Review: Park Hyatt Sydney

Nice Matt! What was the rate?

What a GREAT write-up. We're heading there in December - 3 nights at the PH Melbourne, four nights up north at the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas, four nights at the PH Sydney and off to New Zealand. Not only was your review of the hotel great and exciting, your comments about sightseeing and recommended restaurants were just perfect for us. Rarely has a review been so personally helpful. Many thanks!

Featherdale Animal Park is a great place to visit. You certainly would never be allowed to get that close to wild animals in the USA.

I stayed in this hotel on the 2-free-nighs + trial diamond status last year. From the photos, I got a better view. 🙂

This is probably the best hotel award redemption I've ever done, and I'd encourage anyone heading to Sydney to grab the two nights AND the diamond status -- which gets you the view and the free breakfast.

I'm not sure what's been said on Flyertalk, but the hotel and staff are VERY nice and the views you get from the upgraded rooms is fantastic. I didn't think breakfast was particularly good, though: honestly, I've had better breakfasts at greasy spoons for 7 bucks in America! But, for Australia, breakfast was good given the cost was zero. Had I paid -- and I think it's something like $50 per person for the full breakfast, I would have been extremely disappointed.

Indeed, paying the "going rate" at this hotel for a room doesn't seem like a great idea either, unless you really have no better use for the money and want to splurge. You can get the same view by simply walking outside in front of the rooms, perhaps with a picnic.

As a Hyatt Diamond, u had a very second rate experience here. The Park Hyatt Paris Vendome is a much better redemption, or pretty much any other Hyatt anywhere!

I never had as many issues with a luxury hotel as I did with this one. Different strokes for different folks or maybe they've improved since I was there a few months ago.

Sorry about the typo. I meant I had a second rate experience not u. You clearly had a good one.

We were in Sydney & Auckland 5 weeks ago. We found Australians unfriendly but the Kiwis polite. The photos look like the room we stayed in on main floor but with a lousy view.We felt that we were not into luxury chain hotel, not meant as a criticism, but wanted redeem points and to check out what the raving is about . The reception guy lacked basic knowledge about Sydney!!! and they did not respond to my email sent before we left CA and while in Tokyo. The Rydes Airport Hotel in Sydney was even worse: We paid $350 without free breakfast, Wi-Fi, and a courtesy phone call to Auckland. I had to lecture the girl before she relented to provide free Wi-Fi and a 1 minute phone call, which she did not know how to make to NZ!!!. They need to take a training course from their Japanese counterparts in customer services, unless it's an acceptable norm. It provides linen changes twice a day which is quite wasteful.It is a vibrant but expensive city. We wished the reception guy recommended us the places that you visited. I have no immediate plan to return unless my mom wants to visit there.

Thanks! Staying here with certificates two nights in July. Found a surprisingly good my elite rate then too but that made up park king room type

Re: Thick Smoked Salmon is usually on the Sunday Brunch buffet at the Tosca Restaurant at the Ritz Carlton Hong Kong. Try it with the free flow of Cristal 2005 (from 11AM to 3PM, optional extra cost). Other cheaper champagne option is Louis Rhoederer. Great experience, great staff, great views- especially on a clear HKG day.

Great review, loved that you included other cafes/tours for a great trip. I was in Sydney in Nov (stayed at the Westin) and had a great birthday dinner at the Park Hyatt Dining Room -the staff were so incredibly nice (i was solo) and the food wonderful. The Bridge Climb is fab -glad you could fulfill a dream. I agree that while the Hunter is pretty, the Yarra is more interesting if you are a wine fan - Chandon's Sparkling Shiraz was a great surprise there.

@ Matt -- thank you for the review! I also agree with others that it's nice to read about the experiences with tours/places to eat.

@ Lucky -- don't know if you are still taking suggestions for reorganizing your blog but just thought of something for hotel reports. Perhaps, for top travel destinations, it'd be interesting to have top picks by chain and by costs in $ (e.g. expensive/average/budget) or points. Although, perhaps it'd work best as a wiki-type of a deal.

Reading this from the park hyatt. Thanks for the great local recommendations.

It is well established in Sydney that the PHS does drop the ball as far as service goes from time to time. Therefore the comments in that linked FlyerTalk thread made perfect sense. Consider yourself lucky.

@ Sydneysider -- what would be your top pick(s) for Sydney?