Mr & Mrs Smith

Spicers Balfour Hotel

Brisbane, Australia

Perched in the hip New Farm/Fortitude Valley quarter – the inner-city playground of Brisbane's creative cognoscenti – Spicers Balfour Hotel is a stylish urban escape. Housed in a 110-year-old classic Queenslander, this elegant boutique hotel fuses sleek European design with a hint of exotic vintage, topped off with a view-toting rooftop bar.

Need to know

• Rooms Nine, including one suite.
• Rates Double rooms from $264.46 (AU$271), excluding tax at 10 per cent.
  Prices have been converted from the hotel's local currency (AU$271), via XE.com, using today's exchange rate.
• More details Rates include continental and à la carte breakfast, evening canapés, arrival and departure gifts, and parking.
• Facilities Private dining room, library with CDs, DVDs and board games, gym, gardens. In rooms: LCD TV with Foxtel satellite channels, Bose iPod docking station, free WiFi throughout, minibar, Nespresso coffee machine, Billi chilled and boiling filtered water tap, Côté Bastide toiletries, pillow menu.
• Check-out 11am, but flexible, subject to availability (at a cost of AU$50 an hour). Check-in, 2pm.
• Also Spicers Balfour is non-smoking. If the rooftop bar's ambrosial cocktails don’t ease you into a Zen state, indulge in some yoga or spa pampering care of the nearby Body Essence Day Spa.

Food and drink at Spicers Balfour Hotel

• Hotel restaurant

  The Balfour Dining Room is open daily for breakfast, brunch and high tea, with modern Australian fare such as butternut pumpkin omelette with goat’s cheese or baklava brioche with vanilla-poached pear. Chef Tyson Buchanan’s locally sourced, seasonal organic food is best enjoyed on the breezy expanse of the classic Queenslander wrap-around veranda.

• Dress code Stylish yet laid-back threads are in order, ideal for lounging with a copy of Monocle on the roof terrace, or playing a game of chess with fellow guests.
• Top table For the innamorati, there’s nothing more intimate than breakfast taken on your own private terrace overlooking the garden in the Terrace Suite.
• Last orders Brunch is served until noon. If you fancy a midnight tipple under the stars, the Rooftop Bar is open 24 hours and works on an honour system when unattended.
• Room service Available at your whim, the menu spans croque monsieur, home-made pizza, and burnt fig, honeycomb and caramel ice-cream for sweet tooths.
• Hotel bar

  A rooftop view of the city skyline, smudged with the pastels of dusk, sets a sultry scene for an evening rendez-vous at the Balfour’s bijou bar. Cocktail connoisseurs can’t resist sliding their hands around liquid ladies such as the Vesper Lynd or Scarlett O’Hara, a moreish mix of Southern Comfort, cranberry and lime.

Spicers Balfour Hotel 37 Balfour Street New Farm, Brisbane, 4005