Capella Sydney
Sydney, Australia
The Rex shortlist
Explore 671 independently selected hotels. Start with a place, a setting, or a season.
Awards come from published lists, entered by hand. Tiers reflect Rex’s editorial selection. See how we choose. “When to go” matches each hotel’s peak and shoulder seasons.
Sydney, Australia
Perth, Australia
COMO The Treasury occupies part of Perth’s 19th-century State Buildings, a former government complex reworked as a 48-room hotel. Its scale is intimate by city-hotel standards, and its defining experience is the contrast between preserved Victorian-era architecture and quiet, contemporary guest rooms fashioned from former offices. The hotel sits within Cathedral Square, a civic precinct of historic landmarks, restaurants and public spaces, with the wider city centre close at hand.
Kimberley, Australia
An iconic safari lodge nestled in the rugged Kimberley wilderness, offering an unparalleled adventure experience with world-class guiding and authentic outback hospitality. Built as a private homestead and now a luxury retreat, it combines frontier charm with refined comfort in one of Australia's most remote and spectacular regions.
Wailea, United States
An all-suite, all-ocean-view beachfront resort set on 22 acres of pristine Maui coastline, offering an unparalleled blend of Hawaiian luxury and personalized service. The property features a lagoon-style pool system and direct beach access, creating an exclusive retreat that feels both grand and intimately refined.
Cass, New Zealand
Flockhill occupies a 36,000-acre working sheep station in Craigieburn Valley, Canterbury, where the high-country pasture meets mountains and limestone formations. Accommodation is divided between a four-bedroom Homestead for exclusive use and villa suites set around the property’s perimeter. A stay here connects the lodge to the rhythms of a working station, with activities ranging from farm tours to hiking and biking across the alpine landscape. Christchurch Airport is about a 90-minute drive away.
Cabarita Beach, Australia
Halcyon House is a small beachfront hotel on Cabarita Beach, on the Tweed Coast of northern New South Wales. Its accommodation comprises 19 rooms and three suites, individually designed by Anna Spiro with antique furniture and fabric-upholstered walls. Paper Daisy, the hotel’s restaurant and bar, serves coastal dining, while Halcyon Wellness offers treatments and a steam room, sauna and cold plunge. The property was converted from a former surf motel and opened as Halcyon House in 2015.
Auckland, New Zealand
Taupo, New Zealand
An iconic riverside lodge positioned on the Waikato River with direct access to world-class trout fishing and adventure activities. The property seamlessly blends luxury accommodation with outdoor pursuits in New Zealand's pristine North Island landscape.
Hayman Island, Australia
On Hayman Island, at the northern end of the Whitsundays, this resort makes the island itself the trip: beaches, rainforest gardens and Coral Sea views frame a substantial, spread-out stay. Its 182 rooms, suites and villas are arranged across four wings, with four hilltop Hayman Residences also on the island. The resort opened as the Royal Hayman Hotel in 1950 and reopened under the InterContinental name in 2019 after a major redesign.
Melbourne, Australia
On Collins Street in central Melbourne, this 253-room hotel occupies the historic Rialto and Winfield buildings, once associated with the city’s wool and wheat trade. Their heritage architecture frames a ten-storey, glass-topped atrium, while guest rooms and suites bring contemporary comforts into the old commercial complex. The setting is firmly urban: shops, laneways, dining and the Yarra River are close by, making the hotel a base for exploring the central city as much as a place to retreat indoors.
Lizard Island, Australia
Lizard Island Resort occupies part of a 1,013-hectare national park on the Great Barrier Reef, about 240 kilometres north of Cairns. Its 40 rooms, suites and villas are spread across a small island setting with beaches, bushland and reef close at hand. A scenic charter flight from Cairns is part of the arrival; once there, guests can snorkel from shore or head out by boat to explore nearby reef waters.
Mount Mulligan, Australia
Mt Mulligan Lodge occupies a 28,000-hectare private outback property in Queensland, beneath the long escarpment of Mount Mulligan. Its small-scale accommodation combines guest rooms and retreats with eucalyptus-woodland tents beside a weir, with space for up to 28 guests. Days can bring guided excursions into the region’s mining and pastoral history, walks across the station, or time on the water; evenings are shaped by the open outback landscape and its changing light.
Orpheus Island, Australia
On Orpheus Island in the Palm Island Archipelago, north of Townsville, this 14-unit lodge sits within an island national-park setting bordered by fringing reef and Coral Sea beaches. Its 28-guest scale keeps the stay focused on the island itself: beachfront accommodation, reef access from shore, and daily marine and island experiences. Meals are served at the lodge, with the coastline and protected waters shaping the days more than any mainland-town itinerary.
Sydney, Australia
At the harbour’s edge in The Rocks, Park Hyatt Sydney faces the Sydney Opera House, with the Harbour Bridge close behind. Its 155 rooms and suites have residential-style interiors and commissioned Australian art; many open onto private balconies, though the entry-level King Room has neither a balcony nor a harbour view. A year-round rooftop pool looks across the water, while the surrounding boardwalk and historic laneways keep the city’s waterfront activity immediately at hand.
Hamilton Island, Australia
On Hamilton Island’s northern tip, qualia looks across the Coral Sea and Whitsundays from a secluded, eucalyptus-framed setting. Opened in 2007, this adults-only resort is arranged around private pavilions, from bushland-facing rooms to ocean-facing stays with plunge pools, alongside larger standalone houses. Dining, spa visits and water-based outings shape the stay, while the island location lets guests pair quiet time at the resort with trips to the reef and neighboring islands.
Queenstown, New Zealand
ROKI Collection Queenstown is a 15-suite hotel on the Lake Wakatipu shoreline, in central Queenstown, with views toward the lake and The Remarkables. The suite inventory ranges from one-bedroom accommodation to multi-bedroom residences, including a seven-bedroom top suite, giving the property an unusually residential scale for a town-centre hotel. Designed by Sumich Chaplin Architects with interiors by Virginia Fisher, it pairs an urban base for Queenstown with a quieter, view-led retreat above the lakefront.
Te Awanga, New Zealand
On Hawke’s Bay’s windswept Cape Kidnappers peninsula, this countryside lodge sits within a 6,000-acre working sheep-and-beef farm. Suites and villas look across rolling pasture toward the Pacific, while the estate’s golf course follows a ridge-and-valley coastal landscape. The stay is shaped by rural pursuits such as shepherding and property tours, as well as the scenery; dining draws on seasonal produce from the lodge garden and local suppliers.
Matauri Bay, New Zealand
Rosewood Kauri Cliffs occupies a 6,000-acre coastal estate in Northland, where high cliffs, rolling farmland and native forest meet the Pacific. The resort looks across the water toward nearby islands and includes three private beaches. Its 26 rooms and suites are spread across a small-scale lodge setting, with a David Harman-designed, 18-hole golf course as a defining draw. Guests can also explore the coastline and the area’s Māori heritage.
Closeburn, New Zealand
On the shore of Lake Wakatipu in Closeburn, Rosewood Matakauri looks across the water to the Remarkables, Cecil Peak and other alpine ranges. The small lodge setting pairs rooms and suites with a separate four-bedroom villa, all oriented toward the landscape. Open fireplaces, locally minded art and organic textures bring the view indoors; the stay can center on lake and mountain scenery, seasonal New Zealand dining, or time at the spa and outdoor pool. Queenstown is nearby, but the setting feels distinctly lakeside.
Coles Bay, Australia
Set on Tasmania’s east coast at Coles Bay, Saffire Freycinet is a 20-suite lodge with outlooks to the Hazards and Great Oyster Bay, in the Freycinet landscape. Its low-profile buildings sit among coastal bush, while the stay combines suite accommodation with meals, drinks and a selection of guided local experiences. Palate anchors the day with Tasmanian produce; Spa Saffire is on site, with treatments charged separately. The pace is lodge-led, with guided outings and time in the landscape shaping a stay more than town life.
Finlayvale, Australia
On 32 hectares of Daintree rainforest above the Mossman River, Silky Oaks Lodge is a 40-suite retreat arranged as elevated treehouses rather than a conventional hotel block. Verandahs and hammocks open each suite toward the canopy, with views of either rainforest or river. The design reworks the Queenslander in a contemporary idiom, while the main lodge, Treehouse Restaurant and Healing Waters Spa keep dining and wellness within the forest setting.
Karatta, Australia
On Kangaroo Island’s south-west coast, Southern Ocean Lodge occupies limestone clifftops above the Southern Ocean, with 25 guest suites arranged along the coastline. Its rebuilt lodge pairs curved contemporary architecture and a glass-fronted Great Room with views across rugged coastal wilderness. The experience is shaped by the exposed ocean setting and access to the island’s wildlife and landscapes. The original lodge was rebuilt after the 2020 bushfires and reopened in December 2023.
Fortitude Valley, Australia
The Calile puts an urban-resort idea into Brisbane’s James Street district: a 175-room hotel integrated with a busy inner-city streetscape. Richards and Spence’s design uses white brick, arches, planted open-air corridors and balconies to make the subtropical climate part of the experience. A 28-metre pool is the hotel’s central outdoor feature, while the adjoining laneways and surrounding shops and restaurants keep the stay connected to the neighbourhood rather than set apart from it.
Sydney, Australia
At Martin Place in Sydney’s CBD, The Fullerton occupies the former General Post Office, a landmark built in the Victorian Italian Renaissance style and faced largely in local sandstone. Its 416 rooms and suites span two distinct settings: classically inspired accommodation within the heritage building and contemporary rooms in the adjoining high-rise tower. The city-center address places the hotel amid Sydney’s financial and fashion district, while the restored GPO architecture gives this large hotel a character that extends beyond its tower rooms.
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