Peninsula Boutique Hotel

Our stay at this hotel was great from start to finish, largely thanks to the incredibly helpful and friendly staff. Right from check-in, they provided us with a wealth of information about the local area that made navigating our stay so much easier, and booked our transport for us completely hassle-free. The amenities were nice, especially the great hot tub which was the perfect way to unwind at the end of the day. To top it all off, the morning coffee and breakfast were excellent, making it a wonderful experience that we would highly recommend to anyone.

This was my second time staying here and I was surprised how run down and tatty the rooms seemed since my last visit. I opted for an ocean view room this time and you do get glimpses of the ocean through the trees, but there is also a road running alongside which could get noisy early in the day with garbage trucks. The ocean noise was surprisingly loud and sounded like a freight train running past the window when weather conditions got choppy, but that’s Mother Nature for you. The worst was the sand. It’s nearly impossible not to bring some back to the room no matter how hard we tried not to, the tiled floors were soon covered in it which found its way into the bed which was absolutely horrible and did not make for restful sleep. Housekeeping made the bed and replenished towels daily but the floors were not vacuumed once and there was no broom in the room. I asked at reception if the room could be vacuumed or at least one supplied (thinking they would offer to do it) and I was surprised to find an ancient, upright Anko vacuum cleaner left in my room. I never expected to be vacuuming on a holiday and the machine wasn’t really up to the job, so I resorted to leaving towels on the floor beside the bed to try and catch the sand (it didn’t work). There were glass bricks in the bathroom with no way of covering them, and the bedroom was flooded with light during the night which streamed in through the wooden louvre doors. This also highlighted the fact louvres were thick with dust. The hairdryer was good quality, but had a dirty, sticky surface residue which was coming off on my hands so I could only use it with a dry flannel wrapped around it. Wifi was woeful, it rarely worked and we had to hotspot our mobile phones. There was a used dental flosser on the outdoor table when we arrived, and the pedal on the kitchen bin had fallen off. The TV refused to work until we figured the remote wasn’t the right sort, we were able to use it in the end by going through the on-screen guide each time instead of being able to turn it on and go straight to a channel. Staff were pleasant and seemed to be mostly backpackers. The resort location is excellent…but there is no way I’d stay there again….it was a very unpleasant seven night stay (and I’ve been revelling in my sand-free feet ever since I returned home).

The Peninsula Boutique Hotel of Port Douglas can be highly recommended. It’s very close to the beach (with pretty rough ocean waves however for which the Peninsula cannot, obviously, be held responsible). The reception very friendly fluent in English and Spanish. Port Douglas became one of our favorite places so also the Peninsula Boutique Hotel. Breakfast with ocean view, wow! The attractions offered in this location (suggested by Laurel of Inside Australia Travel) simply amazing with Daintree and Koalas on top. We would return there any time…. Wojciech