Where to stay in Brisbane: the best neighbourhoods and hotels

Brisbane's centre sits on a tongue of land wrapped by the river, which keeps it compact and easy to read. Queen Street Mall, a pedestrianised run of shops and arcades, is the spine. City Hall and King George Square are a block away, the City Botanic Gardens fill the tip of the peninsula, and ferries leave from the riverside for a breezy tour of the suburbs.

The hotels have range. You can sleep in two of the country's grandest heritage buildings, in a modernist tower by one of Australia's most celebrated architects just off the mall, or directly above Central Station, with trains to the airport and the Gold Coast downstairs. South Bank is a short walk over the bridge. For a first visit of two or three nights, this is the simplest answer.

South Bank is Brisbane's front garden. Facing the CBD across the river, it is a long sweep of parkland with a sandy, man-made swimming lagoon called Streets Beach, free barbecues, weekend craft markets and a riverside path made for evening walks. The city's cultural heavyweights line up beside it: the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, the Queensland Museum, the Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art.

Hotels cluster around Grey Street, between the parklands and the convention centre, and include the closest hotel to the performing arts centre. Most are four-star and good value for what you get. Families love it here: the children can swim for nothing, and nobody has to get in a car. Restaurants and bars are plentiful, and the bohemian cafés of West End are just up the road.

Fortitude Valley, known to everyone simply as the Valley, is Brisbane after dark. Its centre is a tight knot of bars, clubs and music venues that gets properly loud at weekends. A few blocks away, James Street is the opposite mood: a leafy strip of fashion boutiques, bakeries and restaurants where the city's best-dressed come for long lunches.

The hotels here are the ones in the magazines. Expect art on every wall, rooftop pools and bars people queue for, from a resort-style urban hideaway on James Street to an art-inspired boutique with individually styled rooms. The riverside restaurants of Howard Smith Wharves, tucked under the Story Bridge, are about fifteen minutes' walk. Light sleepers should stay on the James Street side.

Spring Hill rises directly behind the CBD, a pocket of old workers' cottages, medical offices and leafy streets that most visitors never notice. Its appeal is simple: you are a short downhill walk from Queen Street Mall, but rooms cost less and the streets are quiet at night. The walk back up is the catch.

There is more style here than you might expect. One hotel takes its cues from an Australian abstract painter and has a 50-metre pool with a sundeck; another occupies a 1920s building of terrazzo stairs and heritage detail, perched above the city. Roma Street Parkland, a big subtropical garden, is on the doorstep.

South-east of the river, Woolloongabba exists in most visitors' minds for one reason: the Gabba, Brisbane's famous cricket and Australian rules ground. Stay here for a Test match and you can walk to your seat in minutes. Some hotels stand directly opposite the stadium, and apartment hotels with lap pools and kitchenettes suit groups of friends.

Next door, Kangaroo Point is a quiet residential peninsula with the best skyline views in the city from its riverside cliffs. Self-contained apartments here come with space, a heated pool and a tennis court. South Bank and the CBD are minutes away by car or ferry. Outside match days it is peaceful, bordering on sleepy.

Brisbane is a river city, not a beach city, but the sea is closer than people think. The Redcliffe peninsula, north-east of the centre on Moreton Bay, is an old-fashioned seaside suburb of calm, sandy beaches, a long jetty with weekend markets and a waterfront path. It is also where the Bee Gees grew up, and there is a laneway dedicated to them to prove it.

Stay in an apartment with a balcony over the water, or at Margate Beach in a beachfront hotel with a rooftop pool, about 25 minutes from the airport and 40 from the city. It makes a relaxed base for families and for anyone who would rather wake to a sea view than a skyline. You will want a car.