Need a break from paradise, or a caravan park while you holiday-let your beach shack? Yamba is an easy two hour drive south of Byron, with top quality restaurants, surf, beaches, fishing, markets, lots of kid-friendly activities and a wide range of tourist accommodation within 10 mins walk of the centre of town. Here are some suggestions for your next trip.
Have a glass of wine for lunch tucked away in the Beachwood Café, a little cafe with a casual vibe serving delicious mainly Turkish food. Owner Sevtap Yuce trained with Bill Granger, is the author of two Turkish cookbooks and also serves great coffee. There are fun flower arrangements on the tables and often the footpath is strewn with rose petals.
For breakfast or lunch Leche Cafe in Coldstream St is excellent. There’s a garden out the back, and funky tables out the front. They serve great coffee and a range of good food; you could eat here every day of your stay. If Leche is full, it’s worth trying next door at Irons and Craig with its pleasant outdoor tables, but it shuts early in the afternoon so get in quickly if you want lunch. Pub lunch at the Pacific Hotel still has those amazing sea views.
For dinner, take the seven minute trip to Barbaresco in Angourie for the best food, and best wine list, in the region. The restaurant opens out to the night, the service is friendly, and the bar serves cocktails. There’s excellent Italian food, and top wine, and the children will love their pizzas.
Another good option is The Boardroom (think longboards) at the Yamba Shores Tavern – mainly Spanish tapas-inspired food with a ‘New York style’ bar and lounges in the restaurant. We had a view of the large fenced playground where local children played safely into the dark as their parents entertained themselves on the huge adjacent deck overlooking the river.
A safe family bet is Sassafras for Italian in the heart of town. It’s BYO, just across from the bottleshop, the restaurant TV plays fishing shows and there are huge stuffed fish on the walls. If you’re looking for Thai, Mona’s Thai (replacing previous incarnation Annola Thai) serves up good takeaway.
Osteria Martini was booked out the night we tried. The staff are very welcoming, the place has a good Italian vibe, has indoor/outdoor dining and is always busy, although our takeaways (not always a true measure of a restaurant) were quite salty. Fusion, just 100m up the road has friendly staff, and opens out onto a really great view, but perhaps try its Indian before its Italian-inspired dishes. There’s also a new Uptown Bar (between Osteria Martini and Fusion) which looks pretty funky, and of course you can always kick on at the Pacific Hotel just up the hill.
Botero coffee is available in cafes throughout Byron shire and it’s worth a day trip to see where it is roasted in nearby Maclean (10 mins from Yamba). The Botero café has great food (and coffee!), a toddlers’ playpen, and a glass wall so you can watch the roasting and packing process live.
Catch the ferry to Iluka, hire a tinny to explore the river ($95 for half day, and we found a mini-tropical beach in the middle of the Clarence!), try stand-up paddleboard at the millpond river beach, swim laps of the saltwater pools, dive from cliffs at Angourie’s Blue Pools, brave the cliff walk – there’s a lot to do in Yamba!
