The last time I wrote a staycation story I took you to Innaloo. Now it’s time to get into the heart of Perth, the beating, pulsing centre of our city. What you do is up to you because for me, it was just a few minutes of shopping and then I wanted to spend my time at the hotel by the pool and by the bar.
I don’t want to define a staycation for you because it’s like trying to tell you how to define travel, it means so many different things to all of us.
I think there’s a few characteristics of staycations that stand out. They tend to be less planned and booked at a shorter notice than a fully-fledged holiday.
That being said, if your staycation is to see a show that is coming to town you might have booked months in advance.
The one thing that is the clearest characteristic of a staycation is the idea that it’s close to home. I’m not going to define your radius of what makes a staycation because I don’t know where you live. Using me as an example, I live in North Perth and the Perth CBD is about ten minutes away.
For me I’d call my staycation boundary Rockingham, a destination I have loved all my life. Beyond Rockingham, the Perth hills and Lancelin I believe enters the realm of the weekender or even vacation.
What I love most about a staycation is like any time away, it’s time spent with those you need to spend more time with.
So here we are, we’re having a staycation in Perth!
We’re here at the Adnate Hotel, sometimes called Adnate Art Series. I’m not sure I could throw a stone from His Majesty’s Theatre to the Adnate but I reckon maybe two throws of a stone and it would be outside the front door.
This is the only hotel in Perth to truly embrace a theme of art and invite you to spend as much time exploring art as you spend by the pool or at the bar.
While I only live about ten minutes from our destination in the city but distance between house and hotel feels like a million miles once you’re checked in and left the irksome tasks of home behind you.
The Adnate is the perfect destination for a staycation in our city. Whatever the reason you’re having a staycation is fine by me as long as mine is fine by you. We just want to swim in a pool, not have to worry about the dried up leaves on the lawn that need raking up or that roll of dust that is lodged under the entertainment cabinet that I see every time I lie on the sofa to put the tv on.
As I said earlier, this is a hotel that embraces art. To be more specific, they have embraced the Australian street artist, Matt Adnate. On the eastern side of the hotel is a 25-storey mural that is one of the biggest in the world and includes portraits of a Noongar man, Indian woman and Mediterranean woman. Remarkably, this mural was created by Matt Adnate using just spray paint.
On the inside of the Adnate you’ll find throughout the hotel more than 650 prints of Matt Adnate’s work, including some remarkably striking original and very large paintings in the hotel reception that are visible outside from the footpath on Hay Street and often catch the eye of people walking by.
The hotel offers a complimentary art tour and there is an art library and even an in-room art channel if you’re spending time in your room. It’s an invitation to indulge in art and gain an understanding of the artist. It’s refreshing and nourishing to find that not only will you find great views from the window of your room but great views on the walls that serve up a sense of discovery from the lobby to the stairs and from your room to each floor’s corridors.
Outside the Adnate, the city is your oyster! With His Majesty’s Theatre and King Street no more than three minutes walk away and the malls of Hay Street and Murray Street no more than a couple of minutes more, you’ll enjoy just walking the streets of the city without the worries of parking.
I found that the feeling of being on holiday made walking the streets of the heart of my own city more exploratory. London Court was even more whimsical, the second storey architecture of buildings in Hay Street Mall were noticed and photographed. We also took the time to find Point Zero, the marker from which all distances to and from Perth are measured and is the civic heart of the city. See if you can find it!
Our staycation doesn’t spend too much time shopping or doing anything else that’s outside the hotel. Most of our time is indulgently spent in or by the pool and enjoying how many times we bump into Maurits de Graeff, the Adnate Hotel Manager who seems to be all things to all people at all times. He loves the art and wants more of it and he loves the music at the bar and restaurant and wants more of it.
The Adnate really is on the doorstep of Perth and whether you stay in or out is up to you. Either way presents opportunities to be bold and discover surroundings that strangely make you feel both energised and relaxed.
All too quickly it’s all over and we’re back home with that sense of post-holiday blues that is remarkable when you consider just how close to home we were for the past 24 hours. I’m relaxed, I’m recharged and I’m not the least bit worried about the leaves or the dust.
