Adara Hotel Apartments – Richmond
On the edge of the CBD is a fantastic apartment-style hotel called Adara Richmond which is surrounded by fabulous amenities, boasts wonderful customer service, and stylish rooms.
Where: Adara Richmond, 185 Lennox St, Richmond VIC 3121
Cost: A two-bedroom apartment (sleeps up to 5 people) starts at $320/night, A studio apartment (sleeps 2 people) starts at $169
Review
The kids and I were treated to a fabulous two-night stay-cation* thanks to Adara Richmond.
The Adara’s cleverly interconnecting apartment rooms (each with kitchen and laundry facilities) make this hotel perfect for families.
Just 140m from the front door of Adara is Thomas Dux Grocer (to stock your fridge) and also a variety of cafes and restaurants that Adara has a “charge-back” arrangement with – so that you can pay for your meals as part of your hotel bill. We made our own dinner in the apartment one night with some simple ingredients from Thomas Dux and also had an amazing breakfast at the Short Black Cafe on one of our mornings.
What did we do during our visit? Well we met up with some friends up the road for a session at Clip’n Climb, we revisited the Royal Melbourne Show at nighttime to see the fireworks, we went to Silvers Circus and we also hung out – did a little shopping in Bridge Road, slept in, I read some of my book and the kids made the most of having a TV in their bedroom. And despite having three planned activities in that short period of time it was a really chilled few days. Being away from home, the housework and my computer was just what I needed to escape those last few days of school holidays (when my patience was starting to wear thin). The kids were so excited about having a “holiday” and the novelty of being in a hotel – that it really felt like we’d actually been away (despite being about 5km from our home!).
Now I touched on the interconnecting rooms above and I really can’t rave highly enough about them. I am sure you’re familiar with how hotel rooms usually connect – via two doors that open back to back in the middle of your room. Sometimes you can even wave to each other from bed if the doors are open… This kind of setup offers very little privacy as you are practically in the same room. The Adara Hotel two-bedroom apartments are designed very cleverly – when you open the main door off the hotel corridor you are in a small entrance area presented with two doors that open into the two separate apartments. Behind one door is a larger one-bedroom apartment and behind the other door is a studio apartment. The doors can be left open to turn the space into one large two-bedroom apartment – enough distance so that two different TVs can be going and no one is bothered. Enough distance so that when the kids turned on the morning cartoons I was blissfully asleep and none the wiser.
The other thing I loved about Adara was it was peaceful – from my bedroom, with the door pulled too, I couldn’t hear the trams up the road and in the morning I only made out the distant rumble of a rubbish truck. This might not have been the case in the kids studio apartment – but they are pretty deep sleepers and often awake by 6.30am, so a rubbish truck wouldn’t bother them. The hotel itself was quiet – most of the clientele we came across were older couples. The Epworth Hospital up the road brings quite a few of Adara’s mid-week guests and the MCG and Tennis Centre around the corner draw the weekend crowd.
I need to mention the clean/fresh/stylish fit out of the rooms, which are currently having new floor-to-ceiling blackout curtains added (not shown in the photographs). All of the rooms have been recently refurbished with new furniture coverings and new walls – the TVs are currently being upgraded and there are other refurbishments planned to roll out; so Adara is constantly improving. Our accommodation was clean and fresh, the colours were neutral but not bland – it was very pleasant and comfortable. Add to this the very welcoming and friendly staff who made our stay at Adara Richmond such a joy and we couldn’t ask for more.
*Staycation – that’s a vacation where you don’t leave your hometown
What else is nearby to do with kids?
- AAMI Park Stadium
- MCG National Sports Museum
- The Fitzroy Gardens
- Birrarung Marr Playground
- The Windsor Afternoon Tea
- The Shrine
- Botanical Gardens Children’s Garden – September through to the following July (then closed for maintenance)
- Australian Open – January
- White Night – February
- Moomba – March
- Circus Oz – July
- For more idea use the search function
Adara Richmond also has available:
- A brand new gym
- Undercover secure parking (additional cost)
- Complimentary Foxtel and WiFi internet access
- For business travellers meeting and conference facilities can be arranged
Adara Richmond doesn’t have:
- Room service (but the charge-back restaurants include a pizza delivery service and in the fridges are breakfast packs if you don’t want to pop into Thomas Dux for supplies)
- A swimming pool (I thought the kids might be asking about this – but we were busy enough and content enough that this wasn’t even mentioned)
Commercial Disclosure: during our stay at Adara Richmond we were provided with two nights accommodation and a meal voucher. We were also provided with a small administrative fee. All views are my own.
