Sullivans Cove Apartments review, Hobart: A backstage pass to Hobart's waterfront

THE PLACE

Sullivans Cove Apartments, Hobart

THE LOCATION

Sullivans Cove is more than just Hobart's port. It's a place to stroll past icebreakers heading for Antarctica, cheer Sydney-Hobart yachts tying up at Constitution Dock (in late December) and drink in the long summer twilights from waterfront restaurants. Sullivans Cove Apartments manages 51 luxury apartments in this iconic and historic part of the city, the newest being two penthouse apartments in a converted flour mill in Brooke Street.

THE SPACE

On the top floor of a converted flour mill, Brooke Street Terrace Penthouse (along with the Loft Penthouse) is the only holiday accommodation in the building, which makes you feel like a local as soon as you arrive; the rest of the three-storey block has residential apartments, businesses and a ground-floor restaurant and tapas bar called the Black Footed Pig. Because there's no reception area, you have to use an access code to open the main door and get into your apartment. This might seem impersonal, like checking into a capsule hotel. I find it liberating, like staying at a friend's apartment, particularly when I find an envelope on the kitchen table containing essentials such as keys and the remote for the parking garage.

THE ROOM

The Terrace Penthouse apartment is light, airy and spacious. The white walls and state-of-the-art kitchen, complete with espresso machine and complimentary coffee pods, are offset by timber floors, carpet in the bedrooms, a rustic wooden dining table and original rough-hewn posts and beams that could give you splinters if you ran your hands along them. There are three bedrooms (one with a king bed, the others have queens) and three bathrooms with pretty blue and white Portuguese-style tiles and two deep freestanding baths (contemporary, not a claw-foot in sight). Sliding glass doors lead from the dining area to a tiled terrace with big-sky views over the rooftops to the river. The best thing about this place, however, is that it artfully straddles the divide between boutique hotel (think waffle bathrobes, L'Occitane toiletries and a minibar) and private apartment (make yourself a coffee, open the windows for fresh air, exit the building without seeing anyone). Earplugs are thoughtfully provided, hinting at noise on weekend nights, but it's quiet during my mid-week stay. Of course there's fast and free Wi-Fi.

FOOD