Five-star Two MICHELIN Keys Sandstone Precinct, Sydney
Capella Sydney
A sandstone block of government offices from 1912, raised by four glass floors, with a twenty-metre pool where an art gallery used to be.
Opens the hotel's own website. We have no arrangement with the hotel.
- MICHELIN
- Two Keys in 2026, up from one
- Rooms
- 192 rooms and suites
- Opened
- March 2023
- From the airport
- About 25 minutes from Kingsford Smith, our estimate
The hotel
The Department of Education, checked in.
The government architect George McRae began the Bridge Street half of this building in 1912 for the Department of Education; the firm John Reid & Son finished the Farrer Place side for the Department of Agriculture. The Edwardian Baroque sandstone fills a whole city block between Loftus, Bridge and Young Streets, a few minutes on foot from Circular Quay, and is heritage-listed.
Pontiac Land restored it with Make Architects, adding four floors on the roof, set back from the old facade behind curved glass. BAR Studio did the interiors. The hotel opened in March 2023 as Capella's first in Australia, with more than 1,400 works of art, many of them honouring Aboriginal culture. In 2026 it was ranked sixteenth in The World's 50 Best Hotels.
- The pool in the gallery A heated indoor pool of twenty metres in the former sixth-floor gallery, lit by the original heritage lantern overhead.
- Auriga Spa Treatment rooms under the old roof lanterns, with a sauna, steam room, ice fountain, vitality pool and a yoga platform.
- Meadow Studio Drift's kinetic sculpture hangs over Aperture in the central atrium, moving above the tables as guests pass beneath.
Rooms & suites
High ceilings behind the sandstone.
Rooms keep the height and light of the old offices, with Frette linen, Bamford products and, in most bathrooms, a deep free-standing tub.
- Rooms Deluxe, Premier, Tower and Skyline Rooms One hundred and fifty-seven rooms averaging about 52 square metres, some in the heritage building and some in the new glass floors above.
- Suites Deluxe and Skyline Suites Twenty-two suites averaging about 80 square metres, with a separate living room; some look out over the city's landmarks.
- Prestige Prestige Suites Four suites averaging about 144 square metres, joining the heritage rooms to modern design. The largest reaches about 245 square metres.
Dining
Three rooms on the ground floor.
Restaurants and bars as listed by the hotel. Shown for information.
- Brasserie 1930 Modern brasserie The signature restaurant, on the Young Street corner
- Aperture Signature menu Executive Chef Gabriele Taddeucci, beneath Meadow
- McRae Bar Cocktails Named after the building's architect
Recognition
Lists it has made.
- Two MICHELIN Keys 2026, raised from one Key in 2025
- The World's 50 Best Hotels No. 16, and Best Hotel in Oceania, 2026
- Gourmet Traveller Hotel of the Year
- Travel + Leisure Luxury Awards Asia Pacific Best City Hotel in Australia
Good to know
Before you go.
- Arrival Check-in from 3 pm, check-out by 11 am.
- Children Welcome. Under-twelves sleep free in the existing beds, and there is a kids' club on request.
- Pets Not accepted.
- Culturists The hotel's Culturists introduce guests to the people, places and stories of Sydney.
Getting there
Flying to Sydney.
Sydney Kingsford Smith is about twenty-five minutes by car, our estimate, and private jets use its business aviation terminals too. Bankstown, open around the clock, is about thirty-five minutes away by our estimate.
- Melbourne 1 h 15
- Queenstown 2 h 55
- Fiji 4 h 30
- Singapore 8 h 40 long-range jet
- Hong Kong 10 h 05 long-range jet
Questions
What guests ask first.
- How many MICHELIN Keys does Capella Sydney have?
- Two. The guide raised it from one Key to two in 2026, and it is the only two-Key hotel in Sydney.
- Does Capella Sydney have a pool?
- Yes. A heated indoor pool of twenty metres sits in the former sixth-floor gallery, beside the Auriga Spa.
- How far is Capella Sydney from the airport?
- About twenty-five minutes by car from Kingsford Smith, by our estimate, depending on traffic.
- Can SkyCourtage arrange the flight to Sydney?
- Yes. We arrange Business and First Class seats on scheduled airlines and private jet charter to Sydney, with one final price, our margin included. The hotel is booked with the hotel or through our booking partner.
Also in Sydney
Other hotels worth the trip.
- Park Hyatt Sydney Practically under the Harbour Bridge, looking across Sydney Cove to the Opera House, with new rooftop suites on a fourth floor.
- The Langham, Sydney Regency-style rooms in mahogany on a street above The Rocks, and a twenty-metre heated pool.
- Crystalbrook Albion Thirty-five rooms in a listed landmark and a modern wing, the largest suite lit by Gothic windows.
- Four Seasons Hotel Sydney Five hundred and thirty-one rooms on George Street, many of them facing the Opera House and the bridge.
- InterContinental Sydney Coogee Beach On the beach at Coogee, with an infinity pool, a rooftop bar over the sand and Rick Stein's first Sydney restaurant.
- QT Sydney A century-old department store and its theatre, dressed in Art Deco references, with a bar and grill that draws the city in.
- The EVE Hotel Sydney Built where a 1970s shopping centre stood, with a balcony or terrace for every room and a pool on the roof.
- The Porter House Hotel Sydney - MGallery An 1876 tobacco warehouse at the foot of a new tower, with leather details in the rooms recalling its trading past.
- Wildlife Retreat at Taronga Inside Taronga Zoo, where some rooms look onto kangaroos and koalas and others across the harbour to the Opera House.
- InterContinental Sydney Built behind the restored Treasury Building of 1851, with 509 rooms, 28 of them suites.
- The Fullerton Hotel Sydney The old General Post Office at No. 1 Martin Place, with Heritage rooms in the old building and Tower rooms beside it.
- Sofitel Sydney Wentworth Between Circular Quay and Martin Place, a short walk from the Botanic Garden, where tilda cooks Australian produce.
- Pier One Sydney Harbour, Autograph Collection A cargo wharf of 1912 beside the southern pylon of the Harbour Bridge, turned into 189 rooms that keep the pier's heritage beams.
- W Sydney On Wheat Road above Darling Harbour, swimming in a heated thirty-metre infinity pool on the roof deck.
Staying at Capella Sydney?
Book the room, then the flight.
Rates and availability come from the hotel itself. For the journey to Sydney, a Business or First Class seat or an aircraft of your own: tell us the date and we come back with one final price, our margin included.
Opens the hotel's own website. We have no arrangement with the hotel.