We have just returned from a long weekend in Nelson. This was our second time to Monaco and once again we enjoyed the surroundings and friendly service. The cottages are very cosy, comfortable and very well appointed. The restaurant is excellent but I still can't decide if breakfast or dinner was better!! There is everything you need at the resort to relax (massage!) and entertain the children including the pool. Holiday activity in the region is also wide ranging. We'll be staying again.

We stayed 3 nights at monaco resort in early february and after a few mixed reviews we wondered what we had booked. We soon learnt that previous reviews couldnt have be further from the truth. Our whole experience from check in to check out was fantastic- the resort gives a community within a community feel, and with the extra ammentites soon to be completed it will have everything that you need. our rental car had a space to park right outside and our 2 bedroom cottage opened up to a green lawn area, which was pleasant to lie out on. The room had washing machine facilities so it was good to catch up on our holidays washing. It also has kitchen facilities but there is no need to use them as the restaurant is second to none. we loved our two mornings walking around the beach area, followed by a dip in the pool and breakfast. the free internet is a bonus and a help especially when travelling The staff were all freindly and pleasant and we can't wait to get back to the nelson area. Next time we return to nelson (the sunniest place in NZ) We wouldn't stay anywhere else

It's perfectly clean, tidy etc. but what a strange place, it's not really a hotel, more like a little housing estate, with lots of twee little terraces of red brick "cottages" with terracotta tiles throughout, low ceilings, dark little rooms. Some of them are privately owned, some rented out. The standard of furnishings is poor - new and clean but unwelcoming and uncomfortable. Their website is frankly misleading because it makes it look like it's on the waterfront but in fact it's just on a kind of muddy river inlet next to the airport, and there's a lot of building going on around it. Also it's right next to the motorway so too noisy at night to have the window open. There are some photos on the site of the hotel which honestly I can't imagine where they were taken, they make it look like it's surrounded by water and large expanses of grass. Very clever photography perhaps. It says it has a spa, but it seemed to be just someone who comes and does massages. It seems to be marketing toward an American audience, hence all the British kitsch. I guess it's a base to visit other places but it's almost a 2 hour drive up to Abel Tasman (which is wonderful). There is a nice beach at Nelson and some nice restaurants along the sea front by the harbour, the town is big and set back from the sea.

We visited “sunny Nelson” and stayed in the hotel part of the Monaco “resort” for three nights mid-January 2008; it turned out to be very thoroughly unpleasant despite its quite "chocolate box-pretty" surroundings. The hotel rooms are inordinately small and stuffy, but most uncomfortably there is no is air-conditioning anywhere in the hotel or the other units. Temperatures in the rooms reached the 40's (Celsius) and there is no bar fridge in the room (no closet either), no drinking water available in the rooms, no room service at night and no bar in the hotel! The unbearable heat effectively prevented us being in the room between 10 am and six pm. Eventually found a fan to circulate the warm air in the room, so it was possible to return there in the late afternoon. Found the hotel pool to cool off, but not a single piece of pool furniture around the pool. The "Riverside" units turned out to be stuffy mosquito-infested affairs, but more roomy and well-decorated. The "river" turned out to be a stagnant and smelly cesspool hatching mosquito larvae. On the upside, lots of effort went into building and decorating the place – if only a little thought could have been given to the comforts and design – e.g. bathroom doors facing room windows (forced to have open because of the heat) & electrical outlets and light switched right next to the shower cubicle. The staff are friendly, but appear to be weary of answering the same frustrating queries. Breakfast in the “award-winning” Orangerie restaurant is “tea-room” average. No fresh fruit or juice available. There is a Spa and Beauty” service available, but any service outside of facial and massage is not on the programme. Never found the gym that was advertised – but in all honesty we were so hot that this was the last thing we were looking for! I have stayed in better backpackers, and if I was not part of a group with prepaid bookings, I would have moved to one. Will definitely not be returning.

The picture looks great --right on the water. But be advised -- 90% of the time that water is a mud flat. It is also almost on the landing path to the airport which is very close. Also very small rooms, no closets or dressers, NO A/C, no screens and a nice mosquito infested pond in front of the hotel. And it's a fair drive to Nelson. Would not stay here again. Bitten up down under.