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Altstadt Vienna This hip boutique hotel is housed in a 1902 former factory in the art precinct of Spittelberg, just minutes from Vienna's celebrated Museums Quartier and Mariahilferstrasse, its longest and most popular shopping street. There are 42 rooms and suites of varying proportions – some with rooftop access, one with a grand piano and another with a fully equipped kitchen. Each room is decorated with fabulous contemporary art from owner Otto Wiesenthal's private collection, including Andy Warhol, Franze Ringel and Blume. No two rooms are the same but all blend modern furniture with traditional Viennese style, and each room has excellent en suite facilities, many finished in classic black-and-white checkerboard tiles. An exceptional complimentary buffet breakfast is served in the Red Salon, which doubles as a comfortable lounge by night. The owner publishes his own in-house restaurant guide for guests. www.altstadt.at Medina Grand Adelaide Treasury Adelaide, SA You can sip a Coopers in the quadrangle of Adelaide's old treasury building and imagine the scene in the 1850s when gold fever gripped the southern states. For this central courtyard, behind what was then the young colony's Treasury, was where gold was brought from the Victorian fields. You can walk through the cellars where gold and cash were stored and safely transported underground – in miners' carts – to the Reserve Bank. The steel tracks are still there. The piece de resistance is the Old Cabinet Room, now a private function room, where State Cabinet met from 1876 to 1968. It boasts original furniture, a magnificent oval table and chairs, and bound minutes of meetings in a stunning 1880s' bookcase. The hotel offers 79 one- and two-bedroom serviced apartments and studio rooms, in eight existing buildings dating from 1836 which combine the understated elegance of a bygone era with today's clean lines and modern facilities. www.medina.com.au travel&living 69