Introduction

In Manly I’m staying at the Manly Pacific Hotel, which is an MGallery property of the ALL Accor group. When I was here two years ago, the hotel was closed for renovation. It reopened in 2023.

Location

The Manly Pacific is perfectly located on the other side of the road, opposite Manly Beach. In the early mornings, even before dawn, the promenade is busy and you can watch the joggers, runners, surfers, and swimmers from your balcony if you have a beach facing room.

The Hotel

The hotel has a beach theme, but manages to pull it off without being tacky. The interiors are kept in light colours, with lots of white and marble being used.

On the ground floor, there is a bar to the left as you enter, which seems quite popular, not just with the hotel guests. To the right is the restaurant, the Bistro Manly.

Deluxe Seaview Room

I’m staying in a Deluxe Seaview Room on the sixth floor. The hotel has eight floors in total.

Inside the room, the beach theme continues with the use of white and pale pastel colours. The entrance opens into a large room with the balcony at the far end.

There is a bar with an interesting collection of items in it and a fully stocked fridge. In case you’re wondering, the green box of Sex Wax is wax for your surfboard. There’s also a kettle and Nespresso machine with complimentary tea and coffee.

The bed is excellent. It’s very large and the mattress offers good support. The pillows have just the right of firmness for me.

Running along nearly the full length of the wall opposite the bed is a low wooden bench. I’m not fully sure what this is for. I just put my folded clothes that don’t require hanging here, as there are no drawers in the wardrobe.

The view from the room is spectacular. In the mornings you can just sit on the balcony with a cup of coffee watching the sun rise and listening to the waves crashing on the beach.

There are a few strange things about the room, though. It’s not really very practical. The lack of storage space for clothes I already mentioned. Then, inside the bathroom, there is no handrail or anything of the sort, at least not in a place that makes sense. There are two hooks near the toilet, but that means that what ever you do, you end up dripping all over the floor when you come out of the shower to grab a towel to dry off.

Other than that, though, the shower is great and has excellent water pressure. The cosmetics are by Australian brand Leif and have a nice herbal scent.

The Bistro Manly

Breakfast is served at Bistro Manly on the ground floor. In most places I visit, breakfast is complimentary for ALL Accor Diamond members at the weekends. However, in Australia the complimentary breakfast extends to the whole stay, not just the weekend.

They have a very nice spread for the breakfast buffet. There’s also a separate buffet at the far end of the restaurant with a good selection of hot dishes. My favourite, though, is the juicer they have that allows you to make your own freshly squeezed breakfast juice.

The service at breakfast is a bit strange, though. Again, it’s not very practical and I think it’s because the staff have not been trained properly. For example, as soon as you put down your cutlery, somebody immediately appears to remove your plate. The only problem is that they don’t replace the cutlery, so that most people end up stealing cutlery from adjacent tables. It’s the same with the coffee. They immediately remove empty cups, but they don’t ask if you’d like a refill.

I also had dinner at Bistro Manly on the first night I arrived back in Sydney. The food is good. They have a limited selection of vegetarian dishes, but at least you can get something other than risotto, which is often the only non-meat options in many of the places I visit on this trip.

Conclusion

The Manly Pacific is a bit of a mixed bag. The location of the hotel on the beach front is hard to beat and the views from the rooms with a sea view are brilliant. The staff at the hotel were all great and typically Australian, in the sense that they were friendly and welcoming. At the same time, though, I felt that they hadn’t been properly trained.