Sails on the Lake — Hotel in North Island

Taupo was our base for four nights and Sails on the Lake was perfect for us.||My adult daughter and I splurged for No. 18, a spacious two-bedroom that is set furthest back from the main road on the second floor, with a direct view of the lake and, often, the beautiful mountains: Mt. Ruapehu, at 9,177 feet with year-round snow; Mt. Ngauruhoe aka Mt. Doom at 7,516 feet; and Mt. Tongariro at 6,490 feet. ||We had a large living room, dining room with table and two single beds, kitchen, bathroom and fabulous views from the balcony and large windows. The furnishings were basic but fairly comfortable. You can easily sleep six in this room. ||There is a communal laundry room but we had our own washer and dryer--though they were small and painfully slow. We quickly learned the sun burned into the living room during the day, so we pulled the shades to avoid baking when we returned. Most of the windows opened so that brought in some nice cool air in all the rooms. |(There were so pretty loud birds in the night and early morning!) We found the service to be quite hit-and-miss and were told staffing is an issue.||It was a hearty mile walk into town along the lake, with a few food trucks and restaurants closer--but there is ample parking in town if you want to drive. We discovered PacNSave, which became our favorite stop, especially for ciders! We mostly loafed but visited the Timberline huskies, Huka falls, and did the Tongariro crossing from here. ||I had looked at a variety of lodging options and felt this worked really well for us with the location, easy parking, spaciousness, amenities and views. (Note: most rooms with views are closer to the main road. It's not a highway but there is...

We stayed 1 night at this hotel and it was excellent - a world away from the huge and impersonal Sudima Lake hotel in Rotorua, from which we had just come, and where we didn't manage to get a lake front room. We also much preferred Taupo as a town to Rotorua, if you are debating locations to base yourselves, but Rotorua is a good base for the thermal parks, Skyline gondola and Maori cultural evening at Te Pa Tu so its hard to cut it out.|Here at Sails we had room 7, looking straight out over the lake, with a balcony too, which was lovely. The room was comfortable and had everything we needed and we wished we'd had 2 nights here rather than there! We didn't have time to use the spa bath, unfortunately.|We used this hotel as a base to go on the exhilarating Hukafalls Jet (highly recommended), to go on the rather more placid Ernest Kemp steamer on the lake, and hubby also enjoyed trying his luck at the Hole in One golf challenge over the lake (sadly didn't win NZ$10k!). For dinner we walked into the town and enjoyed an Italian meal at Sorrento.|The hotel is on a fairly busy road that runs along the lake but it is very quiet come evening and through the night. It has its own parking at the rear too and is in a good spot for sunset over the lake...

This is a nice property, well located on the lakeside 15-20 minutes walk from the town centre and tour departure points. Our room was pleasant and pretty comfortable, but there is no heating in the bedroom or bathroom so could be a bit chilly at certain times of year (as Asian residents used to 30 degrees every day it was chilly for us in March!). Nice touch was a coffee plunger and decently ground coffee sachets. Patio area outside, or balcony on upper floor. The "One Bedroom Lake View Suite" I booked has the lake view blocked by cars parked both at the hotel and in the parking area across the street, so I would recommend requesting the same room on the upper floor which should provide a decent view. Pleasant owner, and nice place overall. Good value at the...