4 Luxury Holidays You Need to Take This Month

Private beaches, grander-than-grand swimming pools and designer interiors. If you’re craving an epic, luxury holiday, we’ve got you covered. But hurry, these offers from Qantas Holidays are available for a limited time only and end 30 May 2023.

Luxe pool: Sofitel Bali Nusa Dua Beach Resort

If the holiday plan is to spend maximum time in swimwear, Sofitel Bali Nusa Dua Beach Resort – newly refreshed after a revamp – is the place. At its centre is an enormous 480-metre-long water feature – a complex network of lagoons, waterways and pools. Delightfully, most of your needs can be met within this body of water. Guests with lagoon-access rooms can swim directly to their doors and in the mornings a butler, if requested, can deliver a floating breakfast tray with fresh fruit, eggs and pastries.

Emerge for dinner at the poolside fine-diner Cucina for Italian-style fare such as seared bistecca, milky burrata and local seafood with tomato and white wine sauce. If you fancy a nightcap, you won’t have to go far. Manarai Beach House by Ismaya Group, located in the left corner of the hotel, is a grown-up beach club by day and a sophisticated bar after dark, where there are cabanas for lounging, a restaurant serving international and Balinese cuisine, two more pools and a swim-up bar (just in case you were starting to dry off).

Luxe interiors: Ace Hotel Sydney

Seattle-based Ace Hotel Group is known for its unconventional approach and appeal to creative types, so it’s fitting that the first Southern Hemisphere outpost is in Sydney’s Surry Hills. This storied, inner-city neighbourhood is a hub for some of the town’s coolest bars and restaurants and is a short walk into the CBD.

Melbourne-based Flack Studio designed the Ace’s chic interiors with exposed brick, desert colours and the work of local artists such as Nadia Hernández on display throughout. An ochre-coloured marble staircase leading from the lobby to the first floor will catch your eye, as will the front desk, which is studded with colourful ceramic blocks.

The slick vibe continues to the rooftop where a retractable roof, paint-splattered walls and a gilded ceiling help make restaurant Kiln, helmed by ex-Acme chef Mitch Orr, one of Sydney’s most playful dining rooms.

Music is a defining theme at Ace Hotels. Here, a 1970s vibe permeates, owing to the sunken lounge in the ground-floor bar and the record players and vinyl selections in rooms. Suites also come equipped with D’Angelico acoustic guitars. If an impromptu jam session erupts, fuelled by a Lobby Bar cocktail designed by Mike Bennie (of P&V Merchants fame), don’t worry – the walls are soundproof.

Luxe city views: voco Melbourne Central

Its heart-of-the-city location is just one of the reasons to love voco Melbourne Central. Part of the 380 Melbourne skyscraper, voco is sleek and modern, featuring chic interiors – a neutral palette with pops of teal and mustard – and it’s those views over the metropolis that give you that Melbourne vibe.

The hotel is surrounded by the Garden City’s famed laneways and shops and there’s a fresh take on the city from all its vantage points, whether it’s the sixth-floor lobby’s skyline outlook or the 180-degree vistas from Blacksmith Bar & Grill’s rooftop terrace and kitchen garden (its herbs are used in meals and cocktails).

Many of the 252 rooms have views, too – particularly magical at night – thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows (even in some bathrooms). Plus the windows open, reducing the need for air-conditioning and allowing the breeze to flow.

Luxe private beach: Thavorn Beach Village Resort & Spa Phuket

Palm-fringed shores, towering limestone monoliths and turquoise water: southern Thailand boasts some of the world’s most spectacular beachscapes. Not willing to share your stretch of sand with others? Thavorn Beach Village Resort & Spa is one of the few remaining resorts in Phuket that comes with its own private beach.

The property is spread over five-and-a-half hectares of tropical gardens along the exclusive Nakalay Beach between Kamala Beach and Patong. Choose a Tropical Garden View room for a bungalow surrounded by orchids and a short stroll to the water.

Get adventurous during the day and dive Nakalay Reef, 300 metres offshore. It was once thought to be extinct but the vibrant coral now teems with marine life, thanks to the conservation efforts of the hotel and the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for manta rays and hawksbill turtles.