The Best Hotels and Resorts in Australasia: The Gold List 2025
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Consider the Gold List the answer to the question our editors get asked more than any other: what are your favourite places to stay? Our annual collection, passionately selected by our international team, reveals which seaside resort we return to every August and the city hotel that gets everything right. Now all you have to do is pick the experience that’s right for you – and get travelling.
See the full Gold List here.
hotelThe Brando
Marlon Brando first came across the 18-isle atoll of Tetiaroa while scouting locations for his 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty. Now, more than 60 years later, the late actor’s beloved hideaway is maintained by his family as a singularly unique resort, where stays feel like they’re once-in-a-lifetime. The wild South Pacific feel is intact, with just 35 luxe thatch-roof villas scattered across the main island – each has a private plunge pool and access to the sea. As you hike past ancient open-air temples or snorkel among schools of colourful fish, you’ll be able to appreciate wildlife conservation efforts so remarkable that researchers regularly fly in to study. From £3,865. Megan Spurrell
Courtesy Lizard IslandhotelLizard Island
$$$Located 200 kilometres north of Cairns, secluded on 1,000 hectares of tawny bush, and ringed by sugar-white beaches, Lizard Island is no hard sell. It’s one of the few luxury resorts in Australia with the bragging rights to being located directly on the Great Barrier Reef. An easy 10-minute snorkel from shore will reveal the alternate, neon-tinged universe of the fringing reef. Silvery slivers of fish reflect the bright Queensland light, and slo-mo turtles glide above gardens of giant purple clams and coral that’s shaped like uncooked spaghetti. There is as much to do underwater – diving, fishing, swimming – as above. Unfussy white-weatherboard villas, with still-wet swimsuits dripping upon timber decks, dot the island. Inside, the rooms are bright and airy and boast high ceilings. Some have wide-frame views out onto the lapping blue sea, while others are wrapped in a garden that vibrates with scuttling critters. Out of sight, on its own jagged outcrop of granite rocks, is The House, a brutalist concrete and copper three-bedroom private villa, which is surrounded by lonely swaths of white-sand beach. But beyond the island’s obvious charms, it’s the Lizard Island Research Station – headed by a husband and wife duo – that really sets this place apart. Opened in 1973, the station is one of the world's leading reef-research facilities on a luxury resort, which guests can tour (even though it’s not part of the resort) – and they do, quizzing the marine scientists and even rolling up their sleeves to take part in hands-on citizen science initiatives across the endangered reef. It’s an insight into Australia’s changing relationship with tourism and proves that a remote paradise can be both beauty and brains. From £1,308. Chloe Sachdev
hotelBullo River Station
In the middle of red-dirt nowhere on 400,000 acres in the Northern Territory, Bullo River Station is a snapshot of Australia’s hard yakka life: a sepia-toned outback fantasy where guests, dressed in boots and wide-brim hats, swoop in on helicopters. Dating back to 1959, this deeply rooted homestead has changed hands a few times but is now in its latest incarnation, having joined the stable of Luxury Lodges of Australia. Australian interior stylist Sibella Court has distilled her well-known bush-tucker style in the sandstone space and its 12 bedrooms. Smart and rugged, the accommodations feature oodles of handmade touches: forged hardware by local blacksmiths, towel holders braided by whip makers, and artwork by Indigenous artists. Simple cast-iron beds with nubby linens keep things simple. Days are spent getting dusty by visiting waterholes, angling for barramundi, and saying hello to the 2,000 or so floppy-eared Brahman cows. Up above, kookaburras and cockatoos flock, and beady-eyed crocodiles float through the muddy rivers. Ancient aboriginal rock art depicting a land before time is etched into rugged red cliffs and ridge lines. The landscape of waterfalls, craggy escarpments, and gushing rivers swallows you whole. But it’s the communal dinners that provide a peek into everyday outback life. The station staff, from the stockmen and station managers to the guides, pile plates with farm-fresh steaks, just-made salads, and homemade sausages, while fast-flowing ice-cold beers and salty plum gin cocktails fuel the rowdy conversation. From £1,188. Chloe Sachdev
