New Zealand · Wellington · Wellington
Te Aro, Wellington — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Te Aro is the flat inner-city suburb holding the southern half of Wellington's business district and most of its entertainment quarter.
About Te Aro
Where to stay in Te Aro
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Te Aro suits walkers. Beds here sit on the flat ground between The Terrace and Cambridge Terrace, which means the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the galleries, and most of the capital's entertainment quarter can be reached without ever boarding a bus. The slope begins at Mount Victoria.
Anyone who wants quiet rather than the evening noise takes a room further up toward Aro Street, where the suburb thins into houses and the traffic of the business district falls away.
About Te Aro
What are the main landmarks in Te Aro?
The museums do the work here. Te Aro's registers run from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa through the Wellington Museum, the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, and the smaller rooms of the Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery and Enjoy Public Art Gallery. St Mary of the Angels stands among them.
Older fabric survives as well, from the run of listed houses along Aro Street to Plimmer House and Somerled House.
What is the history of Te Aro?
Te Aro's own beginning went unwritten. What it keeps instead are the objects a capital accumulates: the Queen Victoria Monument, a World War One Memorial, an Australian Memorial, and heritage-listed survivors such as Elliott House and Somerled House. The dates sit on the buildings.
Nothing in the record fixes when the flat between The Terrace and Cambridge Terrace was first built over, so what survives of Te Aro's past is whatever the heritage registers still name.
Where is Te Aro?
Te Aro covers the flat ground between The Terrace and Cambridge Terrace, ending where Mount Victoria begins to climb above Wellington.
Good for
More areas in Wellington
Updated September 2026