Three Days in Byron Bay

It's been a while! The months just seem to be whizzing by and sitting down to catch an hour or two to write a blog post seems impossible these days. Here is my attempt to get started again, finishing off a post I had half written at the end of September.

During our Term 3 school holidays this year we spent a week "up north", spending three days in Byron Bay and the other four in the Gold Coast. This post is about our three days in Byron Bay, which is located on the east coast of Australia, about two hours south of Brisbane.

The morning we left we caught a 9am flight from Melbourne to Gold Coast which all went smoothly. The flight is just over two hours, which feels like nothing compared to some of the long haul flights we've done with the kids! We ended up sitting in pairs, I was with Ella and Andy was with Ollie. This worked out really well, as we each had one kid to entertain and they had no reason to fight with each other! Ella happily coloured for most of the flight and then I let her watch some in flight entertainment for the last half hour. I had to break out the iPad for this, which we debated bringing at all. Ella is pretty good with the iPad, but if Ollie knew we had it he would have been asking for it all the time. This was another benefit of them sitting apart!

We arrived in the Gold Coast and picked up our rental car from Ace Car Rentals. When we booked this we opted for a "mystery car" and ended up with a Kia Carnival! For those not familiar with car makes and models (I count myself among you) this is an 8 seat "luxury people mover" which is a fancy name for what I would call a minivan. Andy has been desperate for a bigger car for ages though I'm more resistant to the idea (mainly for economic and environmental reasons) however I can see the appeal. We had SO MUCH room. The kids each had their own row and the middle seat acted as a little table for them to put things like toys, markers, etc so they had things to keep them amused on the ride. As a passenger I also had more room than I've ever had up front. BUT lest this post turn into an advertisement for Kia, I still think given the choice I'd be happier driving around in my zippy little Mazda3. (If only I didn't have these two kids and their stuff to lug around everywhere... )

Anyway, after a 45 minute drive from the car rental place we arrived at our home for the next three nights, Discovery Parks Byron Bay. We got there a little before our check-in time of 2pm, so we had some lunch at the adjacent café Loft before getting into our cabin. The café had the hippy feel Byron Bay is known for, putting us straight into holiday mode after our morning of travel.

Discovery Parks are a holiday/caravan park, with cabins to rent along with spots for people to camp. We rented a two bedroom cabin situated on a ponds, which was a nice quiet spot. 

We've realised these holiday parks, found everywhere in Australia, are a great accommodation option with kids. They are usually in a good location and very reasonably priced with basic but adequate accommodation. The best part is there are great facilities for kids and this one was no exception. We had access to two pools, a jumping pillow, tennis and basketball courts, and a huge splash park with multiple small waterslides. They even offered a free yoga class three mornings a week but sadly the three days did not coincide with our stay. 

Once we got changed and settled in I took the kids to the jumping pillow and pools while Andy went to stock up on a few groceries. The jumping pillow was surrounded by soft white sand, making any landing off the pillow a soft one.

Next up we went to check out the pools and splash park. As usual Ella got right into the water, but Ollie was more hesitant. 

The water in the splash park and children's pool was pretty cold, and there was a cool breeze that afternoon. Whenever we go somewhere new Ollie is at first very resistant to trying new things, often proclaiming "I am never going in there. Never, never, never". We've come to expect this from him and know that he'll try things in his own time, and then LOVE them and completely forget his initial reaction, as evidenced from the picture below, from the next day:

When Andy got back he took both kids into the "adult" heated pool which Ollie was much happier about.

That evening we went into the main part of Byron Bay for dinner. Our cabin was about 2 km from the main strip, so walk/bikeable for older kids and adults, but we ended up driving in with ours. We played at the playground on the beach for a bit before heading to Beach Hotel Byron Bay for dinner. 

This is a big pub/restaurant with views of the water. There was live music along with a big fenced in lawn outside for kids to run around on. Ollie immediately made some friends to run around with, coming back only for a few bits of his dinner here and there. It was very cute to see him make friends so easily - they were playing tag and hide and seek all evening. Ella was a bit more reserved, preferring to stay at the table with us, colouring and playing Snakes and Ladders.

The next morning we were up early and headed out to do a walk up the the Byron Bay Lighthouse. However we made the mistake of allowing the kids to check out the beach first. There were puddles of water and rocks to jump around on, so of course they both jumped straight into puddles, soaking their running shoes. 

We hadn't brought extra shoes, so the kids took them off and proceeded to walk along the path to the lighthouse bare foot. You can imagine how that went! 

We didn't end up making it to the lighthouse that morning, instead stopping along the next beach to get coffees and snacks and have a play on the beach before heading back to our cabin for some lunch.

We spent that afternoon playing in the pools and jumping pillow, and I got lots of time to chill out on the lounge chairs reading my book - one of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon on holiday.

That night we went back into the main part of town for dinner, this time trying out Miss Margarita's, a Mexican restaurant. This place doesn't take reservations and is known for being busy, so we headed there early-ish to make sure we got a table. We got lucky and just had a small wait that we passed at the beach side playground again. Dinner was very yummy and the restaurant was hopping when we left - filling with people who weren't trying to get their kids home in time for an 8pm bedtime!

We couldn't get home before posing in front of this mural first though...

The next morning we headed out for the Lighthouse walk - take two! This time we skipped playing on the beach and headed straight for the path, and success, we made it to the lighthouse!

We also got very lucky and managed to catch a pod of dolphins playing in the water below - quite a magical site. We also spotted whales splashing their tales in the distance near the end of our walk which was another highlight.

The walk was pretty long, so we had another stop at a secluded beach on the way back:

The kids also love spotting lizards on the paths - the wildlife is quite different to what we see on a regular basis in Melbourne.

We spent a few hours back at the holiday park playing in the pools again after lunch, and then headed back out to the beach in Byron Bay. We thought we'd just get some ice creams and eat them on the beach so we didn't bring out swimsuits, but we ended up splashing in the waves quite a bit as well - I ended up with soaking wet jean shorts and the kids were pretty much soaked from head to toe! 

We headed home after that to get changed for our last dinner out in Byron Bay - this time heading to the opposite end of the town to check out the North Byron Hotel. This pub had a large relaxed outdoor area, with picnic tables, fairy lights, great music, and a children's play area - what more could you want? 

It was a great end to our three days in Byron Bay, and we were sad to leave the next day. However we still had four days in the Gold Coast with our friends Andy and Jo to look forward to - more on that in the next post - hopefully I'll get around to that before Christmas, ha!