September 17, 2020

A Boutiuqe Hotel in Sydney

By roads-rus

If you’re going to Sydney, Australia and are looking for a well-located place to stay, let me tell you about The Castlereagh Boutique Hotel that we booked the last time we were in this world-class city. The Castlereagh is on one of Sydney’s major streets and close to many downtown attractions. We have been down and up Castlereagh Street every time we’ve been to Sydney. I bought a replacement wedding ring, in fact, on this street many years ago, but that’s a story for another time.

The Castlereagh Hotel at 169 Castlereagh is one block from Sydney’s Hyde Park where I took the lead photo above. The Pitt Street Mall where we have found affordable dining in an expensive city is down the block and around a corner. It’s a 14 minute walk to the Sydney Tower, and a 25 minute stroll to the main Sydney harbor where visitors can get a ferry to practically anywhere in the area. Ruth & I like to ferry to the original Doyle’s Restaurant in Watson’s Bay. This lively harbor is one of my favorite places on this planet. Add five minutes to your walk and you’re on the steps of the famed Sydney Opera House. We walked to Darling Harbor, another must-see Sydney attraction, where I took the photo below in a special exhibit at the National Maritime Museum.

The Castlereagh Hotel has an unassuming entrance and a 1920s lobby that has received very little alteration over the years. Its 83 rooms have been updated to reflect the fact that it’s now in the Ascend hotel group. We found it a bargain for Sydney. Our room, which was close to public transportation to the airport and a Starbucks, averaged about $160 per night, which is modest for this city. One website offered rooms from $126 to $188 for a deluxe King. The sight from your window will be old-style Sydney buildings from long ago.

The Castlereagh has fine amenities including 2 large business meeting rooms. They were both booked and busy, but we got a look at them because a man at reception arranged a hotel tour for Ruth & me. A wedding was scheduled during our stay. Cellos Grand Dining Room has been elegantly restored. Cafe Reagh was very relaxed. This hotel is a restored, heritage listed property that has a Masonic connection. It is still a Lodge offering special deal for members, but this aspect is downplayed if you’re a regular guest. I would not have been aware of this if we had not taken a tour.

One visitor said this about The Castlereagh, getting it exactly right. This hotel, he said, is “old school but classy”. Amen.

Hank

About roads-rus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roads-rus
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2020 at 10:21 pm and posted in Favorite Destination, Sydney Attractions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Comments are disabled.

%d bloggers like this: