My wife and I stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton for a long weekend at the end of May. We selected the hotel for the location in Darwin city, both to explore the surroundings and be close enough to amenities.

The Hotel:
Conveniently located along the Esplanade, it’s a quiet street overlooking the sea and green area. Upon arrival, the lobby is very spacious with lots of seating and when we arrived not very busy. Check in was relatively smooth and greeted with Australian warmth of hospitality.

The Room:
We stayed in the standard King Guest room, that overlooked the pool but still had a view of the sea (and good enough to see the spectacular sunsets). The room can be summarised in one word as “spacious”. Plenty of room to spread out while not tripping over any suitcases or furniture. The bed was very comfortable and we both slept well. In the room was a large desk, lounge area and a decent coffee/tea selection. The bathroom was very clean and also spacious but didn’t have any vanity items, so you will need plan around that if you normally rely on this. If you’re staying a long time, the wardrobe is a bit small so you might want to plan around that also.

However, points need to be deducted for the AU$9.95 per day charge for WiFi. We were a bit surprised by that as I’ve not come across a WiFi fee for a very long time!

The Location:
Right along the Esplanade makes it easy to get out and walk to supermarkets, restaurants and bars etc. It’s a very short cab ride to the Waterfront or the Sunday food market so I would recommend the hotel. We hired a car to drive to the national parks and jumping crocs etc, and it was very easy to get around. The airport was a 20-25 min cab drive away.