It’s review time! Hope this post finds you well wherever you may be in the world right now! Last late December I travelled to the capital of the state of South Australia, Adelaide, for a short getaway between Christmas and New Year. This was a delayed trip that I had originally booked for September – well I had booked a flight, that was all because it rapidly became apparently back in July that it was highly unlikely the state borders would be open, and indeed they stayed shut until November the 23^rd.

Anyways, I had been doing my research back mid-year so when I went to book some places a few weeks before I went in December, I already had a couple of hotels in mind when I started. The first thing that would be essential to any booking was that there was flexibility to cancel. Luckily all the hotel websites offered free cancellation depending on the rate you paid – in other words, pay a little extra for peace of mind!

Honestly, I think that every hotel should be offering free cancellation. I understand from their perspective they have probably lost an incredible amount of money over the last two years, but at the end of the day people are looking for a bit certainty and assurance when booking at the moment. Early in December Omicron snuck into Australia and South Australia moved to ask people to do a PCR test on arrival as well as pre-departure, which has since been rolled back because of capacity issues. However, when they did implement that requirement the Premier Steve Marshall was very clear in saying they reserved the right to shut the borders with 24 hours notice, which sounded like he was right on the edge of doing it.

So if he had done so I wouldn’t have been able to go, obviously. Now the state has Covid though, at a per capita rate similar to Victoria so there seems little point in closing borders. Anyways, this a hotel review, right?

So when I went in November to book a hotel, I was pretty shocked at the prices. We are talking hotels that were $200 in September now being $500. Including the Stamford Grand in Glenelg where I was originally considering – a wonderful waterfront hotel with an Art Deco Motif, that indeed looked ‘grand’. But looking at decent 4 star hotels the prices were $300, $400 and more. I wasn’t going to spend that. This is per night.

I guess it was because of the season, the most expensive time of the year, although in truth Adelaide was not overrun by tourists or indeed people and I think demand wasn’t quite what the hotels hoped it would be.

I settled on the Terrace Hotel. It was on the edge of the Adelaide CBD, which is quite large and surrounded by parklands. It has North Terrace, South Terrace, West and East bordering this section of Adelaide, and the Terrace Hotel sat on South Terrance. As locations go, it was okay but not great. It wasn’t right where all the action was so to speak, I had to walk 300 metres to get the tram which wasn’t too bad. The roads were so quiet the whole time I was there they were easy to cross at any time day or night, which helped.

Not a lot of eateries in close proximately about from the Italian chain ‘Fasta Pasta’ which I saw a few outlets across Adelaide – they disappeared from Melbourne a couple of decades ago so it was a little strange to see them in Adelaide. Otherwise there were a few options within 5 – 10 minutes walk but as there were four days of public holiday to greet me in Adelaide I didn’t actually see any of them open.

The Terrace Hotel is next door to a motel and I think they are both run together, hence it’s got a ‘Hotel/Motel’ sign, I definitely stayed in the hotel part. From the outside it’s a tall building, and doesn’t look overly modern, around 15 plus storeys, a design perhaps from the 1970s or 1980s.

It was pretty quiet inside. The restaurant was only doing breakfasts whilst I was there, not sure if it was because of the holidays, not a lot of people staying there or Covid or a combination of all three, so that was a bit disappointing. But whilst I was there the place was hardly rocking. The receptionists were all really helpful and friendly. The lobby and reception looked a lot more stylish and recent that the outside, and so did the room.

I was up in the ninth floor with a King Deluxe Room which I think is a little misleading, well the ‘deluxe’ is. I received an email a few days before my stay which said ‘get an upgrade for a few bucks!’ so I checked it out. It was an upgrade to the King Deluxe Suite, which certainly looked awesome. But ‘a few bucks’ was $120 a night, which I think is a bit of stretch! So in the end I declined.

The room was fit for purpose and in the end I was pretty happy. I wasn’t so sure when I first walked in there. There was an air conditioner on the wall, they hotel didn’t have central air con which in Covid times is a good thing. I had a small balcony and a pretty decent view.

There was a large LG TV with a few extra (cable) channels, mostly movies and sport. I liked the little clock radio, it had two usb ports so I could charge my devices off them. The bathroom was mostly modern except for the floor tiling which didn’t seem to fit the design. The bathtub was a good size and gets both thumbs up!

There was an iron, kettle, ironing board, coffee machine for pods and a couple of cups, coffee pods and tea bags. Two phones, a nice desk and desk chair. The bed was comfortable, the pillows were okay, two were a bit big for purpose but the other two okay. It wasn’t too soft or two firm. The room was carpeted, short. They turned over the room every day which is always nice.

The city cooled down nicely on the first two nights and so I just kept my balcony door slightly ajar. It was hotter the next two and used the air conditioner, which was pretty efficient.

The cost was $180 a night, and I booked through the Qantas website to get bonus points. I think I could have saved a few bucks a night if I had booked through another website, but nothing substantial, and this price was fully refundable up to a day before.

All in all, I think the room was very serviceable and I felt more and more comfy each day. Perhaps I imagined something really special, which was never going to happen. Once I had adjusted my expectations I realised I had a pretty good room, with friendly staff. Also, Adelaide and the hotel were so quiet it all felt a little surreal…

Andy’s Ratings:

Value for Money : 3/5

Location : 3/5

Noise : 3/5

Friendliness/Service: 4/5

Cleanliness : 3.5/5

Total: 16.5/25

Thanks for popping by today! Take care and May the Journey Never End!