Checking in to Pretty Beach House North of Sydney

On a recent visit to Sydney I ventured beyond the city to discover the Central Coast. Despite having lived grown up in Australia and travelled to more than 70 countries in the world, until this trip I still had not discovered this part of my home country.

A few years ago I made a promise to myself to see more of Australia. Too often we go in search of foreign destinations, cultures, food and languages different too our own. Too often we forget what is in our own backyard.

Since then I have travelled to the Northern Territory to discover the true Aussie outback, visited many of the hidden islands of Australia including Norfolk Island and the beautiful Lord Howe Island. I have slept under the stars when heliswag camping in the Flinders Ranges and travelled to the world renowned Kangaroo Island to see (you guessed it) more kangaroos than I have ever seen in my lifetime.

Pretty Beach House

For this journey I wanted to take time to switch off, relax and take in the natural beauty of Australia’s coastline. The East of Australia is the most popular pitstop for international visitors, however many travellers struggle to venture beyond Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast. Much of the beauty (as is the case in most parts of the world) is in fact outside of the cities, just a short drive or train ride away.

Pretty Beach House is located in the Central Coast and characterised by beautiful beaches, bays to discover and endless walks inside the Bouddi National Park for more active travellers (more on that later!) Luckily we had two nights at nearby Bells Killcare before our stay at Pretty Beach House, which gave us time to explore the area before two days of unwinding in this oasis overlooking Pretty Beach below.

An oasis North of Sydney

Once you arrive at Pretty Beach House it is hard to leave. Everything is including in your stay: three course lunch on arrival, five course degustation menu in the evenings and a huge cooked breakfast to start each day. Wines and beverages are also included as is a cultural smoke ceremony to welcome you to the property and there are multiple bush walks and beach walks within the property to burn some calories for all those meals.

With everything catered for, there is no reason to leave once you have checked in. It is the kind of getaway that really allows you to switch off, unwind and recharge.

For our stay we checked in to The Retreat, a beautiful two-story beach house apartment located adjacent to the main building. This room includes a private pool and is so private that you’ll hardly remember there are three more rooms on site. Being such a small boutique property you almost always feel like you have the entire place to yourself, until it comes time for meals in the main area and you have a chance to mingle with fellow guests. On our last evening we opted for room service at no extra fee, while we packed our bags for our early morning departure and return to Sydney.