The Lyall Hotel & Spa

Murphy Street is quiet, tree-lined and residential, and The Lyall keeps to its manners: a white front with wrought-iron balconies behind the street trees, and a few tables under the awning by the door. It reopened in March 2024 after a renovation that kept the name and let the spa go, which leaves the deep baths in the suites to carry the second half of it. DKO did the interiors in bespoke Tasmanian oak, made locally and picked out in gold. In one sitting room a bronze sculpture of rabbits has the marble fireplace and the grey sofas to itself. The rooms start at 32 square metres, a Classic with a balconette and a rain shower, and stop at 88, with the Maple and Domain Suites. Book the Maple. It overlooks the Japanese maple garden in the courtyard, and has a deep oval bath and a walk-in dressing room.

Recommended for couples, since no room takes more than two, and for anyone who would sooner stay in South Yarra than in the middle of the CBD, which is three minutes' walk to the station and a train ride away. The hotel's idea of a morning is a run at the Tan and the Royal Botanic Gardens, fifteen minutes on foot. For anyone less keen it lends Lekker bicycles, and Prahran Market is a ten-minute walk nobody has to train for. The bar and bistro off the lobby cooks contemporary Australian food from breakfast through to dinner, for the neighbours as well as the guests, and looks onto the courtyard: the one view in the house the Maple Suite has to share.