Canberra's calling

FROM the city's new sophisticated cocktail strip, to Australia's first national photography festival – here's Canberra's hot stays and places to play in 2008.

FROM the city's new sophisticated cocktail strip, to Australia's first national photography festival – here's Canberra's hot stays and places to play in 2008.

Hot spots

Canberra life – balanced between culture and nature – will blossom in 2008 with fresh gallery spaces, a free-ranging wildlife discovery experience (from March, at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve) and the appearance of the Beijing Olympic Torch (April 23-24) in the torch relay's only Australian run.

A new gallery, Conflicts 1945 to Today, opens in February at the Australian War Memorial and includes a multi-media presentation within the bridge of HMAS Brisbane. The National Portrait Gallery moves to a purpose-built space next to the National Gallery, opening in December, with more than 500 portraits on permanent display. Canberra hosts Australia's first national photography festival, Vivid, with exhibitions and events, from July to October.

The Bah, a sophisticated cocktail space, and the Wine & Cheese Providore joined Mecca Bah restaurant at Manuka at the end of 2007 to give The Terrace a stylish foodie future.

Hot beds

Hotel Realm Canberra opened late last year next to the National Press Club in Barton. It's an avant-garde five-star property that by the end of 2010 will be part of a complex of apartments, retail and green space.

Hotel Diamant at 15 Edinburgh Ave is a five-star boutique hotel within the heritage-listed Hotel Acton building, part of Eight Hotels group (which owns Sydney's Kirketon Hotel and individualistic boutique hotels around the country); and part of a designer urban village, a first for Canberra.

For more information, see Visit Canberra.