South Australia is in the middle of its biggest hotel investment cycle in decades. Three signature projects – one already open, one approved for the Barossa, one announced for the CBD – sit at very different points on the calendar. One for now, one to book ahead, and one to keep an eye on the skyline for.
Now
Hotel Panorama
The hotel that opened this May is the one to head to first. Hotel Panorama, built by the Hurley Hotel Group at the top of Goodwood Road in the southern foothills, is the family business’s largest investment in its 50-year history – a $60 million, five-storey full-service hotel that brings 77 rooms, multiple dining spaces and a rooftop bar to a suburb that has wanted one for years. Of those, the two Panorama Suites are the pick: fireplaces, soaking tubs, private balconies. Downstairs, a casual restaurant with a sunken fire lounge sits beside the Sideline sports bar, which has a seven-metre outdoor screen. Above it all sits Wonderland, the rooftop bar with 180-degree views across the city, the coastline and the Adelaide Hills.
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Next
InterContinental Barossa Resort & Spa
The one to circle on the calendar is the new InterContinental coming to Williamstown, in the Barossa’s south. A 150-room five-star hotel and winery under the IHG luxury banner, it was given planning approval in May. A proper international five-star resort in the Barossa is the kind of weekend destination that until now has meant booking somewhere in the Hunter or Margaret River. It’s still some years from opening, but one to look forward to.
Later
Hilton Adelaide East End
The biggest of the three in scale is the furthest off. Hilton has confirmed its return to Adelaide with a 27-storey, 251-room flagship at 299 Pirie Street – its first South Australian property since exiting the Victoria Square site last year. The Hilton Adelaide East End will form part of Arcadia, a mixed-use precinct in the East End designed to bring residential life back into a corner of the CBD that has long been more nightlife than neighbourhood. It opens in 2031, which feels a long way off, but the architecture and the slow transformation of the East End around it are worth following in the meantime.
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