Port Macquarie, AU

A long-running William Street fine-dining room facing Town Beach, with a one-hat Australian Good Food Guide reputation and a kitchen that takes local seafood and the wine list seriously. Tasting menus and an oyster-led raw bar are the draws. The choice in town for an anniversary or a celebratory dinner.

A Clarence Street sea-to-plate room with a tight chef's-counter feel, serving local oysters, sashimi-grade swordfish and ocean trout from Mid North Coast waters. Smaller and more pared-back than the Mullet, with the same seriousness about ingredients. The fish-forward option if you want a serious meal without the white tablecloths.

A 1971-vintage seafood restaurant on its own wharf upstream on the Hastings River, away from the CBD beaches. Big seafood platters, locally harvested oysters and views straight onto the working river. The destination order is the tower for a group or the chowder for one.

A graffiti-walled Gordon Street cafe that has been the locals' favourite breakfast since 2014, packed at weekends and reliably good on coffee. The menu runs from a brisket bennie to breakfast tacos and a signature breakfast roll. Where you send a visiting friend for their first morning coffee.

An all-day breakfast room on William Street with single-origin coffee, a spice-blend chai with local honey and a tidy small menu that runs through to mid-afternoon. Quieter and more design-forward than Social Grounds, with a more compact crowd of regulars. Good for a slow weekday breakfast.

A small family-run cafe at the river end of Clarence Street where the owners run a small farm and supply most of the produce themselves. The menu reads as straightforward breakfast and lunch but the ingredients lift it. Best for a relaxed mid-morning meal away from the main CBD foot traffic.

A long-running Clarence Street all-day spot from breakfast through dinner, leaning Modern Australian with Campos coffee and local produce. The room is bright and casual, and the menu spans pancakes to share plates depending on the hour. A safe all-day fallback when you are not sure what you want.

A Lord Street pizzeria run by a Calabrian family making wood-fired Italian-style pies with hand-stretched bases, finished in the proper char. Tight menu, no fuss, and the family is usually visible front-of-house. The takeaway pizza option locals come back to.

A Clarence Street burger room next to the river precinct, with hand-formed patties, loaded fries and a small craft tap line that pours Moorebeer alongside guest beers. Bunless bowls and a couple of vegan options round the menu out. The town's burger pick when a pub counter is not what you want.

A small independent brewery and bar in the Acacia Avenue industrial precinct, with eight house beers on tap and a wood-fired pizza menu that holds up. Friday nights bring live music and a working-class local crowd. The taproom you go to for a beer flight and a pizza, not for a polished cocktail bar.

A family-owned brewery on Merrigal Road with a 17-tap taproom and a tank-to-tap stainless brewhouse you can see from the bar. Beer-led food menu rather than a full kitchen. The current locals' pick if you want the freshest beer in town from the people who made it.

An independent craft brewery on the industrial side of Port Macquarie that has been brewing since 2008, with 12 taps in a family-friendly taproom and a small kitchen of pub-leaning plates. Less central than the riverfront bars but more serious about the beer. Best for an unhurried late-afternoon tasting paddle.

A long-running Clarence Street Thai and Lao room with riverside views, run by a chef from Isaan in northeastern Thailand. Curries, larbs and som tum are the dishes that distinguish it from generic suburban Thai. The pick when you want spice and a wider menu than the town's Modern Australian rooms offer.

A 9km headland-and-beach trail running from Town Green at the river mouth south to Tacking Point Lighthouse, threading boardwalks, sandy beach crossings and bluff lookouts past every named beach in town. Each of the four sections is walkable as a standalone, so you can dip in for an hour or take a half-day end-to-end. The single best thing to do in Port Macquarie on foot.

A 1.3km elevated boardwalk loop inside Sea Acres National Park, threading the canopy of the largest coastal rainforest stand in NSW. Stroller and wheelchair friendly, flat throughout, and you can do it in 30 minutes or stretch to an hour with the interpretive signs. The easiest rainforest immersion within five minutes of the CBD.

A 50-hectare wetland reserve five minutes' walk from the CBD, with a 4km network of boardwalks and gravel paths threading mangroves, paperbark swamp and eucalypt forest. The headline attraction is the flying-fox roost in the northeast corner, which can hold tens of thousands of bats. The in-town wild walk most visitors miss.

A short, steep loop from the Lighthouse Beach carpark up to the lighthouse headland and back via the bluff, totalling about 1km with a sharp climb. The shortest way to get the headland view and the whale watching without committing to the full coastal walk. Best done late afternoon for the ocean light.

The final 2.7km section of the Port Macquarie Coastal Walk between Shelly Beach and Tacking Point Lighthouse, threading the highest cliff line on the route via Harry's Lookout. Less crowded than the in-town sections and the better choice for whale watchers and photographers. A solid hour's walk return.

The town's main performance venue: a 588-seat theatre with a full fly tower and a Regional Gallery that rotates free exhibitions, plus a heritage display preserving the convict-era footings in the building's basement. Booking depends on what is touring, but rainy-day visitors still get the gallery. Central on the CBD's main corner.

A 10-acre privately run wildlife park on the outskirts of town, with about 200 animals from Australian natives to snow leopards, cheetahs and red pandas. Daily keeper talks and bookable one-on-one encounters are the differentiator from the bigger metropolitan zoos. A half-day visit with kids; less satisfying for adults expecting metropolitan-zoo polish.

A family hydroponic farm 10 minutes north of town where you pick your own strawberries off vertical walls inside a marquee, 364 days a year. A cafe on site runs scones with farm jam and a tomato-led lunch menu. A 90-minute family outing rather than a full attraction.

The Hastings River region's flagship winery, in Fernbank Creek 10 minutes north of town, with a modern cellar door surrounded by 2000 rose bushes and the on-site Deux Garden restaurant. Chambourcin and Chardonnay are the house specialties. The local wine stop that has the most polish and the most consistent kitchen.

A volunteer-run wildlife hospital that has treated sick and injured wild koalas since 1973, now best known internationally for its work after the 2019-2020 bushfires. The main hospital site is undergoing redevelopment, with visiting koalas viewable at the Guulabaa - Place of Koala centre at Lake Innes. Free entry with a donation tin; expect a short, gentle visit rather than a half-day attraction.

A small whitewashed 1879 lighthouse perched on a wind-cut headland at the southern end of the Port Macquarie beaches, with a sweeping ocean lookout that doubles as the best whale-watching platform in town. You cannot go inside, but the headland, picnic lawn and steps down to Lighthouse Beach are the draw. Worth a stop at sunrise or in whale season.

A NSW National Parks visitor centre fronting the largest stand of coastal rainforest in the state, with an elevated 1.3km boardwalk that loops through the canopy. Guided walks run with volunteer rangers who know which trees are flowering and where the diamond pythons hang out. The best easy bushwalk in town for kids, prams and wheelchairs.

The patrolled in-town beach at the mouth of the Hastings River, backed by a grassed foreshore with a playground, skate park and breakwall walk covered in painted rocks. Sheltered enough for an easy swim in southerly winds and walkable from the CBD. Where locals go for a first-day-of-holidays orientation swim.

A short, well-protected surf beach a couple of kilometres south of town, headland-framed and home to the Port Macquarie Surf Life Saving Club. Good entry-level surf when conditions allow, calm enough for a swim most days, and ringed by a grassy park with BBQs. The pick if Town Beach is crowded or blown out.

The long, wild southern beach that runs from Tacking Point south for kilometres, much of it 4WD-accessible and the only Port Macquarie beach that allows vehicles on the sand. Dramatic open ocean, fewer crowds than the in-town beaches, and consistent surf at all tides. Where you go for distance and space, not for lifeguard-flagged swimming.