Start from 28 curated places around Port Macquarie, AU, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
The Stunned Mullet
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.
Bills Fishhouse + Bar
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.
Trails & outdoors
Port Macquarie Coastal Walk
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.
Sea Acres Rainforest Boardwalk
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.
Things to do
Glasshouse Port Macquarie
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.
Billabong Zoo Koala & Wildlife Park
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.
Landmarks & sights
Port Macquarie Koala Conservation Hospital
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.
Tacking Point Lighthouse
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.