#capertee

At nearly four hours away, Glen Davis in the Capertee Valley is definitely a stretch as a Sydney location.  Eschewing more conventional long weekend destinations like Mudgee and the Hunter Valley, his majesty and I had decided to take my parents who are visiting from overseas to Glen Davis to experience a bit more of NSW.  Once we were over the Blue Mountains and had managed to get around the traffic caused by an overturned truck just north of Lithgow on the Castlereagh Highway, we let the stress of driving in Sydney traffic melt away as scrubby paddocks flashed by the windows.  We made a brief stop in Wallerawang for pies and coffee before continuing on to the beautiful Capertee Valley.

We had booked to stay at the Glen Davis Boutique Hotel, and apparently will be some of the last guests to stay under that banner as the owner informed me when I’d booked that they would be rebranding to the Flourish Wellness Retreat.  My initial impression was that the hotel name was going to turn out to be a serious misnomer, based largely on previous experiences in Australia’s country towns.  Service is not something that Australians do well, despite what they want to believe, and no matter if you’re staying in a room over a pub or at a so-called ‘boutique’ hotel, it’s more than likely that you will experience mostly unsophisticated hospitality.  The brusque and businesslike attitude of the owner when I rang for the booking was therefore not a particular surprise, even though it was at odds with the prices quoted for the room.  With no options nearby apart from camping or renting a rough looking cottage without facilities we didn’t have a lot of choice, and as we pulled up to the beautifully restored Art Deco hotel my hopes soared for a brief moment.

I’m certainly not an expert on the time period, but to my mind the fixtures and fittings seemed very authentic and gave the place a lovely ambiance.  All the woodwork had been lovingly restored to a glossy shine, and the furniture and knick knacks in the common areas contributed to the period feel.  It didn’t take long, however, for the Aussie to shine through, as we soon discovered that the saggy bed in our room was long past its use-by date and the sheets (while clean) had seen better days.  Our meals were all included, and while they were reasonably skillfully prepared none were served at more than tepid temperature.  While you have to consider the remoteness of the location when you start nitpicking about the quality of accommodation in the country, I think it’s the ‘she’ll be right’ standard of service that was the real downfall of the Glen Davis Boutique Hotel.  You can’t expect a brand new bed or 1000 thread-count sheets in such a isolated location, but I would think a place that markets itself as ‘boutique’ would come with service that demonstrates at least a little bit of discretion and tact.