Like to visit vineyards and taste some of their world renown vintages on your travels around Australia? Here's a selection of five holiday parks where you'll have access to some of the best wineries around.
Holiday parks by the vines | The Australian:
BIG4 Badger Creek Holiday Park, Victoria
Fine wine in hand, crackling fire, babbling brook, stars in a clear night sky life can't get much better than that, can it?
Unless you're going to have a champagne breakfast the next day in a hot-air balloon ride, that is. Victoria's Yarra Valley has rolling hills and greenery, and overflows with some of the world's finest pinot noirs and chardonnays, thanks to its cooler climate.
BIG4 Badger Creek, a park on the outskirts of Healesville, just over an hour from Melbourne's CBD, provides the perfect launchpad to explore the region's spoils.
This holiday park's charms lie with its down-to-earth natural vibe, as opposed to some of the bigger, renovated and more commercial BIG4 venues. Campers score the best seat in the house because the unpowered sites back on to well-maintained campfire pits right beside the cascading little stream known as Badger Creek, which is lined by beautiful ghost gums.
There are popular wineries big and small nearby, including Domaine Chandon, Rochford Wines, Oakridge Wines and the Innocent Bystander cellar door and restaurant only a hop, skip and a jump up the road.
Park highlights include terrific barbecue facilities, a well-equipped games room and an old-fashioned lolly shop with the best bargains Down Under a sure-fire hit with the kids. Wait until you see what you can get for $1.
See badgercreekholidays.com.au
-- Barossa Valley Tourist Park, SA
The rolling hills of the Barossa Valley are as rich and varied as the wines the region produces.
The Barossa Valley Tourist Park, 70km north of Adelaide, is close to all the action when touring the region, including wineries such as Wolf Blass, Penfolds, Elderton Wines and Chateau Dorrien.
Attractions at the park include a sports complex and function centre, an artificial lake with a variety of native birds and wildlife, two children's playgrounds and bike hire facilities.
-- Riverview Tourist Park, WA
Margaret River, home to 20 per cent of Australia's premium wines, is an alluring blend of first-class vineyards, majestic beaches and forests that could come from a fairytale.
Riverview Tourist Park (280km south of Perth) takes in a bush atmosphere near the river's edge, offering visitors close contact with winery and scenic tours, the local cheese factory, as well as hotels, pubs, restaurants, cafes, craft galleries and shops.
Don't know where to start? The Margaret River Regional Wine Centre, managed and owned by local wine identities, offers a solid collection of the finest wines in the area and is a handy first port of call.
-- BIG4 Valley Vineyard Tourist Park, NSW
Australia's oldest wine-growing region, the Hunter Valley, lays claim to being "the toast of NSW" and is only two hours' drive from Sydney.
Brokenwood, Lindemans, McGuigan, Drayton and Wyndham Estate are just some of the famous wineries nearby. Valley Vineyard Tourist Park is a cork's pop away from the action.
Featuring a harvest of its own, this park is an ideal place to set up camp and explore the region, and is close also to cheese factories, chocolate shops, galleries, Hunter Valley Gardens, restaurants and the historical villages of Wollombi and Morpeth.
-- Discovery Holiday Parks Hadspen, Tasmania
Absorb the beauty of the Tamar Valley, home to some of Australia's premium cool-climate wines such as pinot noir, sparkling wines, riesling, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon and pinot gris, in this gorgeous part of Tasmania.
From Discovery Holiday Parks Hadspen, tour the Tasmanian wine routes easily by car, or leave your wheels at home and go on one of many guided tours. The island's wine routes include the Tamar Valley, north of Launceston, along both sides of the Tamar River and east to Pipers River and the Derwent, Coal River and Huon valleys, an easy drive from Hobart.
