Rydges Palmerston - Darwin, an EVT hotel

Property is 20km from Darwin City right in the heart of Palmerston. Shopping centre nearby and free car parking at hotel. Hotel is clean and modern.

I asked for a pair of slippers for use inside the room, coz I stayed there for 4 days (3 nights). The receptionist advised me that it is only available for executive rooms, and not for my booking of King Room with Balcony. That's a bit disappointed! Other than that, the room is clean and good.

We stayed here the first two nights of our three week holiday in Northern Territory and were really pleased that we'd chosen Rydges Palmerston. We wanted somewhere not far from the airport, not in Darwin itself, and in the direction of Litchfield National Park which was our first planned day. Also a location that was safe, with secure parking and was near stores where we could buy supplies for our road trip. Rydges ticked all the boxes. The room was great - large, tastefully decorated in a modern style and had a balcony with two chairs and coffee table. The view wasn't much but we were in a city inland so was as expected. We'd been travelling for over 24 hours so really appreciated the extra large bed with great pillows and also the very nice bathroom with good toiletries and a great shower. We found the room lighting quite harsh but this was a recurring theme in hotels on our trip. The bedside lights were not very big or powerful so it was either all or little. We would have liked easily accessible sockets, by both bedside units, to charge our phones, etc. We were jetlagged so didn't use the restaurant or pool but both looked good. The reception and main areas of the hotel were all very smart and spacious. It felt classy. The booking website said 'ATM/cash machine on site' but when we asked at reception we found it was a few minutes walk away in the city. There was a parking garage which only let you in if you'd registered your car with reception. there were plenty of spaces and it felt secure. Something we appreciated as this was the beginning of our trip and we were unsure how careful we had to be about leaving our rental car. We found Coles, Kmart and Target nearby where we wanted to get things for our trip so the location was perfect for that. We also had a wonderful long first day in Litchfield National Park which was only an hour or so drive away - we entered via the Cox Peninsular highway (saw wild emus and wallabies) and did a loop via Batchelor to return to the hotel. All in all I'd recommend this hotel as a good base if you do not want to be in the centre of Darwin and want to be near the highway to be able to get to National Parks, the airport, Darwin centre or big stores.

Seriously, a place of this calibre should have a CRM system that collects data of previous guests. I’ve stayed here for well over 10 years and still get asked if I’ve been here before. I don’t expect some kind of VIP stuff but it just amazes me that something doesn’t pop up on their screen stating “repeat guest” or “stayed 40 times in 10 years” etc etc. The rooms are still immaculate but also the walls are still thin. You can hear everything next door and above/below you. Still my favourite place out of the 2 in Palmerston.

Comfy and quiet, house keeping staff were very helpful and friendly, some of front desk staff not so helpful, restaurant was nice and staff were friendly

Location: convenient Staff: nice, polite, friendly and professional ☺️ Breakfast: reasonable variety of options, pastries could be more fresh and perhaps having few whole fruit options Room cleanness: reasonable, few stains on the sheets that could have been washed