Quest Bridgewater - Kangaroo Point

55 Baildon Street, Kangaroo Point QLD 4169 Australia

The Quest Bridgewater is conveniently located on Kangaroo Point in Brisbane QLD. I found it was easy to get to everything, while being set slightly apart and not amongst the “noisiness”. There’s a lovely view of the bridge from most rooms, however you can’t hear any traffic from inside the rooms. We were only on level 4, so it’s possible that there was a view of the river from the higher levels, but not from ours.

We were greeted by extremely friendly and always smiling staff every time we approached reception. However the office does close around 11pm, so you need to check in before that time. I’m not sure what time the office reopens in the morning – I’m not a morning person, so there’s rarely a need to know this sort of thing…

The studio room we stayed in was a little small, but it also offered a full kitchen, all laundry amenities in a cupboard, and a nice enclosed balcony. The room was over all very neat and tidy and I couldn’t fault the cleanliness, however it definitely couldn’t be described as either Executive or Fancy.

Unfortunately we were only here on a short stay, so we didn’t take advantage of either the pool (lagoon style) or the gym. So I can’t comment on either of them, but they are both on offer.

The parking is extremely secure, you need a security tag which is provided with your room key to access it from both outside and from the elevators. The same tag is required to get to your level on the elevator, and you can only access the parking, your level and ground level with your tag.

Broadband internet access is available – for a price – but it’s not wireless, so you do need an Ethernet cable,  but I think these may be available from Reception if you ask nicely.

I feel if you’re paying around $140 per night for the studio room then that’s pretty good value, especially if you are going to be staying a bit longer. The use of the full kitchen and the private laundry is a great bonus in my books. Having said that though, this is the sort of room that makes a great home base if you’re planning on spending more time out and about. I’d probably look for a larger room if you’re hoping to spend more time inside.

All in all I was happy with this room for what we needed it for. Though it does get several black marks from me for simply not offering any cartoon style channels on its cable TV. I can only watch so much TV1 and Discovery Channel before I need my cartoons!

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Posted in: brisbane,hotel,hotel review,kangaroo point,QLD,queensland,quest,quest bridgewater

Newport Mirage

The Newport Mirage is located in a beautiful spot, overlooking the Pittwater. It’s situated away from all busy roads, but close enough that even the country folk can find their way to the busier areas.

The rooms are well looked after, and kept very clean, while offering amenities such an iron and ironing board, a hair dryer, heating and cooling and a mini bar with tea making facilities.

Unfortunately after those facts, the Newport Mirage is lacking.

Is it just me? Or would this drive you insane too?



There... That's better...

Check in was fast and easy, and while the lady helping us wasn’t rude by any meals, she definitely wasn’t all that friendly either. I don’t begrudge her that though, who’s to say that she hadn’t just been abused by the last guest she served, and was no longer in the friendly mood that she’d started the day with. As I said, she was nowhere near rude.

For the amount you pay for what is quite a basic room – our charge was around $160 per night, staying with a group discount, for a room that overlooked the carpark/road - there is neither free internet nor a complimentary breakfast, however they do provide free parking.

In our room, room 307, we had two single beds pushed together and made up as a king size bed. This made the bed nice and spacious, and it was very comfortable, with nice fluffy pillows to match. Sleeping was not a problem.

I would not recommend this hotel for business travellers. We paid $5 for only an hours internet usage, and were told that it would only work for one log on, so if you accidentally logged off after only 15 minutes use, then you would be required to pay again to reconnect.

There is a restaurant on site, which offers at least breakfast and dinner (I didn’t see anything mentioning lunch, but I’m assuming they also offer it). However on both nights we were there the restaurant was booked out for private functions between 6 and 9:30pm. A courtesy note was left in our room advising us of this, and recommending the restaurant across the road.

Both functions being held the nights we were there were weddings. I am thankful for small mercies, in that the receptions were required to finish at 9:30pm.

There was very little sound proofing provided in the guest rooms, and it felt as though we had been invited into the event, as everything going on in the restaurant above was echoing through our rooms below. We were actually invited to the wedding on the second night – hence our visit – and were able to partake in the meals that the restaurant provided. Whilst I’d never consider reporting this to the bride, I once again found the hotel lacking in this department. My mind naturally travelled back to my own wedding, where the meals had been amazing and perfect, and any other synonym you care to add. I suppose though that that is the difference between a random hotel on Sydney’s Northern shore, and Walt Disney World…

The hotel is in a beautiful position for a wedding, with the ceremony overlooking the yachts in the harbor as the sun sets. Regrettably I do doubt that we will return to the Newport Mirage. There seem to be many more hotels that are much better value available.

Have you been to the Newport Mirage? Let me know of your experiences!

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Posted in: airport hotel,hotel review,mirage,newport,newport mirage,pittwater

Crowne Plaza LAX

I didn’t take photos around the Crowne Plaze – I know, bad blogger! – I was just really jet lagged! However I have appropriated some photos from the hotel’s website just to give you a small glimpse into how it looks.

This hotel is perfect for those who are having a stop over at LA, or just prefer to stay close to the airport. According to its description, it is located less then a mile from the main terminals, but we were never once disturbed by the sound of planes.

Getting to the Crowne Plaza from LAX was very simple, you just head out to the Islands and look for the hotel shuttle signs, several buses will stop, but you just need to look for the one with your hotels name on it. Easy!

The staff here are very friendly, and extremely helpful. They booked us into the red trolley tour so we could check out some of the nearby sights and do some shopping on our day off, which we’d happily spend a day doing again. The Red Trolley toured El Segundo Beach, plus some surrounding shopping areas. However I’ll come back to this service in a later post.


The rooms do leave a little to be desired, and could do with a renovation, as I noticed a few things like loose or broken tiles in the bathroom and dated carpet. However this in itself would not turn me off staying here again.


The restaurant in the lobby had good food – mainly buffet – and good service. Also available was a sushi bar, a pizza bar and a donut kiosk. We had the buffet for lunch and found that there was a reasonable variety and the food was fresh. This was followed by pizza from the pizza bar for dinner, which was made to order and just what we were after. The following morning we had the breakfast buffet and found that there seemed to be more variety then the following day, however the pricing here was confusing…



Overall we were quite happy with our stay at the Crowne Plaza LAX and would happily stay here again if we needed a stop over, or had an early morning flight.

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Posted in: airport,airport accommodation,airport hotel,Crowne Plaza,Crowne Plaza LAX,hotel review,travel