Our travels to Blenheim had us visiting several world class wineries in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. Our visits to Allan Scott, Wairu River, Whitehaven and Cloudy Bay would have us looking for a conveniently located base in order to base our sightseeing. The Marlborough Vintner’s Hotel fit that requirement quite nicely and we enjoyed a four day stay at this hotel during our time in this corner of the world.

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This post is one chapter on our trip to Fiji, New Zealand and French Polynesia. This trip was redeemed through Alaska Mileage Plan and AAdvantage frequent flier programs and enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: The Marlbourgh Vintners Hotel, Blenheim, New Zealand.

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Booking the Marlbourgh Vintiers Inn:

I don’t know whether it was just me but I wasn’t able to find too many mid range accommodation options in Blenheim other than strip motels or the odd super deluxe house. We ended up at the Marlborough Vintners Hotel Inn which was a great choice.

I booked direct through the hotel’s website. We ended up with a Best Available Rate of $205 New Zealand Dollars ($144 USD) a night, which I thought was more than reasonable for the amount of space that we ended up with. With us visiting in off season, there was quite a bit of supply available.

Getting to the Marlbourough Vintners Hotel:

We were assigned a Toyota RAV4 from the Thrifty Rental Car. I booked online via the Airport website portal and got a free GPS unit with it, which was better than I was able to do on the Thrifty website direct.

We drove the 8 minutes up the road to the Marlborough Vintners Hotel. It was really easy to locate and was located immediately across from the Whitehaven Winery cellar door.

We were checked in without issue and assigned Suite 16. With reception located a little ways from the room itself, we drove the car over to the building with our room.

The Room: A Vineyard View Suite

The Vineyard View suite was large and had a separate living and dining space. Despite the extra space, there was no cooking appliance except for a microwave and a toaster. We decided we would self cater breakfasts as the $20 breadbasket offered by the hotel (included in some rates) didn’t seem to get strong reviews on Trip Advisor.

The Vineyard View unit was attractively decorated, with lots of space available to stretch out in. It featured a proper living room and had lots of natural light.

The Vineyard View Suite offered a separate bedroom with a comfortable king size bed. Being out in the vineyard, the room was very quiet and insulated from highway noise.

Despite the comforts, I thought that the bathroom had an institutional touch to it.

Views from the Room:

There was convenient parking out front and our room backed right onto the vines. There were some terrific views from the hotel property, across flat but numerous vines guarded by flocks of sheep.

We awoke the next morning almost completely surrounding by vines. There were sheep running through the vineyard outside our room when I first woke up. It was great to see the first light on the vines of New Zealand.

We used the Marlborough Vintner’s Hotel as a base of operations for wine tastings at nearby Wairu River, Spy Valley, Cloudy Bay and Allan Scott wineries located nearby.

The Bottom Line: The Marlbourough Vineyard Hotel

The Marlborough Vintners Hotel was a really great hotel stay for our four day stay in Blenheim. The hotel was in a lovely setting, the fit and furnishings were comfortable and the ability to see sheep grazing in the morning added an authentic New Zealand touch to our stay.

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If you visited Blenheim for New Zealand Wine Tourism, where did you end up staying ?

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