Fodor's Expert Review Hotel Kurrajong

Stay here for a chance to immerse yourself in Canberra's political history and be within walking distance of Parliament House and the National Gallery. This Heritage-listed boutique hotel built in 1925–26 was designed in the early Commonwealth style (influenced by both Frank Lloyd Wright and Water Burley Griffin). It first housed the army of administrative staff transferred from Melbourne to the nation's new capital. It later became the hotel of choice for Australian Labor Party (ALP) politicians (the Liberals tended to stay at the Hotel Canberra, now the Hyatt Hotel) and was the home-away-from-home for prime minister Ben Chifley (1945–49) who preferred it to the Lodge, and after whom the restaurant is named.