Hastings District: Heritage Trails, Gardens and Cycling Routes

The Hastings District offers a range of reasons to take a trip: Heritage Trails lead to cultural, historical and scenic highlights; there are also cycling routes, gardens, a drive to a summit and a wine-tasting experience. When choosing accommodation, you can first consider which of these experiences you want to shape your stay. This helps you tailor your search to the interests that matter to you on your trip.

Heritage Trails and Cycling Trips

Hastings’ Heritage Trails take visitors to cultural, historical and scenic highlights across the Hastings District. According to information from Hastings District Council dated 4 May 2026, they are open year-round, free to access and do not require a booking. Check the Council’s latest information before your tour.

Te Mata Peak also offers a clearly defined destination for an outing: visitors can drive along Te Mata Peak Road to the summit. The Hawke’s Bay Trails offer another way to experience the district. They are among New Zealand’s 23 Great Rides and include 200 kilometres of easy-to-ride cycling routes through the Hastings District and Napier. This gives you two distinct options to consider in your plans: a drive with the summit as your destination, or an extensive network of cycling routes. Think about whether you would rather focus on the drive to the summit or on cycling.

Gardens with Distinctive Character

The Osmanthus Garden in Cornwall Park is designed in the traditional Chinese style. Its features include a large pond, pavilions, the Friendship Bridge and the Crooked Bridge, bamboo, and fragrant osmanthus plants. The combination of water, bridges, structures and plants gives the garden its distinctive character. During your visit, look out for the different elements that define this place.

Frimley Park offers a different garden style: the reserve is designed as an English landscape park and includes more than 5,500 roses in formal gardens. The same park has a playground with bongo drums, speaking tubes, a wheelchair-accessible carousel, swings, slides, a climbing net and a scooter track. This specific selection of play equipment is a useful detail when planning a visit with children; the accessibility information refers to the carousel.

Plant Diversity and Wine Tasting

At Guthrie-Smith Arboretum, the focus is on plant and animal life: it is an important collection area for many plant species and a refuge for birds and native wildlife. Various paths connect different areas of the arboretum. This makes its focus on nature distinct from the deliberately designed gardens at Cornwall Park and Frimley Park. If plant diversity and native wildlife appeal to you, you can make the arboretum a particular focus of your trip plans.

Elephant Hill offers a wine-tasting experience featuring Hawke’s Bay wines in the Hastings District. This adds a food-and-drink option to the selection of cycling routes, a drive to the summit and gardens.

Factor Experiences into Your Accommodation Choice

When searching for a hotel in the Hastings District, it helps to first weigh up the experiences that matter for your stay: a drive to the summit, cycling on the Hawke’s Bay Trails, visits to gardens or a wine tasting. These priorities lead to different day plans. Compare the location of a particular accommodation with the places that matter to you, and base your choice on your planned itinerary.

Discover more destinations: Hastings, Clive, Poukawa, Te Awanga, Maraekakaho, Waiwhare, Clifton, Karamu, Tuki Tuki, Kahuranaki

For the broader travel overview: Hawkes Bay.