Hyatt Regency Perth

Short review

What I liked most: I like the pool the most, because it was wide and spacious and had many different depths for all types of people.

What I liked least: The distance from the hotel to the main action in the CBD was at least 30 minutes walk. There wasn’t much to do around the area. The Club Lounge could be bigger and was crowded during the evening canape session.

Tour of my room on YouTube is below.

Starting the day at Melbourne Airport

We decided to do a full week in Perth. We’ve never been to Perth, but we were told it would be a beautiful place to see. There are many great natural places to explore from the Margaret River to the south, the Swan Valley in the north east of the city and Rottnest Island near Fremantle, the place where you can catch a glimpse of the native quokkas. Perth has a lot to offer anyone interested in being surrounded by nature.

Perth is an odd place in that it is the most isolated capital city in the world and only comes in fourth in terms of top population centers in Australia.

We started our day going to the Melbourne Airport via the South East Airport Shuttle. We arrived for our early morning 8:00 AM Qantas flight to Perth, a four hour journey in the air. Interestingly, going to Perth would take four hours, but coming back it would take only three hours. This might have to do with the Earth’s rotation moving east to west.

We arrived at Terminal 1 at Melbourne Airport. We didn’t too long at the terminal, but we managed to catch a glimpse of the new boutique JB Hi Fi store.

In-flight

We had breakfast on plane. We had the option of option 1: sausages, scrambled eggs and hash browns or option 2: berry yogurt, banana bread and a muesli bar. I went with option 1, which turned out to be the better of the two in my opinion. It had a nice flavor even though the hash browns were soggy like. As we got closer to the destination, we were treated to a lemon bar treat.

On the flight, I caught up with some flicks I wouldn’t normally watch at the cinemas. Since I enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians and Fresh Off The Boat, I watched The Hustlers starting Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu. It was an interesting film where Constance Wu’s character is an ex-stripper involved in a group that decides to get rich by fleecing wall street men of their money via drugs and alcohol. I watched another Japanese film Kakegurui based on a private high school for the rich with high stake gambling as its sole curriculum. Unfortunately I fell asleep before finishing it. It had an interesting premise.

DFO Perth

When we arrived at Perth. We arrived at 9:00 AM, even though we left Melbourne at 8:00 AM. Perth is three hours behind Melbourne. We decided to walk to DFO Perth, which only opened in October 2019. The entire building looked entirely brand new. This center’s design had a woody bark with lots of brown hues in its color scheme. It felt like you were walking through a forest. DFO Perth had stores like Furla, Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, etc. There were plenty of sales, but nothing caught my eye.

Once we finished shopping, we ordered an Uber to the Hyatt Regency. The Hyatt Regency is located on Adelaide Terrace in the Perth CBD. Unfortunately, it is too far from the rest of the main parts of the CBD. While the Perth CBD has plenty of buses to take us from A to B and are free, it is difficult to work out when they will arrive (since most Australian public transport are notorious for not being on time) and where they go without consulting a map.

We arrived at the Hyatt Regency around 11:30 AM. The exterior certainly looked like a luxury hotel, albeit a dated looking one. We were warmly greeted by the concierge and were allowed to check-in early.

We went straight to our room on the eighth floor. On entering the room, I noticed chocolates for me and a card due to it being a special occasion. The room was nice and big, though many of the bits and pieces were looking oddly like early 90s decor. We had views overlooking the Swan River.

My main gripe was that unfortunately the television was off center from the bed. I generally prefer the television to be directly in front of me, but it wouldn’t a big deal since we were going to be out most of the day.

Club Lounge

Interestingly the Club Lounge is on the eighth floor and is out in the open, in that there was no door enclosing the lounge from the rest of the hotel. It was still early when we arrived and hence there wasn’t much there to see at first. Laid out on the table were some lollies, sushi and a variety of biscuits. There was also tea and coffee available and a fridge where you could grab a soft drink, juice or sparkling water.

Unfortunately, as we would later find out, the club was too cosy and there weren’t enough seats for the people staying on the club floors.

We paid a visit to the the rooftop swimming pool. This pool was very nice and lengthy. There were also varying depths and to around 2 plus meters on the deeper side. It was definitely worth a whirl. We also noticed a sauna and an outdoor kiosk for drinks.

Perth Mint

Now, everything is a distance away from the Hyatt Regency. However, we decided we wanted to explore the city so we walked to the Perth Mint. There wasn’t much to see unfortunately. At the Perth Mint, we joined the guided tour. It was $19 per person. It happened to be one of the most fascinating tours I had ever been on. The guides were definitely into what they were talking about and the history was also quite interesting. We learned about the history of the Mint and how it came to be. It was created because of a need to have a local mint. The Mint was started in 1899 and continues to produce gold, but not as everyday currency. You could actually buy some of the gold here for whatever the market price of gold is on the day. The most interesting fact was that for the heads of government meeting, the Perth Government commissioned the creation of a one tonne million dollar coin with a paper value of $1 million. This $1 million can be spent at any store in Australia. However the gold used to make the coin itself is actually worth $82 million. So you wouldn’t want to spend it at the store for a measly $1 million.

The coin is protected under maximum security with lasers and an enclosure box (when it’s not on display). It is also super heavy so it’s going to be a pain to try and wheel it out of the Mint.

We also got to see gold being smelted into a gold bar and there was a museum displaying real gold nuggets of varying sizes. The Mint was a a bit of fun. I think it’s worth paying a visit to the Perth Mint. Lookout for discounts in your hotel or any frequent value booklets for buy one get one free entry.Walked towards Northbridge and saw busier area like Old Shanghai area.

Evening canapes and drinks

We came back to the hotel later in the evening in time for the canapés and drinks. Canapes and drinks are on between 5:30 PM and 7:30 PM. We arrived only 30 mins after the start of the session, but it was packed to the bream. There were literally almost no seats left. There were too many people and not enough seats. While there were servers who came to assist and provide drinks on order, we felt that they were quite limited since there were a lot people moving and they had to stop with things in their hands while other people moved past them.

The food was varied. As the night went on, different types of food were brought out like tempura prawns, arancini and formosa. It seemed like the hot food selection all depended on what was leftover in the kitchen. It was mix of different things so it was worth checking the benches every now and then. Nevertheless some of the selections were good.

Pool

We went for a late night swim. It was nice to have a wide spacious pool to swim around. We had a few people join us later in the evening. It would also happen to the biggest we experienced in any Perth hotel. We were impressed that there were different depths to the pool.

Breakfast

Breakfast was at the Club Lounge from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. We had the option of getting a continental breakfast in the atrium, but we opted to stay in the Club Lounge. Many of the Club Lounge dishes consisted of just cold dishes. There were some hot dishes, but to a small degree. We felt that we weren’t given anything above and beyond as a club member, since other hotels usually provide extras on top for club members like an a la carte menu or signature tea/coffee range.

Tour of the Club Room and Lounge

Rating

My rating: B

Staff: the staff were polite. Staff helped us with clearing our tables and orders. Nothing stood out though. B+

Facilities: the gym was fine, but the pool was nice and spacious. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything special to take a photo of in the pool area when you compare to things like the infinity pool at the Ritz-Carlton or the variety of pools at Crown Towers. B+

Cleanliness: the hotel was clean. There were some wear-and-tear and the building and decor was looking dated. We felt like the atrium area had nice natural light, but it was marred by how outdated some of the roof looked. B

Comfort: the beds were a good size, but nothing special to really comment on. B

Value for money: We felt we got our money’s worth given we only spent around $260 for a room with Club Lounge access, but we felt that we should have been given the option to have the continental breakfast over the lounge. B+

Location: the location of the hotel to the main action in Perth was poor. It would take at least 30 mins to walk from the Hyatt Regency to the main part of the city and yes there are free buses (even a stand outside the hotel), but it wasn’t convenient because the bus routes weren’t clearly marked and we had no idea when the next bus would come. C

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