Working remotely? Do it here in style
If you’re going to attempt the double act of business and pleasure, the five-star Sydney Harbour Marriott has you covered.
There could be no sterner test of a city hotel’s desirability as a place to work and play than two days of inclement weather. Unrelenting cloud cover and steady rain obliterate any incentive to venture outdoors, but inside the Sydney Harbour Marriott, things are just fine.
If you’re going to attempt the double act of doing business and embracing leisure, this five-star hotel on lower Pitt Street seems an excellent place to try. The business travel market already knows this but the Marriott, blessed with proximity to Circular Quay, gateway to the harbour and its delights, is now angling to attract those of us who have become top-notch remote workers courtesy of the Covid lockdowns. “You learnt to operate from home effectively, why not go on doing so but from time to time treat yourself to a little luxury?” runs the logic. Hence the Harbour Getaway Package, which varies in price depending on which one of the well-appointed rooms you choose. All options include wine on arrival, an in-room cocktail kit, buffet breakfast, room upgrade and late checkout.
There is a strong sense of jubilation at the hotel as it shakes off the pandemic blues, gradually reopening facilities long mothballed, with staff clearly relieved and happy to be back. There is the usual array of board and conference rooms, which cost extra, as will the roomy and elegant executive lounge when it reopens.
No problem. Surely such things can be left to the suits, while the rest of us make uninhibited use of comfortably furnished nooks near the lobby. These include The Library, with its grand upward view of the two mezzanine levels and the huge, high skylight that make the hotel’s public area unusually spacious. Loners with laptops can tap away undisturbed there or close by in Silvester’s restaurant lounge, between trips to the heated indoor pool or the three-level gym.
The restaurant proper offers buffet breakfast from 7am and a limited dinner service will return from March 18, starting with Friday and Saturday nights, complete with a new menu from the open kitchen of Raphael Szurek, who has resumed his occasional Chef’s Table degustation series. The restaurant, opening directly off the large, marbled foyer and centred beneath that soaring atrium, is named for the Silvester brothers, who ran their providore and butchery business from the site in the early days.
Burgers and upmarket pub food are offered at the cheerful Customs House Bar, one of Sydney’s oldest. Dual entrances – internal access via Silvester’s and a street frontage on Macquarie Place – mean hotel guests rub shoulders convivially with office and construction workers at footpath tables.
Guests can eat as well as work in the restaurant lounge, where light meals and drinks are served all day. A shallow staircase in pre-Covid days led down to the Three Bottle Man laneway bar and coffee shop fronting Bulletin Place, sadly still closed. The bar’s moniker is a nod to the hotel’s street address – the 18th century British Prime Minister William Pitt, for whom it is named, was a hard drinker.
Talented design and fit-out and those flecks of history imbue the place with a lot of charm; add to that spectacular views, oriented towards city, harbour or opera house depending on which room you choose. Such sights are a given in this part of the city, but here they seem miraculous because the 32-storey hotel, built in the 1980s, is dwarfed by recently arrived giants: the new AMP headquarters on the eastern side and Credit Suisse in front.
The effect is of a panelled painting whose vertical divisions focus attention on depth, rather than any sweep of landscape. Figuring out what can be seen and what is hidden is an agreeable game. Looking north-east, a wandering gaze takes in the quay, the opera house, Fort Denison, Taronga Park Zoo wharf and Bradley’s Head; to the northwest, the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Rocks and the bridge. A wise traveller will call ahead and request the highest floor possible. After all, you’ve earned it.
• Perfect for: Couples or business travellers.
• Must do: Swim after work, then drinks at the Customs House Bar. In fine weather, the Manly Ferry or a walk from the Opera House to The Rocks and under the bridge.
• Dining: Silvester’s breakfast 7am-10am, lounge all day, dinner from 6pm starting Friday and Saturday from March 18; Customs House Bar from 11.30am; excellent 24-hour room service.
• Getting there: The hotel is a short walk from Circular Quay trains, or drive and park at nearby Wilson’s for $80 weeknights, $30 weekends. Valet service returning soon, $80.
• Bottom line: Harbour Getaway Package from $351 per night (Deluxe City View room) to $421 (Opera House View room). Includes wine on arrival, in-room cocktail kit, buffet breakfast, room upgrade and late check-out.
marriott.com/en/destinations/sydney.mi
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