The Crown and Emirates One & Only Wolgan Valley, Australia

The fifth continent was closed to tourists for two years. Now we can travel to this very special country again. I made the long journey to Australia to see what’s new. On my trip Down Under I visited two hotels that couldn’t be more different. They clearly reflect the contrast between town and country.

I start my journey in Sydney. For three days, I checked into The Crown, a 275-meter-tall, twisted architectural masterpiece right on the harbor in Barangaroo, a hip nightlife district. Both the iconic Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge are in close proximity.

The Crown offers luxury, glamor and glitter – Las Vegas says hello. Carrara marble as far as the eye can see. The staff are friendly – so nice. And yet the service is sometimes – dare I say it – incompetent. This can certainly be explained by the lack of dual training for employees, as we know them from Europe.

Not all processes are right at The Crown

The friendly behavior is pleasant, but not all processes are right. This makes the processes difficult, so despite the large number of employees, the result is not always perfect at the end. The restaurant employee does not know his own menu – “I’m new” is his explanation. Housekeeping forgets something different every day, including the cleaning rag on the bathroom sink in the room.

But there are other things that I really like. The location could hardly be better. And the architecture really inspires me. The artistically winding building by the British architects Wilkinson Eyre cost around 2.3 billion Australian dollars (around 1.7 billion euros). In terms of hardware, everything is pure luxury.

Australia is a melting pot, people from numerous nations live and work here. Although I’m constantly on the move and see and experience a lot, just staying in the lobby is impressive for me. What is offered here in terms of different clothing styles – it seems to me like a specially staged show. Luxury brands seem to be important to Australians, they play a big role here in the lobby. Brand is everything. Not necessarily style.

I find it pleasant that the casino plays a subordinate role and the gastronomy plays a superordinate role. Of the eight restaurants, I’ve visited three: a’Mare (Italian), Woodcut (Australian), and Nobu (Japanese-Australian fusion cuisine). The latter seems to be particularly popular with guests because of its international fame.

However, I particularly recommend the Woodcut. It has four different menus for four different cuisines, an interesting wine selection and also a direct view of the water.

Plus: The central location, hotel architecture and optics, good base to explore Sydney.
Minus: Significant and unreasonable service deficiencies.

Insider tip: You don’t need to book an expensive harbor tour to get a different view of the city and harbor. Just take one of the green and ocher public ferries. The routes pass by the Opera and you can take good photos.

Rath’s Voyage Rating (current rating in bold):

1. Explicit Travel Warning
2. Better than under the bridge
3. So-so, not oh, là, là
4. Complaining at a high level
5. If only it were always like this
6. Great cinema

After three days of splendor and sightseeing in the big city, I set off for the Australian outback – I think that’s exactly the right combination. With the rental car it takes about three hours north through the Blue Mountains. The closer I get to my destination, the Emirates One & Only Wolgan Valley, the clearer the name of the Blue Mountains becomes to me: Around 100 species of eucalyptus are native here and form large forests.

The scent of eucalyptus essential oil fills the air and actually makes the mountains glow blue. I am impressed by the diversity of the animal world. Kangaroos hop across the fields and roads. On the very first day I jump onto one of the horses from the hotel stables and go for a ride into the wilderness with one of the rangers. We encounter hundreds of kangaroos of all sizes, as well as koalas, dingoes, platypus, wombats and many other typical Australian animals.

Visually, the Emirates One & Only Wolgan Valley is reminiscent of an African lodge. The 42 spacious villas all have their own pool, which can be used as an indoor or outdoor pool, depending on the outside temperature, thanks to the sliding floor-to-ceiling windows.

There are spacious outdoor areas in front of the window front, which are also popular with kangaroos. I feel like I’m in an amphitheater where the spectacle of nature is taking place right in front of my nose. The decor is tasteful, very Aussie-like with lots of wood, studded metal, leather and fireplaces. This creates a cozy atmosphere.

In addition to a well-equipped gym, an elegant spa – from which I can see a few kangaroo jumps during the treatment – and the infinity pool, the kitchen with a star level also convinces me here. The products come mainly from the region and are organically grown, some are even grown in-house. Of course, all this has its price. But: Everything is included here – including the well-chosen wine. An interesting concept.

With ranger Pete to the wombat rescue

As a special service, the hotel offers individual planning of excursions. So the next day I go to the wombat rescue with the ranger Pete. The cute marsupials are threatened by a deadly disease that was brought in from England around 1850 when foxes were imported. Fortunately, there is now a medicine for it.

In front of the wombats’ cave, we place a kind of sluice through which the animals have to slip into their dwelling. The drug is spread over her back. According to the hotel, guests at Emirates One & Only have already cured around 300 wombats.

In the evening I enjoy the foreign, rather hearty cuisine, the starry sky and the fact that I did something good for the animal world today.

Conclusion: In the Emirates One & Only Wolgan Valley you can spend a few special outback days and get to know the Australian fauna well, authentically and directly. Due to the coherent all-inclusive concept, the price is reasonable.

Insider tip: Get out into nature, be it on a jeep safari or on horseback. A visit to the old, restored farm is also recommended. Here you can experience how the early settlers, mostly poor people and criminals from England, lived.

Rath’s Voyage Rating (current rating in bold):

1. Explicit Travel Warning
2. Better than under the bridge
3. So-so, not oh, là, là
4. Complaining at a high level
5. If only it were always like this
6. Great cinema

Dear readers, with this column I say goodbye to the winter holidays this year. In the same place you can read my new column on January 8, 2023 about a hotel icon in Germany – stay tuned!

About the author: As a former grand hotelier and operator of the Travelgrand.ch travel platform, Carsten K. Rath is a professional globetrotter. He travels to all the hotels he writes about for the Handelsblatt on his own account. Rath is the brain behind the ranking “The 101 best hotels in Germany”, whose partners include the Handelsblatt.

Carsten K. Rath, Michael Raschke: The 101 best hotels in Germany 2022/23.
Institute for Service and Leadership Excellence AG/Handelsblatt
594 pages
39.90 euros
ISBN: 978-3033094574

Rath is also the author of the book on the ranking, co-authored by Michael Raschke (Handelsblatt). The book can be ordered here and by e-mail: [email protected]

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