Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour – Hotel Review

With Sydney preening and posing outside and Sofitel’s self-assured style inside, this newcomer to Darling Harbour is yin and yang wrapped in a tower of glass. Read on for the full review.

It applies to the guests, too. Turn up on Tuesday, and this 590-room hotel is a sea of suits; arrive on Saturday and you could be blinded by lurid board shorts, which pretty much reflects its position right next to the city’s newest show-off, the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, and smack bang in the middle of the harbour city’s most popular tourist attractions. Hint: follow the board shorts; they’ll lead you to an infinity pool and resort-style poolside bar. 

Where is Sofitel Darling Harbour Sydney?

Just back from the banks of Darling Harbour and across the briny from Cockle Bay Wharf. It’s a pleasant ten-minute walk from the CBD (more pleasant when redevelopment work in the area is complete) and roughly half an hour by taxi from the airport.

What’s near Sofitel Darling Harbour Sydney?

Barangaroo and its many bars and restaurants are reachable by foot in about 15 minutes, as is the CBD and transport connections to wider Sydney. From the QVB light rail station, for example, Circular Quay's harbour views or buzzy Surry Hills are both less than five stops away.

Room types

In an era of shrinking hotel rooms, this place is old-school. The smallest here – the Superior Room – is 35-square-metres, dressed, as they all are, in soothing earth tones. The next leap in size is to the Junior Suite at 49-square metres, which has a freestanding bath with one of the best views in Sydney (Luxury rooms, and suites from level 28 and above come with complimentary access to the top-floor Millésime Club). Bathrooms are glam and spacious, with another telly in the suites. Curtains, lights and aircon are controlled by a touchpad on the wall so tricky you’ll yearn for the days of basic switches. Junior Suites have a walk-in wardrobe with the thoughtful touch of a yoga mat and 1kg weights. 

Restaurants and bars

Atelier by Sofitel, the hotel’s vast (and only) dining room, is corralled by gleaming glass cabinets of wine and anchored by a large, central, open kitchen. The menu isn’t extensive – the cuisine is described as ‘bistronomy’, which seems to mean a fairly relaxed and friendly eatery plating up French-inspired dishes with a local flavour, including flame-licked steaks, heaving seafood platters and triple-cooked pommes frites. There are three bars, including the one by the pool and Sydney’s only hotel champagne bar, offering 20 different varieties from smaller houses such as Canard-Duchene through to Pommery and Louis Roederer. 

Travel for work

There’s a 24-hour business centre on level one with computers and printing facilities. Ten AV-equipped meeting rooms are available, ranging up to 500 square metres and a maximum capacity of 450. Wifi is free for all guests for two hours a day; $10 a day will buy you unlimited data at 50mbps, $20 a day delivers unlimited data at high speed. Club Millésime members get unlimited data at 50mbps. Need your shoes shined? That’s part of the friendly service. 

Pool and gym

There’s currently no spa at the hotel, but level four is fitness (and fun) central, with an infinity pool and SoFit, a 24-hour gym that makes the most of those stellar views. Or you can run around Darling Harbour to Barangaroo headland, Sydney’s newest harbour foreshore park.

What you need to know

Fancy a three-litre Jeroboam of Cristal Brut? Head to the Champagne Bar with $22,000 (go ahead and order; we’ll be right there).

SEE ALSO: The Best Hotels in and Around Sydney’s CBD