TNQ Writer
If you’ve been scouring the internet ether for the perfect hotel match, put down your Google search. It’s time for you to meet Riley.
Riley is the full hotel package, combining beauty and brains (seriously, this hotel is socially and environmentally conscious), and forms part of the much coveted Crystalbrook Collection.
To ensure your first encounter with Crystalbrook Riley is no blind date, we’ve got six reasons why you need to take your relationship with Riley offline, and meet in person next Cairns holiday
1. Its amenities are everything
Laze on a sun lounge by the pool
Laze on a sun lounge by the pool
Yoga session for guests
Yoga session for guests
The luxury lobby ready to accomodate you
The luxury lobby ready to accomodate you
You won’t be the first person to forget the Great Barrier Reef is on your doorstep when there’s a 1000+ square metre lagoon pool within a slipper’s shuffle of your hotel room door. You won’t struggle to find this sand-fringed lagoon within the hotel complex – the entire hotel is built around it and its azure sparkling waters are the focal point of the hotel and main lobby area.
If you can peel yourself off your sun lounge for a second, you’ll also find there’s yoga for guests, a gym, over 200 recently released free movies and three restaurants within this hotel’s footprint. Crystalbrook Riley is five star luxury after all.
2. The views are 10/10
Sea Suite
Sea Suite
Panoramic Sea Suite
Panoramic Sea Suite
Rooftop bar, Rocco
Rooftop bar, Rocco
When a hotel is designed around a glass tower, you know the architects had reef and rainforest views in mind. In fact, there’s no such thing as a bad view from Riley’s 55 rooms which orbit the 12 story glass tower sitting front and centre on the Cairns Esplanade. No availability in the glass tower? No bother! You’ll find the bulk of Riley’s inventory inside the former Rydges Tradewinds motel, whose $170-million renovation makes it completely unrecognisable from the former.
Regardless of which room you check into, you can always dial up the views to new heights from Riley’s rooftop bar, Rocco, whose lofty position will guarantee the most scenic aperitivo in the capital of North Queensland. Oh, and did we mention there’s more than 200 types of champagne on the menu?
3. Paddock to Plate isn’t just marketing spin, but a way of life
Rocco is Cairns' highest bar
Rocco is Cairns' highest bar
Paper Crane
Paper Crane
The hotel’s two restaurants and bars (Paper Crane and Rocco) don’t look much beyond the hotel’s shadow when it comes to sourcing ingredients. In fact, Riley’s Mediterranean inspired restaurant, Rocco, stocks Crystalbrook Station’s own beef, which is raised and grazed just three hours away.
It’s not just the proteins which are sourced locally. You’ll find that over 80% of the fruit used in the restaurant/hotel is sourced from Cairns, with the executive chef team slicing the food miles down with as much precision as the wholesome breakfast served at Paper Crane each morning. Of course, if any of the food is uneaten (unlikely when it looks this good) it will be distributed via OzHarvest to parts of the community who need it most.
4. Going green looks as good as it feels
The recycled wooden Keycards
The recycled wooden Keycards
Reuseable water bottles
Reuseable water bottles
The bathroom amenities made with Australian ingredients
The bathroom amenities made with Australian ingredients
Forget the same old tired plastic guest room keycards. At Riley things are done a bit different including wooden key cards made from 100% recycled wood. Don’t bother looking for plastic water bottles at this hotel with a heart, you won’t find any single use plastics here. Riley has made a point of making straws, disposable bags and takeaway containers all a thing of the past.
Just because Riley is green, doesn’t mean you need to give up life’s luxuries. Riley’s bathroom amenities won’t be found in tiny bottles, but large pump packs of Crystalbrook’s bespoke amenity range made on essential oils and indigenous Australian ingredients.
If that’s not enough, the hotel’s initiatives have earned also it the nod of approval procuring the top spot as Best Environmental Program at the 2019 HM Awards for Hotel and Accommodation Excellence.
5. Its spa is a cocoon for the senses
Eléme Day Spa saloon
The recipe for a holiday that leaves you rejuvenated is simple – sleep, eat, spa, repeat. To do it, you’ll need to meet Riley’s right hand lady, Eléme Day Spa, which embraces nature and science in a range of treatments, which cover everything from facials, detoxification, and muscle-melting massages. Stay and spa packages will leave you cocooned, with a night, buffet breakfast and two soothing 60-minute treatments at Eléme Day Spa. Or, if time is on your side, there’s always the Ultimate Safari ritual which will last longer than most plane rides to get here (five hours!).
6. It’s close to everything
Explore the surroundings with Riley's free hotel bikes
With the Cairns Esplanade at your doorstep, and two World Heritage-listed sites at your front and back garden, there’s no need to use anything other than pedal power at Riley. Jump into the saddle of one of Riley’s hotel bikes (free to hotel guests), which make short work of the commute to the marina where day trips to the reef take off. If you didn’t believe in love at first sight before, you definitely will after meeting Riley.
Are you ready to live the life of Riley?
