Australian Hotels - a Review By K

First off, I promised better photos of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House once our weather improved in Sydney.  Here you go - pictures a little more suited to Australian tour guide books.  Also a picture of the entire city skyline.  All taken from the Botanical Gardens area of the city on my morning run a few days ago.

As we near the end of our month long journey through Australia, I thought I would do a write up on hotels we stayed in much like I did for our trip to New Zealand (see here if you missed my post on NZ hotels:  http://w-trips.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/goodbye-nz-well-be-back-someday.html ). For anyone planning a trip to Australia, hopefully you might find the review helpful.

As always, my beloved K did an absolutely outstanding job arranging our accommodations in Australia.  In places like Sydney and Melbourne, there are literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of places to stay.  To be able to find great places to call home for the evenings makes your stay in any city that much more enjoyable and she did a fabulous job.

As with my post of NZ hotels, I provide the K star rating system (1-5 stars) and some notes about each.  Again, all the places we stayed were wonderful and we would be happy to recommend any of them to a family member, friend, etc.  So one star does not mean poor hotel.  It just means it was not as exceptional in the K mind as others.  You may find better hotels in these cities/places, but you can't go wrong with any of the choices below.

Adelaide - Adelaide Hilton (not our favorite hotel - no extras and needs a bit of updating, but good location, quiet, and typical business hotel) - 3 "K stars"
Mount Gambier - The Barn (very cute, country accommodations, huge room, with nice restaurant on site, but millipedes were everywhere in the room ) - 4 "K stars"
Apollo Bay - Captains at the Bay (great room with huge tub, great morning breakfast, convenient location, but some early morning noise from grocery across the street) - 4 "K stars"
Melbourne - Adelphi Hotel (right downtown, exceptional, friendly and helpful staff, a boutique hotel with a lot of personality, wonderful treats and drinks all complimentary with the room, but a little street noise at night, but horrible Wi-Fi) - 5 "K stars" [extra credit from J on the complimentary fully stocked fridge and snack bar!]
Perth - Duxton Hotel (nice views of the river and city, great Wi-Fi, very nice staff, but not a lot of extras and you are a little farther away from restaurants and such, very similar to an American business hotel chain like the Hilton or Hyatt) - 4 "K stars"
Alice Springs - The Chifley Alice Springs Resort(there are not a lot of great choices in Alice Springs, but this hotel was clean, convenient walk to town, has the best restaurant in town on the premises, laundry room available, but rooms dated, horrible Wi Fi) - 2 "K stars"
Uluru - Longitude 131 (ok - it's extremely expensive - no getting around that fact.  If you can swallow the price, there is no substitute for lodging in the area, all amenities, tours, needs taken care of) - definitely 5 "K stars".  K says we need to break her ranking system for this place, it needs a 6th star.
Cairns - Shangri-La Hotel (excellent location, right on the waterfront and close to everything, big room with balcony overlooking the marina, very comfortable bed) - 5 "K stars"
Brisbane - Meriton on Herschel (huge high rise tower and the views of the city are spectacular, very quiet, comparatively cheap for hotels we stayed in, in suite washer/dryer and full kitchen, great Wi-Fi, but no extras with the room) - 4 "K stars"
Sydney - Meriton on Campbell (again a high rise tower with great views, a little noisy at night, in suite washer/dryer and full kitchen with a Nespresso machine, better than average Wi-Fi, but no other extras) - 4 "K stars"

So there you have it - the K rating of the hotels we patronized in Australia.

The view off our balcony at the Meriton in Sydney.