Arafel Park review, Burradoo: Weekend away in the Southern Highlands

The property is rented as a whole, meaning we also have access to the small and perfectly formed servants' quarters. Exploring its dinky and stylish bedrooms makes me urgently wish more friends had come.

THE ROOMS

There is an element of the maze to Arafel Park. Living rooms lead into hallways leading into a dining room which has an entry to the sunroom and a hallway and two ways back around to the kitchen. There are so many rooms, including a laundry with bathroom, a separate pantry and a vast main bathroom (formed from two former his and hers bathrooms) with a full-size stone bath and Archon toiletries, it took us two days to realise there was a third bathroom beside the front door (as opposed to the sunroom doors, patio door and back door).

In lesser hands this elegant labyrinth of rooms would have been knocked through. All hail the Herrmanns for preserving much of the layout. They have also retained the leaking sunroom roof, a quirk dealt with by providing buckets to catch drips when it rains.

Arafel Park's look is luscious, calm and refined with a mix of pale-hued button-backed chairs, soft deep couches, beautiful Portuguese bed-linen, grand curtains and handsome glass, metal, linen and wooden lighting. It is chilly enough for a fire and there are baskets of wood for the fire stove in the informal living-room and the grander fireplace in the front room. The latter also houses an upright piano. This slightly out of tune instrument entrances the smallest guest who offers consistent plinky-plonky recitals for anyone passing.

We sleep like Bertie Wooster after Jeeves has run his bath and provided a nightcap, and wake to birdsong and wind rustling through the pines.

THE FOOD

On arrival we discover an utter bounty of fare in the kitchen. Freshly baked bread and white chocolate and fruit muffins. Baskets of gourmet pasta, flatbreads, chips, bowls of fruit and, in the fridge, local milk and eggs, prosciutto, butter and one heck of a cheese platter.

The pantry features everything a cook may need including rice, dried herbs, flour, canned goods, teas and a vast array of jams, marmalades, peanut butter and more. Over three days we use the well-equipped kitchen (so many drawers of pots, pans, utensils, crockery etc, it spins the mind) and our brought produce to whip up a roast, a flan, a quiche and spaghetti bolognese and don't feel the need to venture out.

STEPPING OUT

Bowral, the Mosman of the Southern Highlands, offers a plethora of shopping and galleries including fashion and home decor boutiques, high-end restaurants and excellent pastries and coffee.

Ponder famous googlies at the Bradman Museum, take a nature walk at Gibbergunyah Reserve or view exquisitely intricate indoor and outdoor model railway displays at All Aboard in Braemar.

You can also drop in on the Hermann's flagship Bespoke Letterpress store and cafe on Bong Bong Street.

THE VERDICT

After two days we feel like genteel folk ensconced in a secluded and refined country home.

ESSENTIALS

Arafel Park, Bundanoon, from $765 a night (two-night minimum). See stayz.com.au;

Lenny Ann Low was a guest of Stayz

Our Rating 4.5/5

TripAdvisor Traveller Rating – not yet rated.

HIGHLIGHT

Dozing in afternoon sunlight on a deep leather sofa beneath a cashmere rug gazing at tall verdant pines.

LOWLIGHT

The Nespresso machine is full of pre-loved (empty) coffee capsules and one of two frilly umbrellas in the foyer is a (broken) show-piece only.