Our family are regular visitors to Coogee Beach, enjoying the beach-side vibe and the fabulous accessible coastal walk. When visiting I’ve often looked longingly at the Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach Hotel and the guests I spy sitting on their balconies enjoying the ocean views. I’d think, “One day!.” So you can imagine it took me all of a nanosecond to say “Yes!” when a friend asked if I’d like to join her for a girl’s getaway to the hotel. It seems particularly decadent staying in a hotel in your own city and so close to home and I was ready to lap it up. While staying at the hotel I arranged to have a look at the accessible accommodation so I could share it with you all.
The hotel is an easy walk or wheel away from the beach but I will caution it is on a hill. Those with a power wheelchair, or a manual chair with power assist, shouldn’t be bothered by the hill but manual wheelchair users may find it hard going.
All common areas of the hotel are spacious and have easy access for a wheelchair user. Lift access is provided to the conference facilities on the lower level and this is the easiest way to access the street to get to the beach.
OCEAN VIEW ACCESSIBLE ACCOMMODATION
Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach hotel has several accessible rooms and during my stay I was able to inspect two of them. The ocean view accessible room is bright, relatively spacious and has a view of Coogee Beach. It’s always refreshing to find a hotel with accessible accommodation at the front of the property and with a good view.
Within the room there’s good circulation space either side of the bed, clearance under the bed for a hoist and all amenities are lowered.
The balcony has a large step so unfortunately it’s not wheelchair accessible. However, the beach and ocean can be seen from inside and it’s lovely to be able to open the balcony door to enjoy the fresh sea air. The room also has the option of interconnecting with another room.
Take a video tour of the room with me (you’ll see me unsuccessfully trying to stay out of shot!) by clicking the arrow on the video below –
The entry door to the accessible rooms is a standard door width so if you have a particularly large wheelchair I suggest calling the hotel direct and chatting to the staff to ensure your needs will be met.
ACCESSIBLE BATHROOM
The bathroom has a hand-held height adjustable shower, flip-down wooden shower seat and grab rails throughout.
The bathroom sink has room under it for wheelchair access, is equipped with lever taps and most amenities (except for the power point) are lowered, including the washing line.
ACCESSIBLE ROOM
It’s always wonderful when a hotel has more than one variety of accessible room. The hotel has one ocean view room (seen above) and accessible rooms with a street view. The only difference between the two rooms is the verandah and view.
This room also has the option of interconnecting with another room.
ACCESSIBLE BATHROOM
The bathroom has a hand-held height adjustable shower, flip-down wooden shower seat and grab rails throughout.
The bathroom sink has room under it for wheelchair access, is equipped with lever taps and most amenities (except for the power point) are lowered including the washing line.
NON-ACCESSIBLE ROOM
My friend and I didn’t require an accessible room for our stay so we were booked into a Twin Ocean View room. We were certainly very comfortable, loved being able to walk across the road to the beach and enjoyed checking out which restaurant we’d choose for dinner.
Sleep is always in short supply at home so I eagerly anticipated sinking into my comfortable bed after dinner. I had a blissful sleep but couldn’t resist waking up to check out sunrise the next morning. I was unsuccessful at sneaking out to check it out without waking my friend (the door gave me away), but really, I don’t know what she was thinking staying in bed when a gorgeous sunrise was happening right on our verandah-front!
The bathroom in our room was compact compared to the accessible bathroom and had a shower over the bath but perfectly fine given we had no special needs.
The verandah off our room was large and just begged for us to sit and enjoy the view while we had a good old fashioned chinwag. In the busy day-to-day grind it is hard to spend quality time with friends so it was wonderful to have time to catch up and indulge in a bit of bubbly.
The view from the room was pretty spectacular after all.
And here’s the gorgeous sunrise I rolled out of bed for.
HOTEL FACILITIES
The Crowne Plaza Coogee is ideal for a staycation with so many facilities within the hotel or a short walk/wheel away.
The roof-top pool and terrace takes full advantage of the hotel’s position with views over Coogee Beach. Ramp access is available to the deck of the roof-top pool with the pool’s entry via a ladder.
A buffet breakfast is always a treat for me when staying at a hotel so I was keen to check out what was on offer at Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach. The restaurant has ramp access and is thoughtfully arranged. The buffet breakfast is organized in zones which always makes access much easier. People spread out throughout the restaurant rather than one particular area becoming congested.
I indulged in my usual made-to-order omelette and I was impressed the chef brought the egg orders to guests rather than people milling around the cooking station. Another well thought out feature of the restaurant set-up.
Undercover parking is available at the hotel. The carpark clearance is 2 metres.
An overnight stay is always brief and I do wish we’d had more time to enjoy the restaurants and other features of the hotel but we certainly made the most of our catch up in a beautiful location.
My stay at Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach was thanks to my friend sharing her birthday voucher however we did appreciate the lovely upgrade to the Twin Ocean View room courtesy of the hotel. All opinions are my own and are a result of a fab stay. You can read more about Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach hotel here.
NEARBY
Coogee Beach, restaurants and shopping is just around the corner from Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach hotel. And even better, Coogee Beach has just taken delivery of a beach wheelchair to help visitors enjoy the beach. Bondi Beach is one suburb away and the city is only about a 15 minute drive (depending on the time of day and traffic of course!).
We love being beside the ocean and the Coogee coastal walk delivers spectacular ocean views. On a previous visit as a family we spotted an abundance of animal life. Whales were breaching in the water, we spied a turtle swimming close to the coastline and the birds were more exotic than your usual suburban birds.
You can read our review and tips of the Coogee walk here.
Sounds lovely and that sunrise is so beautiful. I have a bad habit of being too lazy to get up for them. A Coogee staycation is highly appealling!!