Napier Prison/ Citywalksz, Napier, NZ Review

Great place to spend a couple of hours learning the history of our jails

A really good look at prison life and interesting local and NZ history! Excellent audio tour, and great value 1.5hrs $20. Thanks!

The combo deal worked well for us - we loved the day and our group of 13 saved a good bit of money which was worthwhile.

Took us the afternoon to get around it all as we were laughing so much

Great Birthday day out for my nephew - hard to think of a present at his tween age and this fitted the bill.

Quite expensive for what is on offer. Needs updating and some money spending on the place. Can't say I would recommend it.

Small but well-set out facility. Great read on the walls and we were surprised to see a bunch of naked people painted into the back wall of the Mess Hall - very hard to notice unless you concentrate hard.

Great experience, I learned heaps very interesting recommend ages 13+

I was expecting more and was quite bored after 10 minutes. We did the self guided tour with audio. Surprised at how little of it was set up as it would've been while in use. No mannequins etc.

I got dragged along by the rest of the family as I don't do scary - but we laughed non-stop during the guided tour - great guide.

Absolutely loved the self guided tour and escape room combo.

I personally didnt like this place.

About Napier Prison:
Napier Prison was a prison in Napier, New Zealand's oldest prison. It is now an historic facility, which offers guided day and night tours by appointment and self-guided audio tours all day. It is also the only building where it is possible to see the original path of the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.

Napier Prison was constructed on Napier Hill in 1862 and was used until the early 1990s, being officially decommissioned in 1993. In addition to being a prison, the location was also used as an orphanage and a psychiatric unit. During the 19th century, four hangings were conducted at the prison. John Purcell served as superintendent of the old Napier Prison. Napier Prison has been open for entertainment and tours.

In 2002, it was opened as a tourist attraction. The prison was used as the venue for the filming of the 2006 television show Redemption Hill.[6] Also featured in the "Off the Rails" TV series.

There have been many reports of ghostly occurrences at the site such as unexplained footsteps, disembodied faces, doors opening and closing on their own, and the ghost of a murderer on the anniversary of his execution. The best known former prisoner is Roland Edwards, a mass murderer whose spirit is said to haunt the area. He died on July 15 and paranormal activity is reputedly more prevalent around the anniversary of his death. In 2011, a team from the television series Ghost Hunters International spent four days filming at the prison, which was criticized as "the lowest common denominator of a reality TV show".

Source: Wikipedia

Great experience. Good place to spend an hour or so. Not expensive

Interesting. Puts you off being a criminal for sure!

Fun, fun and more fun this weekend! Had an absolute blast up here!

This place is a treasure trove of historical information. Highly recommend.

The guide was very entertaining and knowledgeable. Unfortunately she politicised her performance and made very it uncomfortable for some visitor due to her openly racist comments.

We took a self guided tour.
Interesting history for a prison.
You can take your own mug shots and do some creative photography. Tour is cheap..I think it was around $20. The whole tour and photography took around 1 to 1.5 hours.
Did not like the small radio thing that we had to hold to our ears to listen. Maybe bigger speakers so everyone can listen in at the same time would be a better idea.

Excellent advice from friends who had recently visited that we should take our time and not rush the tour as there is so much to see.

The Escape Room was brilliant - we fought with each other verbally and did eventually get out in the nick of time and will remember the laughs with embarrassment.

A bit tired looking but it is an old jail, history tour was good and the kids enjoyed the ghost tour, staff were excellent, might go back and try the escape rooms next time I am in town.

I enjoy going to old prisons with lots of history the spookier the better. I had originally asked to do a night tour on Halloween but was told they only done night tours during the summer, when we finally got there it was like walking into a old close down primary school, we then done the self guild audio tour, not that they gave us a choice, after awhile of listening to the audio we got bored and kept it off, also the numbers weren t very clear to follow as some numbers were right next to each other and some were so far apart we ended up in another part of the building, in one of the communal rooms there is a big notice board that had posters on when it had been a hostel and had not been there during the prison years. 20NZD too much money and a waste of time. also before going I read that the typical amount of time spent there is 1.5 hours so I thought that meant it would be good, I was there for no more than half an hour, and the area where the prisoners got hung is just a painting on a wall of a noose., the whole place was just a disappointment

A real tourist experience with no frills but plenty of laughs along the way.

Runs as an 'Escape Room' game. A bit of fun . . . if that's your thing.

Great place to spend an hour and good value. Makes you glad you were not banged up years ago. Pretty grim.

Escape Room was so so good - 30 seconds to go and we got out! A great memory for us with the photo at the end.

Good experience and staff were accommodating when my baby needed his bottle warmed.

No doubt that this was the highlight of our visit to Napier - it's sure not pretty but the old girl has a tale or two to tell.

It was fun to be able to go in a prison and walk out on the same day generally hasn't happened in my past experience with prisons 10 outta 10would recommend

It was an ok experience. The history is interesting. 3 self guided tours on offer-History, kids and ghostly. You can take your mug shot and can get creative with the limited props available.

A history lesson well received by our small group of students on holiday from Auckland

You must do a guided tour they are worth the money. Great staff

We took our time doing the self-guided tour and took so many pictures that I ran out of space on my camera. Loved it!

A must do especially the ghost tour. Such a great and creepy part of New Zealand history.

We did the Escape Room combo and it was challenging as we are a competitive family. We chose the Clone room and we got split into 2 groups to see who was the fastest at getting out.

Was dying to come to the Prison for years and was not disappointed!

One of a must go attraction in Napier. The oldest prison in town that is located on top of a hills.

Survived the Earthquake the staff reckoned and I saw what it did to the corridors - really weird to walk at a slant but cool at the same time.

We did the ghost tour and escape room. There were some cool interactions in the escape room and heaps of creepy history.
The pronunciation of the narrator of the reo words on the audio tour was poor. But that's my only gripe.

Very interesting to walk around in, quit pricy for what it was.

Really good day, really enjoyed the tour and escape room.

Very interesting and a little scary, it would be quite cool to do one of their scare nights

We (15 yo daughter and myself) did the historic self-guided audio tour and highly recommend it. Interesting detailed commentary of just the right length. Fascinating insight into the mind of the prisoners through their graffiti too.

Personally found it really boring and not worth the price at all, esp to other places like the national aquarium.

The prison is very small..

We went with a group who had 2 sets of previous inmates in it - with their stories and the audio tour we were well versed in Prison rules and tricks.

loved it, I had chills listening to some of the stories. We enjoyed taking pictures in the criminal and police costumes

Was cool and interesting to see and hear spooky history

Eerie feeling, if you could choose overnight Sleeping with ghosts.

We all enjoyed the tour and we hadn't realised that if you have hearing aids they can give you an audio wand with no sound effects which made my dad's day. So much easier to hear.

so incredibly interesting. great staff. and was a sunny day!

Good historic, interesting place, went on a weekday and was really quiet. I did the historic guided tour and my partner did the ghost tour. The building had fallen into disrepair and the guided tours were a bit lacking in content and volume. In my opinion it wasn't a bad tour but it could definitely benefit from more panels on the walls with more info. Some of the cells were original and some were used as storage facilities. Some areas seemed a bit tacky, like the leftover decor from the b n b.
Overall the history of the site and of some of the prisoners was interesting but could do with some better signage and structure.

Absolutely loved it!!! A +++. We are here on a family holiday and this has so far been everybody's highlight. Kids and adults. We did the ghost tour was creepy but really awesome and so informative

One of the must-sees in NZ as a whole - sombre and thought provoking and very very sad. Well preserved by current care-takers and friendly staff.

A very informative history.
Worth a visit.

Absolutely amazing place to see, great guide/worker very knowledgeable an friendly also very helpful. Highly recommend place to see

We did one of the escape rooms which was fantastic. We broke the record by 6 minutes!! Highly recommended as a team building exercise. Would love to go back and hear more about the history of the place.

My mates love it, could be their future home, lovely place

Napier's hidden gem - a great change from Art Deco and wineries. Amazingly friendly staff who totally made our visit.

Give you some insight to prison life. The guide system was OK, basically recordings you listen on the device to while going around the place.

Awesome group tasks hostess was awesome and full of energy.

Our visit was actually so much fun!! We booked an escape room and did the ghost history tour which was really interesting. Spent a good couple hours here. The staff members were very friendly and accommodating and the prison itself def had a spooky vibe!! Would totally go again

Definitely haunted and creepy. Friend heard a voice while I felt someone brush my face at the same moment. Felt evil presence in certain areas and could not enter certain areas because of it. Very sad feeling place also, a sense of hopelessness and crushed spirits. Heard a knocking sound in wall beside us. No one else was there on site at that time.

Poor value for money. Hoping they will rebuild after Covid. We've done the escape room and scary tour and both weren't good. The scary tour only lasted 15-20mins. Not good at all. Had great potential.

Information was good and audio guide worked well - weather was brilliant and the kids behaved - bliss.

Vastly different to what I expected. Some of the buildings are wooden which was a surprise and it's not huge but it is packed with sobering history and quirky tales.

This is definitely one of the most worth visiting place in Napier, it provides me the history of NZ in a physical, visualized form. The staff was very kind, helpful, easy to approach and the information provided was very informative as well. I personally like it a lot and would highly recommend it.

I hate going to places where they try and jooozsh it up until it no longer resembles what you set out to see but this was not the case here. Very raw and unashamed.

The language option on the guides made it a worthwhile visit as there are very few places in tourist destinations that my parents could actually understand what was going on.