Mr & Mrs Smith

A grand old Regency house with a sophisticated glass, marble and sandstone facelift, The Islington Hotel sits genteely above Tasmania's capital Hobart with views of Mount Wellington. With a gorgeous garden and more art and artefacts – Asian and contemporary Australian – than you can shake a Sotheby’s catalogue at, it’s a small luxury hotel with the feel of an expansive but intimate private home.

NEED TO KNOW

• Rooms 11, including five rooms in the original 1847 house and six garden rooms in the modern extension.
• Rates Double rooms from AUD 313, excluding tax at 10 per cent..
• More details Rates include breakfast and minibar soft drinks.
• Facilities Library, music room, outdoor pavilion with open fire and barbecue, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: flatscreen TV, in-house movie and cable channels, DVD/CD player with library, iPod dock, minibar, Basic Earth Botanicals and Beauty & the Bees toiletries.
• Check-out 10am. Earliest check-in, 2pm, but both are flexible subject to availability.
• Eco-friendly The Islington Hotel sources most of its food locally and grows some produce on site. It composts food waste, recycles wherever possible, and buys green energy and carbon offsets, to make the property carbon-neutral overall.
• Also This is more of a couple’s retreat – no under-16s allowed. Spend some languid downtime in the Andrew Pfeiffer-designed gardens, shaded by the 100-year-old willow.