Australia Suite, InterContinental Sydney; 61-2-9253-9000; intercontinental.com. There are 509 rooms; doubles range from $169 to $305.

"I dream a house," said the late danish architect Jørn Utzon, "and then I see it in my head." There's no telling what thoughts will dance through your head in the Australia Suite of the InterContinental Sydney, but you certainly wont get tired of the view. Here, the windows and the terrace reveal panoramas of the harbor and Utzon's modern icon, the Sydney Opera House (the architect thought his building—suggesting sails billowing in the wind—looked best from above). If you can tear yourself away from the vista, you'll find other national treasures in Sydney's largest hotel suite, including a gallery's worth of contemporary Australian art. Behind the InterContinentals neoclassical facade, you'll spy remnants of the 1851 Treasury Building (like the tax office that is now a bar) integrated into the hotel complex. Outside, the diversions of The Rocks—once a slum, now a hip restaurant district—and the Opera House itself are just minutes away. A dream location indeed.