The South Wharf area of Melbourne is covered with construction workers right now, but at least they've reached the top of the new Hilton South Wharf, being built next to the new Melbourne Convention Centre.
As Australia's unofficial "second city", Melbourne is aiming to beat Sydney one day and one way it might get there is through its huge boom in hotels.
With Australia's largest hotel under construction in Melbourne and a heap of others either on the way or on the drawing board, lil' brother Melbourne might just do it. The Hilton South Wharf and the Convention Centre project it's a part of are meant to attract thousands of visitors for regular vacations and especially for conventions and conferences.
The Hilton South Wharf reached a landmark last week with its "topping off" ceremony, celebrating reaching the 20th (and top) floor. Now they just have to fill in the details on the 396 rooms and finish up in time for the early 2009 deadline.
Lonely Planet describes Melbourne as an "avant-garde haven" where residents are "equally passionate about football and ballet, fashion and restaurants." It sounds like a perfect location for the uppity and expensive Park Hyatt brand.
The hotel is located on the banks of the city's Yarra River. It has 240 rooms, all of which look enormous although we're a little disappointed with the decor which really just looks like high-end manufactured Hyatt room furniture. There are no personal touches here but we bet you will like the deep-sunken tubs in each bathroom complete with TVs.
While we're quite sure now that decent WiFi access is a very hit and miss affair in Europe, we're not yet sure how a laptop fares Down Under.
Since we're considering a trip to Melbourne, we've done a bit of digging on hotels in Australia's second city that offer a good (and preferably free) WiFi service, and got a couple of tips from blogger monkeyjedi who's been tracking down some good WiFi spots across Oz.
If you're looking for a big chain hotel, then the Westin Melbourne offers complimentary broadband internet and wireless connectivity in all public areas, and it's also available in guest rooms. A little bit sneakily, we think, there is a charge if you use it in your room, so you should take your laptop out to the lobby (pictured) and log on there.
Also on the list, and suitable if you're more into boutique hotels, is the Hotel Lindrum. They offer free WiFi access in the lobby, but not yet in guest rooms.
We haven't tried this yet, but wouldn't we get some WiFi connectivity if we request a room as close to the lobby as possible? It could work in some hotels, couldn't it? Or let's try another strategy: hotels, this is the 21st century. GIVE US WIFI! For free, please.
We've just been sent one promoter's opinion of the top ten spa treatments in hotels across the world. We're not inclined to believe everything we read, but some of these spa treatments do sound like just what we need. Right now, please.
Picking the most expensive treatment on the list--on a per-minute basis, that is--would bring us to the Alvear Palace in Buenos Aires. They've just opened a new spa and fitness center and have a special on an "exclusive cellular radiant treatment" facial, guaranteed to make you look younger (of course), at a cost of $205 for just one hour.
Better value can be had at the Hyatt Regency Hua Hin in Thailand, with day packages starting from just $250. Their Barai Spa has light therapy, massage and even "sensual water experiences". If you're after something a bit more physical, the Chuan Spa at the Langham Melbourne offers "a blizzard of therapeutic leg-centric techniques", which almost sounds frightening.
But for proper relaxation, our vote goes for The Tides Zihuatenajo in Mexico which combines a Swedish-style massage with the use of heated tiger clam shells, gently massaging your whole body. $150 for an hour isn't the cheapest on the list by far, but it sounds the most gentle option.
Tennis action in Melbourne starts on Monday with the Australian Open, and that gave the New York Times the incentive to run a round-up piece on Australia's oft-ignored but second largest city. As well as a few tips on sightseeing at the jail and places to eat good "pub grub", they gave three ideas for places to stay, depending on the kind of accommodation you're after.
The transformed warehouse surrounds of the Adelphi Hotel were on the top of their list, although last time we looked into it, the guest opinions didn't quite bear out the good reputation this place has.
For those after a "cheap and cheerful" hotel--all you need but without luxury, yet at a reasonable price--the NYT gang recommended the Victoria Hotel in Little Collins Street, although be warned that even they say it's a popular destination for tour groups, which means you could land in an overflowing lobby.
Last on the list is the Prince Hotel near the beach at St Kilda, which as far as locations go is a great place to be if you prefer to be just out of the city center. We've raved about it before as being beyond boutique, and we still recommend it. But you'll really have to hurry to get a Melbourne vacation in before the Grand Finals of the Australian Open arrive.
We're not exactly prejudiced against airport hotels but we do kind of have low expectations of them: they don't usually have to compete against too many other hotels and they're the kind of place you stay just for a night, more out of convenience than actually wanting a great place to stay. But apparently in Melbourne, Australia, you can have your cake and eat it too.
At the recent Australian Hotels Association annual awards, the winner of the Overall Accommodation Hotel of the Year was the Hilton Melbourne International Airport. Exactly what criteria are used to judge this aren't revealed, but this award does make it basically the best hotel in Australia.
And it does seem like a lovely hotel: it has a beautiful swimming pool, high speed internet and fluffy bathrobes, it's only 20 minutes from Melbourne and just seconds to the airport via the connecting covered walkway. But that's the point, isn't it: it's absolutely directly next to the airport. You can see the runway from your room: this photo was taken from a hotel room. So isn't it a bit noisy? Perhaps the AHA judges wore earplugs.
Melbourne's about to get the biggest hotel in Australia, when businessman James Packer's group get approval to build a new hotel in the Crown Entertainment Complex, which surrounds the Crown Casino. It's already a posh place to stay with two hotels in the complex, the Crown Towers (which is also going to get an upgrade as part of this process) and the Crown Promenade.
The A$300 million project plans to be ready for business in May 2010, and is all part of a confident idea that Melbourne will continue to grow as an international tourist destination. The new (as yet unnamed) hotel will have 658 rooms, and the whole Crown hotel complex will have a total of 1,600 rooms. As far as location goes, it's being built on prime real estate in Melbourne and guests will definitely have easy access to the casino, which is all some of them want, anyway.
We are suckers for a room with a killer view. We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.
A little while ago we mentioned that the Melbourne Sofitel was the home of a killer view: apparently both the men's and women's public bathrooms on the 35th have spectacular views over Melbourne.
We haven't been able to get into these particular toilets yet, but there is plenty of evidence of great views from higher floors of this hotel. This view is taken from the Superior King Room 4418, and the daytime views are just as gorgeous.
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by amandak
