As far as chic hotels go, The Langham Sydney is arguably the leader of the pack in Australia’s most populous city. The property’s polished, pastel interiors paired with a location that’s as desirable as it is discreet, make it perhaps the most under-the-radar of elegant Sydney hotels: opened in 2015, it has long become a local classic.
If there’s one thing to make us smile upon arriving at a hotel, it’s water bowls for our four-legged friends outside the main entrance. At The Langham Sydney, they’ve got a pair on a blush pink, branded tray that looked so inviting, we nearly got on all fours and had a sip ourselves – but then, much more enticing concoctions awaited us inside the hotel. Langham is a brand we’ve long revered at OutThere, not least because it manages to walk the fine line between timeless elegance and contemporary cool in a way others don’t: with a good helping of joie de vivre, its glamorous properties manage to feel surprisingly modern (and Langham’s signature shade of pink embodies this old-facade-but-young-at-heart spirit perfectly).
The Langham Sydney is no exception to this rule. Tucked away on Kent Street, and within easy walking distance of the famous Rocks neighbourhood on one side and the recently revived Barangaroo district on the other, this 96-key hotel in an Irish Georgian-style building is a delight from the moment you step inside: a large chandelier in the entrance area, a piano straight ahead and the brand-wide and highly addictive Ginger Flower fragrance that wafts its way throughout the entire property welcome guests into an airy space that still feels manageable in size. Though it’s far from a boutique bolthole, the hotel’s scale isn’t what you might know from similar addresses in town, and even the most disoriented of visitors would struggle to get lost (unless, perhaps, they’ve had one too many Pink Rose cocktails at the Observatory Bar).
Though our check-in was delayed and we couldn’t access our Suite until some fifteen minutes after the actual ‘start’ of our stay, we ultimately weren’t too thrown off by this – not least because we were automatically added to a WhatsApp message thread giving us direct access to the hotel’s team of concierges, which reassuringly made up for the delay. Our Suite on the hotel’s top floor was gorgeous and felt more like an apartment than a ‘hotel room’, with a small antechamber, cream walls and furniture on a handsomely patterned carpet, large photographs of New South Wales’ coastline, beautiful decorative pillows, and warm mood lighting around our curtains. Just the plastic bottles of water, which we think should’ve been replaced with an environmentally-friendly alternative at this point, clashed with all we liked about our lodgings.
| Perfect for | Fly into | Right on time |
| The Sophisticate | SYD | GMT +11 |
| While you’re Out There |
| The hotel’s signature pink taxi can get you anywhere in town in typical Langham style, but should fancy a bit of a walk, we recommend a stroll across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge. Once on the other side of the bay, Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden is just a few minutes away, and we spent a glorious hour here, exploring the small but beautiful gardens, and taking in some of the finest views of the Harbour City. |
Technologically, our Suite was reasonably advanced without being unnecessarily digital like so many (much sillier) rooms are these days. Bedside MagSafe chargers for our phone, two wall-mounted smart TVs with personal welcomes and a ‘Better Sleep’ QR code to help us drift off in peace were the types of hotel tech we actually appreciated having. Our bathroom, meanwhile, featured a green marble top bathtub, twin vanities with rose-hued lights, full-size Diptyque toiletries and a small pack of bath salts. Freshly showered, we started most of our mornings with a cup of coffee on our generously sized balcony, all set with a private outdoor dining table and a comfortable lounger under the pink Langham flag by the hotel entrance. Our view, too, was rather agreeable, with the property’s championship-sized outdoor tennis court and Observatory Hill just across the street.
Having flown in overnight from the Cook Islands on the day of our arrival, we felt a little sluggish and wasted no time in heading down to the Day Spa by Chuan at The Langham Sydney. There’s a 24-hour Health Club with state-of-the-art equipment here, although we were much keener on the 20-metre subterranean pool and the jacuzzi beneath a ceiling painted to reflect the southern hemisphere’s night sky. The facilities certainly aren’t bad, although we found the overall interiors of this part of the hotel – from Tuscan columns to murals depicting Bondi Beach – rather outdated and frankly a little cheerless.
Though there’s no sauna here, functional steam rooms are accessible from the changing rooms for a quick ‘shvitz’. We’d also planned on trying out the spa, with its ten treatment rooms, but found it to be all booked out: when we set foot into the spa, a group of fabulous, chit-chatting women in matching robes sat around the reception area, which led us to believe that this place must get busy with hen does (read: ‘book early!’). While it’s perfectly possible to enjoy the facilities and get in a good workout or swim a few laps, we think a refurbishment of the wellness area would make it much more in line with the otherwise light, jovial and impossibly chic interiors across The Langham Sydney.
At the time of our visit, the hotel’s signature restaurant, Kitchens on Kent, was in a bit of a transitional phase itself, meaning we only got to enjoy breakfast here. A mix between a la carte and an impressive buffet showcasing amongst other things a selection of Asian foods from congee to dumplings, all tastes are catered to at breakfast. Us herbivores delighted in vegan-friendly, strawberry-flavoured croissants, chia seed bowls, corn fritters, scrumptious avocado toasts and what must be the juiciest pineapple slices in all of Australia. Things like plant-based butter only came upon request, but with staff so attentive and exceedingly kind, we never longed for anything for longer than a minute (flipping through the pages of our favourite newspapers and taking sips of Early Grey, of course).
The Observatory Bar at The Langham Sydney is perhaps where the property is at its most glamorous: its cocktail menu reads like a dream, its interiors are as refined as those of our favourite hotel bars in Venice or London, and the courteous team welcomes guests and visitors to the space with sincere smiles and friendly chatter. A bar like this, with dark serving carts and a bottle of Rémy Martin’s Louis XIII cognac sitting on a mantelpiece, could easily be stuffy or feel like an old-fashioned gentlemen’s affair elsewhere. But here, owing to the hotel’s playfulness and lighthearted sense of hospitality, it extends an open invitation to anyone looking to have a fabulous time. Cheers to that!
Photography courtesy of the Langham Hospitality Group
