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As the FIFA Women’s World Cup bounces between New Zealand’s North and South islands, here are some new recommendations for where to eat, stay, and play.

These international hotels offer eco-conscious and stylish accommodations that will leave guests with a clean conscience.

New Zealand’s biggest city, set off by the sparkling Pacific waters of the surrounding harbors, offers distinctive neighborhoods busy with shops, cafés, and restaurants. Step off the normal tourist track to experience Auckland like a local.

From shopping sprees in Singapore to thumping clubs in Berlin, the world is full of cool cities that move to the pulse of pop culture. Staying at the right hotel is one way to find the hippest places to eat, shop, and play.

Architect Nat Cheshire shares his favorite places to eat and things to do in Auckland’s Britomart neighborhood.

Overview

The Britomart City Farmers’ Market is literally the country coming to town. Located in Auckland‘s hippest, newest precinct on a ‘walking street’ between towering office blocks, every Saturday morning up pops the freshest seasonal produce, herbs and condiments for hungry city-dwellers to take home. As live music plays and freshly baked bread wafts, you can walk around with your organic coffee and browse the juicy local olives and cheeses that have just arrived - or simply relax on one of the giant bean bags and take in the glorious morning sun.

This funky boutique hotel on the edge of the Britomart shopping district goes way back in Auckland history. Built in 1841 as The Commercial Hotel, the DeBrett building survived two fires and two rebuilds plus a stint as a hostel before becoming the quirky place guests experience today. The Housebar has always been the center of hotel life, and today, the intimate wood-and-mint venue exudes its original art deco style and serves classic cocktails and local beers and wines alongside refined pub snacks.

In addition to restoring the bar and adding a glass-roofed atrium that houses the hotel restaurant, DeBretts Kitchen, the current owners affixed contemporary artwork and photography throughout and sheathed the entire building in candy-striped carpeting, custom designed from 100 percent New Zealand wool. Besides the carpet and small-batch minibar selections, no two rooms are the same. Each features unique furnishings from the 1930s on, and every bed has an original screenprinted throw. Two of Hotel DeBretts centerpieces, the chandelier and water sculpture in the restaurant, were crafted by Auckland artists from materials salvaged during the latest renovation. The result is a local experience from top to bottom that gives guests a real taste of New Zealand.

Drawing inspiration from Auckland’s sailing and maritime culture, the Hilton Auckland is all white and windows, jutting nearly 1,000 feet into the sea like a double-bowed cruiseliner. On one side, there’s Stanley Point and the Auckland Harbour Bridge surrounded by water. On the other are the pop-up shops of Britomart, the greens of Albert Park, and the Sky Tower, shooting up between the hotel’s two buildings when looking south from the end of Princes Wharf. The hotel’s interiors have a nautical vibe as well; red and salmon-colored Italian furnishings counterbalance blond woods and floor-to-ceiling glass walls. The restaurant, called FISH, specializes in the New Zealand catch, and the central swimming pool even has an underwater view of the harbor. If that’s not enough seafaring spirit, the New Zealand Maritime Museum sits next door. Welcome to Auckland, the “City of Sails.”