Revealed: Australia’s hottest new travel destinations in 2021
From city skyscrapers to tiny off-grid pods, a host of luxury new holiday destinations are set to be rolled out this year. Here are some of the best to put on your bucket list.
TASMANIA
The long wait for The Tasman, a Luxury Collection Hotel in Hobart, might soon be over. The $50m hotel, slated for debut in October, will feature 152 guestrooms across a collection of historic buildings in Parliament Square.
It follows the unveiling of Mövenpick Hotels’ first Aussie outpost in Hobart earlier this year, with 221 guestrooms over 18 floors. Outside the capital, new accommodation options are small-scale with an emphasis on understated luxury.
On King Island you can channel E. Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News at Ettrick Rocks Luxury Retreats, comprising three contemporary boltholes with views of the moody landscape and wild southern seas. There’s also the very smart Eton Beach House, minutes from Swansea on Tasmania’s east coast overlooking Great Oyster Bay.
For budding vignerons, The Picker’s Hut, 45 minutes from Hobart with 360-degree views over the Jordan Valley, offers contemporary interiors and a cosy log fire.
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QUEENSLAND
From a vintage roadside motel on the Gold Coast Highway with just seven rooms to a billion-dollar beachfront development, the Gold Coast has lost none of its shimmer.
The recently opened Mysa Motel in up-and-coming Palm Beach brings a sense of Californian cool to the coast, while downtown, The Langham Gold Coast is scheduled to open in December in the tallest of the Jewel development’s three beachfront towers, with 169 luxury guestrooms, a fancy Cantonese restaurant and the group’s famous Palm Court afternoon tea.
Talaroo Hot Springs, a camping and caravan venture incorporating cultural tours and hot springs, opens in June on Ewamian country 360km west of Cairns.
In the spectacular Scenic Rim region, a new brand of off-grid luxury pods that are a collaboration with local communities debuts in October; the five WanderPods, offering views over Lake Wyaralong, are the first in a planned national network, with Kangaroo Island (SA) up next.
In the Daintree, Silky Oaks Lodge will reopen in October following a multimillion-dollar upgrade by Baillie Lodges. And polo and Wagyu beef property Hazelwood Estate (pictured above) opens in September near Lamington National Park; general manager Tom Simpson (previously of Spicers Retreats) says it will be like nothing else in the country with luxury pavilion and cabin digs, a restaurant, day spa and wagyu tasting, along with a tack room and riding trails for keen equestrians.
THE LIST: Hot 50 Places to Stay in Australia
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SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Adelaide’s hotel boom rolls on.
Late last year it was the Oval Hotel, Eos by SkyCity and Crowne Plaza. In March the 145-room Hotel Indigo Adelaide Markets, the first Australian outpost for IHG’s design-driven brand, delivered a fun aesthetic to the lively Central Market precinct; in the meantime big sister InterContinental Adelaide, opened in 1988 and an ode to the cavernous marble-clad lobbies of the era, has announced a $32m upgrade.
In September, luxury French brand Sofitel opens on Currie Street; the 250-room Sofitel Adelaide (pictured above) will feature sumptuous Gallic interiors, with even the indoor swimming pool lit by chandeliers.
Fans of McLeod’s Daughters will recognise Kingsford, located on the Barossa Valley’s outskirts and opened as a hotel several years ago; the Georgian-style mansion is in the final stages of a multimillion-dollar upgrade and expansion and is due to reopen soon.
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NORTHERN TERRITORY
Grand Designs goes bush with another double-storey, off-grid cabin cleverly fashioned from shipping containers opening late June at Hideaway Litchfield, 13km from Wangi Falls in Litchfield National Park. Solar-powered, fed by spring water and set in bushland with buckets of style, these retreats are bang on trend for modern-day travellers. Alice Springs Helicopters has given the region’s popular mountain bike trails an extra edge with the introduction of heli-mountain biking. Five landing sites are positioned along the hundreds of kilometres of hand-hewn tracks; cyclists are dropped with their bikes following a scenic flight.
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VICTORIA
The opening of millennial-friendly W Melbourne above Flinders Lane in February set the scene for a busy year.
Hot on its heels came Quincy Hotel, the first Australian outpost for the Singapore brand; Next Hotel Melbourne, at the heart of the 80 Collins retail and dining precinct; Hilton Melbourne Little Queen Street, an elegant transformation of the historic Melbourne Equity Chambers building; and Ovolo South Yarra, marrying pop art with “the days of disco”.
Mövenpick Hotel opens on Melbourne’s Spencer Street next month – stand by for the daily “Chocolate Hour” – and Melbourne Marriott Hotel Docklands debuts in June.
Opening later this year, Ritz-Carlton Melbourne will be Australia’s tallest hotel with check-in on level 79 and 263 guestrooms offering extraordinary views.
Out of town, check out Five Acres coastal cabins on Phillip Island, with its sweeping farm and ocean views, and Port Fairy’s historic pub The Oak & Anchor Hotel, which has been transformed to include six pretty guestrooms.
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NEW SOUTH WALES
The Porter House Hotel Sydney MGallery opens later this year on Castlereagh Street, part of a new 36-storey residential tower adjacent to the 1870s heritage-listed Porter House.
Aiden Darling Harbour, opening mid-year with 88 guestrooms, is housed in a lovely 1930s Art Deco building opposite the Pyrmont footbridge.
Newcastle gets the five-star treatment with the striking Crystalbrook Kingsley next door to historic City Hall – opening next month, it offers great views towards the city’s harbour from the very cool guestrooms and rooftop bar and restaurant. Keen to flee town? Opened last year, the off-grid but modern Crafters Cabin is tucked away in a secluded and stunning alpine bush setting just five minutes from Jindabyne.
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ACT
The new Bates Smart-designed A by Adina is not only ideally located in Canberra’s CBD, it represents the global debut of a new premium brand with 132 chic apartments offering elevated amenities and a team of “curators” to oversee your stay.
Much smaller in scale, a new luxury cabin from the Naked Cubby Co joins two glamping tents at Mount Majura Vineyard, where you can hone your baking and barista skills with onsite workshops.
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WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Hilton has been busy out west unveiling a $45m top-to-toe transformation of Perth’s 53-year-old Parmelia Hilton in February; meanwhile, the 108-room Hilton Garden Inn Albany is due to open mid-year on the waterfront next door to the city’s Entertainment Centre. This follows the debut of the striking DoubleTree by Hilton Perth Waterfront in the capital’s Elizabeth Quay precinct in December. Smaller in scale, a row of historic cottages next door to the Fremantle Markets has been remade into the smart Warders Hotel (exposed stone walls and Shaker-style pale-blue panelling), with a small corner bar and courtyard restaurant.
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