The Lucky Hotel
14 September 2026
A Newcastle East heritage pub remade in 2014 with terrazzo, tropical wallpaper and a garden bar — a hotel above a pub, just like the old days, only with better…
Best 50
14 September 2026
A Newcastle East heritage pub remade in 2014 with terrazzo, tropical wallpaper and a garden bar — a hotel above a pub, just like the old days, only with better…
14 September 2026
A humble 80s motel reimagined in 2024 as a 57-room country retreat with a farm-to-table dining room and a wellness wing where the laundry used to be.
14 September 2026
When Siobhan and Elisha Bickle bought a tired '60s motor inn five minutes from the NSW–QLD border, they kept the bones, the pool, the open-air corridors and the easy seaside…
14 September 2026
A Barbie-pink '60s motel resurrected on the Gold Coast beachfront with hand-painted neon, Scandinavian interiors and a Santeria-flavoured rooftop bar that goes very late, very pink.
14 September 2026
A salmon-pink '60s sanctuary with a kidney pool, fibreglass loungers and original breeze-block. Owners Eliza and Jason rebuilt it room-by-room and run the whole thing on solar.
14 September 2026
A Mediterranean-pastel rebirth of a '60s beachside motel one street back from Mollymook's crescent. Hand-painted tiles in every room. A breakfast hatch instead of a reception desk.
14 September 2026
Palm Springs glam meets South Coast retro: a '70s motor inn reopened in 2024 with hand-painted rooms, Scandinavian edges and a speakeasy-style cantina behind the laundry.
14 September 2026
A pink-neon Palm Springs homage on the Calder Freeway — kidney pool, a roomful of vintage thrift, and accent rooms painted in colours your nan would have called "racy".
14 September 2026
Five rooms on the Tarwin River mouth. Eucalyptus tones, cork ceilings, 1970s op-shop dignity, and a host who'll lend you a tinnie if she likes the look of you.
14 September 2026
Thirty-seven rooms, a turquoise pool the same colour as Esperance's water, and the kind of BBQ terrace that has hosted the same five families every January since 1974.