I feel bad writing this hotel review, whilst we are in the middle of a pandemic, and a lot of these hotels are relying on domestic tourism to sustain operations. However, I would like to believe that the world will open up soon and we’ll get more tourists to this beautiful country, and the hotel review will live on. I try and make my hotel reviews as unbiased as possible and purely based on my experience there.

On our trip down to Christchurch and Lake Brunner in September 2020, we had one night in Christchurch before we were to get on the Tranz Alpine and head to Moana. This blog will divide my thoughts into the good, the bad and the ugly. Please don’t hate me for this. BreakFree on Cashel is a 3-star hotel and falls under the Accor brand.

The Good:

The location of the hotel is great. It’s right in the heart of the city centre, so food and a couple of the tourist spots are at arm’s length. We had arrived at about 8 pm, and so given the location, it was easy to check-in and just walk in the neighbourhood and grab a bite to eat and crash for the night. The staff were also nice.

In all honesty, I can’t think of anything else to be put under this category.

The Bad:

The rooms are quite odd and very small. We were three adults, who were put in, what they categorise as a family room. I know what you might be thinking, clearly three adults in a hotel room is impossible. Believe it or not, when I’ve travelled with friends we’ve stayed in one room when there were 3 of us. Let me give you a description of the room. You walk in, and the ensuite is to your left. There’s a bunk bed in front of you, which not even kids would be comfortable in, and double(ish) bed around the corner. They’ve also managed to fit in a small table in here, with an ancient kettle, a mini-fridge, and some note pads, hotel details etc. Needless to say, it was claustrophobic.

The Ugly:

For the small room that we stayed in, we paid $180 for one night. As a comparison, I paid $120/night for two-nights at the Rydges which is a 4-star hotel. The only difference perhaps is that the Rydges is a short 5-min walk from the city centre. Please note: the costs are what I paid when staying there during September 2020, the tariff may vary when you check next.

Given I’d only stayed one night, basically from 8 pm, and then checked out the next morning at about 7 am to make it to the train station to board the Tranz Alpine, there’s not much I can say. That was a very expensive 11 hours in a hotel.

Would I stay here again? Probably not given I did manage to get a slightly cheaper deal at the Rydges Latimer, where the rooms were nicer, and the experience was more relaxing, I will look at other options. However, BreakFree may be better for those with younger children, as there was a bunk bed in the family room, which you wouldn’t necessarily get in other hotels.

Until next time,

MiliG