Emporium Hotel South Bank, Brisbane

Indulgence doesn’t get much better than at this Brisbane hotel and its most extravagant suite – it’s so big you might be in need of a trail of breadcrumbs.

The hotel’s opulent bar

Bridges, skyscrapers, boats gliding around the bend of a river, and massed clouds moving like galleons as afternoon shadows lengthen. This glistening view from the 21st floor is a 180-degree sweep of a high-rise city. Manhattan, London, Singapore, Sydney? I am at Emporium Hotel South Bank in Brisbane, a capital that doesn’t quite fit the metropolis template of the world’s giants but is perhaps more attractive because of its concentrated scale, showcase architecture and, pleasingly, its small-town manners and neighbourliness.

My perch this sunny afternoon is The Parklands Suite, the 143-room hotel’s top digs. Let’s not go near the Bris Vegas slurs. I feel as if I’ve landed in the real Las Vegas, somehow ensconced in a high roller’s penthouse with a wing of extra bedrooms for my retinue of hangers-on, pots of white orchids at every turn, and TVs that either pop down from the ceiling or transform from bronze-framed mirrors to screens at the flick of a switch. There are 786sq m at my disposal, making this one of Australia’s biggest suites. Over there, a Tim Storrier artwork; in the corner, a Steinway Essex baby grand piano. I have a dedicated elevator and my own 24/7 hotel ambassador, whose name is Phill. He wears a blue suit, natty bowtie and pocket square and within 24 hours we are new best friends.

Lobby of the Emporium Hotel South Bank

I race around and look out all the windows and glass doors in a 270-degree loop. Forget the sparkling water in the double-door fridge, let’s crack open the Dom Perignon. Did I mention the 15m mosaic-tiled private pool on the terrace or the barbecue area with all known outdoor cooking gizmos? Or the well-equipped study room where past guests such as Tom Hanks may or may not have tapped out incredibly important emails? Huge stemmed bowls hold fruit and sweet treats, and the bar tray is home to seven full-sized bottles of premium, and mostly small-batch, spirits. The interiors have been orchestrated by Francine John, wife of architect Anthony John. She’s the design force behind the couple’s $600 million Southpoint precinct and hotel development, and has managed a fine balancing act here of introducing touches of snugness within such forbidding acreage via rugs, soft lamplight, tactile throws and furniture arranged for conversation and cosiness.

Balcony pool of The Parklands Suite

This hotel itself, which includes residential units, has the feel of an urban oasis with bells and whistles galore, from changing light effects in the elevators to an abundance of bright red and chrome finishes and zebra stripes in the lobby and public areas. In The Piano Bar, it’s a throwback to 1920s jazz-age glamour and martinis by the mile. Such a zap-pow decor shouldn’t really work but the scale and scope of the building are big and flash enough to make such excess seem just right. The accommodation across the guest floors, however, feels more boutique and is nicely muted, with hushed colours and sleek surfaces. All categories are designated as suites and named according to river or vista view, the latter a textured urban outlook towards the west with the outline of hills beyond. Beds are uniformly king-sized with talcum-soft toppers and linens, ensuites are larger than the norm and there’s all the latest touch technology, curtains programmed to open when the door is entered, plus extras that include Bose sound bars.

Living area of The Parklands Suite

But then there are the premium pads, and that’s where the fun begins. The Frangipani Suite has a karaoke room and semi-circular cocktail bar and can be booked with an interconnecting River City King Suite to create an even more expansive party venue, complete with baby grand piano and long terrace. Cabana Suites on the rooftop level open to an infinity-edge pool and sundeck via individual patios planted with broad-leafed palms for shade and privacy. Just to the left is The Terrace, a tropical-themed rooftop lounge and bar with all-day dining (don’t go past the spanner crab pancake), open-air terrace, cocktails of the ilk of The Iced Vo-Vo and Go-Jito, and a wine list as long as a Queensland summer.

But the crowning glory has to be The Parklands Suite, a popular choice for private events as well as sleepovers for up to eight, with three marbled bathrooms. The master (mistress) chamber defies the description of enormous and an adjacent dressing room with his-and-hers hanging space is the size of a studio apartment. There are twin showers in a tiled expanse roomy enough to wash a small car and a freestanding tub with floor-to-ceiling Brisbane River and skyline views. The palette throughout is cream and rinsed blues and greens, with pale herringbone parquetry flooring and generously proportioned rugs. I like the distinctive Queensland touches of white plantation shutters and the long feature wall papered with a La Palma banana-bunch pattern by Catherine Martin.

The Terrace on the rooftop

What to wear? Phill says there’s no need to dress for dinner as a four-course meal is being served for me up here in the clouds. Husband-and-wife team of executive chef Chris Norman and executive pastry chef Alexandra Norman have devised a dine-in menu featuring key dishes from the hotel’s fine-dining restaurant Signature, a plush room where The Library refers not to books but almost 6000 bottles of “the world’s most revered and rarest bottles”.

The emphasis at Signature is squarely on seasonal and regional ingredients and meals can be prepared according to The Parklands Suite’s guest preferences. Delivery and service are seamless as there’s a commercial kitchen with Gaggenau appliances lurking nearby, just off one of my three dining areas. Seriously, this suite is so large that I keep taking wrong turns and consider a Hansel and Gretel strategy of leaving a trail of croissant crumbs to find my way back to bed or, better still, a scattering of macaron flakes from high tea at the Parisian-inspired Belle Epoque cafe just off the lobby where Alexandra works her patisserie magic.

Next morning, as the sky lightens in a rose-gold glow, a kookaburra arrives and sits on the pool’s glass fence, just beside my “living wall” of greenery and a date palm poking up, improbably, from The Terrace’s next-door deck. The bird stays still, eyeing me off, until the doorbell rings and Phill appears to organise my breakfast (seven cooked courses to consider) and to take me to the airport in a Maserati Ghibli that purrs, appropriately, like a very contented kitten.

Bathroom with a view

The four-bedroom Parklands Suite at Emporium Hotel South Bank is from $8500 a night, depending on individual requirements and seasonal dates. Includes airport transfers, use of a Maserati town car, breakfasts, stocked bar and personal hotel ambassador.