The winners of Tripadvisor’s annual Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best awards – based on traveller reviews and ratings posted in the year prior – have been announced. It’s a highly competitive field, with fewer than one per cent of Tripadvisor’s eight million listings scoring a nod.
Mount Lofty House in the Adelaide Hills has taken out two titles in this year’s awards: Australia’s best luxury hotel and best small hotel. It’s not the first time the boutique hotel has been singled out by Tripadvisor reviewers – it was named the best hotel in the South Pacific and Australia in 2022. In 2022, Tasmania’s Saffire Freycinet won the Australian luxury category and Queensland’s The Falls Montville won the Australian small hotel category.
Built in 1852 by Arthur Hardy (a man dubbed South Australia’s Jay Gatsby), Mount Lofty House opened as a hotel in 1986. The original sandstone manor has 30 rooms and suites, while the newer Sequoia Lodge – a six-star extension that opened in March 2021 – added 14 luxury suites, an infinity pool and two onsen to the hotel.
The hotel’s fine diner, Hardy’s Verandah Restaurant, is a destination on its own, helmed by head chef Jin Choi (The Bridge Room, Magill Estate, Momofuku Seibo).
Other local hotels named in the top 10 in the luxury category include Longitude 131 in the Northern Territory and Brisbane’s Emporium Hotel South Bank, while The Calile Hotel in Brisbane, Hamilton Island’s Qualia and two Ovolo properties – Brisbane’s Ovolo The Valley and Sydney’s Ovolo Woolloomooloo were listed in the top 25.
Head here to see the full list of hotels named in Tripadvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best.
