Well folks, it seems I have reviewed the HELL out of my trip 2019 now, and so today I am reviewing a little place my wife and I stayed back in Australia in December last year when we headed to some of the most beautiful parts of our state, Victoria. These are parts of the state that right now we can’t visit due to restrictions Melbourne is facing as part of the pandemic. Actually, I should say that as of September 2020, please bear in mind that I write a little ahead of schedule, Melbournians can not leave Melbourne except for specific, essential reasons. So the whole rest of the state is off limits right now! Man, I wish I was joking.

Last December, friends of the blog Robert Lloyd and Caitlin Yolland, who you may remember from such shows as the ‘Mighty Little Puppet Show’ (theatre is another thing which has been completely curtailed this year in pretty much every single form in Australia, especially in Melbourne) got MARRIED! Which was lovely! And well timed because my sister is hoping to get married later this year (well originally August) and has already put her wedding back twice due to, you know what.

This wedding was held an hour and a half or so from Melbourne, on a lovely property with the closest town being Daylesford. As it was out of Melbourne, we decided to stay a couple of nights. In the end we actually decided to drive all the way back after the wedding as I hadn’t drunk much and it just seemed easier as I had an afternoon shift the next day and so this was easier. And we stayed at – LOOK! The end of the third paragraph before I name the place lol – the Albert Guesthouse and Mills.

Please note – after travelling for seven weeks and taking copious amounts of photos I declared I wouldn’t take my camera to Daylesford, and although I took a few mobile shots at the wedding, I didn’t at my accommodation. So, all the photos used in this review are either directly from their website – The Mills Daylesford – or Trip Advisor.

This part of Victoria is green and beautiful, and usually doesn’t get too dry in the Summer, which we had just entered. The town itself is big enough, but then again not particularly big either at just over 2,500 residents officially. Usually though year round it sees a lot of tourism. In addition to a lovely location and so wonderful old buildings, it’s known as a spa town. In summer it really gets packed out, but when there’s a Monday wedding and you stay Sunday night, not so much I guess. After Christmas though finding a room can be very hard, let’s hope for the sake of local tourism that it is that way again this summer.

So I chose the Albert Guesthouse and Mills. It also has a day spa connected and the building itself is heritage listed so it’s quite an interesting and unique place to stay. We drove up after work on the Sunday night, and found the place without much fuss.

It’s a heritage hotel as I said, and it’s interior is presented accordingly. The chairs especially look antique, and it’s a little like stepping back in time. Having said that, we arrived to find the front door open, but no-one there to welcome us or anything like that. It was too late apparently! Well, it is a country town. In fact the place didn’t appear to manned during the evening or overnight.

The key was at reception and we found our room waiting for us. It was pretty small all said, not a lot of room on either side of the double bed which again was too small. I think it would have been more than fine for one person, but for a couple I have found double beds aren’t big enough really, and am always trying to find queen sized or bigger. I’m not sure what happened here, I certainly wasn’t expecting a double bed. And I just checked my booking and it says ‘standard queen’, which if it was a queen, it was the smallest queen bed I’ve ever slept on. Perhaps it refers to an older standard? I don’t know.

The bathroom was next to us down the corridor, with a stand alone bath and lots of strings you pulled for the lights and heater, it was a really nice bathroom and very much in the style and presumably intended period for the place.

We did see someone the next morning, briefly, my neck and shoulder had been giving me grief and I desperately needed some treatment. The spa wasn’t open so I had to find a place in town before the wedding, which I thankfully did. The breakfast was okay – exactly what you can expect when having breakfast at a guesthouse or hotel in country Victoria, cereal with milk and bread. I didn’t mind it, I asked my wife for her recollections though and she wasn’t impressed, she said the bread was just white, I don’t really remember. I am probably easier to please though it should be said!

The wedding happened and we came back, and it was very much a spur of the moment decision to pack and go home, but it made the next day so much easier and the bed had not given us a good night’s sleep. It was a strange experience, and very odd that the place wasn’t manned. I presume it is when busier. We had a phone number to call if we needed something. I thought it was okay, with being out standing, certainly a great building to stay in and quite homey too. The cost was $144, which in reflection is a little more than it should have been although accommodation in Australia in general is not cheap.

Andy’s Ratings:

Value For Money: 3/5

Cleanliness: 4/5

Noise: 4.5/5

Service: 2.5/5

Location: 3/5

TOTAL: 17/25 [68/100]

Thanks for reading – May the Journey Never End!