What is the difference between dogs inside and outdoor only?

Dogs inside means the operator has said dogs are welcome in the building, and we hold the wording. Outdoor only means dogs are welcome in the courtyard, garden bar or footpath tables, and not indoors. Of the 326 New Zealand venues we publish, 60 are indoor and 266 are outdoor only.

Are dogs allowed inside cafes in New Zealand?

Sometimes, and it is the operator who decides. Food premises rules push most venues to keep dogs to the outdoor area, which is why an indoor welcome is worth naming: we hold 60 of them nationwide, each cited to the operator or the guide that recorded it. Assistance dogs are a separate matter and have right of entry.

326 venues · 158 sources

Dog-friendly cafes and pubs in New Zealand

Everywhere we can show you the wording. 326 cafes, bars and pubs across the country with a dog policy we have read at the source: 60 that welcome dogs inside the building and 266 that welcome them in the courtyard. Both are worth knowing, and they are not the same answer.

326 venues 60 dogs inside 266 outdoor only 34 town pages

Two different things get called dog-friendly, and we keep them apart.

Dogs inside means the operator has said dogs are welcome in the building, and we hold the wording that says it.
Outdoor areas means the courtyard, the garden bar or the footpath tables, and not indoors.

Every venue below carries the source we read it in. Anything we could not source is left off, so a place missing from this page is one nobody has put in writing, not one that said no.

By town

34 towns with a page of their own

A town gets its own page once we hold 3 sourced venues within about 20 km of it. Anywhere thinner still counts in the regional numbers below, it just does not make a page yet.

By region

All 326 venues, counted by region

Every venue that clears our bar, counted where it sits. The ones outside a town page are still on the list, still sourced, and still waiting for a neighbour or two before they earn a page of their own.

Auckland70 venues

Canterbury57 venues

Otago40 venues

Wellington30 venues

Waikato25 venues

Bay of Plenty24 venues

Hawke's Bay16 venues

Taranaki16 venues

Nelson-Tasman13 venues

Marlborough11 venues

Manawatū-Whanganui9 venues

Northland5 venues

5 across the region, on the map5

Gisborne4 venues

4 across the region, on the map4

Southland3 venues

3 across the region, on the map3

West Coast3 venues

3 across the region, on the map3

Policies change, and the operator has the last word. Owners change, councils change, a wet Tuesday changes what fits in the courtyard. Ring ahead if the answer matters, take the operator’s word over ours, and keep the dog settled and off the seats either way. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will re-read the source.

Keep exploring

Dog-friendly cafes and pubs in New Zealand

34 towns with a page of their own

Auckland

Christchurch

Wellington

New Plymouth

Queenstown

Taupō

Tauranga

Dunedin

Blenheim

Napier

Palmerston North

Albany

Rotorua

Wānaka

Hamilton

Lake Tekapo

Lyttelton

Waiheke Island

Arrowtown

Havelock North

Kaikōura

Pāpāmoa

Waihī Beach

Akaroa

Cambridge

Cromwell

Hastings

Havelock

Nelson

Ōamaru

Paraparaumu

Stoke

Takanini

Upper Hutt

All 326 venues, counted by region

Walk first, flat white after

Walks by town

Dogs of Aotearoa

Getting around with a dog

How we check