Discover boutique city hotels for urban escapes in Canberra, Australia

It wasn’t until Federation, in 1901, that it was decided a place had to be found to house the country’s capital city. Where Canberra now stands is the halfway point between rivals Sydney and Melbourne, and the cityscape is the grand design of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin. With its eloquent architecture, central man-made lake and green feel, it's certainly a beauty. However, the capital's bloated population of civil servants and politicians soon earned it a rep for being boring – nice for gallery visits and walks through manicured gardens, but hardly cutting-edge. Recently though, an influx of artists, attracted by low rents and the sense of space, has injected new life into the city, while its student hordes put the emphasis squarely on parties of the non-political kind.