Best pet-friendly hotels and holidays around Australia

Top pet friendly hotels include the Langham in Sydney.

Pet-friendly holiday options have grown as Australia’s accommodation industry follows the lead of Europe and North America. The choices have widened to include holiday parks and B&Bs, boutique properties and luxury hotels.

The Hughenden Boutique Hotel in Woollahra.

For pampered pets

The Langham, at The Rocks in Sydney (langhamhotels.com ), underwent a comprehensive $30 million renovation late last year and, happily for pampered pets and their owners, it reopened last month with its pet-friendly status intact. With rooms from $635 a night plus $120 a night per pet, this could be the ritziest pet-friendly option around. Dogs under 20kg and cats can lounge in-room on plush pet beds. The pet room-service menu includes beef steak with chunky vegetables, and grilled salmon with green beans, quail egg, tuna, potatoes and olives. Pet-sitting and dog-walking can be arranged but guests can easily exercise dogs at nearby Observatory Hill, which offers views over the harbour.

Room to roll

Stay in a pet-friendly room with a secure outdoor area. The Mercure Canberra’s pampered pet package (from $199, mercurecanberra.com.au) includes a room with an adjoining fenced courtyard, pet bed, take-home toy and breakfast for two humans.

Fairmont Resort Blue Mountains MGallery in Leura overlooks the spectacular blue-tinted Jamison Valley. The Blue Mountains resort’s pet-friendly room (from $259, fairmontresort.com.au) features a courtyard and gate access to an oval for exercise.

Go boutique

When it comes to dog-friendly boutique hotels, Sydney wins paws down. Try the whimsical 18-room Medusa Boutique Hotel (medusa.com.au) in Darlinghurst, where dogs are welcome in the ground-floor, courtyard-facing rooms (from $310 a night). Past guests include working dogs of the thespian kind and show dogs, heading to the Royal Easter Show. The Diamant Hotel (8hotels.com) in nearby Potts Point has dog-friendly rooms that connect to a 15sq m tiled courtyard (from $204 a night, plus $25 a dog); guest canines receive a welcome letter and treats. The Hughenden (thehughenden.com.au), a restored Victorian Italianate mansion in leafy Woollahra, once had a joey check in.

Melbourne’s funkiest option for pets is The Albany Hotel in South Yarra (thealbany.com.au, from $99 a night) – dogs can stretch their legs across the road at Fawkner Park.

In North Adelaide, the Hotel Old Adelaide (oldadelaideinn.com.au) welcomes dogs in two executive rooms with private courtyards (from $189 a night). The hotel is within walking distance of the North Adelaide Dog Park.

Sinbad the poodle relaxing on the bed at the Hanrob Pet Hotel, which provides beds, chairs, TVs and a beach for dogs boarding at the kennels. Picture: Cameron Richardson

Villa time

For those driving between Brisbane and Sydney, Coffs Harbour is a perfectly timed overnight stop. Just north of the Big Banana, turn off the Pacific Highway for Korora Bay’s Tropic Oasis Holiday Villas (www.tropicoasis.com.au), a complex that includes a dog-friendly two-bedroom villa with tiled floors and a fenced yard (from $145 a night for two, plus $15 a night for the dog).

In Queensland’s Hervey Bay, Quarterdecks Retreat welcomes pets under 10kg – including dogs, cats and birds – in 11 of its 61 villas (quarterdecksretreat.com.au, from $175 a night, plus $50 pet fee for up to two nights).

In Western Australia, pets are allowed inside the double-storey Margaret River Stone Cottages, which feature fenced patios and magnificent jarrah forest surrounds (margaretriverstonecottages.com, from $165 a night, plus pets $11 a night).

Go retro

Embrace old-fashioned holiday fun of the caravan-park kind. Pets are welcome at dozens of BIG4 Holiday Parks (big4.com.au) stretching from Kingaroy to Kununurra and Hobart to the Hunter Valley. Last year, the BIG4 Gold Coast Holiday Park at Helensvale opened a fenced off-leash area. Holiday parks outside the Big4 network, such as Kioloa Beach Holiday Park (kioloabeach.com) near Batemans Bay on the NSW South Coast, are also dog-friendly – cabins feature a fenced patio where dogs can flop after getting sand between their claws on the neighbouring dog-friendly beach.

Unusual pets

So you and the pet pony need a beach holiday together? Yondah Beach House, on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula, is a three-bedroom, architect-designed, clifftop house on about 120ha with 2km of coastline (yondah.com.au, from $230 a night, four-night minimum). Guests have included pet horses, rats and turtles, and dogs can roam inside the house, as long as owners bring a clean rug to protect sofas.

Guests at dog-friendly Folly Farm Rural Retreat (follyfarm.com.au, from $240 a night) in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges can also take advantage of its horse paddock.

Horses, ferrets, rabbits and chickens have stayed at Hawley House on Tasmania’s north coast (hawleyhousetas.com, from $175 a night), which features a hound-friendly rooftop bath with water views.

Have fur, will fly

Virgin Australia launched its frequent flyer program for pets in 2013. The airline’s Velocity members earn 300 points (or more depending on membership status) each time their dog or cat flies on the domestic network. Pet bookings can be made by phone only, on 136 789.

Last month, Qantas changed its policy of including pets under 20kg on some routes as part of customers’ free checked baggage allowance. All pets must now be booked and lodged through Qantas Freight (qantas.com.au/qfreight/). Rates vary according to the combined weight of the pet and its crate, and the route. A pet under 20kg now costs from $60.

Hanrob Pet Hotel: Henry talks to his owner Zana Moss through Skype.

Stay, boy, stay

Sometimes the dog or cat simply can’t join you on holiday. Dog owners can track down a minder living in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and various regional centres through findadogminder.com.au. Owners pay a subscription (from $55) to connect with minders who set their own fees (from $15 a night).

Another critter-sitter service is Mad Paws (madpaws.com.au), which includes cat-minders; the service charges 15 per cent of minding fees.

Hanrob Pet Hotels cares for dogs and cats at facilities near Sydney and Melbourne airports, and has pet hotels in Sydney’s north and south (hanrob.com.au). Standard dog accommodation costs from $33 a day, cats from $23, or splash out on a luxury stay, from $86 a day for dogs and from $29.50 for cats, which allows pets to watch their own television.

Hanrob offers a pet limo (price on application) that drops owners and their luggage at the airport before whisking the pet to its home away from home.

Source : Courier Mail - Escape   Katrina Lobley   January 25th 2015