ASB Classic 2027: where to stay and eat in Auckland

The ASB Classic returns to Auckland from 4 to 16 January 2027. Here’s how to build the rest of the trip: a Georgian private estate in Remuera, rooftop suites in Britomart, four Michelin-starred tables worth crossing town for, and a Waiheke detour that may well become the main event.

Auckland, first fortnight of January

International tennis has been played on Auckland’s iconic Stanley Street since 1956. The honour roll reads like a history of the sport: Rod Laver, Margaret Court, Björn Borg. A 17-year-old Roger Federer lost in the first round on the back courts here. Rafael Nadal reached his first ATP final in Auckland, and in 2020 Serena Williams won what would be the last singles title of her career.

The 2027 ASB Classic runs from 4 to 16 January at the Manuka Doctor Arena, with the women’s and men’s draws across two weeks. Tickets are on sale now, most prices are held for a third year running, and the Robinson Stand and VIP Terrace have been reworked on the back of last summer’s record crowds.

The tennis takes care of the afternoons. The rest of the trip deserves the same attention: where you sleep, where you eat, and whether you give Waiheke a day or a night. Early January is peak summer in the city, so the best luxury accommodation in Auckland is worth settling now rather than in the week between Christmas and New Year.

Where to stay: luxury accommodation in Auckland

Arney House, Remuera

Group travel usually forces a choice between being together and having room to breathe. Arney House, behind its own gates on one of Remuera’s most established streets, doesn’t ask you to pick.

The house is Georgian-inspired, set on 2,082 square metres of landscaped garden and fitted out for the way groups actually live. There are six bedroom suites. Two of the upstairs suites come with their own lounges, which matters more than it sounds when the party includes one early riser and one person replaying the third-set tiebreak until midnight. The sixth bedroom sits in a separate dwelling on the grounds: ideal for grandparents, a nanny, or whoever has earned a little distance.

Downstairs there’s a drawing room, a library, a media room and a small gym, with a designer kitchen at the centre of it all. Outside, a private pool. Below, a wine cellar with its own dining room, which makes a strong case for a private chef the night before the final. Stanley Street is a short drive away, yet the city feels a long way off once the gates close.

The Landing Suites at The Hotel Britomart

For couples, or anyone who would rather walk out the door into the city than arrive at it, The Hotel Britomart holds a MICHELIN Key and sits a block back from the waterfront. Its five Landing Suites are named after bays at The Landing in the Bay of Islands, which shares the hotel’s owners.

Three suites occupy the top floor. The other two sit in a glass pavilion built onto the roof of the century-old Buckland Building next door, reached through the hotel’s fifth floor. The Rangihoua Suite looks north to the Waitematā and wraps its 35-square-metre planted terrace around the skyline, outdoor fireplace included. The Poraenui Suite, in the rooftop pavilion, is timber-lined and loft-ceilinged, with a private terrace over the heritage rooftops of Takutai Square.

Each comes with a small library of New Zealand books, ceramics by local makers and photography by leading New Zealand photographers. Breakfast is served daily at kingi downstairs or in the suite, airport transfers are included, and The Libraries, the hotel’s run of lounges for guests, is the place for a nightcap after an evening session.

InterContinental Auckland, Commercial Bay

At the foot of Queen Street, InterContinental Auckland fills levels six to eleven of One Queen Street, a once-brutalist tower that Warren and Mahoney reworked into one of the city’s most sustainable buildings. Its 139 rooms and suites lean into volcanic textures and dark timber, with work by Māori artists including Fiona Pardington, and most look straight out over the Waitematā.

Commercial Bay and Ahi. are downstairs, the Waiheke ferry is across the road, and Advieh, the hotel’s Middle Eastern restaurant, is in the MICHELIN Guide in its own right.

Where to eat: Auckland city restaurants worth planning around

Tala, Parnell

Tala means story in Samoan, and Henry Onesemo tells his one course at a time. His set menu at 235 Parnell Road holds a MICHELIN Star in the 2026 New Zealand guide. The menu card is deliberately brief because Henry and his team explain each dish at the table, from the umu chicken to palolo, the reef worm that rises once a year and is prized across Samoa.

Sit at the counter if you can. Tala serves dinner on Wednesday and Thursday and lunch only on Friday and Saturday, so seats during tournament fortnight are scarce. It’s also a few minutes up the road from Stanley Street, which makes it the obvious choice after a day session.

Ahi., Commercial Bay

Ahi means fire in te reo Māori, and Ben Bayly’s MICHELIN-starred restaurant on the second floor of Commercial Bay is built around a wood-fired hearth. Vegetables come from the restaurant’s own four-acre garden; seafood and grass-fed beef are traced to named producers around the country. Choose between à la carte and the tasting menu, and ask for a table with a view of the harbour. It’s open seven days, lunch through dinner, which is useful when the order of play runs long.

Paris Butter, Herne Bay

The façade on Jervois Road gives very little away. Inside, Paris Butter is all modern French elegance, and its season-led tasting menu, also holding a MICHELIN Star, pairs New Zealand produce with European technique and the occasional quiet Asian accent, miso among them. The all-New Zealand wine pairing is the one to take.

kingi, Britomart

Inside The Hotel Britomart, kingi credits the independent boats that land its fish by name on the menu. The brick-lined room has a wood fire in the open kitchen and a chandelier made to shimmer like kingfish scales. Order the Mills Bay green-lipped mussels with ’nduja. Doors open at 7am every day, so it doubles as the best breakfast before a day at the tennis.

Commercial Bay

On the morning of a rest day, Commercial Bay is where Auckland does its shopping. The precinct at 7 Queen Street runs to more than 120 fashion and beauty stores, plus restaurants and bars, all a few steps from the harbour’s edge. Ahi. is upstairs, and a long lunch there gives the afternoon its shape. The ferry terminal sits directly across Quay Street, should the shopping bags need an island to go to.

The Waiheke detour

Around forty minutes across the Hauraki Gulf from downtown, Waiheke Island is the natural counterweight to a week of centre-court seating. It works two ways.

As a day trip: take an early ferry and spend the day moving between vineyards with a driver, so nobody draws the short straw. Lunch is the anchor, and the island has two MICHELIN-starred options in Mudbrick and Tantalus Estate. We can shape the route around which vintages, views and tables suit your group.

As an overnight, or several: stay at The Palm Residence and the island stops being a day out and becomes a base.

The Palm Residence, Waiheke Island

The Palm Residence sits directly behind a white-sand beach. Architect Andrew Patterson took historic boatsheds as his reference, and the result is spare and substantial at once: cedar battens, in-situ concrete, dark timber floors and pale plaster walls, with a three-sided sculptural fireplace at the heart of the main pavilion.

The house is laid out in a U around the pool, so almost every room has two ways outside: one into the sun, one into the shade, depending on the breeze. Across three pavilions there are nine bedrooms for up to 22 guests, including two self-contained three-bedroom villas for families who like their own front door.

There’s a beachfront bar with its own barbecue and outdoor fire, kayaks and paddleboards for the morning, and yes, a tennis court. A week of watching the professionals tends to give people ideas.

Plan it now

Tickets for the 2027 ASB Classic are on sale. The stays are the harder part: Arney House and The Palm Residence are single private homes, there are only five Landing Suites, and early January is peak summer in Auckland. Tell our team which week you’re coming for and who’s travelling, and we’ll hold the right Auckland accommodation, arrange the tables at Tala and Ahi., and plan the Waiheke crossing around the order of play.