The Island Pop-Up Hotel with the Best View in Sydney

The harbour glistens in the sunshine and the warm breeze carries on it the scent of freshly cooked seafood and saltwater. Traffic flows across the bridge in the distance, but you can’t hear it – the only thing audible is the lapping of the ocean. Behind you, a luxuriously appointed tent invites afternoon naps. Before you, the deep blue depths of Sydney Harbour. How’s the serenity?

Many of us love the idea of camping – it’s the reality of it we can’t deal with. For city-dwellers who can’t conceive of a morning without a cup of cold-drip let alone a campsite with no toilet, Flash Camp has the solution. Wannabe campers, get your fix on an island glamping ground in the middle of Sydney Harbour.

Flash Camp is calling it a pop-up hotel, and for once the term seems apt. Twenty-two specially designed tents will be raised on Clark Island on November 19 and remain on the beautiful, tiny landmass until December 6, when they’ll disappear again.

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Also setting up shop on the island are the clever cooks behind Three Blue Ducks, who will be providing meals for happy campers. Chef and co-owner Mark LaBrooy says cooking and dining on the island will be “interactive”, and plans to prepare large cuts of meat and freshly caught fish in the open kitchen for guests. Picnic lunch baskets will also be available from Three Blue Ducks.

Each enormous five-metre-diameter canvas tent will be fitted out with king-sized beds, rugs, bamboo furniture, solar-powered lighting and Biology Skin bath products. There will be communal lounge and dining areas and regularly maintained bathrooms.

Located off Darling Point near Double Bay, Clark Island isn’t on any ferry route. It was cultivated by Lieutenant Ralph Clark as a vegetable garden after he arrived at Sydney Harbour with the First Fleet. His crops were continually stolen. A feast the likes of which Three Blue Ducks provide would have been unknown to poor old Clark, so make sure you say a toast to our erstwhile gardener over dinner.

Bookings include boat transfers, breakfast and dinner. Go to Flash Camp to book.