A dramatic art-led design hotel set inside a working vineyard, with Doot Doot Doot's eight-metre chandelier overhead.
Known for Carr Design Group InteriorsDoot Doot Doot RestaurantFlaggerdoot Cocktail BarMerricks North Vineyard Setting
Photo · Unsplash
Why we’d goNothing else on the Peninsula has committed so completely to a design vision, and it has paid off in a hotel that feels genuinely international rather than aspirationally regional.
Jackalope is the most cinematically ambitious thing the Peninsula has built in decades: a black-steel monolith rising out of the Merricks North vineyard, interiors by Carr Design, a giant jackalope sculpture on the lawn, and Doot Doot Doot's extraordinary dining room under a chandelier of 10,000 glass orbs. It set out to announce that the Peninsula could compete internationally on design, and it did.
The rooms lean into scale and contrast, dark walls, oversized baths, long views across the vines. The Flaggerdoot bar is one of the Peninsula's best cocktail rooms. Doot Doot Doot remains a two-hat restaurant with genuine ambition on the plate, anchored by Head Chef Michael Demagistris's cooking.
This is where to stay when you want the Peninsula to feel like an event. One night minimum, two is better.
Part of Jackalope
Worth knowing
If you only do one thing
Book the best room category you can justify, have dinner at Doot Doot Doot the same night, and do not try to drive anywhere afterwards.
Works well with
Doot Doot Doot · Red Hill Estate
Filed under AnniversaryWeekend EscapeCellar DoorFirst DateAll YearCouples
Not sure how to build a day around Jackalope Hotel?
Ask The InsiderIn the journal
These pieces give you the context a listing page never does — the when, the why, and the who-it’s-for.
10 April 2026
You have never been to the Mornington Peninsula. You have a free weekend. You want to know what is actually good, what is overrated, and what the people who live here would tell you to do. This is that guide.
10 April 2026
Stop googling. Start here. A step-by-step planning guide that turns 'we should go to the Peninsula' into an actual weekend, with the decisions in the right order.
16 April 2026
A milestone birthday deserves more than a booking at the usual restaurant. Here is the two-night Peninsula plan that lands the celebration properly: one memorable dinner, one surprising morning, and a stay that makes the whole thing feel earned.
Part of an escape
Skip the planning - these itineraries sequence this venue into a proper Peninsula weekend.
Start in Red Hill wine country, finish at the southern tip, and let the weekend widen as it goes.
One public-access course with genuine ranking credibility, a long lunch on the ridge, a hot springs session, and a stay within ten minutes of the first tee. For groups where not everyone plays.
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Build a day around this
Peninsula Insider guides that put this stop into the context of a full day or weekend.
Where to eat