- From The Eve Hotel Sydney to Melbourne Place, several Australian establishments have earned commendations on both Travel + Leisure and CN Traveller’s 2025 best new hotels lists.
- While the stays exclusively hail from the country’s east coast, it certainly speaks to the world-class calibre of the domestic hotel scene as a whole.
- This comes just months after The Calile and The Tasman Hobart cinched #25 and #49, respectively, in The World’s 50 Best Hotels (2024 Edition).
A handful of newcomers have reiterated how elite Australia’s hotel scene is on two separate rankings.
Among Travel + Leisure‘s 100 best new hotels round-up for the year – which was reviewed and verified by 64 seasoned journalists across 44 countries – are three local stays: The Eve Hotel Sydney, Basq House in Byron Bay, and, of course, Melbourne Place.
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Located in the vibrant Wunderlich Lane precinct and bridging the creative hubs of Redfern and Surry Hills, The Eve Hotel Sydney has been designed by SJB and features interiors by George Livissianis.
Offering 102 rooms adorned with Australiana-inspired palettes of eucalyptus and red clay (each boasting a Juliet balcony or terrace) across five storeys, key amenities include a glimmering 20-metre rooftop pool surrounded by lush native plants, a wellness centre, along with the vaulted (and buzzy) Bar Julius. It’s a modern retreat that honours its historical roots while offering contemporary comforts.
Byron Bay boutique Basq House, on the other hand, is a 32-room marriage between a Moroccan riad and the laidback coastal charms of our sunburnt nation.
The interiors have been crafted by designers Matt Dalby and Léo Terrando and flaunt woven pendant lighting, ceramics, as well as decorative artwork that instil a warm and inviting atmosphere. Here, you can enjoy a dip in a magnesium pool, a drink at a vibey lobby-cum-bar, as well as a lounge in the gorgeous indoor-outdoor library with custom floor-to-ceiling bookcases and cushy seating that “spills into the courtyard… an especially sweet retreat.”
Then there’s ever-so-cool Melbourne Place, which you may have already encountered (if not here, then elsewhere). To quote B.H.’s own Randy Lai:
Spread across 15 floors previously occupied by the Melbourne Theosophical Society, this highly anticipated property has been conceived, equally, with well-heeled travellers and Melburnians in mind.
Boasting 191 rooms & suites – including a penthouse with its own dozen-seat dining room and baby grand piano – guests have 191 private spaces at their fingertips, all decorated in a uniformly restful style that juggles warm ochre tones and tactile luxury.
On the gastronomic front, expect two (well, more like two-and-a-half) in-house dining options, both masterminded by Aussie chefs with some serious pedigree.
Nicholas Deligiannis – formerly of The Estelle in Northcote – has been tasked with overseeing the hotel’s culinary program at large: including in-room dining and Mid Air, a buzzy rooftop number inspired by “nostalgic Mediterranean flavours” and the “French culinary repertoire.”
Meanwhile, the Sydneyside duo of Sunny and Ross Lusted delivers share plates inspired by the culinary customs of coastal Portugal, at Marmelo. Though if wood-fired suckling pig and Portuguese pudim aren’t necessarily to your liking, the Lusteds are also opening Mr. Mills – a bar-slash-supper-club in the hotel’s basement, accessible only via laneway.
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In a separate “hot” list of the world’s best new hotels curated by CN Traveller, Melbourne Place was praised for its striking Kennedy Nolan-helmed design, “showstopping” light-flooded suites, and rooftop space. $155 million well spent, we’d say.
Lo-fi northern NSW getaway Il Delfino also received a shoutout for being a cliffside delight that peers over the Pacific Ocean; its original 1940s wave-lashed building now a “chic seaside inn that feels snatched from the Mediterranean.”
You simply love to see it.
