Dunedin is renowned for its architecture, rhododendrons of rare beauty and colour and warm southern hospitality. Heritage buildings contrast with modern architecturally designed buildings. Victorian and Edwardian spires tower over stately homes throughout the cityscape. Dunedin is home to the world’s only mainland breeding colony of the Royal Northern Albatross, New Zealand’s oldest botanical gardens and public art gallery, Larnach Castle and Baldwin Street, recognised by the Guinness Book of Records to be the world's steepest street.

The City is the custodian of the Otago Peninsula an eco-tourism wildlife reserve of rare distinction. Royal Northern Albatross, Yellow Eyed and Blue Penguins, Fur Seals, Hooker Sea lions, Stewart Island and Black Shags, Cormorants, Sooty Shearwater and Black-Fronted Tern colonise Otago’s coastal waters.