertical drop. The 'suite' was musty with dust on many surfaces, curtains had tape holding them together. They provide a dehumidifier... The balcony was small and south facing, the plants almost dead and the bbq grubby. The 'ocean' view is a tiny glimpse sideways when standing on the balcony. Generally the place has not had an upgrade for at least 30 years. Do not stay here ....

We stayed in this small ‘boutique’ complex in early feb 2023. I get the concept and when it was first opened over 10 years ago it must have been rather special. It’s an interesting one now and I can see why some might love this place and some would not. Its advantages are/were; small complex with only 4 accommodation units, no children, quiet location away from the town in an elevated position, no smoking, pretty good range of equipment (iron, fridge, washing /dryer machine, smart tv, jacuzzi bath, microwave etc), friendly staff when on site and the impressive welcome food/drink pack on arrival was a quality touch within an obvious attempt to provide something special with regard to accommodation. On the other hand; you definitely need a car, parking on site is tight, if you go out and drink/eat and can’t get a taxi back (you have to order one as there are no taxi ranks in the town) then the walk back up the hill is a killer and could not be done by anyone with mobility issues. It isn’t 5 minutes unless you’re an Olympic athlete! One apartment has a view over the bay which is probably spectacular but the others do not. We stayed in The Waterfall, or as it is now renamed The Garden, suite. This is the smallest of the 4 accommodation units. It had everything that you’d need for a comfortable self catering stay. It was commodious and aspects were ‘luxurious’ eg the large bed and the jacuzzi bath. However, we were disturbed by noise from upstairs and this was an obvious downside, there was no view except a small, although pleasant , garden/rain forest/outside trees by the lounge which is actually the top of the bank leading down to the road (and from the bedroom window you’d see the office and from the front door you’d see a wall) and there is nowhere you’d see the bay from, the waterfall was switched off or broken and there was nowhere to sit out in the evening (unless you count the doorstep). All of this was a shame. It was nice in many ways and I’m being picky but we had a dining table with 4 chairs (2 were ripped) when you could not get any more than 2 people in the apartment, a coffee machine that had a broken cup stand, couldn’t work out the tv in the living room (which was inferior to the one in the bedroom ?), a broken plastic toilet seat, a bit of kitchen panelling held in with sticky tape….and I mention these things not because they seriously affected our stay but because offering luxury standard accommodation requires a better attention to detail. I cannot comment upon any of the other three units. Basically, it’s a nice place and had some nice touches, and we enjoyed it, but we would have enjoyed it more if it had benefitted from a bit of TLC and greater attention to detail and we had had somewhere to sit out in the evening (such as a decking area by the lounge). And, given that that views of the bay of islands are spectacular from other properties in this town but there were none from this apartment ( and only from one in the co

Check in office was closed, even though we'd called to say we would be there at 3pm. Waited in rain for 10 minutes. Apartment was 'very tired'. Thick dust on many of the surfaces, balcony was tiny and covered in plants and was really dirty. Perhaps you could see the sea at one time, but the trees have now grown too tall. The drive up to place is almost vertical. The bathroom has paint peeling from the windows. No separate shower.

We stayed in the Moulin Rouge suite. The accommodation has everything you need but the room is tired. The view from the balcony is enticing but, sadly, the trees in front of the property encroach enough to spoil what would otherwise be a fabulous view of the water. Two big issues - the construction of the property is such that you can hear every movement made by people in the suite above and the noise of their TV is enough to be disturbing. The other issue is the over-bath shower - to get into the shower you have to go up 2 steps to then step down into the deep spa bath for your shower and there are no handrails to hold onto. For older people, this is difficult - possibly dangerous. There is on-site parking but getting a car into and out of the property is not easy - especially if other guests don’t park where they are supposed to. Overall, we’d expect more/better for the price paid.

We have travelled extensively in NZ and worldwide. This accomodation would be the poorest value for money we have ever had. It was heavily discounted from $650+/night to around $290 and quite frankly it is $150/night accomodation. The place is very dated, the are no sea views as shown in photos, the fittings are very modest, there are broken window latches and some of the windows have no blinds or curtains. The TV and sky operations are quite challenging and if you need Netflix you need to log into your own account (not a lot of help for overseas tourists). There are a lot of sites in the area that are much better value and we would recommend you shop around, this place is very, very, average.

Highly recommended. We actually booked 3 apartments at Sanctuary palms for a family long weekend. Booking was made easy. Property is outstanding. Views to die for. Everything was immaculate on arrival. Car parking is very tight.