Park Hyatt Sydney

"Celebrating my one-year anniversary as a staff editor at Condé Nast Traveler while on a work trip to Australia, I stayed at this elegant 155-key property right on the edge of Sydney Harbour. On September 11 (yes, it felt strange entering our offices at 1 World Trade Center on my first day), I woke up at the Park Hyatt Sydney to golden light pouring into my room through floor-to-ceiling windows. I stepped out onto a balcony—one of two—and watched the metropolis wake up: the ships and ferries coming into the harbor, good-looking Sydneysiders out for their morning run on the boardwalk, the sun rising behind that iconic sail-shaped opera house. From its prime spot in the Rocks historic neighborhood on the western side of Sydney Cove, the hotel has offered a front-row seat to this Aussie scene for the past 35 years. That’s 35 New Year’s Eve fireworks displays that the Park Hyatt’s extremely lucky guests have seen from this vantage point: fountains of sparks and chrysanthemums of light bursting from both the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, all ringing in another 365 days of good fortune. And there I stood on an ordinary Wednesday in September, in a plush bathrobe, sipping on a demitasse of espresso and wishing over a pale blue sky the same for myself. I was so happy to mark the occasion of my first work anniversary at this hotel. Sure, I could chalk it up to its large and sumptuously appointed rooms, its team’s attentive service, or its fresh and delicious brekkies that lend credence to the belief that Australians invented avocado toast. But as they say: location, location, location. No matter the occasion, a stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney, I’d venture, gives you the feeling of being exactly where you should be. From $780. "