Finding Hunter Valley Accommodation For Visitors

Visitors can thank Sydneysiders for making it difficult to get hold of good Hunter Valley accommodation. The problem is that Australia's wine country is just two hours away from Sydney. All year around, visitors come here from Sydney for a weekend getaway or a day trip, or just for the winery and vineyard tours.

The region covers 12,000 sq km of NSW, with over 80 wineries dotting the lush green landscape. The restaurants do their best to add to the general level of intoxication, with exquisite cuisine and extensive wine selections. It's all good, but it does create a bit of a problem for visitors with too many choices.

Putting together a good travel plan requires at least some knowledge of the region's main towns and lodging options. Listed below are these choices, which should offer visitors a fair idea of what to look for and where to look for it. Cessnock is the main gateway into the region, with Pokolbin (between Cessnock & Branxton) at the centre of the wine country getting the most attention from tourists.

Also worth a mention here are Barrington Tops, Kurri Kurri, Lovedate and Wollombi Valley. For these and most other destinations here, the most popular Hunter Valley accommodation type among visitors is a hotel or resort. After that, there are many alternative lodging choices such as apartment rentals, B&B's and guesthouses, caravan parks and campsites, and motels, motor inns & backpacker hostels.

Pokolbin, as mentioned above, is the town that gets a lot of visitors. So the facilities for tourists here are more than adequate, with a variety of restaurants and cafes. Many of the top hotels and resorts can be found in town and in and around the surrounding vineyards. There are also country guesthouses a short drive outside Pokolbin.

For those who need cheap lodging, there are backpacker hostels in Cessnock and the Rothbury & Pokolbin regions. These are not the kind of backpackers found in cities and are much more impressive, with kitchens and free breakfasts, plus facilities like swimming pools, saunas and bbq's. For those who prefer a motor inn or a motel, there are many in Cessnock & Pokolbin, along with some more in Kurri Kurri and Branxton.

On a more upscale note, visitors can choose to stay in a country guesthouse or B&B. These classy establishments provide spacious quarters with a fancy dining room, libraries filled with books and complete privacy for guests. Every town in the Hunter region has a few of these in the surrounding vineyards, but the best choices can be found around Pokolbin/Rothbury and Lovedale or Wollombi Valley.

For those who prefer to be at one with nature and enjoy the beauty of the outdoors, there are many choices in terms of campsites and caravan parks. One option is along the Williams River, near Dungog. Another choice would be the Big4 holiday park in Cessnock, on Mount View Road.

Readers will no doubt be able to fathom by now why it's hard to pick out a specific town/lodging choice as the best one in terms of Hunter Valley accommodation. Which one a visitor opts for will depend on the budget and things like duration of stay and the size of the group, not to mention what kind of activities the visitor is interested in. Broadly speaking though, visitors who stick to the choices listed above should find their stay here entirely comfortable and the trip memorable.