Park Hyatt Sydney reopens, and harbour-front luxe returns

There aren't many Sydney hotels which can truly be called 'iconic', let alone described as a landmark, but the Park Hyatt Sydney deserves both tags.

Not that it's has much chance to showcase its sweeping harbourfront location over the past year, when the luxury hotel closed its doors for an extensive multi-million dollar renovation.

As it turns out, that renovation is more of a dramatic rebuild in which only the exterior walls remained.

The result is the next best thing to an all-new hotel where the pictures almost speak for themselves.

All 155 guest rooms have all been redesigned by Australian hotel design firm BARstudio to have a more personal feel which the Park Hyatt says is closer to that of an apartment than a hotel room.

Most rooms sport floor-to-ceiling glass doors which open onto spacious private balconies overlooking by The Rocks, the Harbour Bridge or the Sydney Opera House.

The best rooms are on the newly-built fourth floor – a top deck with three rooftop suites, including Sydney's largest suite, at 350 square meters – and probably also the city's most expensive, with a rack rate of $16,000 per night (with a minimum two-night stay, so that'll start at $32,000 please).

If you're just popping into the hotel for lunch, you'll find the restaurant - now simply named The Dining Room – has been redesigned to provide a more open view of the harbour.

Running along the Quay-side of the hotel's ground floor is a new area called The Living Room.

On the harbour side, the hotel's former cigar lounge has made way for The Bar.

The rebuild "honours the heritage" of The Rocks area by incorporating original Sydney Sandstone walls and local woods, with muted  colours designed to blend into the surrounding buildings and landscape rather than stand out with brassy shouts for attention.

And the view from the rooftop pool..? That speaks for itself!

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.