The waterfront on foot
6 stops · 2 h · on foot · 7 stops
- Wellington Station
- Wellington Museum
- Frank Kitts Park
- Solace in the Wind
- Te Papa
- Freyberg Pool
- Oriental Beach
137 places · Cuisine Good Food Guide 2026, Visa WOAP, Urban List and NZ Coffee · no Eater · 5 routes
Tap a route and it gets drawn on the map, stop by stop.
Tap a pin for a photo, rating and how to get there by cable car, Metlink bus or on foot. Turn on a route to follow it stop by stop.
This interactive map of Wellington (New Zealand) brings together 137 hand-picked places: 48 attractions, 43 restaurants, 23 cafés and 23 shops. It also includes 5 walking routes with their stops in order. For every place you get what it is, a practical tip and how to get there by public transport. It is free, works on your phone and needs no sign-up.
· Curated by the HOLASIM team · How we make the maps
Tap a route to see it drawn on the map, stop by stop.
6 stops · 2 h · on foot · 7 stops
7 stops · 2.5 h · on foot · 7 stops
6 stops · half a day · cable car and bus · 6 stops
6 stops · 5 h · buses 2 and 24 · 6 stops
6 stops · full day · ferry and train · 6 stops
Te Papa Tongarewa · Te Aro
New Zealand's free national museum: a real colossal squid, Māori treasures and the Wētā-built Gallipoli hall. The one you cannot skip.
Tip: Start on level 4 at Te Marae and work down: the colossal squid gets mobbed after 11am.
🚇 On Cable Street, a 10-minute waterfront walk from Wellington Station.
Featured in: WellingtonNZ · Lonely Planet
Show on mapWellington Cable Car · Lambton Quay
Five minutes of cherry-red funicular through lit tunnels to the capital's most photographed lookout.
Tip: Sit on the right going up, then walk back down through the Botanic Garden and save the return fare.
🚇 Entrance tucked into Cable Car Lane, one block off Lambton Quay.
Featured in: Clásico local · Lonely Planet
Show on mapCable Car Museum · Kelburn
The original 1902 winding house at the top, wooden grip cars and all, and it costs nothing.
Tip: Try the descent simulator: free, and kids will ride it three times.
🚇 Right beside the Kelburn cable car terminus, steps from the platform.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapZealandia Te Māra a Tāne · Karori
A 225-hectare fenced sanctuary ten minutes from downtown: kākā, takahē, tuatara and wild kiwi after dark.
Tip: October means chicks everywhere: arrive at opening for the loudest dawn chorus of the year.
🚇 Metlink bus 21 from Courtenay Place to Karori South, or the free shuttle from the i-SITE.
Featured in: WellingtonNZ · Lonely Planet
Show on mapMount Victoria Lookout · Mount Victoria
196 metres up and the whole postcard: harbour, CBD, Matiu island and planes dropping into Rongotai.
Tip: Check the wind forecast first: in 100km/h gusts you will not even get the car door open.
🚇 Metlink bus 20 to Lookout Road, or a 40-minute climb up from Oriental Bay.
Featured in: Clásico local · TikTok viral
Show on mapThe Wētā Cave · Miramar
Wētā Workshop's shop-museum: giant trolls, a sleeping dragon and real Middle-earth props, free to walk into.
Tip: The cave is free; the guided workshop tour sells out days ahead, so book before you fly in.
🚇 Metlink bus 2 from Courtenay Place to Miramar, then five blocks to Weka Street.
Featured in: Wētā Workshop · Lonely Planet
Show on mapThe Beehive · Pipitea
New Zealand's oddest, most-loved building: ten concrete beehive floors where the cabinet actually meets.
Tip: The free Parliament tour runs hourly and goes down to the rubber earthquake bearings under the building.
🚇 Opposite Wellington Station, just across Bowen Street.
Featured in: NZ Parliament · WellingtonNZ
Show on mapParliament House · Pipitea
Edwardian marble next to the Beehive, plus the pink Gothic library that survived two fires.
Tip: Ask for the tour that includes the Parliamentary Library: prettiest building, fewest visitors.
🚇 Steps from the Wellington Station exit, up Molesworth Street.
Featured in: NZ Parliament
Show on mapOld Saint Paul's · Thorndon
An entire Gothic cathedral built from native timber: kauri, rimu and tōtara that creak when the wind hits.
Tip: Time it with a choir rehearsal, usually mid-afternoon: the timber acoustics are something else.
🚇 Mulgrave Street, five blocks north of Wellington Station.
Featured in: Heritage New Zealand
Show on mapWellington Museum · Queens Wharf
An 1892 bond store turned city museum, with Māori legends told as floating holograms upstairs.
Tip: The Wahine disaster room is short and devastating: save it for last, not first.
🚇 On Jervois Quay, directly opposite Queens Wharf.
Featured in: WellingtonNZ
Show on mapCity Gallery Te Whare Toi · Civic Square
Sharp contemporary art inside Civic Square's old art-deco library, and almost always free.
Tip: Leave via the City to Sea Bridge: Para Matchitt's carved sculptures are worth the detour.
🚇 On Civic Square, between Wakefield Street and the waterfront bridge.
Featured in: City Gallery · The Spinoff
Show on mapSpace Place · Kelburn
A planetarium and 1941 telescope atop the Botanic Garden, with southern-sky viewing nights open to all.
Tip: Telescope nights run Tuesday and Saturday and depend on cloud: ring them the same afternoon.
🚇 Two minutes on foot from the top Wellington Cable Car station.
Featured in: Space Place · WellingtonNZ
Show on mapWellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā · Kelburn
25 hillside hectares running from native bush to tulip beds, all of it downhill from the cable car.
Tip: October brings Tulip Sunday and the rhododendrons: come early, before the northerly picks up.
🚇 Get off the Wellington Cable Car at Kelburn: the main gate is right there.
Featured in: WellingtonNZ · Lonely Planet
Show on mapLady Norwood Rose Garden · Kelburn
110 circular beds and 3,000 rose bushes that start firing exactly as the long spring sets in.
Tip: By late October the first buds are open: grab a coffee at the Picnic Café and take the east rim bench.
🚇 At the north end of the Botanic Garden, via the Centennial Entrance in Thorndon.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapBegonia House · Kelburn
A tropical glasshouse with giant waterlilies beside the rose garden: the perfect bolthole when rain hits.
Tip: Best wet-day move in town: you hear the rain on the glass and nothing blows your hair sideways.
🚇 Attached to the Lady Norwood Rose Garden inside the Botanic Garden.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapŌtari-Wilton's Bush · Wilton
The country's only botanic garden devoted purely to native plants, with an 800-year-old rimu and a swing bridge.
Tip: Do the Canopy Walkway first, then drop to Troup Picnic Area: in October the bellbirds sing all day.
🚇 Metlink bus 14 from Wilson Street to Wilton Road; the gate faces the stop.
Featured in: WellingtonNZ
Show on mapKatherine Mansfield House · Thorndon
The childhood home of New Zealand's greatest writer, restored exactly as her short stories describe it.
Tip: Nobody bothers with the small back garden: that is where the aloe from 'Prelude' grows.
🚇 Tinakori Road in Thorndon; Metlink bus 14 or a 20-minute walk from Wellington Station.
Featured in: Heritage New Zealand
Show on mapNairn Street Cottage · Mount Cook
The oldest house in central Wellington, built 1858 and lived in by one family for four generations.
Tip: Open a few days a week, guided tours only: check the timetable before you climb the hill.
🚇 Nairn Street, uphill off Willis Street; Metlink bus 7 to Brooklyn Road.
Featured in: Heritage New Zealand
Show on mapPukeahu National War Memorial Park · Mount Cook
A memorial park of allied-nation gardens, the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and lawns made for lying in the sun.
Tip: At 12:30 sharp the Carillon rings out: 74 bells, and the traffic noise just disappears underneath.
🚇 Between Buckle Street and Taranaki Street; Metlink bus 1, 2 or 3 to Basin Reserve.
Featured in: Manatū Taonga
Show on mapNational War Memorial Carillon · Mount Cook
A 51-metre tower holding 74 bells, one of the world's biggest carillons, and it is played live.
Tip: The Hall of Memories below is free and almost empty: stained glass, marble and total silence.
🚇 Inside Pukeahu, one block from the Basin Reserve stop on Metlink bus 2.
Featured in: Manatū Taonga
Show on mapFrank Kitts Park · Waterfront
The waterfront's green lung, with the platform local kids bomb off into the harbour once it warms up.
Tip: The Saturday makers' market runs right below in the car park: crafts, cheap food and free entry.
🚇 On Jervois Quay, between Queens Wharf and the lagoon.
Featured in: WellingtonNZ
Show on mapSolace in the Wind · Waterfront
The naked bronze man leaning into the gale: Wellington's most photographed sculpture and its most honest.
Tip: In a southerly, shoot low from behind him across the water: it looks like he is holding the gale back.
🚇 On the waterfront promenade, between Te Papa and Circa Theatre.
Featured in: Max Patté · TikTok viral
Show on mapThe Bucket Fountain · Cuba Mall
Yellow and red buckets that tip and soak you since 1969: Cuba Street's most absurd, most beloved landmark.
Tip: Do not stand on the south side: when the wind swings round, that bucket soaks you and everyone laughs.
🚇 In the middle of pedestrian Cuba Mall, three blocks from Courtenay Place.
Featured in: Clásico local · TikTok viral
Show on mapOriental Beach · Oriental Bay
The capital's city beach, its sand shipped down from Golden Bay and palms that have no business being here.
Tip: October light at 7:30pm is unreal and the water is still freezing: bring a towel, not togs.
🚇 A 15-minute waterfront walk from Te Papa, or Metlink bus 2 to Oriental Parade.
Featured in: WellingtonNZ
Show on mapFreyberg Pool · Oriental Bay
A 1960s lap pool walled in glass over the harbour: swim your lengths watching the ferries slide past.
Tip: Go between 10am and noon: after 4pm the squads take over and there is no free lane.
🚇 At the start of Oriental Parade, steps from Freyberg Beach.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapWaitangi Park · Te Aro
A restored wetland, a slick concrete skatepark and the Sunday morning market: Te Aro's own back yard.
Tip: Sunday morning is Harbourside Market: get there before 9 and eat a hāngī pie straight off the tray.
🚇 Between Cable Street and Chaffers Marina, two blocks from Te Papa.
Featured in: WellingtonNZ
Show on mapEmbassy Theatre · Courtenay Place
The 1924 art-deco picture palace where The Return of the King premiered, with the country's biggest screen.
Tip: Book Grand Circle row C: that is where Peter Jackson sat for the 2003 premiere.
🚇 At the east end of Courtenay Place, Metlink bus 2 or 14 to Embassy Theatre.
Featured in: Clásico local · Lonely Planet
Show on mapRoxy Cinema · Miramar
A cinema restored by the Wētā founders: sci-fi murals, leather recliners and a bar worth the trip alone.
Tip: Arrive 40 minutes early and look up in the foyer: a Greg Broadmore ceiling mural nobody notices.
🚇 Park Road, Miramar; Metlink bus 2 from Courtenay Place to Miramar Shops.
Featured in: Clásico local · WellingtonNZ
Show on mapCirca Theatre · Waterfront
Independent theatre next to Te Papa, behind a rescued Edwardian façade, home of the best local premieres.
Tip: Rush tickets go half price at the box office one hour before curtain.
🚇 Taranaki Street Wharf, right beside Te Papa on the waterfront.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapBATS Theatre · Kent Terrace
The small room where everything new in New Zealand theatre gets tested before it hits the big stages.
Tip: The downstairs bar is open without a ticket, and it is where the cast drinks afterwards.
🚇 1 Kent Terrace, one block from the Embassy Theatre.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapSt James Theatre · Courtenay Place
A 1912 Edwardian theatre reopened after years of works, gilded plaster and an official ghost named Yuri.
Tip: It is the Royal New Zealand Ballet's house: if a season is on, it is the best culture ticket in town.
🚇 77 Courtenay Place, steps from the Metlink 2 and 3 stops.
Featured in: Heritage New Zealand
Show on mapThe Opera House · Manners Street
A 1914 Edwardian horseshoe of boxes, old-school acoustics and a bill that runs from opera to stand-up.
Tip: Side boxes are cheap and give the best view of the orchestra pit, not the stage.
🚇 111 Manners Street, between Cuba Street and Courtenay Place.
Featured in: Heritage New Zealand
Show on mapPenthouse Cinema · Brooklyn
The country's oldest surviving suburban cinema: worn armchairs, decent wine and films the multiplexes skip.
Tip: Eat first in the cinema café and ask for cinema 1: the only room with the original 1939 ceiling.
🚇 Ohiro Road in Brooklyn; Metlink bus 7 from Manners Street, ten minutes.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapWellington Zoo · Newtown
The country's oldest zoo, now a conservation hospital where you can watch a kiwi awake and up close.
Tip: The wildlife hospital has a public window and does real surgery: check the board when you come in.
🚇 Metlink bus 10 from Courtenay Place to Wellington Zoo, fifteen minutes.
Featured in: WellingtonNZ
Show on mapNZ Portrait Gallery · Shed 11
A portrait gallery inside a 1905 wharf shed: small, free and never showing the same thing twice.
Tip: Best bolthole on the waterfront when the rain starts, and never more than ten people inside.
🚇 Shed 11 on Customhouse Quay, right on the waterfront promenade.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapBrooklyn Wind Turbine · Brooklyn
The turbine that defines the windiest city on earth, with a 360-degree view across Cook Strait.
Tip: On a big day you cannot stand up there: go when gusts are under 40km/h, or stay at the car park.
🚇 Metlink bus 7 to Brooklyn, then a 25-minute climb up Todman Street.
Featured in: Clásico local · TikTok viral
Show on mapMatiu / Somes Island · Wellington Harbour
A sanctuary island mid-harbour: tuatara, kākāriki, quarantine ruins and a silence you cannot find onshore.
Tip: Bags are checked on arrival for biosecurity and only three ferries run daily: do not miss the last one.
🚇 East by West ferry from Queens Wharf, 25 minutes, en route to Days Bay.
Featured in: DOC · WellingtonNZ
Show on mapDays Bay Wharf · Days Bay
An Edwardian timber wharf across the harbour: arrive by ferry to a beach, kayaks and ice cream next door.
Tip: A strong southerly cancels the ferries without warning: check the East by West app before you leave.
🚇 East by West ferry from Queens Wharf, 20 minutes direct.
Featured in: East by West · WellingtonNZ
Show on mapPetone Settlers Museum · Petone
The art-deco beach pavilion telling how the first ships landed here in 1840, and it costs nothing.
Tip: Pair it with Jackson Street: twenty blocks of antiques, vintage and cafés on one single strip.
🚇 Metlink Hutt Valley line train to Petone, then ten minutes on foot to the Esplanade.
Featured in: Hutt City · WellingtonNZ
Show on mapScorching Bay Beach · Karaka Bays
The most sheltered beach on the east side: golden sand, a café across the road and Picton ferries sliding past.
Tip: In a northerly this bay stays flat while Lyall Bay is getting blown apart: the perfect plan B.
🚇 Metlink bus 24 from Courtenay Place to Scorching Bay, or a 20-minute coastal drive.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapSeatoun Beach · Seatoun
A village of weatherboard houses, a calm beach and the Pass of Branda, the 1907 tunnel that spits you onto sand.
Tip: The Seatoun jetty gives a clean line across the strait: in October whales sometimes pass heading south.
🚇 Metlink bus 2 from Courtenay Place all the way to Seatoun terminus.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapLyall Bay Beach · Lyall Bay
The city's surf beach, with the Rongotai runway alongside and planes dropping right over your head.
Tip: Stand at the east end near Moa Point: that is where the jets come in just above the break.
🚇 Metlink bus 2 from Courtenay Place to Lyall Bay Parade, fifteen minutes.
Featured in: Clásico local · TikTok viral
Show on mapIsland Bay Marine Education Centre · Island Bay
A tiny aquarium inside Taputeranga Marine Reserve where you can put your hand straight in the touch tank.
Tip: Only open some afternoons and weekends: check online before riding the 1 all the way out.
🚇 Metlink bus 1 from Lambton Quay to the Island Bay terminus, then across to The Esplanade.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapŌwhiro Bay · Red Rocks Pariwhero
The trailhead to Red Rocks Pariwhero: wild coast, red lava rock and a fur seal colony waiting at the end.
Tip: Two hours return over loose rock: October means seal pups, so keep at least twenty paces away.
🚇 Metlink bus 29 to Happy Valley, then a 20-minute walk down to the Ōwhiro Bay car park.
Featured in: DOC · WellingtonNZ
Show on mapAtatürk Memorial · Tarakena Bay
A Turkish memorial on the clifftop, built with soil from Gallipoli and the widest view over Cook Strait.
Tip: Come at sunset with the wind at your back: best spot on the south coast and almost always empty.
🚇 On Moa Point Road heading to Tarakena Bay; ten minutes by car or bike from Lyall Bay.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapMount Kaukau · Khandallah
The highest point in the city, crowned by the TV mast, with a view clear across to the South Island.
Tip: Up top the wind doubles: take a jacket even if you leave the city in sunshine.
🚇 Metlink Johnsonville line train to Box Hill, then a 45-minute climb through Khandallah Park.
Featured in: WellingtonNZ
Show on mapLOTR Mount Victoria Track · Mount Victoria
The Town Belt clearing where the hobbits hide from the Nazgûl under the roots, and it still looks the same.
Tip: There is no sign: look for the fallen pine with lifted roots about eighty paces off the main track.
🚇 Enter from Grass Street, Mount Victoria; Metlink bus 14 to Hataitai Shops then climb.
Featured in: Clásico local · TikTok viral
Show on mapWellington Station · Pipitea
A 1937 neoclassical temple of 2,000 tonnes of brick, and the hall where every regional train begins.
Tip: Buy a Snapper card right here: every bus and train trip comes out cheaper than tapping a debit card.
🚇 Bunny Street; terminus of the Johnsonville, Kāpiti, Hutt Valley, Melling and Wairarapa lines.
Featured in: Heritage New Zealand · Metlink
Show on mapLogan Brown · Cuba Street
A 1924 banking chamber turned into the city's grandest dining room, holding two Cuisine hats.
Tip: The two-course lunch is half the price and they still seat you under the dome.
🚇 192 Cuba Street, a block from the Vivian Street bus stop.
Featured in: Cuisine Good Food Awards 2026 · 2 hats
Show on mapOrtega Fish Shack · Mount Victoria
Day-boat fish in a cottage lined with Portuguese tiles and mounted fish: two hats and 2026's Long Term Player.
Tip: Ask what came off the boat that morning and have it grilled: the printed menu is rarely the best of it.
🚇 16 Majoribanks Street, up the hill from the Embassy Theatre.
Featured in: Cuisine Good Food Awards 2026 · 2 hats · Long Term Player
Show on mapCapitol · Courtenay Place
An Italian bistro beside the Embassy where dinner before the film is the ritual, pasta made that morning.
Tip: Book before 7pm if you are seeing a film: after that the kitchen drowns in ticket holders.
🚇 10 Kent Terrace, right next to the Embassy Theatre.
Featured in: Cuisine Good Food Awards 2026 · 2 hats
Show on mapHillside Kitchen & Cellar · Thorndon
A seasonal vegetable tasting menu on a Tinakori Road corner: two hats and the sharpest natural wine list in town.
Tip: Take the pairing even if you drink little: pours are small and half are Martinborough growers.
🚇 241 Tinakori Road, Thorndon; Metlink bus 14 to Hobson Street.
Featured in: Cuisine Good Food Awards 2026 · 2 hats
Show on mapJano Bistro · Willis Street
A tiny French bistro where the chef cooks facing twelve tables: two hats and a near-impossible booking.
Tip: Book three weeks out, or chance a Tuesday: it is the one night with loose tables.
🚇 Upper Willis Street, a five-block walk from Cuba Street.
Featured in: Cuisine Good Food Awards 2026 · 2 hats
Show on mapGraze · Kelburn
A Kelburn neighbourhood wine bar that shocked everyone with two hats: small plates, enormous list.
Tip: Pair it with the cable car: ride up, eat up here, walk back down through the gardens after dark.
🚇 95 Upland Road, Kelburn; Metlink bus 21 or 18e to Upland Road.
Featured in: Cuisine Good Food Awards 2026 · 2 hats
Show on mapBoulcott Street Bistro · Wellington Central
A wooden 1876 cottage wedged between office towers, serving the best steak tartare in the capital.
Tip: Lunch fills with lawyers and officials: for a calm dinner arrive after 8:30pm.
🚇 99 Boulcott Street, two blocks up from Lambton Quay.
Featured in: Cuisine Good Food Awards 2026 · 1 hat
Show on mapCharley Noble · Post Office Square
Wood-fired grilling inside a heritage building in the financial quarter: smoke, shellfish and a Cuisine hat.
Tip: Sit at the bar facing the fire and order the house bread with smoked butter before anything else.
🚇 1 Post Office Square, a block off the waterfront via Customhouse Quay.
Featured in: Cuisine Good Food Awards 2026 · 1 hat
Show on mapFloriditas · Cuba Street
Cuba Street's most wanted table since 2004: textbook brunch, its own bakery and a Cuisine hat.
Tip: No weekend brunch bookings: put your name down and wait with a flat white in their bakery next door.
🚇 161 Cuba Street, halfway between the Bucket Fountain and Logan Brown.
Featured in: Cuisine Good Food Awards 2026 · 1 hat
Show on mapHighwater Eatery · Cuba Street
Fire cooking and New Zealand produce at the lower end of Cuba: one hat and a menu that never sits still.
Tip: Dishes land as they are ready, not in courses: order light and keep adding as you go.
🚇 Cuba Street at the Manners Street end, right in the pedestrian stretch.
Featured in: Cuisine Good Food Awards 2026 · 1 hat
Show on mapKoji · Mount Victoria
A modern izakaya fermenting everything in house: one Cuisine hat and the most fun bar on Majoribanks.
Tip: Sit at the counter and let them run the short omakase: it costs less than ordering à la carte.
🚇 Majoribanks Street, half a block from the Embassy Theatre.
Featured in: Cuisine Good Food Awards 2026 · 1 hat
Show on mapNoble Rot · Swan Lane
A Cuba Street laneway wine bar with 500 labels, cheese you can smell from the door and very few tables.
Tip: Drink by the glass and ask for the Wairarapa natural wines: they pour things that never leave the region.
🚇 6 Swan Lane, the alley off Cuba Street opposite Floriditas.
Featured in: Star Wine List · Eat Wellington
Show on mapRita · Aro Valley
An Aro Street cottage serving one set menu a night to twenty people: book months ahead or forget it.
Tip: Get on the email waitlist: they release cancellations on Mondays and they go in minutes.
🚇 89 Aro Street, Aro Valley; a 15-minute walk from Cuba Street.
Featured in: The Spinoff Kai · Clásico local
Show on mapPickle & Pie · Lombard Street
A New York Jewish deli down a CBD laneway: house-cured pastrami, bagels and pickles that actually snap.
Tip: Pastrami runs out before 1:30pm: if you arrive late, take the mushroom reuben instead.
🚇 2 Lombard Street, the lane linking Willis Street and Victoria Street.
Featured in: The Urban List Wellington
Show on mapThe Puffin · Ghuznee Street
A corner bar with a serious kitchen: oysters, flawless frying and one of the best gin lists in town.
Tip: In Bluff oyster season they shuck to order: ask before you sit, they go fast.
🚇 60 Ghuznee Street, one block from the Bucket Fountain.
Featured in: The Urban List Wellington
Show on mapKisa · Cuba Street
Turkish and Middle Eastern live-fire cooking in a narrow Cuba Street room you can smell from the footpath.
Tip: Order the charred bread with lamb butter the moment you sit: they bake in batches and then stop.
🚇 195 Cuba Street, opposite Logan Brown.
Featured in: The Spinoff Kai · Eat Wellington
Show on mapDragonfly · Courtenay Place
Southeast Asian sharing plates in a big room full of red lanterns: loud, fast and genuinely very good.
Tip: Happy hour from 4 to 6pm puts half the small-plate menu at half price.
🚇 70 Courtenay Place, steps from the Metlink 2 stop.
Featured in: The Urban List Wellington
Show on mapLittle Penang · Victoria Street
A cult Malaysian hawker of twenty years: char kway teow, roti canai and a queue on the footpath at 12:30.
Tip: Arrive at 11:45 or after 2pm: in between there is a half-hour queue and no bookings.
🚇 175 Victoria Street, two blocks from Cuba Street.
Featured in: Clásico local · The Spinoff Kai
Show on mapSweet Mother's Kitchen · Courtenay Place
Cajun and Tex-Mex under walls of Virgin of Guadalupe art: gumbo, jambalaya and margaritas since 2005.
Tip: One of the few central spots doing a big cheap breakfast at 10am on a Sunday.
🚇 5 Courtenay Place, on the corner of Blair Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapAunty Mena's · Cuba Street
Dirt-cheap Chinese-Malaysian vegetarian with no frills: laksa, char kway teow and mock duck since the nineties.
Tip: Cash only at peak and the queue moves fast: order the laksa, that is what everyone comes for.
🚇 167 Cuba Street, next door to Floriditas.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapMonsoon Poon · Blair Street
South Asian street food in a cavernous room with an open wok line: loud, built for groups, always full.
Tip: Ask for a table near the wok line: you see the whole kitchen, the best free show on Blair Street.
🚇 12 Blair Street, the lane running off Courtenay Place.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapChow · Tory Street
Pan-Asian small plates that invented the way Courtenay Place eats: cheap, fast and open properly late.
Tip: They serve the full kitchen after 10pm, rarer in Wellington than you would think.
🚇 45 Tory Street, one block off Courtenay Place.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapSiem Reap · Dixon Street
The city's only serious Cambodian kitchen: fish amok, lok lak and a menu nobody else here offers.
Tip: The amok steams in banana leaf and takes time: order it on arrival and share rolls while you wait.
🚇 101 Dixon Street, between Victoria Street and Cuba Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapLoretta · Cuba Street
A bright white Cuba Street room where brunch is religion and the evening pizza is worth coming back for.
Tip: The eggs bene with roast kūmara is the local order: if there is a queue, the window counter is first-come.
🚇 181 Cuba Street, next to Kisa.
Featured in: Clásico local · The Urban List Wellington
Show on mapScopa · Cuba Street
A thin-crust Roman pizzeria twenty years deep on Cuba Street and still full every single night.
Tip: Take an outside table even when it is cool: they have heaters and the best Cuba Street people-watching.
🚇 Corner of Cuba Street and Ghuznee Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapPizza Pomodoro · Cuba Mall
Pizza al taglio from the oldest counter on Cuba Mall: a slice, a napkin and you keep walking.
Tip: One of the few places still open when the Cuba Street bars empty out after midnight.
🚇 On Cuba Mall, half a block from the Bucket Fountain.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapThe Chippery · Mount Victoria
The city's cult fish and chips: day-boat fish, beef-dripping chips and sauces made in house.
Tip: Get it to take away and climb five blocks to Mount Victoria Lookout: eat it over the harbour.
🚇 5 Majoribanks Street, steps from the Embassy Theatre.
Featured in: Clásico local · TikTok viral
Show on mapLazy Juan · The Terrace
The burger that took Burger Wellington 2026 on the biggest public vote in the festival's history.
Tip: They won in August and the lunch queue has not let up: go at 11:45 or after 2pm.
🚇 On The Terrace, two blocks uphill from Lambton Quay.
Featured in: Burger Wellington 2026 · Visa Wellington On a Plate
Show on mapSprig & Fern · Thorndon
A neighbourhood tavern with no screens and no loud music: twenty Nelson taps and honest pub food.
Tip: There is no kitchen: you order from the shops next door, they bring it to your table, nobody rushes you.
🚇 342 Tinakori Road, Thorndon; Metlink bus 14 to Hobson Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapGarage Project Taproom · Aro Valley
The brewery that put New Zealand on the map, in its original Aro Street garage: eighteen rotating taps.
Tip: Cross to the shop at number 68: that is where the rare one-off cans live, never on tap.
🚇 91 Aro Street, Aro Valley; a 15-minute walk from Cuba Street.
Featured in: Clásico local · Garage Project
Show on mapParrotdog · Lyall Bay
A huge Lyall Bay brewery shed with the tanks in plain sight and wood-fired pizza a block from the surf.
Tip: Pair it with the beach: two blocks to the sand, and in a northerly the outside tables are perfect.
🚇 Kingsford Smith Street, Lyall Bay; Metlink bus 2 to Lyall Bay Parade.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapFork and Brewer · Bond Street
Forty taps and a brewery in the basement: the widest beer selection anywhere in the capital.
Tip: Order the four-glass paddle: cheapest way to taste whatever they brewed downstairs that week.
🚇 20A Bond Street, the lane between Willis Street and Victoria Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapHeyday Beer Co · Upper Cuba
A brewery-pizzeria at the top of Cuba, fermenters behind the bar and long-proved dough out front.
Tip: Mondays are half-price pizza, and that is when the hospitality crowd turns up.
🚇 264 Cuba Street, the upper stretch past Vivian Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapGolding's Free Dive · Leeds Street
A tiny laneway bar packed with junk-shop treasure and odd taps, the bar that launched Hannahs Laneway.
Tip: No kitchen here: order pizza from the laneway and eat it at the bar, nobody minds.
🚇 14 Leeds Street, in Hannahs Laneway off Cuba Street.
Featured in: Clásico local · Lonely Planet
Show on mapLittle Beer Quarter · Edward Street
The hidden bar every Wellingtonian recommends: worn armchairs, a fireplace and fourteen rotating taps.
Tip: Get there before 6pm for the fireside armchair: best seat in the city on a wet day.
🚇 6 Edward Street, the alley off Victoria Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapHashigo Zake · Taranaki Street
A basement importer of rare Japanese and Belgian beer: the bar that taught half the city to drink craft.
Tip: They screen films in the basement on Mondays and entry is free with a pint.
🚇 Down a lane off Taranaki Street, steps from Courtenay Place.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapPanhead · Tory Street
A hot-rod garage turned brewery bar: cold lager, fried chicken and engine blocks hanging off the ceiling.
Tip: Easiest central spot to eat with kids: space, noise and nobody giving you looks.
🚇 1 Tory Street, a block from the waterfront and Te Papa.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapBaylands Brewery · Petone
A small Petone brewery in an industrial shed, taps that change weekly and food trucks parked outside.
Tip: Only open a few days: Friday afternoon and weekends are safe, otherwise check their Instagram.
🚇 Metlink Hutt Valley line train to Petone, then ten minutes on foot.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapHippopotamus · Museum Hotel
French dining on the Museum Hotel's third floor: a wall of harbour glass and the country's best cheese trolley.
Tip: Afternoon high tea costs a fraction of dinner and they seat you at the same window.
🚇 90 Cable Street, directly across from Te Papa.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapShed 5 · Queens Wharf
An 1888 wool shed out on the wharf, now the most classic seafood dining room on the whole waterfront.
Tip: Ask for a wharf table if the southerly is away: best golden-hour view on the waterfront.
🚇 Queens Wharf, steps from the harbour ferry terminal.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapOmbra · Cuba Street
A proper Venetian bàcaro on Cuba Street: cicchetti at the bar, spritz and timber tables jammed together.
Tip: Go at 5pm and eat cicchetti off the bar with a spritz: cheaper than a plate and the best hour there.
🚇 199 Cuba Street, beside Kisa and Logan Brown.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapDays Bay Pavilion · Days Bay
Pizza, ice cream and cold beer thirty paces from where the ferry drops you: the easiest lunch on the harbour.
Tip: Plan the return: the last ferry leaves early and the 83 bus from Eastbourne takes nearly an hour.
🚇 Marine Drive, Days Bay; East by West ferry from Queens Wharf.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapScorch-O-Rama · Scorching Bay
Scorching Bay's café-restaurant right across from the sand: brunch, fish and chips and ferries sliding past.
Tip: No tables at weekend lunch: take it away and eat on the sand, twenty paces across the road.
🚇 Karaka Bay Road, Scorching Bay; Metlink bus 24 from Courtenay Place.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapHavana Coffee Works · Tory Street
The city's historic roastery, in a pink Cuban-painted house where the air smells of roasting beans.
Tip: Order a flat white on the Havana Gold blend: roasted here since 1989 and never sold offshore.
🚇 163 Tory Street, the southern end, five blocks from Courtenay Place.
Featured in: NZ Coffee Awards · Sprudge
Show on mapThe Hangar · Dixon Street
Flight Coffee's competition bar: single-origin filters, championship baristas and their own roast.
Tip: Ask for the V60 filter of the day and sit at the bar: they talk you through the origin unprompted.
🚇 119 Dixon Street, between Victoria Street and Cuba Street.
Featured in: NZ Barista Championship · Sprudge
Show on mapCustoms · Ghuznee Street
Coffee Supreme's experimental bar: four origins a day, no sugar on the counter and a queue by 8am.
Tip: Deliberately small and wifi-free: if you want to work, take the cup across to Glover Park.
🚇 39 Ghuznee Street, on the corner of Cuba Street.
Featured in: Coffee Supreme · Sprudge
Show on mapCoffee Supreme · Te Aro
The home roastery of New Zealand's best-known roaster, a Te Aro warehouse that fires up every morning.
Tip: Buy beans straight off the roaster: they stamp the roast date and it is usually yesterday's.
🚇 Southern Te Aro, up Webb Street from Cuba Street.
Featured in: Coffee Supreme · NZ Coffee Awards
Show on mapMojo Coffee Roastery · Customhouse Quay
The flagship of the roaster born in Wellington and now everywhere: this is the branch with the roaster.
Tip: There is a Mojo on every block downtown, but only this one roasts: ask for the weekly single origin.
🚇 37 Customhouse Quay, on the financial-quarter waterfront.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapCaffe L'affare · College Street
One of the rooms where flat white culture was invented, in a College Street warehouse since 1990.
Tip: Order eggs bene with bacon and a flat white: the New Zealand Saturday ritual, done properly.
🚇 27 College Street, a block from Moore Wilson's.
Featured in: Clásico local · NZ Coffee Awards
Show on mapMidnight Espresso · Cuba Street
Cuba Street's café that never shuts: nachos at 3am, murals and thirty years of scruffy bohemia.
Tip: Order the vegan carrot cake, famous for thirty years, and take the window seat over Cuba Street.
🚇 178 Cuba Street, opposite Slow Boat Records.
Featured in: Clásico local · Lonely Planet
Show on mapPrefab Eatery · Jessie Street
A bright warehouse with the roaster on show, its own bakery and the tidiest brunch in Te Aro.
Tip: There is a communal table at the back that rarely fills, even when the door is queued out.
🚇 14 Jessie Street, two blocks off Cuba Street via Taranaki Street.
Featured in: The Urban List Wellington
Show on mapPour & Twist · Garrett Street
A tiny specialty bar hidden on Garrett Street: rare filters and absolutely no comfortable chairs.
Tip: They rotate guest roasters from all over the country: ask where the bean is from before ordering.
🚇 13 Garrett Street, the lane running off Cuba Street.
Featured in: Sprudge · The Urban List Wellington
Show on mapSwimsuit Coffee · Dixon Street
Te Aro's most-posted coffee bar: stripped-back design, immaculate latte art and the youngest queue in town.
Tip: Peak is 8:30am: at 10:30 you get a table and the same coffee without someone filming next to you.
🚇 Dixon Street, half a block from Cuba Mall.
Featured in: TikTok viral · The Urban List Wellington
Show on mapRaglan Roast · Abel Smith Street
A hole in the wall slinging cheap, excellent coffee with no tables, no chairs and no nonsense.
Tip: Cheapest coffee downtown and open from 6am: the local trick is bringing your own cup.
🚇 Abel Smith Street, up from the top end of Cuba Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapMaranui Café · Lyall Bay
Upstairs at the Lyall Bay surf life saving club: a wall of ocean glass, surfers below, the prettiest brunch going.
Tip: Weekends mean a 40-minute wait: come Tuesday at 9am and you get the middle window table.
🚇 Lyall Parade, Lyall Bay; Metlink bus 2 from Courtenay Place to Lyall Bay Parade.
Featured in: Clásico local · TikTok viral
Show on mapWellington Chocolate Factory · Eva Street
Real bean-to-bar in a Hannahs Laneway shed: you see the conche, smell the cacao and taste for free.
Tip: Get the hot chocolate, made from ground bars not powder, and try the kawakawa tablet.
🚇 5 Eva Street, in Hannahs Laneway off Cuba Street.
Featured in: Clásico local · The Urban List Wellington
Show on mapShelly Bay Baker · Hannahs Laneway
The artisan bakery that supplies half of Wellington: sourdough, croissants and a hand-made mince pie.
Tip: Croissants come out at 7:30 and are gone by 10: the lamb pie usually lasts until noon.
🚇 In Hannahs Laneway, between Leeds Street and Eva Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapArobake · Aro Valley
A European neighbourhood bakery on Aro Street since the eighties: proper dark bread, strudel, a local queue.
Tip: Ask for the pretzel and the rye: both gone before noon and they do not bake twice.
🚇 83 Aro Street, Aro Valley; a 15-minute walk from Cuba Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapBest Ugly Bagels · Swan Lane
Hand-boiled Montreal-style bagels in a Cuba laneway: you watch them leave the wood oven and then vanish.
Tip: Order the Hot Dam with bacon and egg before 9am: after 11 half the menu is gone.
🚇 Swan Lane, the alley off Cuba Street opposite Floriditas.
Featured in: The Urban List Wellington
Show on mapPicnic Café · Botanic Garden
A terrace café right above the rose garden: the best pause on the walk down from the cable car in spring.
Tip: In October take a west-edge table: the rose garden opening on one side, the valley on the other.
🚇 Inside the Botanic Garden, beside the Lady Norwood Rose Garden.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapCable Top Eatery · Kelburn
Right at the cable car's top station, with a terrace over the whole harbour and genuinely decent coffee.
Tip: Most people head straight down into the gardens: the terrace is near empty at 9am and the light is perfect.
🚇 Steps from the Wellington Cable Car exit in Kelburn.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapRātā Café · Zealandia
A café glazed onto the sanctuary lake: you drink a flat white while kākā squabble on the feeder outside.
Tip: You can walk in without buying a sanctuary ticket: one of Karori's best-kept secrets.
🚇 At the Zealandia Visitor Centre, Metlink bus 21 to Karori South.
Featured in: Zealandia · Clásico local
Show on mapKaffee Eis · Waterfront
The city's artisan gelato, from a waterfront kiosk: hokey pokey, feijoa and a queue of kids come spring.
Tip: Order hokey pokey, the national New Zealand flavour, and feijoa in season: you will not find it abroad.
🚇 On the waterfront promenade, between Queens Wharf and Frank Kitts Park.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapQueen Sally's · Lyall Bay
A Lyall Bay neighbourhood deli: huge sandwiches, home baking and a clientele of surfers with wet hair.
Tip: Take a sandwich down to Lyall Bay beach: three blocks away, with benches facing the break.
🚇 Queens Drive, Lyall Bay; Metlink bus 2 to Lyall Bay Parade, then two blocks.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapSeashore Cabaret · Petone
Petone's best-loved café, across from the beach: generous brunch and strange art all over the walls.
Tip: Grab a front window table, then cross to the Petone Esplanade: two kilometres of seafront walk.
🚇 The Esplanade, Petone; Metlink Hutt Valley train to Petone, then twelve minutes on foot.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapThe Bach Café · Eastbourne
A seaside village café on Rimu Street, two blocks from the beach, where all of Eastbourne eats breakfast.
Tip: Eat here then walk the two flat kilometres to Days Bay along the shore, harbour in view the whole way.
🚇 Rimu Street, Eastbourne; East by West ferry to Days Bay then the 83 bus.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapUnity Books · Willis Street
Voted one of the world's best bookshops by booksellers themselves: razor-sharp New Zealand curation.
Tip: The New Zealand fiction table by the door is the best reading list you can take home from the country.
🚇 57 Willis Street, two blocks from Lambton Quay.
Featured in: London Book Fair · Clásico local
Show on mapArty Bees Books · Manners Street
A secondhand labyrinth of a hundred thousand titles and old-paper smell: you will lose the afternoon.
Tip: The New Zealand section at the back hides first editions at secondhand prices: ask, it is catalogued.
🚇 Manners Street, half a block from Cuba Mall.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapSlow Boat Records · Cuba Street
Cuba Street's oldest record shop: new and used vinyl, staff who actually know and a huge Kiwi section.
Tip: Ask for the Flying Nun crate: the Dunedin label that defines the New Zealand indie sound.
🚇 183 Cuba Street, opposite Midnight Espresso.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapFlying Nun Records · Cuba Street
The shop of the most important label in New Zealand independent music: reissues and cult band tees.
Tip: If you buy one New Zealand record, make it an eighties Flying Nun: you will not find it overseas.
🚇 Cuba Street, right beside Slow Boat Records.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapOver The Hill Records · Left Bank
A record shop hidden in the Left Bank arcade, full of jazz, soul and oddities, turntable always spinning.
Tip: The whole Left Bank is roofed: the best block in town for a rainy afternoon.
🚇 Left Bank, the covered arcade running off Cuba Mall.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapIko Iko · Cuba Street
Cuba Street's shop of weird gifts since 1989: absurd toys, Kiwi design and things you absolutely do not need.
Tip: The back room has the country's best funny-souvenir wall: not a generic plush kiwi in sight.
🚇 118 Cuba Street, steps from the Bucket Fountain.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapKura Gallery · Allen Street
Contemporary Māori and New Zealand art with artist provenance: pounamu, carved bone and works on paper.
Tip: If you buy pounamu, ask for the carver's card: the stone's origin changes the price completely.
🚇 Allen Street, one block off Courtenay Place.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapOld Bank Arcade · Lambton Quay
An Edwardian arcade of mosaics and domes, with a mechanical clock that puts on a show every hour.
Tip: Look down: a floor mosaic marks where the ship Inconstant ran aground in 1849, before this was land.
🚇 233 Lambton Quay, on the Willis Street corner.
Featured in: Heritage New Zealand
Show on mapMoore Wilson's · Tory Street
The food market where the city's chefs shop: fish, Kiwi cheese and an aisle of local wine.
Tip: Best place for real edible souvenirs: mānuka honey, smoked pāua and wines that never get exported.
🚇 Corner of Tory Street and College Street, Te Aro.
Featured in: Clásico local · Eat Wellington
Show on mapTe Papa Store · Te Aro
The national museum shop: licensed Māori design, rare books and the best souvenirs on the island.
Tip: The Māori history book section beats any bookshop and carries out-of-print titles.
🚇 Ground floor of Te Papa, on Cable Street.
Featured in: Te Papa
Show on mapHarbourside Market · Waitangi Park
The Sunday market since 1920: Horowhenua produce, fresh fish, hāngī pie and food trucks until 1pm.
Tip: Arrive before 9 and bring cash: the fruit stalls dump prices after 12:30.
🚇 75 Cable Street, between Te Papa and Waitangi Park.
Featured in: Clásico local · WellingtonNZ
Show on mapHunters & Collectors · Cuba Street
Cuba Street's cult vintage store: decades-deep curation, real leather and prices that sting a little.
Tip: The seventies rack is upstairs and almost nobody climbs: that is where the real pieces hide.
🚇 Cuba Street, mid-block between Ghuznee Street and Vivian Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapRecycle Boutique · Cuba Street
Consignment secondhand on a huge, well-ordered scale: the best of half the city's wardrobe.
Tip: New stock lands Monday morning: get there at midday and you see it before the resellers do.
🚇 Upper Cuba Street, near Vivian Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapMinerva · Upper Cuba
A small, fiercely independent bookshop at the top of Cuba: art, poetry and New Zealand essays.
Tip: Best contemporary Māori poetry selection in the city, and they recommend it from memory.
🚇 Upper Cuba Street, past Vivian Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapFrutti · Cuba Street
Impossible-colour vintage and kitsch accessories since the nineties: Cuba's most photographed window.
Tip: Sixties earrings and handbags live on the back counter and never make it to the window.
🚇 180 Cuba Street, next to Midnight Espresso.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapZiggurat · Cuba Street
New Zealand designer labels and small makers no mall carries: clothes built to last twenty years.
Tip: Ask for the Wellington labels: some local designers sell only here and in Auckland.
🚇 Cuba Street, between Ghuznee Street and Swan Lane.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapSmall Acorns · Allen Street
Design objects, ceramics and textiles for the home, every one chosen by an eye that simply never misses.
Tip: They stock South Island ceramics that fit in carry-on, and they wrap it properly.
🚇 Allen Street, one block off Courtenay Place.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapFix & Fogg · Hannahs Laneway
New Zealand's most famous peanut butter, made in plain sight on Hannahs Laneway, free tastings and all.
Tip: Taste the Smoke & Fire before buying: the one they do not export and the one locals stock up on.
🚇 Hannahs Laneway, between Leeds Street and Eva Street off Cuba Street.
Featured in: Clásico local · The Urban List Wellington
Show on mapSix Barrel Soda Co · Eva Street
A craft soda works pouring odd syrups straight from the barrel: lemon lime bitters and kawakawa.
Tip: Take home a bottle of feijoa syrup: the unofficial national fruit and nowhere else on earth.
🚇 Steps from Hannahs Laneway, off Dixon Street.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapGraphic Comics · Cuba Street
A cult Cuba Street comic shop: auteur graphic novels, imports and figures you will not find elsewhere.
Tip: They stock New Zealand comics that never leave the country: ask for Dylan Horrocks and Ant Sang.
🚇 Cuba Street, steps from the Bucket Fountain.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapPartridge Jewellers · Lambton Quay
A family jeweller since 1861 on the Golden Mile: classic windows and pounamu set in New Zealand silver.
Tip: Even if you buy nothing, walk all of Lambton Quay: it was the 1840 shoreline, before the 1855 quake.
🚇 Lambton Quay, the stretch known as the Golden Mile.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapZany Zeus · Lower Hutt
An artisan creamery with its own herd: halloumi, fresh mozzarella and the valley's best ice cream.
Tip: Order the fresh halloumi grilled in their own café: nobody else sells it like that.
🚇 Lower Hutt; Metlink Hutt Valley line to Waterloo, then the 110 bus.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on mapQueensgate · Lower Hutt
The region's biggest mall: cinema, food hall and all the chains the city centre does not carry.
Tip: The emergency plan when the wind cancels everything outdoors: all indoors, thirty minutes by train.
🚇 Metlink Hutt Valley line to Waterloo, then a ten-minute walk.
Featured in: Clásico local
Show on map