Showcasing exclusively local and regional produce, dining at Southern Ocean Lodge plates up a culinary journey of Kangaroo Island and the greater food bowl of South Australia, while supporting the community and local economy.
Whet your appetite
The Southern Spa is a private sanctuary of calm, nestled into a lee of the landscape overlooking gently rolling hills of bushland and offering a dive-in menu of spa treatments featuring local beauty botanicals, a gym, sun deck and hot and cold plunge pools.
Heaven awaits
The Baillie Lodges commissioned documentary ‘Sunshine Rising’ produced by South Australian filmmakers 57 Films traces the return journey of Southern Ocean Lodge, recreated following the 2020 bushfires to a triumphant reopening in 2023. Watch film
Southern Ocean Lodge has been recognised with the American Express Travel One To Watch Award for 2025. Presented ahead of The World’s 50 Best Hotels 2025 official awards ceremony, this prestigious accolade celebrates a rising-star hotel with the potential to break into the top 50 ranking in future editions of The World’s 50 Best Hotels list.
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Writing for Traveller, Ben Groundwater reflects on the rebirth of Southern Ocean Lodge, rebuilt five years after bushfires. Guests savour fine dining and signature tours to sites like Seal Bay, yet his joy comes at dawn, watching the ocean horizon glow with colour - a daily reminder of renewal woven into the lodge’s very foundations.
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We’re thrilled to be named in the newly released Robb Report 50 Best Luxury Hotels 2025! As the review notes, 'It was never any secret in Australia that Kangaroo Island was home to one of the world’s best resorts.' Discover the full list and review here.
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In exciting news, Southern Ocean Lodge has been crowned Resort of the Year in the 2025 Gourmet Traveller Hotel and Travel Awards. “This year’s winners showcase the evolution of Australian luxury and stand out for their distinct sense of place,” says editor Joanna Hunkin. Huge congratulations to the lodge team! Check out the best of the best.
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Southern Ocean Lodge has been recognised in Modern Luxury’s 2025 Best of Luxury Travel Awards, a prestigious roundup celebrating the finest in global luxury travel. This coveted accolade places Southern Ocean Lodge among the world’s most exceptional destinations for discerning travellers seeking unforgettable experiences.
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Travel writer Laurie Werner journeys to the remote south coast of Kangaroo Island to experience the reimagined Southern Ocean Lodge. In her latest piece for Forbes, she captures the lodge’s striking design, immersive connection to nature, and the sense of calm it offers at the edge of the world. It’s a beautifully written invitation to escape to one of Australia’s most extraordinary coastal retreats.
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Southern Ocean Lodge has been named on the prestigious 50 Best Discovery list - an elite global guide to the world’s most exceptional hotels, restaurants, and bars.
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Esteemed writer Liam Freeman visited Australia from the UK last year to stay at Southern Ocean Lodge. Here he shares the story of his 20,000-mile ‘slow travel’ odyssey, concluding on Australia's Galapagos. It’s a standout piece, well worth a break to read it and make a virtual escape to Kangaroo Island’s wildly beautiful south coast.
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Baillie Lodges' flagship property, Southern Ocean Lodge, has taken out a trifecta in the Luxury Travel magazine's 2024 Gold List. We're thrilled to win the New Hotel or Resort Design for our new-look luxury lodge, as well as the Editor’s Pick award, and to top it off, the Outstanding Contribution to Luxury Travel in Australia award.
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Esquire Australia has acknowledged the finest hotels to swing open their doors during the past 12 (or so) months from India to Iceland and closer to home, Australia. Richard Clune showcases the evolving attraction of these places, such as sustainability and the lure of luxury that transcends the conventional norm.
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Southern Ocean Lodge has snagged a coveted spot on Fodor’s Finest list of the best 100 hotels for travel in 2025, sharing the limelight with outback sister Longitude 131° in the Australia and South Pacific category. Also part of the family, Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge features amongst the top picks in the USA and Canada.
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We’re delighted to reveal that Southern Ocean Lodge has been voted #1 accommodation in Australia in the industry-leading Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards for 2024.
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We’re thrilled to see the inaugural Telegraph Hotel Awards showcasing the 50 best hotels from across the world, ranked and rated by experts – with Southern Ocean Lodge ranked best in Oceania, and at #8 in the world!
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Four Baillie Lodges properties feature in this Forbes Australia list of the top ten private destinations for executives. There’s no excuse needed, we think, to take a well-deserved break and head to Capella Lodge, Longitude 131˚, Huka Lodge or our own lodge here on KI.
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Baillie Lodges unveils ‘Sunshine Rising’, a commissioned documentary that charts the course of the recreation of its flagship property, Southern Ocean Lodge. The 30-minute film captures the planning, construction and very personal reactions and reflections from those working on the site over the lodge’s four-year path to reopening.
Watch now
Condé Nast Traveler greenlights seven hotels across the globe embracing sustainable and purposeful landscape designs. ‘The hotels of the future are all about their lush environment’, writes Christine Chitnis, an aspect that was key in the rebuild of Southern Ocean Lodge.
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Southern Ocean Lodge has been named in 5th place in the just-announced Robb Report 50 Best Hotels List 2024, “It’s the epitome of Australian contemporary coastal style and a luxurious gateway to uniquely Australian nature and wildlife experiences.”
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Southern Ocean Lodge has been announced in the Robb Report’s Best of the Best Awards for 2024. In the travel category, Southern Ocean Lodge was a clear winner and the reason was simple: this wasn’t a renovation, it was a reinvention. Read the full list of the world’s supremo travel destinations now.
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Baillie Lodges flagship Southern Ocean Lodge is the headline act in this story in Departures magazine which also highlights the success of the Luxury Lodges of Australia brand of experiential luxury in the nation’s most extraordinary destinations.
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Australian Traveller magazine’s 100 Aussie Wonders issue is just out, with Seal Bay Conservation Park included in its Coastal Wonders line-up. Home to hundreds of cute and endangered sea-lions, Seal Bay is a signature experience on a stay at Southern Ocean Lodge.
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Esteemed travel writer Mary Lussiana travelled to Australia to try out the new-look Southern Ocean Lodge. Her story is up now in the UK Evening Standard.
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Southern Ocean Lodge has been named in two categories in the prestigious Travel + Leisure’s It List 2024. Our newly reopened flagship lodge has been named in both The 100 Best New Hotels of The Year and The Most Luxurious New Hotels of 2023 lists.
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AFAR, the award-winning travel magazine with a focus on sustainability, has revealed its 31-strong list of the world’s best new hotels of 2024. The selection features the best in design, comfort, and sustainability while delivering extraordinary guest experiences to guests. Contributor Lee Tulloch's review is here.
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Christine McCabe writing for The Australian’s Travel and Luxury section was among the first to visit Southern Ocean Lodge when it opened in December 2023. 'The impressive Great Room is eerily identical to the destroyed original', Christine writes, and '…it’s a new iteration for a new era on Kangaroo Island.'
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Chloe Sachdev has reviewed the newly reopened property for Condé Nast publications around the world, commenting, ‘The retreat has a light touch sustainable DNA that involves using local products, ingredients and people as much as possible… Long live Southern Ocean Lodge and Kangaroo Island!’ We couldn’t agree more.
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AFAR magazine has wrapped up 15 of its top accommodation picks in Australia, including three Baillie Lodges sisters, Longitude 131˚, Silky Oaks Lodge and Southern Ocean Lodge and many more of our fellow members from the Luxury Lodges of Australia collection. There’s loads to explore in 2024!
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Just days before Southern Ocean Lodge is due to open on Kangaroo Island, Natasha Bazika has written of her visit to the studio of assemblage artist Janine Macintosh. 'I spent five days scrounging through the debris looking for interesting relics - mostly ceramics, metal and glass', says Janine.
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Lonely Planet has announced its Best in Travel List 2024 with Kangaroo Island coming in at second place in the prestigious, much anticipated list. It’s perfect timing to spotlight this spectacular destination to the world, just as we prepare to open.
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The generously inclusive package includes a two-night stay at the newly reopened Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island plus the option of two nights at sister property The Louise in the Barossa Valley, complete with complimentary airport transfers.
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We’re thrilled to announce today that Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island has been named in TIME’s World’s Greatest Places List for 2023. There are 50 extraordinary travel destinations named in this, TIME’s third annual list – and you can see the full list here:
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Writing for The Weekend Australian, Roy Eccleston travelled to Southern Ocean Lodge to see the new iteration of the globally celebrated original. Roy was one of the last writers to stay at Southern Ocean Lodge before it was destroyed in the summer fires of 2020 and wrote the award-winning exclusive shortly afterwards.
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Make a cuppa and take a moment to flick through Tourism Kangaroo Island's travel guide, offering visitors the latest information on what to see and do on this incredible island.
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It’s a new iteration for a new era on Kangaroo Island.Christine McCabe The Australian
On the top of so many bucket lists the world over, this is one for well-heeled lovers of nature, who will want to return and return, not just for the lodge but for the island which offers different pleasures every season.Mary Lussiana The Standard
As darkness falls, I gaze on the Southern Cross and its jewel-box open cluster - each of the 100-plus stars an entire planetary system - and every night, in my cloud-like king-size, I’m lulled to sleep by the ocean’s roar.Liam Freeman Tatler
