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Stepping into the Emporium Hotel, in Brisbane’s trendy Fortitude Valley, scenes from the infamous James Bond flicks come flashing back. It’s bold. It’s slick. It’s fancy. It oozes a smooth, sexy, mysterious vibe, from the front door to the cocktail bar and through to the luxurious studio suites. Touting a scheme of eye-grabbing reds, blacks and silvers throughout, up close one can see the designs are beautifully detailed.
Recently recognised for not only outstanding design and facilities, but exceptional guest service and attentive hospitality all round, the five-star Emporium Hotel is not a stranger to industry acclaim. For the third year running, it was awarded Best Boutique Hotel at the 2011 national HM Awards for Hotel and Accommodation Excellence, which recognises leading hotels across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.
It’s the finishing touches that many hotels miss, which makes the Emporium Hotel so worthy of standing out from the crowd. From an immaculate, guest-friendly fit out to full-service concierge services and modern, high-tech facilities, the city-cusp location, top-notch dining options and lengthy pillow menu are just bonuses.
Other features: rooftop pool, sauna, gym, conference centre, function rooms, business facilities, valet parking, 24-hour reception, disabled access.
The rooms
Each of the 102 deluxe studio suites is custom designed, both comfortable and stylish. There are five different room types – some with Brisbane city skyline views – as well as rooms specifically designed for those requiring disabled access. Nearly half of the rooms boast spa baths, whilst the Deluxe Corner Suite features two rooms across a generous 76-square metre floor space. All rooms are fitted with a marble kitchenette and stainless steel appliances, laundry facilities, and state of the art entertainment and technology, including a 106cm plasma TV, Foxtel and wireless internet. Interconnecting rooms are also available upon request.
The cocktail bar
The Emporium Hotel’s cocktail bar is a hit with Brisbane locals and travellers alike. Decked out with a collection of locally made, custom-designed pieces and antiques from exotic locations, the setting is ambient and classy. By day, drop by for a coffee and a sweet treat, then by night, be sure to try one of the many cocktails (though choosing can certainly be hard). Thursday through to Saturday night, a live jazz band gets its groove on for the crowd of stylish women and men.
Packages
The Emporium Hotel offers an impressive range of packages dubbed ‘Emporium Experiences’ that are well worth considering. For a birthday, business or romance, there’s a package to suit just about every occasion, whether its bubbly, roses or the morning newspaper that gets you excited.
Local grooves
Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley is trendy and crisp, home to many boutiques, op-shops, top-notch restaurants, weekend markets, cool cafes, trendy bars, bopping clubs, and great arts and live-music venues. The Emporium Hotel is also situated within its own classy precint, The Emporium, which means a range of dining, bars and cafes, as well as a few boutiques and a bookshop are literally right on the doorstep.
Ann Street 1000, Fortitude Valley, Australia
Contact tel: +61 (0)7 3253 6999 OR 1300 883 611, fax: +61 (0)7 3253 6966, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Services spa, swimming pool, fitness equipment, parking, hotel restaurant, hotel bar, creche/listening service, room service, business services, internet access, wheelchair accessible, concierge, air-conditioning
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The Velo Project is a unique café and design space on the Sunshine Coast. Inspired by a desire to create, a graphic designer and costume designer have collaborated ideas, and the results are an ambient artistic hub with perfect coffee and gourmet food in the backstreets of Mooloolaba, The Velo Project café and design space.
Located on Careela street, a few alleys back from Moololaba’s famous main beach; the stroll to this enchanting gourmet eatery is worth every step. A new concept for the Sunshine Coast, The Velo Project combined design space and café have newly opened their doors in February 2012. Décor and design is completely compelling for a coffee moment or lunching or designing mood. Diners sit in an open-plan, al fresco setting amongst art and collectable which hold a lovely worldy and strongly retro Parisian influence. Old type-writers , 1920’s sketches, and retro sewing machines sit by modern artworks with an impressive attention to detail. Tables are grouped together to create a community and welcoming atmosphere. The Velo Project is the kind of place you could sit with your warm coffee and easily write a novel for a very long time.
The Velo Projects menu is elegantly written in the language of Francoise, and easy to interpret. Gourmet healthy meals are on offer, with tasty cakes and delicacies on display, and amazing coffee aromas serenade the senses. Organic produce is for sale in large fridges on the back walls, and throughout the café.
I recommend a visit to The Velo Project to anyone wanting to be inspired, enjoy a good coffee, write a novel, taste amazing food, work on designs, buy organic produce, write a song, design a houte couture outfit, sip a chilled drink, enjoy life and be free.
careela st 19, Mooloolaba QLD, Australia
Contact tel: 0754448693, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Q1 Spa in Surfers Paradise, on Australia's famed Gold Coast boasts the indigenous inspired Mali Mapi mud treatment and exfoliation. Which, if I didn't know better, was the real meaning of the word "dreamtime..."
On a rainy summer's day I found myself aimlessly wandering Surfers Paradise's urban jungle - through busy streets chock of fast paced business suits, designer shoppers and daytime neon lights. My destination: the Q1 building. Aka: ‘The Tallest Building in the Southern Hemisphere' as any local will proudly recite, following with it would have been ‘the world,' but Dubai trumped that idea.' In fact Q1 is the 25th tallest building in the world, higher than the NYC Chrysler, and I am impressed it would be compared to the Burj Khalifa, having before stared up at the colossal tower, wondering if Jack threw his magic beans into the foundation cement - it's that high!
So to get my bearings, I glanced up. Glistening through rainclouds was a bright white spire piercing the heavens above a skyline of scrapers. It was a magnificent sight and I scanned my eyes to the building attached. 322.5m is noticeably not as high as the Burj Khalifa of 828m. Perhaps no vertigo feeling will hit you on sight, but you will definitely feel a sense of international glamour. To be precise, I was entering an award-winning Spa.
Pettina, the manager, warmly greeted me and directed the way to an exclusive change room, complete with private shower and WC. With robe and slippers provided for the day, I was escorted to a soothing Jacuzzi for bubble soaking before my treatment began. The warm temperature and back-massaging jets immediately lifted any stress. Time vanished, I was escorted to a treatment room where massage therapist Fi introduced herself and described what the Mali Mapi experience was all about.
Fi tells me a female pharmacist, having studied native Australian flaura and fauna befriended a female indigenous elder and together they established the brand Li' Tya. Meaning ‘of the earth' Li'Tya's signature mud treatments, exfoliating salt scrubs and Australian native bush essential oils have been inspired by and created in harmony with traditional aboriginal cleansing rituals. Together they have presented this to the world, and Q1 proudly represent the products in all spa treatments.
Fi holds out a palette of purifying body mud and lemon myrtle desert salt samples, detailing the benefits of each, and I get to make my selection. Every treatment at Q1 Spa begins with a smoke ritual, where burning leaves give off an aroma of whatever you select. There is no foul burning smell, more an incensing aroma enveloping and immediately creating a calming bush-like atmosphere.
My feet are cleansed in warm, scented water. Heated oil is expertly massaged into my ligaments. I chose the detoxifying salt, which is hydro active and rubbed into my skin to rid dead cells, working on balance and purification. I have the option of a hand or foot massage, and I choose hands. The mud is painted onto my body and I am cocooned in a thermal cloth, while my pores absorb nutrients. The mud is deeply cleansing, and grounds my toxic system. While a regenerating Australian native peach hair mask is massaged into my scalp, my mind too easily picks up on calming music where I recognized faint kookaburras laughing. A female indigenous accent is mixed to modern soothing instrumental sounds on the soundtrack. Breathing in gum scented air, and am transported to the muddy banks of a lost lagoon where life stands still for a moment. I am purified, cozy and feel completely free from the world outside. I also can't help imagining life on earth 40,000 years ago, and the indigenous cleansing rituals before an important night. Next up is Vichy shower time, where water drops emulating rainwater is set to 38 degrees temp, and washes away the mud. 60 minutes have passed too quickly. I am robed, and led upstairs to the Relaxation room with detox tea and quiet time.
I float out of my ‘dreamtime' into the real world... Concrete streets again, damn - take me back to Q1 Spa please!
Located in Marina Mirage on Australia's famed Gold Coast, the world's first luxe designer hotel from fashion label Versace is the five-star award winning Palazzo Versace Hotel. Entering the hotel foyer, weekend high-tea diners are seated under giant chandeliers, sipping tea from signature Versace print teacups. This is indeed a fancy affair..
Glancing around the hotel it is impossible not to recognize Versace's signature design everywhere, right down to the smallest of details. Some people call this trademark décor over the top or tacky, some call it sublime high fashion. Either way, the fine decor unmistakably a Versace hotel and I feel at the height of fashion simply standing in the foyer.
Surrounded by a renaissance splendour of Italian classical design and architecture, the avant guarde hotel prides itself on extravagance and over-the-top attention to detail. Marble floors have been imported from Benedictine monks in Italy, all china and cutlery imported from Europe for example a chandelier from Milan's state library hangs over the very opulent foyer. The hotel also boasts the second largest pebble mosaic in the world, which definitely makes for an impressive driveway.
Guests can expect rooms to be adorned with Donatella Versace's signature furniture and accessories. Fashion photographs decorating the walls are a who's-who of the fashion world. And as for the bathroom, treats are first class including complementary cosmetics and perfumes, slippers and then for sleeping there's a pillow menu for guests to choose from. How luxurious!
Around the outdoor lagoon pool, a ‘water salon' has been created where custom made Versace cabanas and daybeds are adorned with Versace cushions and guests can relax and sip French champagne in the privacy of their own cabana.
With a luxurious spa, mouthwatering restaurant and a white sandy beach imported from nearby Surfers Paradise, a stay at the Versace Palazzo is as good as it gets in luxury on Australia's Gold Coast.