2018 – Part 9 – The Carrington Hotel

Hotel Review: Carrington Hotel, Katoomba

The approach to the hotel is as iconic as the building and its history, a steep incline up to stop in the front courtyard that allowed us to check in.

History

The hotel was built in the 19th century as enterprising businessmen saw the future potential of turning a frontier area into a weekend spot to explore.

The arrival of the railway further cemented the Blue Mountains as a weekend destination for Sydney citizens. The hotel has retained much of its original charm, and has been updated, as needed to keep guests happy, like an elevator to help cart our luggage to our room.

Check-in was quick and easy. I was informed of the hours for breakfast, where to park the car, and directions to our room.  We parked near the side entrance that provided covered parking.  This is probably a very popular area during the summertime.

Colonial Room

I had booked a Colonial room. These rooms have very high ceilings, and an Art Deco styled bathroom, complete with a stained glass window. The room had plenty of space for us and our luggage. For functionality:

Mini-fridge
Outlets beside the bed
Large closet, and ability to combine with the adjoining room to make a larger space.
Individual air conditioner/heater.

For the bathroom, we had a stained glass window to help provide light into the room, and a large space for the walk-in shower.  Only downside is that both stained glass, and the frosted bathroom door have no blinds.  Sun rose around 6:20am, and helped to wake us up. 

The door handle reminded me of the door handles that were in my grandparents house.  The water pressure from the rainfall shower head was great and what we needed after spending so much time in airports and airplanes to get to this hotel.

I tested to see how the the water circles the drain.  Link to the video to come soon.

Continental Breakfast

Buffet breakfast is served in the main dining room where the room is gorgeous, and the selection of food is almost as good.  The room is highlighted by a very large cabinet for Silver service to be on display:

As for the breakfast selections, it was:

On the second morning Amber did order a cooked breakfast and it was tasty and well made.  The poached eggs were still runny to allow her to have the bread soak it up.  The bacon was just as delicious.

Many rooms of the Carrington

There were many rooms that one can use while staying at the hotel.  Here are just a few that we walked through.  If weather didn’t cooperate to allow you to explore the outdoors, I think there was more than enough space and things to do to occupy your time until the clouds clear and the sun returns.

The games room had both a snooker and pool sized tables to play billiards.  As well a collection of board games along with decks of playing cards were in this space.

Decor & Space

Given the age of the hotel I took a few more pictures in an attempt to show that the hotel itself deserves to be appreciated.  I felt that we were in a rush as we barely had time to enjoy any of these many rooms available to us and other hotel guests.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay.  Easy to find, everything worked, and breakfast certainly helped get us setup well for the day.  The only downside was that the bed was not comfortable.  We were so tired on our first night that we could have slept on concrete, however on the second night, we both noted that the bed wasn’t as comfortable as the first night.

If we were to return to this area, returning here is high on my list.