I wasn’t planning on writing a post about my Sydney lodging since I was only there for a night but because it was one of the nicest rooms I’ve ever stayed in I felt compelled to share my experience and photos.

The Park Hyatt Sydney reopened last March after a $65 million renovation and everything is new but the structure. And boy did the Japanese owners do a cracker job (“Cracker” is Australian slang word for amazing). Here are five reasons why you want to stay here the next time you are in Sydney:

 

1. Views
The Sydney Harbour is the most beautiful harbor in the world and the Park Hyatt is smack in the middle of it. I thought I was dreaming when I woke up and saw the view.

Note: An unexpected highlight was when I had some of my Sydneysider friends over and fireworks began shooting off just behind the Opera House. Talk about surreal. FYI: “sydneysider” is the term used to describe one born in Sydney.

2. Location
The hotel is in a four story building tucked next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. If you are planning on doing a lot of sightseeing then this is the place to be. You can walk five minutes to Circular Quay which has ferries to all the places you want to go (there’s even a hop-on-hop-off ferry for tourists!).

Just outside the door is the Historic Rocks and you can walk across (or go OVER it on the Bridge Climb) and visit the north Sydney attractions.

 

3. Rooms
There are 155 rooms and they are all a good size as the smallest is 40 square meters. The rooms all come with extremely comfortable beds, Nespresso machines, flat screen TVs, rain showerheads and Toto bidet toilets. I was upgraded to a junior suite which was one of the most incredible rooms I’ve ever had. I was only sorry my wife Natalie wasn’t with me and that I had to checkout 18 hours later.

Room amenities include free bottled water, fresh fruit, electric sheer and blackout curtains and Bergamote 22 by Le Labo toiletries. Good to know: 24-hour internet access costs $29 AUD and room rack rates are around $700 a night (get a package deal or go through a tour operator to bump that price down).

4. Service
When I think of great hotel service I think of Asia but this hotel had two of the best front desk clerks I’ve ever come across and they weren’t just putting a show on for me since they knew I was a travel writer. I secretly observed them interacting with other guests. Sarah and Leon did everything to make my stay enjoyable especially when I arrived at 9:30 am and my room wasn’t going to be ready until the 2 pm check-in time. They showed me to the gym where I freshened up, they crawled on the ground to get my electrical adaptor to plug in in the business center’s outlet and brought me my room key two hours early while waiting for a ride in the Porte Cochere.

Not only was the front desk bending over backwards for me but their concierge called Virgin Australia to find out why I couldn’t check-in online. Turns out the person who booked my ticket wrote down the wrong confirmation number but Timothy straightened it all out. The hotel also offers butler service that can do anything from unpack your bags to get theatre tickets.

5. Artwork
Part of Park Hyatt’s global initiative is to bring in local artwork to each of their hotels. The Sydney Park Hyatt hired eight local artists so the hotel is filled with hundreds of their photos, carvings and paintings. Guests can’t buy them yet but I’m sure they will be able to soon.

Fine print: 60 percent of the hotel guests are from overseas. The U.S. makes up for the largest percentage (25 percent) of international visitors. The hotel retained 90 percent of their staff after the renovation. I woke up at 3:30 am jetlagged and turned on the tube and I felt like I was in America: they had NFL, MLB games and all of our morning news programs. They also had a cool channel called Earth TV (EarthTV.com) featuring live webcams from around the world.

There you have it … My five reasons to stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney. My only hope is that I get to stay there again and for longer than 18 hours.

Helpful Sydney Resources: Sydney weather | Australia.com

Sydney Tours

Sydney, Australia
Sydney, Australia

 

1 Comment On "The Park Hyatt Sydney"
  1. Shawn|

    Just stumbled across your blog and this review of the PH Sydney. Wife and I were also there in mid-October and were blown away. We also had an Opera Deluxe room (212 perhaps?), but unfortunately no fireworks for us! You’re spot on about the service, we also worked with Leon and he was great.

Leave a Reply

Required fields are marked *

Recent posts