Retreat and surrender

WANT to know what's hot and new to Western Australia? We've scoured the state to find the must-lust after resorts and retreats to escape to in 2008.

WANT to know what's hot and new to Western Australia? We've scoured the state to find the must-lust after resorts and retreats to escape to in 2008.

Hot spots

From big British bands to hip hotels seems to have been a seamless transition for John Spence. The British-born, Perth-based entrepreneur, one-time manager of the Eurythmics, Culture Club and Bananarama, heads Karma Resorts, an international hotel chain specialising in five-star, family-friendly operations.

The group's first Australian venture, Karma Margaret River, opens later this year, featuring 29 villas sporting 21st-century must-haves such as a handcrafted kitchen, stone fireplace and sauna.

Among other accoutrements – snooker room, tennis courts, boating lake and putting green – the resort has its own vineyard, all the better to sample the Margaret River region's primary output.

Hot beds

The celadon waters of the Indian Ocean provide the platform for the Novotel Ningaloo Resort, a 44-room complex overlooking the magical marine wilderness in the state's northwest.

The four-star Exmouth Resort, built in rammed earth and local stone, offers one, two and three-bedroom studios and apartments, bar, fitness centre and two pools. And if you can't spy a manta ray cruising the reef, you can eat in the eponymous restaurant.

In the not-so-far-away Pilbara, the Karijini Eco Retreat is the first high-end tented accommodation in the Karijini National Park, a tapestry of ochre gorges, pristine rock pools and waterfalls. With 40 deluxe ensuite eco-tents, the retreat allows easy access to Weano, Hancock, Knox and Joffre gorges.

Down south, Chandeliers on Abbey is a grown-up getaway of three adults-only retreats (with four more on the drawing board) within a 20ha property close to the surfing beaches at Yallingup, Margaret River.

For more information, visit Western Australia.