Park Hyatt Sydney

The southern pylon of the Harbour Bridge stands directly over Park Hyatt Sydney, and the hotel keeps low beneath it: four storeys on Campbell's Cove, in The Rocks, with the Opera House across the water. It went up in 1990 and was all but built again in 2012, closing for more than ten months and keeping only its external walls. The foundation went back in Sydney sandstone, the city's building stone since 1788, and a fourth floor was added for rooftop suites glazed from floor to ceiling. Most of the 155 rooms open through glass doors onto a balcony, and are furnished with shelves of books and art, porcelain from a local potter among it. Lower rooms look over Circular Quay or into the sandstone lanes of The Rocks, which would be a fine view in any other city. The category to ask for is the King Opera View Premium Room, which puts the view in its name, where nobody can argue about it at check-in.

Recommended for a first visit to Sydney, when the harbour is the reason for coming, and for families who can travel in the school holidays, when the concierge signs children from four to twelve up for cooking classes and painting workshops. Some rooms interconnect, for a family that needs two. Circular Quay's ferries are a minute's walk away, and the Opera House 17 minutes on foot along the harbour. The heated pool on the roof faces the same sails. The Dining Room's front was rebuilt so that its floor-to-ceiling windows frame them, and The Bar was given the view from every stool, so the last drink of the evening can be had facing it without anyone getting up.