If you want to mix it with the cool set, W hotel (6 Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo, NSW 2011, +61293319000, from $580 per double room) in the converted wool-handling warehouse on Woolloomooloo’s wharf is the place to stay. Rooms are modern, functional and very wallpaper*. Another hip hangout is Establishment (5 Bridge Lane, Sydney, NSW 2000, +61292403100, from $310 per double room) in the CBD. This intimate luxury haven with 31 rooms and two penthouse suites is part of the in-crowd’s Establishment complex of bars, restaurants and nightclub Tank. Sullivans (21 Oxford Street, Paddington, NSW 2021, +61293610211, from $130 per double room) is modern, friendly, mid-priced and very handy for shopping/dining/clubbing in Paddington.

At the budget end, Glebe Point YHA (262 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, NSW 2037, +61296928418, from $68 per double room) is clean and friendly, and long established, and much-raved-about Billabong Gardens (5-11 Egan Street, Newtown, NSW 2042, +61295503236, from $66 per double room) in grunge-cool Newtown has a courtyard with a barbecue and solar-heated pool, plus en-suite bathrooms for some rooms.

[top]