Legacy Te Waonui Hotel Franz Josef

Stayed two nights in November 2025, very good experience, five stars when compared to other options, clearly the nicest place to stay in the area. Staff is very good, surprisingly so in such a touristed and remote area. Included breakfast is fine. Five-course degustation dinner was surprisingly good with lots of options and the chef's choice chocolate dessert is one of the best desserts I have had anywhere. Rooms are nice and hotel goes the extra mile with the little touches to set itself apart. Rooms are also wonderfully private even with blinds open due to lush central area. Once parked here you can walk to pretty much anywhere in the village, very convenient.

We stayed here for four nights, and could not have had a better experience. We had a room on the first floor with a balcony. Immaculately clean, with very comfortable beds. Staff outstanding, very friendly and very helpful. Service was brilliant. Breakfast was lovely, with lots to choose from. Location is fabulous, and as we were celebrating my mother's birthday, the staff went out of their way to make the stay incredibly special. If you stay in Franz Josef, be sure to stay here. Absolutely brilliant experience.

I really want to love this place, but it just falls short. The service is good. All of the staff are very young and inexperienced in life, they make up for that in their enthusiasm. And all the employees seem to be from somewhere else (Romania, India, Germany). It feels a bit like a cruise ship. We didn't find one kiwi on the staff at all. Anyway, here's the reason for the 3-star review. The value is just not there. We paid roughly about $1100 NZ dollars per night for our room which included breakfast and dinner, which were decent. However, this property is essentially a slightly upgraded roadside motel. To be fair, the rooms look out into a beautiful greenspace and are relatively well-maintained, but the walls are paper thin and you can hear everything your neighbors are doing. We could hear every word of their conversations and their coffee maker at 5.30am. I just expected way more for the price we paid. We have stayed at lots of places in NZ around this price point and you get a more luxurious experience than this.

I stayed for two nights and had an absolutely exceptional experience. The room was superb – spacious, beautifully appointed, and the bed was incredibly comfortable. After a long day of hiking, the bath was a real luxury and much appreciated. From the moment I arrived, everything ran seamlessly. Check-in was smooth, parking was easy, and every interaction with staff was warm and professional. I want to give special recognition to the young gentleman who checked me in – not only was he welcoming and informative, but he also went above and beyond during my stay. I had a dinner package included with my booking, but arrived late and wasn’t feeling well enough to dine at the restaurant. He kindly arranged for my meal to be brought to my room later in the evening, which I truly appreciated. That level of thoughtfulness really stood out. Every aspect of the hotel felt thoughtful and well-executed. Honestly, there’s nothing I can fault. It’s a top-notch stay in Franz Josef and I’d gladly return. (Separate review for Canopy Restaurant coming – unfortunately, the dining experience didn’t quite match the hotel’s high standard.)

We had an amazing dining experience at Legacy Te Waonui! The atmosphere was warm and elegant, and every dish was beautifully prepared and full of flavor. A special thank you to Brenda, who made our evening truly exceptional — her kindness, attention to detail, and genuine hospitality made us feel so welcome. Highly recommended to anyone visiting the area!

What a fabulous experience in Franz Josef in spite of rainy weather. This 5 star hotel was a real treat to celebrate my birthday and it was fabulous. The room was very spacious and the bathroom offered two options: bath or shower in two separate sections…not a shower over the bath as in many hotels. It was very clean and comfortable. The staff are amazing cheerful, courteous and very helpful. When a planned excursion was canceled due to weather, the young gentleman at the reception desk found me an alternative and fun activity to do on my birthday. If you want to spoil yourself, indulge in a beauty treatment or massage at the Amaia Day spa. I had one of the best massages from Noxi…what a treat. There is a great selection for breakfast and the restaurant offers a great variety of dishes to suit all dietary requirements. There is also free parking available and the hotel is only a few minutes walk from the town of Franz Josef. Really loved my time here.

Fantastic experience. Staff could not have been more helpful. Stayed to celebrate a special milestone, mentioned when booking, didn't expect anything special, especially the Wine and cheese board they had thoughtfully placed in our room. |Highly recommend to all, will stay again.|Thank you so much.

Really nice place with exceptional buffet breakfast. Great location, within a very short walk to town centre. Would have been nice to have a fitness centre/sauna/hot pool or something for a 5 star place but the breakfast more than made up for it.

This an amazing space near the glacier on the west side of the South Island. The rooms are contemporary overlooking nature with excellent amenities. It is a short walk to town or you can eat in the lovely restaurant on site. The beds are very comfortable and the linens are very luxurious. This Forest Retreat has been our highlight of our trip through New Zealand. The Scenic hotels are very special.

An absolutely stunning hotel located in Franz with great service and a really good breakfast. Its quite surreal to wake up and see little birds flying around and chirping right outside your balcony. The food is solid and the restaurant at the hotel was okay. Nothing that blew me out of the water though. I would go into Franz to eat (much cheaper).

Very cute forest retreat. Our room had a balcony overlooking a patch of rainforest. One of our neighbors saw a kiwi bird hop onto her balcony and hang around - super cool! While we did not get a kiwi encounter, we still enjoyed the digs. They do have possum pillows in each room. I felt it and it was soft, but then remembered it was possum fur and immediately tossed it onto the couch. Sorry, I just can't. The restaurant here is also very good. Overall, loved the experience!

Wow! Customer service doesn't get any better than this and its all due to Richard, manager extrodinaire, and his amazing team! We pulled up after driving 6 hours from Queenstown, and as the car stopped Richard was there to greet me. I felt like a celebrity with his warm welcome and friendliness. And then when I told him how disappointed I was that the weather wasn't cooperating, well, I think if could have changed the weather he would have! Instead, he suggested some bad weather activities ( like the hot pools or spa) gave me some free coupons and offered to be at my service in any way he could. . . . But instead of changing the weather ( which probably was out of his sphere of control), he introduced me to Mel who was a local and shared some culture with me, all the while getting my bags to my room and making sure I inderstood the nuances of that room. He and his colleague are dressed in native wear which makes you feel like you have really entered a special place! And he had no problem answering my questions about his tribe, his culture, and even offering up some personal info about his family which I found to be just delightful! My room was quite nice, overlooking the glacier, and was outfitted quite comfortably with a great bed, functional work area, bathroom with heated floor and free in room wifi and coffee. I also liked that they had a guest laundry on the first floor so I could get some laundry done while I was there. Tokens are available at the front desk for $5 a load ( wash or dry) for the laundry which is considerably cheaper than sending it out. Breakfast was included in my package and they had a great breakfast buffet which included both hot and cold items as well as fresh fruit, rolls and meats. And when it was time for me to leave, Richard was there again, this time offering me a complimentary book signed by the artist of beautiful pictures of New Zealand . . .what a thoughtful gesture to give that to me. While the hotel itself is nice, what made it stand out for me was the incredible level of care I got from Richard and his amazing team! If you have a chance to stay here, you should!

As good as it gets, Jay was amazing. This hotel was a highlight of our NZ trip. I booked our itinerary around the availability here and was not disappointed. The rooms are cozy but the bathrooms are large but comfortable with a private balcony and outside entrance. The service and the food were what really set it apart though. The food was included in our room fee and was superb - wine pairings, multi-course meals, inventive, eclectic offerings. I was floored by how good and varied the food was - like dining in an elegant, 5 star restaurant every evening. Breakfast is a buffet set up but had all that you'd want to select from - pastries, cereal, porridge, eggs, beans, fruits, yogurt, etc. Great coffee as well - French press. When we told them we had a bus to catch when we checked out they offered to pack us up a complimentary lunch box. They also drove us to the bus stop directly even though it was only a few minutes walk. They knew our names and greeted us cordially every morning and evening. The only downside was we had to do our own laundry but this ended up being a good thing since we decided to wash several loads for $5 - way cheaper than having a hotel wash it. The setting is tranquil and set just off the main path so still close to everything in FJ. We were celebrating our anniversary and they left us a chilled bottle of complimentary champagne. I could not have been happier with our stay here, only wished it could've lasted longer.

Given the name 'Forest Retreat', one might expect Te Waonui to be a bit more recessed and removed from the rest of the small village that springs to life during peak tourist season. However, it's just a quick turn off the main highway, and at night, you can hear the drunken reveling from outside the compound quite easily enough. It's a proper microcosm of our experience at Te Waonui, which I found overall to be a good experience but not quite worth the price (which clocks in at a pretty hefty level, much higher than the other accommodations in town). Getting checked in starts well enough, with a serving of kiwi juice and porters unloading your bags and parking your car for you. We also had a bottle of NZ-made Brut on hand, which was a nice gesture for what was merely a regular vacation (not a special occasion) for us. The only extension of this kind of service, though, is the turndown where you are brought water bottles and some chocolate truffles packed in individual boxes. The service at Canopy Restaurant (which I will review separately) was rather inattentive for a place styling itself to be fine dining, and otherwise the hotel staff were pretty much a non-entity. As for the room itself, it's a bit larger than your average room, but not noticeably so. The 'rain forest' that you look out upon is simply just a central area between all the rooms, and given that it is easily viewable by other folks from their window or balcony (which you would never stand on anyways given the amount of bugs during the summer), you will likely not have the blinds fully open while you are in the room anyways. Creating this illusion of being in a secluded rainforest adds to the drawback of the hotel design; we were put on the furthest side opposite the lobby, meaning that it was always a little bit of a hike (even if short) to get to the lobby to eat our meals, and as noted above, did not always entail peacefulness. The one positive is that you do have all of your meals taken care of ahead of time as part of the booking; as such, we never had to think or worry about breakfast or dinner. It was also nice to have a little bit of space and privacy. However, given the rather exorbitant price for even the base rooms here, I would question if I would stay at Te Waonui again if I come back to these parts. It seemed like a very steep price to pay for what is billed as luxury but did not quite come off as such.