The Vine Inn sits proudly on Murray Street, the large facade and palms giving the impression of understated style.

I wish! What lays behind is a mish-mash of bars, a bistro, a pool, a motel, a pokies den. There is no focus, and therefore no cohesion and no sense of being anywhere other than a second rate motel with a few extras whacked on to make it sound OK over the internet.

Our room was down the road at the Vine court, and at $95 was acceptable, but only because of the price. The furniture was un-matching, the linen and doonas totally unrelated to the drapery and the carpet! Wow, the carpet looked like left over fake grass from a mini golf course. It felt like I was staying in a garage sale or a St Vinnies store - weird smells included.

The pool: not cleaned, pool furniture old, faded and dirty. The bistro served bacon laying in hours of fat for breakfast, the most dried out scambled eggs and the coffee? Not sure it was coffee.

Finally... more