Mount Lofty House, Crafters: Weekend Away: Adelaide Hills

Sarah Maguire finds an atmospheric base for exploring the Adelaide Hills.

THE SETTING

Mount Lofty House is at Crafers in the Adelaide Hills, a short drive from the South Australian capital and a popular daytrip destination for city folk drawn by its pretty villages and flourishing foodie and creative scene: cheese, chocolate, beer and wine makers abound, as do cafes, restaurants and galleries. Renowned painter Hans Heysen lived in the Hills, inspired endlessly by the landscape and the light. Mount Lofty House was built in the 1850s as a summer residence for the well-to-do Hardy family, and has its own vast, mind-clearing views over the Piccadilly Valley.

THE SPACE

Mount Lofty House was still a private home when it was gutted in the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires; it was rebuilt as a guesthouse, and is now part of hotel giant Accor's boutique M Gallery chain. It is intended to have the feel of a grand country house, and it succeeds: guests having a poke-about will happen across plush sitting areas, a billiard room and a library; there is a pool to lie by, grounds with vineyards to wander and the Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens are next door.

THE KIT

On my two-night stay I get to experience three of the 33 rooms in the three-level main house: a leaking ceiling in my first room, which has a verandah and one of three new bathrooms in the hotel, leads to a 1.30am evacuation to a less salubrious room in the hotel's boondocks with a Spartan feel and a bathroom showing its age. The next night, however, I am in the Piccadilly Suite: this has a separate bedroom and living area and is all together the duck confit's nuts. As with my first room, it combines traditional features (heavy drapes and period wooden furniture) with enough modern touches to make it feel contemporary. There is an iPod docking station, free Wi-Fi and the bar fridge is stocked with goodies befitting the Hills' foodie reputation.

COMFORT FACTOR

The beds are fine and the linen lovely, and the sitting areas in each room an inviting touch, but the sooner all the bathrooms are refurbished, the better. (There are also plans for further minor room updates, manager Craig Dodd tells me). Ask for a room with a verandah; it's wonderful to be able to throw open French doors and settle outside with some local wine and cheese.