date of stay: 22 April 2017
This will sound ridiculous. But if you own cats you will understand. It’s really hard to get a solid night’s sleep. Our little characterful fluff-balls have their own personalities. Amply-sized personalities. That sometimes manifest themselves LOUDLY in the wee hours of the morning.
So even when Master 6 has a sleepover, we don’t actually tend to get a solid 8+ hours sleep. To try to rectify this, for Christmas we decided that we would treat ourselves to a night or two away and play tourist in our own city.
There are quite a few hotels we’d like to try so settling on one came down to a compelling price on the weekend we had available. And so we found ourselves making a booking for the Crowne Plaza.
I booked through a third party website, although the Crowne Plaza (as part of the Intercontinental Hotel Group) does have a best rate guarantee if you book through them. A couple of days before our stay, I received a phone call from the reservations team – I thought this was a nice touch because, when booking online, there is always a slight panic that something will go wrong. By talking to a human being you can confirm your checkin time, bed configuration and request a late checkout. I was also offered a discounted room upgrade which we decided we didn’t need.
Andy actually did the checking in, while I was out at lunch with a friend (I know! Hard life for some!), and I turned up to check out our room. A massive bed with crisp white sheets (I never know whether the big beds or the sheets are the best thing about good hotels!), in a good size room with a decent size bathroom. Because we had a Superior King Room (this cost us $177) we had no bath – this would have been one of the upgrade features, had we gone for it.
The room also had some local and business magazines in it and a wall-mounted tv that actually just had all the usual free-to-air channels available (rather than the ludicrous cut-down hotel-special set of channels you sometimes get).
Another upgrade feature we missed out on was a view over Hindmarsh Square. Our view was north over some rooftops – again, not something that bothers us, but if a view is high on your list of priorities make sure you book appropriately!
We decided not to eat in at the hotel, for either dinner or breakfast (I’ve eaten at Red Salt a couple of times before) but we did check out the bar. Hotel bar prices are always a little steep but happy hour at the Crowne Plaza was great – an on-premise only Tatachilla sparkling wine for $6 a glass which was actually quite reasonable. The bar staff were switched on, attending tables and remembering what we’d previously ordered – so big ticks all round there.
Unfortunately, we didn’t think to pack things like bathers so we couldn’t suss out the pool (and gym, and spa, sauna, steam room …) – something we’ll be putting on our list for next time! I’m informed by a friend who has also stayed at the Crowne Plaza that the ‘health and wellbeing’ facilities are great so perhaps learn from our mistake!
The Crowne Plaza is located in Hindmarsh Square so just a hop, skip and jump from tons of great restaurants, bars and even breakfast or brunch spots. Parking is probably a challenge so either make use of the hotel’s valet parking or do what we did, and use public transport!
Our weekend at the Crowne Plaza gets a big thumbs up!
Of course, you can’t do a weekend away without food …
Dinner was at Seoul, a small Korean restaurant on Hyde Street, just off Pirie Street. I recommend the kimchi pancake followed by bibimbap, paired with one of the Korean beers on offer. We had a few post-dinner beers at Brick City on Grenfell Street. And brunch was at Bambi & Co on East Terrace, where the coffee was excellent and I very much enjoyed my poached eggs and spinach.
Crowne Plaza Adelaide
16 Hindmarsh Square
Adelaide SA 5000
ph: (08) 8206 8888
