Oaks Brisbane River City Suites

was a good stay, even though Brisbane had rain. Oaks was really handy to the City 2 plus books, a short walk to the Botanical Gardens, City Cat, Southbank. we Caught a free bus from Ann Street to Suncorp Stadium for the Edinburgh Tattoo. got a free ride with a friend to Brisbane and a 50cent train ride home.

Welcome to republic of me travel, and our review of Oaks River City Suites, a 41 storey serviced apartment hotel on the corner of Albert & Mary street in Brisbane. You can see the full review on our channel. We stayed in room 3402, a 1 bedroom apartment on the 34th floor with city views. This particular room has the option of adding a connecting room if you need more space. We took a look at the bathroom right away, as its right next to the entrance. The bathroom features a double size shower, single vanity unit and cabinets behind the mirror, as well as housing a Manhattan laundry with full size washer, dryer and sink, which definitely made our stay easier. One thing we keep finding about rooms in newer buildings in Queensland generally, is really low toilets. This is great if your looking to exercise your quads each time you visit, but people with knee issues may struggle. The bathroom was definitely super clean and very well maintained, there was no mould or broken fittings that we could see. We've read a lot of reviews about the cleanliness of this hotel's rooms, but we do not agree. It was spotless throughout on our visit. Kudos to housekeeping. The hotel's toiletries are provided in bulk format, both in the shower and basin. The shower pressure is exceptional, super strong, and super hot, which we loved. That said, when used at full power there was some overflow from the screen into the main bathroom floor. We found this was probably due to a small drain hole in the shower itself, along with a very flat floor surface, the drainage struggled to keep up. As a result, we used a lot of towels on the floor to make it safe for us, and perhaps suggest a restricted flow head be installed to remedy this. Ok, let's look at the rest of the room. The large floor to ceiling windows let in plenty of natural light, notwithstanding some views have been blocked by more recently built neighbours. The kitchen was a pleasant surprise to us for a 1 bedroom apartment. It was a full size kitchen with large benchtop, 1 & 1/2 sink, 4 burner gas cooktop, microwave, and full size oven, fridge and dishwasher, and everything again was spotlessly clean inside & out. The kettle was also clean, and complimentary tea, coffee & milk were provided, being well known brands in each case. We enjoyed some robust flavours each morning. Another feature that we absolutely loved and don't find in most places, was the offer to add a grocery hamper to the booking and have it ready in the room upon arrival. On the Oaks website it explains how to add these hampers to your booking, however, we booked via another hotel booking site. The process was still super simple, we just emailed the hotel and requested a breakfast hamper be added to our room, and they were happy to oblige. We have to say, this is a brilliant offering by Oaks Hotels, it really makes things so convenient, especially given we had arrived at 11pm on Christmas night....nothing was open. Having stayed for a week, the breakfast hamper lasted the whole time, for the two of us. Overall, we were super impressed at this offering, and it was good value considering it had been delivered in room. The breakfast hamper was $35 at the time of our stay, and it included a Kelloggs variety pack of 8 cereals, 1 litre of milk, 250 grams of butter, 6 pack of crumpets, 3 croissants, 2 litre breakfast juice, and a 480 gram jar of strawberry jam. The whole package made our stay so much easier. Another thing we were impressed by was the use of Bosch appliances in the kitchen. The brand names continued with the air conditioning, being a Mitsubishi unit, this is well regarded as premium, and indeed it kept the whole apartment cool during our stay, while being quiet. We found the apartment to be precisely furnished for its size, including just the right size dining table, work desk, coffee table and lounge. The apartment had 2 tv's, each with the latest UI and free movies and shows. The tv in the living room was nice & large, and lets face it, there's no excuse for small tv's in hotel rooms anymore. We really enjoyed watching the original Italian Job for the first time during our stay. We think the movie hamper on offer is a great addition to the scale of free entertainment on available in room. Another feature we liked was that all windows were openable, which allowed a lot of fresh air to flow through the apartment. When closed, these also did a great job of keeping most of the noise out. And yes, the neighbours are close, but there was never an issue with that, noise or otherwise. Ok, let's take a look at the bedroom. This room had the option of a single king bed, or being split into two singles. We opted for the latter, and found the room well appointed for two people, it was both clean, and spacious enough. The room was quiet even though it had direct access to the balcony, and while the mattresses were on the soft side, we enjoyed deep sleep every night. For entertainment on the lazy side, another tv was provided in the bedroom, which had all the same offerings as the main tv in the living room. There was also a high quality, adjustable ceiling fan to circulate air, which we found was very good at night. As you can see so far, this really is quite a cosy and very well appointed apartment. We lacked nothing during our stay. The piece de resistance of the apartment is the oversize balcony. There was a decent 4 seat dining table provided, but one could imagine, this balcony has the potential to fit more furnishings. We would have really liked an outdoor sofa set aswell, which is much easier to kick back and relax with a few drinks, instead of sitting upright at the dining table. The balcony has direct access to the bedroom, for those that may have enjoyed too many drinks. You can crawl straight into bed. While one side of the apartment has blocked views from the newly constructed neighbours, Brisbane has become a city of skyscrapers, so this is virtually impossible to avoid at some point. The balcony still enjoys a fantastic city outlook from the 34th floor, which really comes alive at night, more than any other time. 34 floors up is really very very high, but when your surroundings are also just as tall, you can lose perspective of these dizzying heights....until you look down, that is. The location of Oaks River City Suites was just fantastic. We were central to everything, and a short walk to the places we enjoyed most, like the botanic gardens, and riverside walking trails. Queen street mall was a casual 10 minute walk, including waiting for crossings. Beneath the building was a BWS store, a convenience store, and a kebab shop. And while there was plenty of construction going on down there, it didn't stop us enjoying some great restaurants all within 2 minutes walk, such as Wu Kong Chinese on charlotte street, Doughcraft on Mary street, Naldham House also on Mary street, and Howard Smith Wharves was only a 5 minute taxi ride away. Also within 2 minutes walk is Nando's on charlotte street, and a boutique chocolatiere - Chocolate Moments, on albert street. So many offerings, we haven't weighed our selves yet...and maybe we won't, ok? When it came to the service offered by staff, well we can't speak highly enough of these people. We found them to be kind, and accommodating in each case, and they provided absolutely everything we asked for. For example, we had multiple deliveries of Woolworths groceries, and they had no complaints to receive them on our behalf, and either place them in our room, or have them waiting at reception for us. Try asking a 5 star hotel's reception if they will receive your Woollies order? They gave us a few extra hotel pens, which just quietly, are excellent. They double as a stylus for your electronic devices, and let me tell you, they're more accurate than many of these expensive little things on offer at your usual retailers. After we had checked out and were at the airport, the staff called us to inform we had left behind our personal medicines in the fridge. The offered to hold the items until we sent a prepaid return envelope for them to send back to us. Overall, the whole experience offered by staff was just excellent, really really excellent, and we got the sense they enjoyed working at this hotel, as we did staying there, and we hope you do too. Thank you for reading our review of Oaks River City Suites in Brisbane. We will surely be staying at this hotel again in the future. What a great experience overall.

Cracked sink out dated furniture and appliances. Very noisy on the 28th floor, but good staff. TV service not suitable for internet and internet only available to 3 items. Generally a property that needs upgrades in all areas. Lift is new and very smart.