These two fresh accommodation options have snared top city spots.
Adelaide is in the middle of a hotel boom, with new properties vying for the best position in town, at the Adelaide Oval, near the lively Central Markets or reaching skywards in the city’s tallest building.
EOS by SkyCity
The luxury EOS by SkyCity has made the riverfront its home, nipped and tucked into a rapidly expanding enclave near the Festival Theatre and convention centre. The striking building, best seen from the other side of the Torrens, is curved, covered in a reflective glass that shimmers gold enticingly in the late afternoon sun.
Connected to the city’s casino via the handsome 19th-century railway building and forming part of SkyCity’s $330m transformation unveiled last December, this is the toniest new hotel in town, with the largest standard guestrooms (minimum 45sq m), the fanciest suite and smartest day spa.
Pool area at EOS by SkyCity.
Entry to the hotel is discreet and slightly convoluted, a laneway winding through a dark maze of buildings and ongoing riverside work. Amid the gloom, EOS’s sleek reception area gleams like a beacon, all smooth grey surfaces and uber modern lighting. A charming French valet pops out to deal with my grubby car before I’m whisked upstairs to the elegant, almost Zen-like accommodation.
The hotel’s 120-strong room inventory includes 24 corner suites and the premium 305sq m Grace Villa with its own gym and sauna. Room layouts, designed by Hecker Guthrie and Walter Brooke, vary according to the dictates of the curved building but all are incredibly spacious, and light filled.
Even though EOS doesn’t feel like a casino, the coveted high-roller is never far from management’s mind, so finishes and details are top drawer: Frette bathrobes, premium wine, a gratis minibar, including locally made luxury chocolates.
Radiance Suite at EOS by Sky City, Adelaide.
In corner suite 222 there’s oodles of space, a reception lobby opens into a large dining and living room with outsize TV, comfy sofa and velvet armchairs. A generous dressing room divides the living room from the bedroom where there’s another giant television and fabulous views from the bed over the River Torrens (Karrawirra Parri) to the Adelaide Oval through curved floor-to-ceiling windows (push-button drapes allow for a lie-in). The bathroom is posh, marble lined with a freestanding tub set at the window.
Below the generous terrace, a vignette of city life unspools, rowers gliding up the river sending ducks and waterfowl scuttling, black swans promenading, the sun glinting off the white dome of Adelaide Oval.
Throughout the hotel, interiors are sophisticated and pared back with an almost Japanese aesthetic. There’s not a skerrick of casino bling or lurid carpet to be spied. Instead, a restrained palette of marble, soft metallics, wooden floors and wabi-sabi-style ceramics. Even the flowers, provided by an Adelaide Hills florist, are minimalist in mood, featuring pods, thistles and other botanical ephemera.
The contemporary lighting is especially striking, shipped from Hungary. Elsewhere, the designers looked closer to home, working with some 40 South Australian artists alongside the JamFactory in creating 900 pieces for the hotel, an investment approaching $1m.
Perhaps the hotel’s sexiest feature is the Leisure Deck with heated swimming pool, sauna and spa pool. The elegant day spa (with three treatment rooms, including a couples’ suite) opens on to this sun-drenched terrace.
Breakfast is served in the rooftop Sol restaurant where the petite, rather rarefied buffet (an oxymoron I know) consists of a tightly edited selection of cured meats, dainty pastries, little bowls of seasonal berries and South Australian tuna doused by the chef in special oils and spices while I wait. Everything is cured, fermented and churned in house.
A la carte dishes include mushroom scrambled eggs alongside coastal succulents and freshly baked crumpets topped with honey sour cream. A dish of warm heirloom tomatoes, dotted with house-made fetta and a light herb pesto, is served in a deep earthenware bowl. Kyoto or Copenhagen spring to mind, very in keeping with this chic hotel bringing a new level of luxury to town.
Crowne Plaza Adelaide
Junior suite at Crowne Plaza Adelaide.
The river outlook at EOS is lovely but there are even longer views from the new 329-room Crowne Plaza Adelaide occupying the city’s tallest building, towering 138m and 37 storeys above the lively East End.
From my 19th-floor corner guestroom, I have an eagle’s eye view past a tangle of buildings all the way to the distant ocean, the entire cityscape aflame as the sun sets.
Far below, traffic is beetling up North Terrace past the museum, art gallery and by Lot 14, the city’s rapidly expanding future-industries precinct home to Google, Amazon, the Australian Space Agency and, in 2025, Australia’s Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre.
With a youthful vibe and corporate-friendly rooms, Crowne Plaza is capitalising on its ready access to this innovative district. The hotel buzzes with life as business travellers and holiday-makers check out Adelaide’s highest restaurant and its most elevated swimming pool.
Reception is located on level 10 at the heart of the hotel’s “Plaza Workspace”. A trademark Crowne Plaza facility, this zone is equipped with high-speed Wi Fi, comfortable seating and worktables with inset power points. This style of living-working space is becoming more common in hotels as business centres go the way of the dodo and gratis shoeshine. These days guests prefer to relax in an area where the lines between work and downtime are blurred (rather like the creative spaces next door at Lot 14).
The Workspace at Crowne Plaza Adelaide.
The Workspace sprawls across the entire 10th floor with hotel restaurant Koomo at one end and the bar and pool deck the other. With an open kitchen and huge island bar, the light-filled Koomo is a pan-rattling and lively spot, dishing up delicious Japanese and Asia-inspired comfort food: chicken katsu sandwiches, dumplings, lobster rolls. Double-height windows afford expansive city views, and there’s a large outdoor terrace for summer dining.
At the other end of the floor, Luna 10 bar is jumping midweek. A great little wine list accompanies a fun cocktail selection; try the geo-specific East End (gin, DOM Benedictine, lime, cucumber and mint), perhaps with a side of lotus root chips with togarashi seasoning. The bar spills out on to the deck and the infinity pool. For guests, nothing could be easier than drifting from laptop to bar to a quick dip while overlooking the city far below.
Crowne’s guestrooms are similarly cleverly designed, well suited to corporate and leisure travellers alike. A relaxing palette in soft greys with splashes of colour in the low armchairs and little velvet poufs is augmented by user-friendly amenities: a great minibar with Penfolds wines and quality teas and a coffee pod machine. The bathroom is stocked with full-size, refillable Antipodes unguents (part of a suite of environmental measures that also includes bamboo key cards). A user-friendly open storage area with sliding mirrored doors makes it easy to stow that luggage. And there are plenty of five-star touches, including towelling bathrobes, pillow spray and intuitive lighting.
In the know:
EOS by SkyCity rooms from $429.
skycityadelaide.com.au
Crowne Plaza Adelaide from $195.
adelaide.crowneplaza.com
Both hotels are ideally placed to explore the city on foot. From Crowne, stroll the North Terrace cultural precinct. Be sure to pop into the splendid, Hogwarts-like, 19th-century Mortlock Wing at the state library. Grab a coffee or cocktail at Lot 14’s Community, a lovingly restored, century-old kiosk. From EOS, dip into the city’s lively small bar scene. Head for cobbled Leigh Street, check out the Leigh Street Wine Room or book dinner at the new Fugazzi Bar & Dining Room.
