Fraser Place Sydney (Sydney, AUSTRALIA)

This was pretty embarrassing. Perhaps it would go down the books as the most embarrassing moment of my life. 

The story goes something like this.....For months, I thought I got everything planned out for this trip to Sydney. Even got my hotel booking confirmation printed out from Booking.com. I thought I was all set. So, when I arrived at the hotel, I just confidently handed the booking paper over to the front desk staff. I still remembered the look on his face. Even he couldn't believe it. It turned out the booking was made for 6 months later. 

Of course if there was a hole there, I would probably put my head in there to hide my embarrassment. But I still had some unfinished business to do - to break the news to my family. At 10pm, there was no way we could get a hotel to take us in but luckily, we have got family here.

While we spent the night at my auntie's place, I had to make sure that we had a hotel to stay for the rest of the trip. And thankfully, I was able to find vacancy at Fraser Place Sydney.




Conveniently located in the heart of Sydney's shopping and entertainment district, Fraser Place Sydney is a luxury serviced apartment with modern furnishings, kitchen facilities and views of the city skyline. Its central location in the CBD (Central Business District) means it's just a short stroll to many of the city's attractions including Sydney Town Hall, Darling Harbour, Hyde Park and the famous Strand Arcade.



I really like the color tone of our apartment. The combination of beige and black gives such a classy look and the black furniture and sofa in a predominantly white room helps to create a stark, dramatic contrast.



The bedroom is noticeably decorated in much darker tones providing a more mysterious mood.



Same goes for the bathroom.



Our room features a really spacious living room which served as my private "bedroom" on a number of sleepless nights.



When you're traveling with a one-year old, a kitchen is almost as important as having a bathroom. We had no complaints about their open kitchen. Well, there's a very small one. Its location in the narrow corridor right behind the entrance of the room means very long walk back and forth from the bedroom. But I think we can all live with that.



The hotel has its own secure underground parking. That's one less thing to worry about, especially when you're staying in the downtown area.

Getting something to eat is hardly a problem. The biggest problem could be deciding what to eat (due to the overwhelming number of options).



If I really want to be picky about it, it's probably the windows that need some sort of improvement. From 20+ levels up, I didn't really expect noise from the road construction to wake us up in the morning. But guess what, it did!




Rating: ❤❤❤❤❤
Price: $$$$
Address: 488 Kent Street, Sydney, Australia
Closest Metro Station: Town Hall
Tel: +61 2-8823-8888
Website: sydney.frasershospitality.com/en

Crown Metropol (Melbourne, AUSTRALIA)

Crown Metropol Melbourne is one of the many skyscraping hotels the worldwide casino empire owns in Australia and we're spending the next two nights here since it's right where we want to be.



We arrived a little after 2PM and the first thing we saw was a huge lineup at the check-in counter. There had to be at least 30-40 people waiting in line so that's not very good news for us as the last thing we wanted was to test our little one's patience.



But kudos to the staff here, they managed to work things out and we got our keys in around 15 minutes. Not bad considering the number of people standing in front of us at the time we showed off.



Opened back in 2010, Crown Metropol is a luxurious 5-star hotel with 658 rooms span across 28 floors. The premise is also home to a nice spa facility, shopping mall as well as a variety of dining options.



Looks like my little nugget is enjoying this as much as we do!



The view from our room, well there isn't much there other than tall buildings, cars and construction sites.



Bathrooms with slide-open walls are very popular these days and it seems to make the place even more spacious.



My only complaint comes from the shower room and toilet where the design, color and material used here seem a little unmatched with the rest of the room (a little dated). But I guess that's just me being picky.



I really like the location of Crown Metropol. It's obviously very convenient to explore Melbourne's Southbank and Yarra River from here.






Rating: ❤❤❤❤
Price: $$$$
Address: 8 Whiteman Street, Southbank, Melbourne, Australia
Tel: +61 3-9292-6211
Website: www.crownhotels.com.au/crown-metropol-melbourne/en

Pullman Sydney Airport (Sydney, AUSTRALIA)

This was going to be a very brief stay in Sydney for us; as a matter of fact, we will be in the city for less than 24 hours before catching another plane to Melbourne the next morning so I didn't see the value to stay in the city. A nice airport hotel would suit me just fine.

But here's the catch. Rydges is the only airport hotel in Sydney which is directly connected to the airport with all the hotels in Mascot being the next closest thing. And that's where I will be staying for the first night of this Aussie trip. 



I found myself staying more at the Pullman hotels these days. Perhaps the clean, sleek and modern décor has a little something to do with it.



I thought the room was pretty good but after putting two double beds in there, the space started to look a bit cramped.



We put an early check-in request in during our booking and the hotel was very accommodating to meet our humble request.



The bathroom looked rather spacious and visually, it's almost like the same size as the bedroom (Ok, I am exaggerating a bit.). A little odd.



There're quite a number of hotels in the same area, including Holiday Inn, Ibis among others but of course, this Pullman is in a different league.



While I like its modern chic décor, Pullman Sydney Airport didn't really tick all the boxes for me. On the good side, I thought the dining options (within the hotel) were good but service-wise, there's still room for improvement. Take the bell service for instance, when we first got into the hotel, the concierge guys took care of our luggage for us but they left those on their trolleys without offering to bring them upstairs following our check-in. It's minor incidents like these that've put a dent into an otherwise good experience.



Rating: ❤❤❤
Price: $$$
Address: 191 O'Riordan Street, Mascot, Sydney, Australia
Tel: +61 2-8398-4600
Website: www.pullmansydneyairport.com.au

Mercure Queenstown Resort (Queenstown, NEW ZEALAND)

I wasn't a big fan of staying at ski resorts but since they offer pretty nice discounts in non-peak seasons, we decided that it wasn't such a bad idea after all. Mercure Queenstown Resort was our pick for this trip and other than the fact that it was quiet, there wasn't much to say about it. 

The hotel was made up with a series of three-story buildings. There was a small swimming pool in the middle of the resort which we didn't get to check out personally.

The hotel restaurant (I think called South Eatery) was the only area in the resort that we saw some life. 

The room badly needed a facelift but thanks to our extensive time spent on the exploration of the city, we didn't really spend much time inside our room. 

The lone bright spot of staying at Mercure was its proximity to Skyline Gondola. Just a 6-minute drive.

Rating: ❤❤

Price: $$

Address: 21 Sainsbury Road, Fernhill, Queenstown 9300, New Zealand

Tel: +64 3-442-6600

Website: https://all.accor.com/hotel/1994/index.en.shtml

Distinction Hotel Te Anau (Te Anau, NEW ZEALAND)

It's my first-ever trip to New Zealand. I won't say I was super excited about it but it was a convenient one to check it off my list en route to Australia. 

Jelloman wanted Milford Sound as part of the itinerary. I wasn't so sure about that. After all, we needed to make a special tour driving a few hours non-stop. And as a Canadian, I thought it looked way too similar to Lake Louise and Banff, only less impressive.



We did some research on the lodging options near Milford Sound and it turned out that Te Anau was the closest town in the area. The closest town with food and hotel. And from there, it was a toss-up between a couple of hotels with Distinction Hotel finally getting the call.

I didn't like staying on the ground floor of any hotel but that was what we were offered. Well, at least we got a nice garden view from the windows.

Part of the catch from this stay at Distinction Hotel was the view of Lake Te Anau. There wasn't much to be seen though as the mountain view was always blocked by the fog.

I didn't get the chance to take a shower after we checked in and it's time to hit the road again.

Rating: ❤❤

Price: $$

Address: 64 Lakefront Drive, 9640 Te Anau, New Zealand

Tel: +64 3-249-9700

Website: www.distinctionhotelsteanau.co.nz