The Gold List 2026: The Top Hotels and Resorts in Australia and Oceania
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It’s time again for us to tell you about the hotels (and cruises) we really, really love right now. Our 32nd annual Gold List collects our editors’ current favorite places to stay and ships to sail (all vetted by our team of contributors and editors around the globe). They’re memorable for many reasons: service that made us feel like Hollywood stars; architecture that transported us to 1920s London or 18th-century Lake Como; and meals in Vietnam, in Australia, and at sea that we know will inspire Proustian responses. What do all of these experiences have in common? We’ll be carrying them with us for years to come. To paraphrase the old saying: New friends are silver, but old friends are gold.
See the full Gold List here.
Adam GibsonhotelEl Questro Homestead — Australia
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Gold List 2026Three flights and two and a half days later, I finally landed in the Kimberley, Western Australia’s northernmost region. My stay at El Questro Homestead, a cattle station turned luxury property, would end up being not much longer than the journey to reach it. Regardless of the length of my visit, nowhere else could I have experienced all that I did there. This member of Luxury Lodges of Australia has 10 rooms and suites on a clifftop overlooking the Chamberlain River. As part of a 2022 Indigenous Land Use Agreement, the traditional Ngarinyin landowners regained more than 400,000 acres of the property in a historic arrangement that El Questro’s owners say will make it possible to increase Indigenous employment. Many aspects of a stay at El Questro, however, will remain unchanged: In the morning screeching cockatoos act as an alarm clock. In the evening you can sit and watch crocodiles in the waters below. Later, a tree frog may hop its way into your bathroom. Four-wheel drive safaris and helicopter tours will take you to remote waterfalls and hot springs, and here, in one of the most sparsely inhabited regions in the world, new animal and plant species are discovered regularly. I was impressed by Injiid Marlabu Calls Us, an immersive experience developed by traditional owners Mary and Nelson O’Reeri and their daughter Shonelle. The family recounts how Nelson's grandmother Injiid grew up on this land and how it was taken away from her by cattle barons; how her son was forced into a state home; and how she found him again decades later. To listen is to learn about the challenges and hopes that life holds for many Aboriginal people today. You will likely be deeply moved, and it may prove to be one of the most lasting memories of your visit. From $1,572. —Dennis Braatz
hotelHuka Lodge — New Zealand
$$ | Gold List 2026 
Readers' Choice Awards 2020, 2025Allegedly, Queen Elizabeth and Mick Jagger once slept in the same bed, just not at the same time. That bed would be at Huka Lodge, New Zealand. Opened in 1924 as a humble fishing camp, it’s since become a tartan-and-teak retreat with roaring fireplaces and martinis on silver trays. Oversized suites open onto manicured lawns and the Waikato River, with Ralph Lauren-ish decor: lots of tartan, gilt-framed oil paintings, and velvet sofas. You’ll fall asleep to the rush of water and wake to birdsong and woodsmoke. Aperitifs are served at golden hour before long dinners. It’s the original luxury lodge and still the blueprint for all others that follow. From $1,898. —Chloe Sachdev
Courtesy HyatthotelPark Hyatt Sydney
$$$ | Gold List 2022, 2026 Readers' Choice Awards 2023Celebrating my one-year anniversary as a staff editor at Condé Nast Traveler while on a work trip to Australia, I stayed at this elegant 155-key property right on the edge of Sydney Harbour. On September 11 (yes, it felt strange entering our offices at 1 World Trade Center on my first day), I woke up at the Park Hyatt Sydney to golden light pouring into my room through floor-to-ceiling windows. I stepped out onto a balcony—one of two—and watched the metropolis wake up: the ships and ferries coming into the harbor, good-looking Sydneysiders out for their morning run on the boardwalk, the sun rising behind that iconic sail-shaped opera house. From its prime spot in the Rocks historic neighborhood on the western side of Sydney Cove, the hotel has offered a front-row seat to this Aussie scene for the past 35 years. That’s 35 New Year’s Eve fireworks displays that the Park Hyatt’s extremely lucky guests have seen from this vantage point: fountains of sparks and chrysanthemums of light bursting from both the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, all ringing in another 365 days of good fortune. And there I stood on an ordinary Wednesday in September, in a plush bathrobe, sipping on a demitasse of espresso and wishing over a pale blue sky the same for myself. I was so happy to mark the occasion of my first work anniversary at this hotel. Sure, I could chalk it up to its large and sumptuously appointed rooms, its team’s attentive service, or its fresh and delicious brekkies that lend credence to the belief that Australians invented avocado toast. But as they say: location, location, location. No matter the occasion, a stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney, I’d venture, gives you the feeling of being exactly where you should be. From $780. —Matt Ortile
This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.