Black Dolphin Motel

Cooking at the holiday park across the road is easy, with a camp kitchen and BBQs where families gather once the pool has emptied out for the afternoon. We liked picking up fresh seafood in town, firing up the barbecue at dusk and letting the kids burn off their last bit of energy on the jumping pillow while dinner sizzled. Town is a 10 to 15 minute walk away, so it is just as easy to leave the car parked and wander in for a meal.

For breakfast, follow the lake around to Sunny's Kiosk on Lakewood Drive, a walk-in only cafe perched at the edge of Top Lake that opens Thursday to Monday from 7.30am until 2pm. We timed our walk along the boardwalk to finish there and took our coffee out onto the deck to watch the mullet jump in the shallows. No bookings, so get in early on a sunny weekend.

Merimbula is serious oyster country, and the best place to taste it in town is the Merimbula Aquarium & Wharf Restaurant, set out on the old wharf with water on three sides. Order the local oysters and whatever fish came in that morning, and leave time for the aquarium if you have kids in tow. For a classic beach lunch, the Bar Beach Kiosk sits right above the lake mouth, where you can eat a burger with the surf and the boats sliding past in front of you.

Save one afternoon for the 10 minute drive south to Lake Pambula and Broadwater Oysters. The farm gate sells Sydney rock oysters straight from the water, and the farm tours and shuck school teach you how to open them yourself. We bought a few dozen, learned to shuck badly, and ate every last one at a lakeside table.

The motel and holiday park itself keeps the kids busy for days, with a swimming pool, a splash park, a jumping pillow and a games room, plus pickleball courts for the grown-ups. Boggy Creek is only a few minutes' walk away and is a local favourite for a calm swim or a stand-up paddle, and Merimbula Main Beach is just beyond it. The Black Dolphin Motel across the road is worth a look too, a rare surviving motel designed by architect Robin Boyd in the early 1960s.

A seven minute walk brings you to the Merimbula Boardwalk, a 3.4 kilometre return trail that winds around the lake shore, through mangroves and past working oyster leases. Dogs on a lead are welcome, and we found the jetties along the way made perfect stops for spotting stingrays in the clear water. Go late in the day, when the sunsets over the lake are the reason locals walk it. The boardwalk is being rebuilt in stages through late 2026, so check the Bega Valley Shire Council website for any temporary closures before you set out.

Families should not miss Magic Mountain, the amusement park five minutes up the road, with a toboggan slide, water slides, dodgem cars and 18 hole mini golf, usually open Thursday to Sunday. Between August and early December the humpback whales are on the move, and Sapphire Coastal Adventures runs whale watching cruises out of Merimbula through the season.

For a full day out, drive about 35 minutes south to Beowa National Park, formerly Ben Boyd National Park, where 47 kilometres of rocky coastline and sheltered inlets offer crystal clear snorkelling, coastal walks and some of the best clifftop whale watching on the South Coast.