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Looking for some olde world Australian charm. Don't hesitate to take the turn to Bellingen when your heading up old highway one. Bellingen is one of the nicest little towns you'll find when driving from Sydney up the Pacific Highway towards Queensland. It's about a half an hours drive from the highway (just before you reach Coffs Harbour) through beautiful dairy farms and lush bush. Bellingen has retained the olde worlde charm of an Aussie country town and is set right on the pebbly, pristine Kalang River.
There's some great old heritage buildings, fabulous coffeeshops and cafes and a timeless feeling if you go for a wander down the main street. Around the centre of town you'll discover the Federal Hotel, the locals watering hole.
The pub has been given the total gentrification on the ground floor level and, while they have retained the essential Aussie Pub feel, it's been brought way upmarket.
A nice verandah to one side is where the locals hang out, was packed when we arrived. They have a central bar at the front with a stage where they put on live acoustic, jazz and blues music on weekends. A pub with live music always wins me over. All the usual gaming rooms etc and very posh toilets, and out the back they have a humming restaurant which serves excellent meals, a cut above your average pub fare by a long shot, but not cheap. Obviously very popular - it was packed, and you line uo for your order and take a buzzer. I enjoyed great fish of the day and my friends found the steak cooked to perfection. The rooms upstairs are pretty ordinary however, not up to the standard of the downstairs renovations, ...still the old style, but quite acceptable nevertheless and cheap at $80 a night if you don't mind wandering down the hall to the bathroom.
Bellingen is well worth a visit for it's beautiful scenery, the charm of the old town and if you head on up the valley you can take an awesome rainforest drive over the hill to Dorrigo, which is some of the most beautiful rural scenery in Australia.
If you happen to be in Bellingen on the Sunday of the month when they hold the Bellingen Markets make sure you check it out - it's fantastic with all that a country market should have, awesome choice of food, old wares, plants, clothing, a really nice vibe, plus great music.
Can you imagine a theme park of trampolines? It exists! Sydney boasts a venue called Skyzone, where rows of trampolines lay side by side for you to bounce between, like a big kid. The best part? These trampolines are aimed at adults for health and fitness as well as an active day out. The venue is rather large, and rather fun. You can shoot hoops in a super high basketball ring, play dodgeball, or take a fitness class called tight buns. Or you can jump high into the air from a trampoline and land softly into a sea of foam squares. This is something you always wanted to do. And you didn't even know it existed! Be warned, you may find yourself with The Pet Shop Boys Absolutely Fabulous song stuch in your head and subconcously quoting Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous ''Buns so tight he was bouncing off the walls' from the song - as you leave the fitness class - because you just bounced off the walls with your tight buns!
Where: Alexandria, Sydney
What to wear: Exercise gear
Expenses: Special grip socks, included in the price.
Cost: $18/hour.
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Australia's annual Taste of Manly - food, wine and sustainability festival in Winter is well worth a visit if you're hungry, thirsty and like the beach. At this outdoor gathering of local restaurateurs, you can sample various food and wine from stalls set up along Manly's famous main beach, and then ponder over to the adjacent beachside craft markets. Visit local farmers showing healthy produce, hold chicks or see the bright pink silky bantams, talk to local chefs, and taste wines from nearby regions like the Hunter Valley. Three stages set up at each end of the festival have live music with hay bales or outdoor table seating, and cooking shows are scheduled throughout the day. The festival is free, annual, goes over a two day weekend, and usually held in the first week of Winter.
Check the manly council website to find out when the next festival is scheduled:
Noosaville is a beach town with a river inlet, and the Villa Noosa Hotel is just two blocks back from the picturesque riverfront and restaurant precinct. Noosaville's main street Gympie Terrace, is right on the edge of the river with a host of restaurants and cafes looking out over the park and a wide stretch of water. The region's tourist hotspot is here, with a feeling of relaxed ambience, you can't help but linger over a coffee and Saturday paper.
The main part of the Villa Noosa hotel is a great big tavern style multi-function venue, with restaurant, games room and music venue and there's a comfy motel at the back. The guy on the check-in was friendly and helpful with directions to your room.The Motel itself has a very private feel and the rooms are a fine budget solution - functional, nothing awesome but with everything you would expect. Nice big bathroom, comfy queen-size bed, TV. There is a nice leafy feeling when you look out from the little balcony at the back and you looked down on an attractive pool area from the first floor when accessing the room from the front balcony.
There is certainly a fantastic choice for dining only two blocks from the hotel, and the sunset over the river was really spectacular. There is a classy affluent feel to the town. Our stay in the motel was delightfully uneventful and private, and we felt quite cosy.
The Villa Noosa Hotel has a big Dan Murphy's bottle shop attached, thus there is that certain Aussie "Tavern" feel about the main hotel area. Definitely the whole establishment is focussed on being an entertainment destination, featuring a major music venue for the region, with a lot of big name acts performing.
Popular with the locals, the hotel boasts a function room, and a typical pub bistro. Open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, and all the usual tavern attractions such as big screen TVs showing live sports (including UFC - I have to confess I'm am addict, so I noticed the ad), TAB facilities, gaming machines and it advertised some great live music on weekends.
It's handy that you have lots of food and entertainment options right on hand in the adjoining hotel, though we chose to get out and explore when we got hungry. A supermarket right across the road on one side for some impulse buying, and cheap snacks for the room.
If you're a business traveller, the Villa Noosa has a private function room for meetings, and offers 3 course packages, and caters for conventions and even suggests "cocktail parties"!
We made a quick weekend visit to Noosaville to play my Johnny Cash Show at the Tewantin-Noosa RSL Club, so was able to spend some time in the town of Noosaville.
Things to do in Noosaville
A few minutes from the Noosa Villa Hotel you will find Noosa Marina on the peaceful Noosa River. The river is the main feature of the town and there are plenty of boating activities available at the Marina, including deep sea and river fishing, or crab tours, cruises, ferry services and self-drive hire boats and craft.
The Villa Noosa is also only 5 minutes drive from the hub of Hasting Street and Main Beach Noosa, where you can dine upmarket alfresco, shop, and if you're a surf freak - the waves looked incredible. You can also explore the Noosa National Park and its walking tracks. Noosa Main Beach is a very protected beach with quite gentle surf conditions and is a great spot for beginners to learn how to surf.
On Gympie Terrace there is a Kayak business and that's a great way to get out on the water. They do "Dolphin Adventures" which was a highlight of our stay.
Directions
The Villa Noosa I can be found at 18-22 Mary Street, Noosaville, behind the Dan Murphy’s Bottleshop, or also via Gibson Road .
The Villa Noosa has undercover parking for overnight guests and also plenty of off street car-parking.
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Sydney boasts a fabulously scenic zoo with animals from around the world living on grounds sitting majestically opposite the Sydney Harbour Bridge skyline.
A trip to the zoo is a definitely a great day out in Sydney. You'll walk through the entrance and see giraffes posing against this amazing skyline – a sight made infamous thanks to instagram, and because these giraffes sure know how to pose. You'll then stroll through the park observing animals in re-created living environments.
A great idea is to jump on the aerial pods on arrival, which take approx ten minutes to move over the park. You’ll get an idea of the entire zoo space, take iPhone snapshots of elephants from the air, and perhaps a selfie of yourself in the pod with that spectacular horizon in the background.
You can plan your day to the Zoo’s busy schedule of animal talks. Perhaps a seal show, or the koala encounter, and then inbetween shows visit your favourite animals. The Australian native black cockatoos with fancy yellow tips are a beautiful sight, and the gorillas are intriguing to watch with such adorable human expressions. Perhaps you'll choose to stroll past the playful seals 'barking' and splashing about in outdoor pools. The seals then dive below the surface into what is the underground viewing pool, if you wander underground to watch them swimming it is a very peaceful moment. Or maybe you'll want to visit the stylish looking zebras in the African Safari section, next to the mountain rams sunning themselves on rocky outdoor slopes.
If you’re more of a reptile person than a cuddly koala fan, head to the reptile centre. Through the safety of glass walls, see the most colourful reptiles living in their own little worlds. Some are ridiculously cute, and some are slithery and … well, snakes. If you are a snake fan you’re in for a real treat – every kind; giant sized pythons, underwater sea snakes, bright green tree snakes, and more. Watch them sleep, slither, and eat.
A trip to the zoo is a full day's activity. If you don't bring your own lunch, the cafe's and eateries are modern, moderately priced, and a nice environment to sit in. Be prepared to fall in love with a milion stuffed animals in the gift stores. There's plenty of paid parking, or nearby residency street parking. And expect to be spending the day with lots of children, the zoo is obviously a popular day trip!
Country: Australia
City: Sydney
Experience: Day activity
Taronga zoo webiste: www.taronga.org.au/
The small Aussie vintage town of Milton put their name on the map with a festival dedicated to the farmers scarecrow. On any other day you'd likely drive through the main street of the country coastal town of Milton without batting an eyelid, but on the weekend of Scarecrow festival it's another story. Held anually in the first weekend of June, neighbours and shopkeepers display scarecrow magnificence! Mostly stuffed with straw, and sometimes appearing as tiny dolls, or even real people, you'd believe the locals had been thinking about their creations for the entire year, for scarecrow costumes are extravagant!
Waving at you from frontyards and window displays are pirate scarecrows, mermaids, footballers, celebrity scarecrows - the attention to details is uncanny. Perfect and hilarious photo point and Instagram opportunities await!
A fabulous marketing ploy from the local council, the idea attracts people looking for a great weekend day out, such a Sydneysiders. Take a coastal drive past beautiful beaches and country side to view the town of scarecrows, and also visit the market, listen to outdoor live music, see local dance routines, and wonder through wonderful gift stores. An aussie day trip not to be missed.
Website for more details:
Website: Milton Scarecrow festival
A quintessential day trip to the Blue Mountains of Australia is best made in the winter months of June through to August, when the local townsfolk are embracing cold season temperatures with mountain winter festivals and hot delicious chocolate.
You’ll find the Blue Mountains just 2 hours drive inland from Sydney’s coast, an unmissable lush high mountain range radiantly glowing of a beautiful blue-gum haze. Most famous in the Blue Mountains are the hiking and bushwalking tracks with views of beautiful rock formations called the Three Sisters. The Three Sisters consist of three enormous sized peaks on the highest rocky mountainside, beside a gully of never-ending rainforest. This is a spectacular view, having inspiring many artists and writers for centuries. Close by to the Three Sisters is Orphan rock, standing along, hence the name, and also sitting by the never-ending gully of trees and wildlife.
There are several viewing points to take advantage of these sights, with Sublime lookout definitely worth a short walk to see the Three Sisters. Often clouds will form around the height of the rocks, making for the most photographic sight (and ‘selfies’ opp) you’ll see.
Website for more info: www.bluemts.com.au
If traveling in the winter months of Australia, the Blue Mountains are well worth a day trip, at an easy two-hour drive out of the Sydney city. Instead of hibernating like the rest Australia, the arty Blue Mountain folk liven up their lives with a fantastic Winter Solstice Festival on the shortest day of the year. Held annually, stalls line along the main street of Katoomba, selling an assortment of treats. You’ll find homemade warming foods, arts, crafty wares, hand-made soaps and candles, and aromatic coffee stalls aka hot chocolate stalls.. mmmm. This festival is a good opportunity to stroll through the town and local gift shops, while talented locals serenade Katoomba with violins or (as spotted) a guitar made out of a wooden box. At midday, the parade with possibly the best dazzling costumes you’re likely to see in Australia, will descend along the main street. People from near and far gather to watch (perhaps with a spicy chai tea or warm mulled wine in hand, plus scarves and beanie’s) as the parades pass by. The annual Winter Solstice Festival in the Blue Mountains is a daytrip your itinerary will thank you for. If it could speak.
Website for more info: www.wintermagic.com.au
You haven’t truly been to the Blue Mountains unless you’ve viewed the spectacular landscape sights from a cable car at Scenic World. Or ridden in Scenic World’s steep rainforest railway; descending from the top of a rocky mountainside down a slow drop to the bottom of thick lush rainforest.
The Blue Mountains are a short two-hour drive from the city of Sydney, and well worth the day trip. Famous for the rock formations known as The Three Sisters, the Blue Mountains are also a great place to go for fresh air, relaxation, and especially winter festivals. The arty, crafty villages will charm your thermal socks off, and are all close to each other atop the mountain area making a village-hopping drive-by very easy.
You’ll find Scenic World well signposted with lots of parking. Scenic World is mainly a divine walking track looping through forest with a ‘choose your own adventure’ option on which path you take. Everyone will start off at the check-in. Take the steep railway to the bottom of the rainforest, and then pick a path to walk around the lush raised walking tracks through tall trees and flowing creeks. There’s a cable car to take from one side of the rocks, over the rainforest to the other, in super close view of the tumbling waterfall and three sisters.
The best way to experience Scenic World is with a guided tour. My tour guide was Murray, who grew up in the Blue Mountains, and whose grandfather was an original Scenic World railway engineer driver. Murray tells interesting stories of the land’s history of the great coal mining days, points out the tools & machinery left behind so camouflaged I wouldn’t spot it, and describe interesting facts about the fauna and flora which you will walk through. A tour guide is also brilliant because instead of iphone-googling for answers to all your hundreds of questions that pop to mind like ‘how can you tell how many billion years old that dicksonia Antarctica fern really is?’ Murray will tell you – count the rings. Murray even holds the talk on Carnivorous plants. Kids love it. I’ve seen Little Shop of Horrors - think I would too!
I entertain at the Yamba Golf Club on a Friday night every three months or so, and occasionally at the Yamba Bowls Club, and sometimes I stay over for a mini-break, rather than driving back to Byron Bay late at night. It's a price-driven decision where to stay, and on my last trip down I scored an online deal at the Aston Motel in Coldstream Street, Yamba.
It turned out to be a surprisingly good basic motel that is very close to the both the Bowling and Golf Clubs, and also an easy walk into the town centre. Super close to shops, restaurants, the pub and beach, and you must visit the quaint little fishing village of Yamba.
We were quite satisfied with our stay at the Aston, a calming and quiet stay, featuring a retro decor. The room, which had been expertly cleaned and presented, is quite large, cosy and comfortable. Featuring a large king bed with generous sized television, and free to air plus pay TV. We had an upstairs unit with a balcony overlooking an attractive pool area. It was a cold night, so luckily the room is equipped with reverse cycle air-con. If you are on a budget or prefer self catering, provided in-room are a microwave, cutlery, glassware and etc.
There's plenty of parking. The motel is located at the end of a road however, so there was little or no traffic noise and plenty of wildlife around. The grounds are manicured and the pool, spa and barbecue area looked well maintained and very inviting. Reception was friendly and helpful.
The little details are the most memorable. I appreciated fresh milk for tea, not UHF which I hate. An important drawcard for me was free wi-fi, but also Motel guests have free use of the adjacent fitness centre. The bargain rates and comfortable inclusions make the Aston a real gem for a budget stay in this laid back little town.
Yamba is on a river inlet and a nice drive from the highway through farmland, with river views - and as you get closer to town it's very picturesque with fishing boats and yachts moored in abundance at the marina in the river. There is a steep hill up from the main town centre to the headland and a small beach which is dominated obscenely by the big old Yamba Pub. The Yamba pub has bee turned into a backpacker style establishment with amazing views and live music on the weekends. There is a pretty lighthouse on the headland, and the town itself has plenty of interesting restaurants and cafes and some good antique op-shops. There's also good fishing, and a gentle, laid back, family friendly atmosphere.
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