One of the Blue Mountains’ best-known luxury hotels has been given a major refresh, with redesigned rooms, a more contemporary food and beverage offering, and a new wellness focus led by the Èliva spa, thermal pool, sauna and steam facilities.
For generations of Sydneysiders, Lilianfels has been one of those hotels that feels inseparable from the Blue Mountains. Set close to Echo Point and the Three Sisters, the heritage property has long been associated with romantic weekends, winter escapes and special occasions. Now, following a substantial refurbishment, the hotel has entered a new chapter as Ardour Lilianfels Blue Mountains, with a fresher, more contemporary approach to luxury while retaining much of the character that made it such a recognisable regional retreat.
The bones of the property remain familiar. Lilianfels was originally built in the late 19th century and still carries the atmosphere of a grand country estate, but the latest refurbishment has sharpened the interiors and made the hotel feel more relevant to a new generation of luxury travellers. The public areas feel brighter and more polished, the rooms have been given a stronger design identity, and the overall experience is less traditional without losing its sense of place.
All 89 rooms and suites have been refreshed, with bespoke bedheads, custom textiles, statement furniture and marble detailing helping to lift the overall feel. The result is more contemporary and more considered, while still maintaining the warmth and intimacy that suits a Blue Mountains stay. It feels like an evolution rather than a complete reinvention, which is probably exactly what the property needed.
One of the strongest changes is the renewed focus on food and beverage. The hotel’s social spaces now feel more active and more inviting, and the team on the ground deserves particular credit.
In regional luxury hotels, food and beverage can sometimes feel secondary to the room or the view, but here it plays a major role in the experience.
The service team brings warmth, personality and a real sense of hospitality to the property, whether at breakfast, over a drink in the lounge or at dinner. That human element is important because Lilianfels has always had a strong emotional connection with repeat guests, particularly from Sydney. A renovation can update furniture and finishes, but it is the staff who determine whether the hotel still feels welcoming.
The Lounge has become a stronger social focal point, giving guests somewhere to sit with a glass of wine with a view, have a cocktail, afternoon tea, eat something light or simply settle in by the fire. It feels less like a lobby space and more like somewhere guests might actually choose to spend a few hours. That matters in the Blue Mountains, especially in cooler weather, when part of the pleasure is staying in rather than constantly moving between attractions.
Darley’s remains one of the hotel’s more formal dining experiences, while Miss Lilian offers a more relaxed alternative. The Orangery continues to be a particularly attractive breakfast setting, with plenty of natural light and the kind of relaxed country-house atmosphere that suits the property.
Èliva Spa Gives Lilianfels a Much Stronger Wellness Offering
The most significant addition to the hotel may be the new Èliva spa, which gives Ardour Lilianfels a far more serious wellness proposition than it had previously.
Rather than simply refreshing treatment rooms, the new spa has been designed around a more complete wellness experience, incorporating rest, recovery and thermal therapies. There are treatment rooms, a recovery lounge, a traditional sauna, a steam room and a mineral pool, creating a much more immersive spa journey.
The thermal spa is particularly appealing in the Blue Mountains. There is something about moving between warm water, steam and sauna when the air outside is crisp and cool that makes the experience feel especially suited to the destination. It also encourages guests to spend more time in the spa rather than simply arriving for a massage and leaving an hour later.
That shift reflects a broader change in luxury travel. Wellness is no longer just an optional spa treatment added to a hotel stay. Increasingly, guests want recovery, sleep, stress reduction, movement and thermal therapies to be integrated into the experience. For women in their 40s, 50s and beyond in particular, the conversation around wellness has become more sophisticated, with greater interest in recovery, sleep quality, muscle retention and overall wellbeing rather than beauty treatments alone.
Èliva fits neatly into that change. The spa includes traditional therapies alongside more contemporary recovery-focused experiences, giving guests the option to use the facilities simply for relaxation or to build a more complete wellness experience into their stay.
The mineral pool is a highlight, as are the sauna and steam facilities. Together they create a proper thermal circuit and give the hotel a stronger point of difference within the Blue Mountains. It also means the property is now more appealing as a wellness escape in its own right, not just as a base for exploring the region.
A Stronger Weekend Escape From Sydney
One of the biggest strengths of Ardour Lilianfels is that the refurbishment has not tried to turn it into something completely different. The gardens, heritage architecture, proximity to the Three Sisters and sense of old-world escape remain central to the experience.
Instead, the investment has been directed towards the areas that needed greater energy: the rooms, public spaces, food and beverage and, most importantly, wellness.
For Sydneysiders looking for an easy luxury escape, that makes the property particularly compelling. You can leave the city, arrive in around 90 minutes, spend the afternoon in the thermal pool and sauna, have drinks in the lounge, dine on property and wake up surrounded by one of Australia’s most beautiful natural landscapes.
There is also something appealing about the contrast between active and restorative travel. A morning walk around Echo Point or one of the nearby trails can be followed by time in the steam room, mineral pool or spa, creating a far more rounded weekend than simply checking into a hotel and going out for dinner.
The refreshed Lilianfels feels more relevant than it has for some time. It still has the history and atmosphere that made it one of the Blue Mountains’ most recognisable hotels, but there is now substantially more reason to stay on property and enjoy it.
The new Ardour chapter works because it does not erase what came before. It takes a much-loved hotel and gives it a stronger sense of energy, polish and purpose, with the Èliva spa and the food and beverage team emerging as two of the most important elements of the new experience.
