Discover Coffs Coast with 52 exciting special deals!
From now until the end of June 2010, you can explore and discover the beautiful Coffs Coast and save money! Take advantage of more than 50 special offers, including great accommodation deals and discounts on exciting things to try.
Have you ever been kissed by a dolphin? Been white water rafting? Surfed the waves at Sawtell Beach or been pampered at a luxury rainforest retreat?
These are just a tiny few of the many fun, adventurous and relaxing activities on offer on the subtropical Coffs Coast.
Situated midway between Sydney and Brisbane, and easy to access by plane, train or car, Coffs Coast is the perfect place for you to escape to.
Visit our special Discover Coffs Coast campaign website, have a browse and discover the best offers, exclusive deals and attractive discounts for your next Coffs Coast getaway.
There’s also a chance to win a luxury 3-night stay at Aanuka Beach Resort, Coffs Harbour, for 2 people – so we invite you to pop over and Discover Coffs Coast now!
Camp Quality Coffs Coast BOOK of LAUGHS is the best holiday medicine.
Coffs Coast has teamed up with Camp Quality to offer visitors and locals some amazing deals on Coffs Coast attractions and dining experiences… and put smiles on kids' faces at the same time!
The BOOK of LAUGHS is a ‘cheque book’ brimming with 20 vouchers offering discounts and bonuses on some of the best things to see and do across Coffs Coast.
Each BOOK of LAUGHS contains over $600 (yes, six hundred dollars) worth of value, but is priced at just $9.95.
Where do you get it?
From the Coffs Coast Visitor Information Centre - cnr Pacific Hay & McLean St, or Coffs Harbour City Council offices, cnr Coff & Castle Sts, Coffs Harbour.
All proceeds are donated directly to Camp Quality.
The BOOK of LAUGHS offers fantastic deals from these generous participating businesses:
Liquid Assets
Novotel Pacific Bay Resort
Coffs City Skydiving
Big Banana
Coffs Harbour Butterfly House
East Coast Surf School
Jetty Dive
Kegel Barn
Lee Winkler Surf School
Pet Porpoise Pool
Raleigh Raceway
Spirit of Coffs Harbour Cruises
Tabatinga
Zip Circus
Adventure Trike Tours
Tranquility Day Spa
Exceed and Excel
Opal Cove Resort
Darlington Beach Resort
Boambee Bay Resort
Coffs Ex Services Club
BOOK of LAUGHS deals are valid till the end of March 2010, so there’s plenty of time to experience all the excellent deals on offer.
Whether you’re enjoying a holiday on Coffs Coast, visiting some friends and family in the area, or you live on Coffs Coast and wish to get to know your own backyard a bit more… come and buy a BOOK of LAUGHS and support this very worthwhile cause.
To find out more about Camp Quality and the wonderful work they do giving children with cancer hope, fun and rich life experiences, visit their website.
There’s an extra good reason to visit the Dorrigo Rainforest Centre at Dorrigo National Park, with the renewed Canopy Café opening its doors in August 2008.
The Canopy Café, attached to the educational Rainforest Centre and shop, offers superb meals enjoyed indoors or outside on the terrace, overlooking the World Heritage-listed rainforest.
Enjoy all-day breakfast, a leisurely lunch, morning or afternoon tea or just a coffee, cake or a snack while breathing in the pure mountain air and listening to the sounds of the birds and the rustling of the leaves.
Catherine McDonald and Wolfgang Zichy, who have taken over the management of the café, are offering tasty, fresh, local cuisine in this beautiful setting. The future looks bright for the café, with the pair having won NSW Awards for Excellence at their previous two restaurants.
You can now enjoy a lunch of high quality at the Canopy Café, prepared in a traditional way using the freshest ingredients and beautifully presented.
After you’ve explored the rainforest and perhaps completed one of Dorrigo National Park’s excellent walking trails, what better way to rest up than with a meal at the new Canopy Café? There are light and healthy options as well as good old-fashioned hearty meals for the hungry and a special kids’ menu.
Canopy Café and the adjoining Dorrigo Rainforest Centre in Dorrigo National Park are open every day from 9.00am to 4.30pm. The Rainforest Centre is located 4km east of Dorrigo.
For more information or to make a group booking, call (02) 6657 2309.
If you love colourful markets, great food and live outdoor entertainment, mark the 1st and 4th Saturdays of the month in your diary. A new market called the ‘Bollywood Beach Bazaar’ is now being held twice a month at the Woolgoolga Beach Reserve.
Woolgoolga, 25 minutes north of Coffs Harbour, is known for its great beaches, surfing, fishing and for its Sikh culture. The town is home to two Sikh temples and has the largest regional Sikh/Punjabi population in Australia.
The first Bollywood Beach Bazaar was held on 2 May and it’s already proven to be a hit with the local community and visitors from around the region.
You’ll be able to enjoy the colour, sounds and flavours of India at the market, with a variety of hot food, lots of market stalls with arts, crafts and Indian clothing and free entertainment by talented singers and dancers.
Although the market has a strong Indian theme, as the name suggests, in reality you’ll also find food and entertainment from other countries and regions around the world including Thailand, Japan, Fiji and Africa.
Bollywood Beach Bazaar is held at the Beach Reserve in the centre of Woolgoolga between 7am and 2pm on the first and fourth Saturday of the month.
For more information about the many markets held on the Coffs Coast and other things to do, contact the Coffs Coast Visitor Information Centre on 1300 369 070 or email tourism@coffscoast.com.au
Bluebottles Brasserie is a wonderful café restaurant in the seaside town of Woolgoolga, 25km north of Coffs Harbour.
With its blue exterior, inviting outdoor and indoor seating and prime location on the corner of Beach and Wharf Streets in the centre of town, it’s a spot that’s hard to miss. It’s just across from the caravan park, opposite the main shopping street and close to the Woolgoolga Beach Reserve.
Bluebottles, serving Modern Australian cuisine, is particularly popular as a place to enjoy a nice brekkie, morning tea or lunch. They are open 7 days for breakfast and lunch from 7.30am.
The Brasserie even won a regional award for its fabulous breakfasts in 2008 – the Restaurant & Catering NSW Award for Excellence for Best Breakfast Restaurant in the Lower Northern NSW Region.
The restaurant also opens for dinner from 6.30pm on Friday and Saturday night.
Its ever-changing menu shows a wealth of scrumptious options, created from the freshest possible ingredients and local and seasonal produce.
For more information or to book a table, call Bluebottles Brasserie on (02) 6654 1962.
The unique ocean waters of the Solitary Islands Marine Park off the Coffs Coast make them a perfect choice for both the beginner and experienced scuba diver - and Jetty Dive Centre's 25 years of experience makes them the preferred choice.
Two ocean currents collide around the Solitary Islands - one cool, one warm - and bring together creatures that normally only exist thousands of kilometres apart. In just one dive you can explore a wide variety of both tropical and temperate marine life in the one location.
With warm waters like those at the Barrier Reef, the diving is easy and with so much to see in this fascinating underwater world, you can’t help but fall in love with it.
Thanks to their highly experienced instructors, high quality training and affordable charter tours, Jetty Dive continues to attract scuba divers from all over the world for a look under Coffs Coast’s ocean surface.
If you’ve always wanted to learn to scuba dive, there’s no better place to pack in the enjoyment of scuba diving than at the Solitary Islands and no better instructors than those of Jetty Dive.
Learning to dive is a very popular holiday activity on the Coffs Coast. Especially since Jetty Dive is PADI 'Learn to Dive' courses where you can study at home or even online (PADI e-learning) and leave the fun parts for your holiday in Coffs Harbour!
A 1-day Discover Scuba Diving course is $195, with Open Water Scuba Diver ‘learn to dive’ courses starting from $395.
You can even choose the action-packed adventure of Shark Diving with endangered Grey Nurse Sharks!
Fore more information or to book, visit Jetty Dive Centre’s website at www.jettydive.com.au or phone (02) 6651 1611.
Butterfly House & Precision Helicopters Win Tourism Awards
The 2009 Countrylink Mid North Coast Tourism Awards were presented on 20 August 2009. These regional awards celebrate and acknowledge tourism businesses on the NSW Mid North Coast that have demonstrated outstanding achievement and success throughout the year.
We congratulate the following winners from the Coffs Coast region:
Coffs Harbour Butterfly House
The Butterfly House, Maze & Tea Rooms, located in Bonville just south of Coffs Harbour, won a Distinction Award in the Tourism Attractions category.
Visitors to the unique Butterfly House can walk among hundreds of live butterflies in an indoor subtropical rainforest setting.
You can share their world as they fly, court, mate, sip nectar or rest in the light showing off their fascinating colours and patterns. The butterfly may even land on your head, shoulders or arms.
Precision Helicopters
Precision Helicopters, based at the General Aviation section of the Coffs Harbour Airport, won the Award for best Tour and/or Transport on the Mid North Coast.
The company offers a range of scenic flights and memorable tours across the Coffs Coast and hinterland and out to South Solitary Island.
You will see the Coffs Coast from an amazing perspective, getting a bird's eye view of the Coffs Harbour marina, our beaches, islands, forests, mountains and valleys.
Pet Porpoise Pool
Coffs Harbour’s multi-award winning Pet Porpoise Pool was inducted into the inaugural Mid North Coast Tourism Awards Hall of Fame for having won a tourism award in the same category for three consecutive years.
For more information about Coffs Coast’s attractions, see our section on Coffs Coast Things To Do And See. For enquiries, visit the friendly staff at the Coffs Coast Visitor Information Centre on 1300 369 070 or email tourism@coffscoast.com.au
Valery Trails, just a short drive south of Coffs Harbour, is the ideal place to spend a morning or afternoon exploring the rainforest on horseback in a beautiful National Park.
At Valery Trails, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a horse fanatic who can’t go on holiday without longing to go for a ride, someone who’s ridden before but isn’t all that experienced, or an absolute beginner who’s never even so much as touched a horse before.
With more than 60 very well disciplined horses, its guided horse tours cater to all levels of ability and all ages. The accredited horse riding centre has been successfully running horseback tours for over 25 years.
The stables are situated in the small locality of Valery, on the edge of pristine Bongil Bongil National Park.
Guided 2-hour trail rides take place every morning at 10am and every afternoon at 2pm. You’ll be introduced to a suitable, well-trained horse and taught some basic commands before following your experienced, qualified guide into the forest.
The 2-hour ride costs $50 per adult and $45 per child, which includes helmets, insurance, free coffee, tea, cordial and biscuits and the use of Valery Trail’s barbecue facilities and swimming pool.
Valery Trails also runs a Kids Club during school term, a very popular Kids Camp during school holidays, Parents’ Rides, Ladies Days and 1-hour rides. They can also make arrangements for special events such as birthday parties.
Bookings are essential and can be made by phone on (02) 6653 4301 or online at www.valerytrails.com.au
One of the Coffs Coast’s newest day spas, Tree Of Life Wellness Centre and Day Spa, offers a variety of treatments to rejuvenate the mind, body and soul.
Tree Of Life offers a comprehensive list of treatments, more than you would expect from a modern day spa with its sauna, spa and beauty therapy as well as complimentary services such as holistic healing, acupuncture, homeopathy, kinesiology, massage and traditional Chinese medicines.
The spa applies Elemis products – a range of quality skincare products made from pure and natural ingredients such as organically grown herbs and plants.
The Detox Box Sauna is the perfect start to any treatment, as the warmth of the steam will help ease tired muscles, relax the mind and open the skin’s pores to begin the cleansing process.
Body therapy in the spa’s wet room, will give a healthy glow back to your body and have your skin feeling invigorated and replenished. With the use of exotic blends of herbs and oils combined to create fragrant scrubs which exfoliate and hydrate your skin, you’ll come out looking and feeling fresher and softer than ever!
The ‘massage menu’ shows four varieties, the most popular one being the Remedial Massage to ease tired or sore muscles. Or you may prefer the therapeutic full-body ‘Hahana’ Hot Stone treatment with warm oil and heated volcanic stones, a revitalising Well-being Massage or a Deep Tissue Muscle Massage for a vigorous deep pressure massage.
If you’re after some TLC for your face, an Elimis Facial is what you need. With a selection of packages available for both men and women, you can choose a powerful skin recharge, soothing moisture boost, anti-ageing or detox facial, using purifying facial products.
Or treat yourself with a tailor-made spa package for a complete escape including bridal packages which are designed to get the most of your pampering time. You can even design your own Escape package from the menu of services for an experience that is uniquely yours.
Other beauty treatments available include signature manicures, pedicures, waxing, brow and lash tinting.
Tree Of Life Wellness Centre & Day Spa, is at 32 First Avenue, Sawtell, just 10km south of Coffs Harbour. Opening hours are 9am-5.30pm from Monday to Thursday, 9am-9pm on Friday and 9am-3pm on Saturdays.
Got a sweet tooth? You’ll love a visit to Candy Kitchen Australia, located at The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour.
The original Candy Kitchen, which was called Coffs Candy Kitchen before its success saw a branching out across Australia, continues to delight visitors who come to see lollies and sweets being made by hand in front of their eyes.
When you visit the shop between about 10am and 2.30pm, you’ll be able to witness the extraordinary process of candy making, an art form the Nilsson family has perfected over the years.
Master Sugar Confectioner Nils Nilsson, who started Candy Kitchen in 1988, began his career in a candy factory in Denmark in 1949. Sixty years later, his son Brian is Candy Kitchen’s Chief Candy Man and the Nilsson family still run the original store in Coffs Harbour.
On average, about 90 kilos of sweets is made at the Candy Kitchen store every day. Much of it is sold at the shop itself, but candy is also supplied to other shops and specially made for corporate functions, events and weddings. For those functions, the candy is often personalised with special messages ‘printed’ in the centre.
Visit Candy Kitchen in Coffs Harbour and you’ll enter a magical candy world with extraordinary colours, incredible flavours and sumptuous smells. Watch and listen to the candy maker’s explanation of how candy is made, the old-fashioned way.
Then browse around the shop and select some lollies or other sweets for yourself, your kids or as a gift for any occasion.
Opening hours are 9am to 4.15pm every day, with candy-making in progress between 10am and 2.30pm.
Candy Kitchen is located at The Big Banana on the Pacific Highway in Coffs Harbour. For more information, call (02) 6652 5854.
