Bundeena was our second stop on a two week tour over Christmas and New Year 2017/2018, with five days booked in a beach-house in Bundeena. It was a long drive from Thredbo, around six hours and 600 kms through the Kosiuszko National Park and into the Royal National Park to reach Bundeena. A most scenic journey albeit long.

I’d spent many weeks looking online for beach-side accommodation on the coast, North East of Thredbo, where we’d spent Christmas in the mountains, for the second leg of our Christmas holiday. Eventually I’d settled on booking five days at the Waves B&B in Bundeena, that I'd found on the Stayz website.

We left Thredbo on Boxing Day, and made our way up to Bundeena. I’d no idea what to expect of Bundeena or the accommodation. Bundeena itself is in the Royal National Park, just a small seaside village with a couple of shops and a restaurant.

I was apprehensive as to what the accommodation would be like, as you can read all the reviews you like online, but it’s a personal thing, so I was slightly worried! And the B&B in the description made it sound a little 1980's! As it turns out there was no need to be worried at all. As we were being shown around the beach-house, I can remember looking back at Sam, opening my mouth wide, basically saying this is unreal and how lucky are we!

The name Waves Beachside Accommodation B&B belies just what this accommodation is! It’s a large studio, in fact huge, with kitchen and bathroom. It’s exquisitely decorated and furnished, you would call it designer boutique, with works of art adorning the walls and floors, furnished with high quality designer pieces.

Peter and Lynda, the hosts, live in the upper floor, and the B&B is the lower floor. You drive from the road into the rear paved garden/rain forest! and park under-cover. The studio doesn’t open onto the beach, you need to walk up the side of it to reach the front garden, which is basically on the beach. Also in the front garden is a covered terrace facing the ocean, in which you can sit and relax. Totally fab, totally chilled.

Lynda hadn’t missed a thing, everything that could be provided was! Down to big fluffy bath robes, sun-cream, beach towels, you name it, Lynda had thought of it! Lynda provides a fridge full of veges, soya milk, eggs plus tea, cereal etc, so you only have a little shopping to do and can make all your meals there, which saves on restaurant costs. Of which we only sampled the local Driftwood restaurant once, it was OK but I think they slightly missed the health-food target, with what I had anyway.

Both Lynda and Peter are great characters, and very kind and interesting people. We had something in common with Peter, I learned he had worked in motorsport up until around five years ago when he sold his motorsport spares business, and is now an artist. His art can be found around the studio, and also you can buy prints and pieces if you so wish…….not my bag I’m afraid! But his work was very good.

We spent five days in the beach-house, we swam in the sea a lot and messed around on the bodyboard. A ten minute beach walk takes you to the ferry, which crosses the bay from Bundeena to Cronulla, which is a larger busy and bustling seaside town, if you want some action. We took a look over there for a day, there’s some nice restaurants, shops and beaches.

We got the bikes out once, driving out and parking up at the Audley Dance Hall tourist spot, within the Royal National Park, and taking the bikes out for a leisurely ride down Lady Carrington drive through the rain forest. It’s an undulating family trail, with some fantastic rain forest views. Riding back the way you came, takes around two hours in total after photo stops! There are some decent downhill sections to get a bit of speed up, but you have to be careful of bikers and hikers coming the other way! The Audley park has a cafe, visitors centre, shop and toilets. We didn’t look around, but it was very busy with tourists, and the grounds looked very nice indeed.....I'm not sure what the Dance Hall thing is?

I’m sure if we hadn’t spent so much time just chilling, we could have taken some really scenic hikes, done some waterfall hunting, or some water-sports but really we couldn’t be arsed! It was just so nice to relax at the beach and swim in the sea. I think Lynda and Peter must have wondered why we’d bothered coming as we didn’t do much at all! Which was what we both needed.

If you ever want a total getaway, this is the place for you!

Our next stop was to be a bit more lively, Bondi Beach. We were sorry to leave Bundeena and the beach-house, wishing we could have stayed longer, it really was a fantastic little piece of heaven! And if the chance arises, I will be back!

Info

You can find a link to Waves B&B here

You can find info on the Lady Carrington trail here