QT Bondi

QT Bondi lives upstairs. Where Beach Road meets Campbell Parade, a florist and a supermarket have the street and the hotel has the floors above them, in a building that went up in 2015 on the site of the old Swiss Grand Hotel, with the sand across the road. Nic Graham laid gelato pastels and limed timber over optic white, Miami by way of Bondi, and the lobby shows digital work by Shaun Gladwell drawn from the Bondi landscape. The rooms are studios and apartments, most with a kitchenette and a balcony. The minibar runs to dominoes and a beard-trimming kit, a fair reading of the neighbours.

Recommended for anyone who would like to live in Bondi for a few days rather than visit it, and for families staying longer, who should book an Atrium or a Gould Suite: each is a one-bedroom apartment, and there are cots, highchairs and buggies to borrow. The hotel built no pool and no restaurant, and hands over the suburb instead. The bikes are free, for the beaches south along the coast to Bronte and Coogee, and surf lessons can be arranged. Lengths go in the basement, in the Speedo Fitness Club's 25-metre pool, or ten minutes' walk away at Icebergs, whose seawater pool dates from 1929. On Sundays the market sets up on Campbell Parade, a minute from the door. Breakfast means going out, to Porch & Parlour, which opens at seven, or staying in with the kitchenette and a dishwasher for afterwards, the one chore a hotel usually spares its guests.