BreakFree On Hindley

An Okay Place to Stay

The BreakFree on Hindley was right on Adelaide’s Free Bus Zone, so it was easy to get around the city for free.. The neighborhood is a bit seedy with many empty retail spaces. We reserved a two-bedroom (business) suite, which was fortunate because we were then able to use the beds in the second bedroom to hold our suitcases. The beds filled the room, with about 18 inches to spare on three sides. The facility is a series of "wings", with the passageways on the outside. We got all the noise from the passageways (three floors high) and courtyard on the bedroom side of our suite. On the "living room" side we got the noise from all the balconies and courtyard on that side. The hotel seems to be a favorite with young people on the week ends, so there was a lot of noise throughout the night. Once they were gone, it wasn’t so bad. When the dryer didn’t work, the maintenance man was right there to fix it. There was one lamp, and the rest overhead lighting which made the room seem less friendly. The bedside lamp was too dim to read by. The kitchen was well stocked with new pots, pans, dishes, and glassware. The whole aura of the hotel was that of a large apartment complex, and one had to get used to the idea that one wasn’t greeted when as one is in most hotels: a small detail, but important to making one feel welcome and not just a paying customer.

A convenient hotel for Downtown Adelaide

Our hotel room was a "mini-suite", meaning it had a small kitchenette: stove, m/wave, fridge, toaster, table ware, kitchen utensils and one of those real fast, electric hot-water kettles. As long as one did not want to cook a full dinner everything was there. We were on the lowest level and had a spacious, picket-fenced patio with table & chairs, very nice! Air conditioning was silent and superb. The location is a ten minute walk down the street from the Rundle Street Mall and a 15 minute walk from the fabulous (really!) Central Market which is better than Harrod’s top floor. All the tour lines and hotel shuttles stop right in front and there is a pleasant Italian restaurant a few steps away (nothing fancy, mind you) plus lots of other eateries. This hotel seems to consist of several connected apartment buildings. There are probably larger suites/apartments available as well.

Traveller's tip on local attractions

For foodies a visit (or several) to the Central Market is not to be missed. This one is very similar to the French marches (sorry, no accent) only much bigger. The profusion and variety of foods is simply overwhelming; for food lovers it is heaven (or purgatory, if you can’t shop for your kitchen because you’re traveling) Mostly locally grown produce, fancy dairy products and meats, German & Polish style hams and sausages, baked goods, spices, preserves, candies, Asian specialties etc, etc, etc.

Not impressed

We stayed two nights in late November ’07. It was generally a disappointment. While the room did have the basic elements advertised and resembled the room pictured on internet, it was like being in a really sad and dumpy apartment. The furnishings were very bare bone and of cheap quality. There was absolutely nothing in the room to make it a comfortable or enjoyable place to stay. It was quite literally - a place to sleep. The air conditioner barely worked (it was very hot and humid). There were bars on all of the windows. Not a pleasant place to stay with two small children. On top of it all, they only offer a wired connection for internet and ran out of ethernet cords. It took over 24 hours and I’m not sure how a biz hotel runs out of ethernet cords in the first place. I would definitely not recommend even for extended stay.