The Ponsonby Press, Auckland

We arrived on Ponsonby Road in the soft, salt-washed light that Auckland does so well, the ridge lined with villas turned into wine bars, the harbour glittering at the foot of the side streets. The Ponsonby Press occupies a 1920s printworks set back behind a timber gate, its brick shell and sawtooth roof now sheltering a leafy courtyard. Inside, the aesthetic is relaxed Pacific-modern: blonde plywood, woven harakeke flax, brass and a great deal of natural light. The lobby doubles as a cafe, and the smell of freshly ground coffee greeted us at the door. A barefoot-casual host poured us a flat white and walked us through the courtyard, where a pohutukawa tree leaned over the tables.

The room

Our room, a Courtyard Studio, was a comfortable thirty square metres opening through glass doors onto the planted central courtyard. The interior is warm and tactile: walls and joinery in pale ply, a bed in undyed linen, a woven flax wall hanging by a local artist, and a tan leather reading chair angled to the light. The bathroom is compact but lovely, micro-cement in a warm sand tone with a generous walk-in shower and Aotearoa-made botanical products. There is no tub, but the bed is excellent and the courtyard doors fill the room with green light. Small thoughtful gestures, a tin of the house coffee, a stack of New Zealand design magazines, a carafe of filtered water, make it feel less hotel than well-appointed friend's flat.

The Ponsonby Press distils the whole easy-going charm of its neighbourhood into eleven sunlit rooms.The Suite Edit

Service & food

Service is warm, first-name and genuinely helpful, the staff happy to send you to the best natural-wine bar on the ridge or arrange a ferry to the islands. The courtyard cafe is the beating heart of the place: it roasts its own single-origin, and breakfast brings corn fritters, manuka-cured salmon, and some of the best coffee in a city that takes coffee seriously. There is no formal restaurant, which is no loss given Ponsonby Road's embarrassment of options at the gate, but the cafe serves small plates and natural wine into the evening. Settling into the courtyard at dusk with a glass of Hawke's Bay syrah felt like the most local thing we did all trip.

The verdict

The Ponsonby Press is for the traveller who wants to live like a stylish local rather than tick off the Sky Tower, design lovers, couples, solo guests drawn to a buzzy, walkable neighbourhood of cafes and galleries. It is genuinely charming and superbly located. The honest caveat is that it sits a few kilometres from the central waterfront and the cruise terminal, so you will taxi or bus to reach the CBD proper, and there is no pool, gym or parking to speak of. But for soaking up the real, low-key cool of Auckland, no harbourside tower comes close to this old printworks on the ridge.