W Sydney is Doing its Bit to Bring the Vibe Back to the Harborside

Most Sydneysiders of a certain vintage will have grown up paying regular visits to Darling Harbour, a former industrial port that was developed into a touristy entertainment precinct through the eighties and nineties—and where W Sydney hotel stands today.

But unlike most of my contemporaries, it wasn’t the aquarium, Harbourside mall or maritime museum that attracted me there as a youngster. It was a mate of mine, who lived in a ridiculously cool warehouse conversion apartment opposite Darling Harbour, near Sydney’s Chinatown. We’d often hang out at this guy’s place, which had a total 1980s NY artist’s loft vibe (appropriately enough, as his mum was a prominent painter), flicking through THE FACE magazine, playing early-’90s hip-hop records.  

A few years later, in one of my first jobs, I’d ride my skateboard daily across Darling Harbour on my way to work in a beautiful art deco building just behind The Star Sydney casino. Around that time, on weekends I’d often be found at Darling Harbour, too—patronizing the state-of-the-art Home nightclub, which frequently featured leading international DJs (Jeff Mills, Roger Sanchez and such) alongside Sydney’s best beat-mixing talent.  

Suffice to say, I’ve spent a lot of time around this neighborhood over the years. So it felt familiar checking in at the new (since October 2023) W Sydney hotel, housed in a freshly built structure dubbed The Ribbon, positioned right next to the old Home. Which is still a club, remarkably, 25 years after it opened. (Of course, the music you’ll hear there now is nowhere near as good as the stuff they played when I was in my twenties. They don’t make ’em like they used to, sonny boy.) 

Like all W hotels, the new Sydney iteration is designed to cater to those who are no strangers to a throbbing dance floor. Clubbing and electronic music are in the W brand’s DNA, so it should come as no surprise that the hallways of this vast 588-room property (the largest W in the world) have a dimly lit, purple disco vibe, and at night, the area surrounding the rooftop pool transforms into a buzzy club-lounge of sorts.  

On the first night of my stay, I had a couple of good, strong cocktails and some excellent bar food up there at sundown with my friend and fellow travel scrivener Chloe Sachdev, and when we left, the uber-friendly staff begged us to return later. “Come back after dinner, guys,” they perkily importuned. “It’s going to be amazing! We’ve got such a good DJ! You know, we don’t work at the W hotel—we party at the W! Woo!” 

Bless ’em, it was clear what they meant: that the staff stay upbeat and participate in the party-on atmosphere. But contrary to their words, they do in fact work—the customer care here is great, super down-to-earth and eager to please. Providing sparkling service with a smile, the staff seem genuinely happy to be on deck at the W.  

I took my 15-year-old daughter to dinner at the BTWN restaurant that evening, and the beverage manager Ahmad took terrific care of us, pouring me some smashing drops to match the modern Australian cuisine. For my daughter, he offered a bubbly pink non-alcoholic concoction—NON1 salted raspberry and chamomile, an Aussie tipple developed by a former Noma chef—which so closely resembled champagne I received disapproving looks from the couples at the tables bookending ours. (What can I say, people? I’m not like a regular mom… I’m a cool mom.) 

The menu at BTWN leans into the Australian location, heavy on antipodean produce and trimmings. We skipped the large main courses and instead ordered up a range of smaller snack and appetizer plates, including kangaroo tartare, Australian bay lobster sliders, oysters with finger lime and native pepper mignonette, wild-caught prawns in XO butter, grilled Fremantle octopus in miso sauce, and Murray cod fish fingers. For sweets, rather than sample the dessert bar by Singapore’s acclaimed Janice Wong, we kept it local and went for the artisanal Aussie cheese plate with Malfroy’s biodynamic wild honey, from the Blue Mountains, an hour west of Sydney. 

Perhaps referencing Australia’s busy beekeepers, there’s a honeycomb motif to the glitzy golden entrance foyer at the W, which transitions into an ocean liner–like lobby and bar space overlooking the harbor. Rooms here also make the most of the view, with floor-to-ceiling windows offering skyline and ocean outlooks categorized as Wonderful, Fabulous, Splendid and Spectacular (through to Extreme Wow, reserved for the 202 sq m penthouse suite). Apartments are also available, from one to three bedrooms.  

Post-dinner, I put my daughter in an Uber back to her boarding school dorm and went out to watch a band at a bar on Broadway, near Sydney’s Central railway station—taking advantage of the W’s handy position to walk to the venue. Being on the edge of the CBD, the W is located conveniently for most of Sydney’s major tourist attractions and cultural sights, with the city-center shopping, restaurants, galleries and museums all within easy walking distance, and the Star casino and the new Barangaroo integrated resort development also a short stroll away. Unlike Melbourne’s, the Sydney CBD does grow quiet of an evening, but the restaurants and bars of Surry Hills, Paddington and other inner-city suburbs are quickly accessed by public transport or taxi from the W. 

When I returned to the W later that night after seeing a terrific Brisbane-based psychedelic rock group called Nice Biscuit (alright, alright, Gen Z is capable of making decent music—occasionally), two loved-up young clubbers were occupying a bench outside the hotel, engaged in the sort of passionate embrace better kept behind closed doors. As I boarded the elevator, a lively group of partygoers were departing the 29/30 bar, on the way to their next nocturnal adventure. It took me back.  

Once one of the world’s great around-the-clock cities, Sydney’s been a little repressed for a while now. But it’s gradually getting its life back—including its nightlife. The W is doing its part to help make that happen. As the bar staff might put it: “Woo!” 

marriott.com/en-us/hotels/sydwh-w-sydney; rates from AUD 389 per night

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