My wife and I stayed at Cobden Villas for two nights on Jan 18th / 19th 2009 and found the place to be one of the best accommodations that we stayed at during our 23 day trip to NZ. On the day of our arrival we had driven from Wellington which is a tasty five hour drive so to find that we were staying in the self contained cottage was a delight. We were greated on arrival by our hosts (as an Irish person immediately felt at home when I meet their dog called Guinness :-)), and given the grand tour of the cottage - a large downstairs kitchen / sitting room with toliet containing washer / dryer (extremely useful on a 23 day trip - also given access to clothes line for drying in garden). Upstairs we had a large bathroom and main bedroom and a spare bedroom if needed. The main bedroom had a balcony with a view (due to height up) looking back down towards the marina area and open countryside and mostly importantly the sunset.....If you visit the old website then the place is sold as an Art Deco B&B (but that is probably due to the website being owned / maintained by previous owners). My wife and I felt the cottage oozed charm and was our little oasis. The breakfast supplied was more then adequate, and the welcome, local advice and friendliness from our hosts made our stay a truly memorable one. If you are looking for Art Dec maybe not, but if you want a quality stay in a charming B&B then I would highly recommend the Cottage at Cobden Villa. If we make it back to Napier then I will be looking for the Cottage at Cobden Villas again......

We booked after being advised that this luxury Art Deco furnished home had undergone
some renovatations. Well...while the owners are nice, they have had it more than 6 months and now it is very ordinary to say the least! The charm is all gone and it is very plain. And they have failed to make any changes to their website which is very misleading. It now looks liek bait and switch.
The hill top location is interesting and so are the owners, who were gracious. But the value is not there. Our room was noisy at night from neighbors. They room layouts are very confusing and the entrance snakes all across the rear alley. They also only supplied 2 large white towels - no wash cloth or hand towels which was very chintzy!

In the fancy guide books this is shown as a luxury art deco homestay. When we did the booking we were told that "some things" had changed. We did not realise that EVERYTHING had changed. Now it is a very normal and VERY overpriced homestay. New owners has redecorated the rooms, but left the high prices. It is ok, but nothing what you should expect for this price. No reasons to go there.

If you would like to experience 100% Art Deco then a stay at Cobden Villa will satisfy anyone. There are 4 beautifully appointed rooms in a wonderful house setting.
The owners are justifiably proud of they home and invite you to become one of the family.

The location is on top of a hill, which takes some walking from the centre of Napier. Please do not be put off by this as there are many taxis available.