It's the classic beach getaway, this two-story beach hotel offering boutique rooms and loud lobby scene filled with well-bronzed Bondi Beach-goers. Located along Campbell's Pride, the building dates back to the 1920's with its sweeping views of Australia's most famous beach and groovy location amongst the surf shops and restaurants of the area. The lobby features an open-air lounge with bustling bar scene filled to capacity on most summer weekends. The bass of lounge music reverberates throughout the hotel, which sometimes comes as an inconvenience to those occupying the hotel's 16 guest rooms.

On our visit the still of the night was often interrupted by the piercing screams of partygoers in route to more intimate affairs. If you're looking to romantic evenings and retiring before midnight, this is definitely not your place. Reminiscent of Miami's South Beach architecture, the modest-sized hotel offers few amenities aside from the well-touted Ravesi's Restaurant on the mezzanine level. But with the seashore at your doorstep, there are few better places to bring your surfboard, flex your abs, and work on a hardcore Aussie-tan for a long weekend in Bondi.

The Room:

Guest rooms are surprisingly refined with bright-white walls and dark wool carpeting, which contrast well with the building’s classic architecture. Standard guest rooms are no more than a King-size bed and modest bathroom located on hotel’s lower (louder) floors with tiptoe views of Bondi Beach and surrounding neighborhood. For a little more extravagance, the hotel offers four split-level suites with glass-enclosed balconies and loft-style living area. These rooms offer sleek all-white marble bathrooms with stainless-steel fixtures and embroidered towels located on the lower level, meaning that middle-of-the-night bathroom runs are down a long flight of stairs. The added-distance helps control some of the noise from the bar, but definitely not all of it. All-rooms feature tribal artwork, mini-kitchenettes and entertainment centers with DVD-players and really fast Wi-Fi, key for scouting-out the area’s many restaurants and nightclubs.