Jupiter's Hotel & Casino

Recently I had the chance to attend a two-day retreat for work focussed around integrating ICT elements into my teaching strategies. While the retreat itself was beneficial from a work perspective, that isn’t the reason I am writing this post. What I did want to spend some time commenting on was the venue chosen for the retreat - Jupiter’s Hotel & Casino. While the place itself has been around for a few decades, I had never actually stayed in the venue for any reason. So it was with great delight that I had this opportunity to experience what made the place so appealing to tourists and locals alike, and I came away from the entire experience feeling quite pleased with what was on offer. If you are looking at staying on the Gold Coast for any reason, and are looking for a quality venue that is almost completely self-contained, then you really should consider Jupiter’s Hotel & Casino.

Now I should point out that in terms of accommodation, I was staying on the Executive Floor. This had some added advantages that the regular rooms don’t posses, and depending on your requirements it might be worthwhile spending the extra dollars to secure these services. Aside from low-level things such as valet parking (something I did not use, simply because I didn’t realise I had it until after I had already parked the car) and daily newspapers, the biggest advantage you have comes in the form of the Executive Lounge. This area is open 24 hours a day, and not only does it offer a free continental breakfast each morning, it is also stocked with refreshments for the entire duration of the day. This can be quite handy at times, although I myself did not take advantage of these “between meal” offerings.

What is really nice about the Executive Lounge comes at 5:00pm, when free pre-dinner drinks and canapés are offered to anyone residing on the Executive floors. The offerings here are really quite nice, and on one of the two evenings I was at the Hotel it completely replaced dinner. It’s nice to be able to eat and drink as much as you want, and know that the food will keep on coming. While it’s limited to things such as cheeses, cold meats, fruit, and various other nibbles, all of the food was of a very high quality. The selection of drinks covered both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, with the alcoholic selection covering several types of beer as well as both red & white wine. The surroundings themselves were lovely, so honestly this benefit alone offers you value for money when it comes to paying just that little bit extra for staying on the Executive floor.

The rooms themselves are quite basic, but certainly comfortable. While there is no balcony offerings (at least not that I could tell), the rooms are fully equiped with all that you’d need. This includes good quality broadband Internet, available via both Ethernet and wifi. The rooms also come stocked with a very nice minibar, with the prices themselves not too unreasonable (although you could just as easily save some money by bringing in your own supplies and storing them in the fridge). Honestly, the best feature of the room had to be the extremely effective blackout curtain, which did exactly what was advertised - so much so that even when waking up at 8:00am it was impossible to tell without a clock that the sun had already risen. Pushing the button to raise the curtain resulted in the room going from pitch black to a flood of daylight, so this feature was extremely welcome.

Moving further afield of the actual Executive floors, the rest of the Hotel & Casino offers a lot of interesting diversions, but certainly nothing that means you wouldn’t run out of things to do within 2-3 days of staying there. There are a number of quality restaurants and bars within the Hotel, and the Casino section is certainly overflowing with tables and poker machines. If gambling is your thing, you are certainly not going to be left wanting at Jupiter’s. If gambling isn’t your thing, there are other excellent services available, including an outdoor pool (which I didn’t use, because it was raining the entire time I was at the Hotel) and some minor retail services. One thing I did try was the Chinese massage service, which certainly achieved some results for me. Reasonable prices, too, so make sure you check it out when you make your stay there.

Overall, I have to say that my 3 day stay at Jupiter’s Hotel & Casino was an extremely positive one, so much so that I am actively considering going back there in the Winter school holiday break for another 3 day stint. If you are looking for somewhere to go away for a weekend, and want a completely self-contained experience for all that you could possibly ask for, then I seriously recommend you consider Jupiter’s Hotel & Casino as your next retreat venue. While it doesn’t offer enough internally for a longer day, it’s more than ideal for a weekend / long weekend approach to your visit.