Port Stephens, AU

A glass-walled dining room and deck cantilevered over Little Beach jetty — the upscale waterfront restaurant in Port Stephens, with a tightly local menu built around Stockton pipis, Nelson Bay tuna, and bay-caught crab. The booking the whole region defaults to for an anniversary.

Rick Stein's only Australian outpost outside Mollymook, on the ground floor of Bannisters Hotel at Soldiers Point — a seasonal seafood menu leaning on local pipis, blue swimmer crab and rock oysters. The destination meal for the western side of the bay.

A long-running modern Australian dining room on the Fingal Bay foreshore with a wedding-volume kitchen that still runs a sharp a-la-carte service — macadamia-crusted barramundi and chilli-caramel lamb cutlets are the dishes locals quote back. The Fingal Bay anchor for a proper night out.

A glass-fronted dining room on top of the Birubi Point Surf Life Saving Club facing straight out over Stockton Beach and the dunes — modern Australian menu, decent wine list, and the only sit-down meal on the Anna Bay side that matches the view.

A small seafood-led dining room at the Soldiers Point Bowling Club marina — punching well above its bowls-club shell with a tight, fresh-fish menu and the calmest harbour view on the western shore. Locals' alternative to the Bannisters spend.

A leafy-courtyard brunch cafe a block back from the Nelson Bay foreshore — pet-friendly, kid-friendly, and the local breakfast default for shishito-egg plates, peach crepes, and decent coffee away from the marina crowd.

A cafe inside the 1872 Nelson Head lighthouse keeper's cottage — clotted-cream scones, breakfast plates and pots of leaf tea on a lawn 53 metres above the bay. The only thing that beats the view is the slow pace.

A small, sun-drenched courtyard cafe on Stockton Street in central Nelson Bay — independent, dog-friendly, with the more interesting coffee program in town and a short brunch menu that takes the boring stuff seriously.

A small-batch roaster and cafe on George Road in Salamander Bay — the suburb's specialty coffee hub, organic beans roasted in house, and a tight food menu. The reason coffee snobs detour off the Nelson Bay strip.

A foreshore fish-and-chips counter on Teramby Road run by the same Parallel Hospitality group behind Little Beach Boathouse — barramundi cones, lobster rolls, BBQ king prawns, eat-them-on-the-grass-watching-the-boats kind of operation.

A Stockton Street Thai room more than a decade in — straightforward menu, no fusion, and the dependable weeknight Thai meal in Nelson Bay. Second outlet at Shoal Bay does the same menu closer to the eastern beaches.

A Scandinavian-themed woodfire pizza and bar on the Nelson Bay Road approach in Bobs Farm — wooden-beamed Viking-hall interior, decent woodfire crusts, and the most distinctive room on the dunes side. The stop you make on the drive back from Stockton.

The headline 2.2km return climb from the Shoal Bay car park to the 161m summit — concrete steps and steel walkways, 30 to 45 minutes up, and the view from the platform that puts the whole port and its islands at your feet. Steep but manageable.

A 27km multi-day coastal track from Shoal Bay to Birubi Point connecting the port's beaches, headlands, and remnant WWII gun emplacements — opened 2024, designed as a 2 or 3 day walk with campsites, but most of it works as day stages of 5-9km.

A 4km return walk across a tidal sand spit from Fingal Beach to Fingal Island and the 1862 Point Stephens Lighthouse — only crossable within an hour of low tide, with the route changing visibly between visits.

The walk-on access from Birubi Point onto the Worimi sand mass — no permit needed for foot access, sandboards rentable from the surf club kiosks. A 20-minute slog up the first ridge gets you into the proper dunes; another 10 gets you on a board.

A short bush-and-stairs walk from Little Beach up to the Nelson Head lighthouse cottage — 800m one-way, 15 minutes up, threading through coastal banksia with sudden harbour-mouth views. The easy half-hour stretch when Tomaree feels too much.

A 2.5km return walk from Verona Road in Shoal Bay through coastal banksia to Wreck Beach — a small north-facing cove inside Tomaree National Park with cliff backdrops and almost no other walkers. The off-the-postcard beach.

The largest of the d'Albora Marina cruise operators with seven vessels — dolphin cruises year-round, whale watching May to November, plus sunset and Broughton Island runs. The default first-day-in-Port-Stephens activity.

An advanced-ecotourism-accredited cruise outfit running a 54-foot sailing catamaran out of d'Albora — smaller crowds than Moonshadow, more focus on dolphin behaviour, sailing-power option, plus a snorkel cruise to Fly Point.

Worimi-owned quad-bike tours run from a base near Birubi Point onto the conservation lands — cultural-knowledge briefing built in, with the takings reinvested into Worimi community programs. The most interesting way to ride the dunes.

The other quad-bike operator on the Stockton dunes — 350cc Yamahas, faster pace, big-volume operation that runs daily, year-round. The ride if you're more about the adrenaline than the cultural angle.

A wildlife-hospital-with-boardwalks at One Mile run by the council — sick and orphaned koalas in pre-release pens, plus a treetop skywalk through the surrounding bush canopy. The educational rather than entertainment alternative to a zoo.

A small marine encounter centre at Bobs Farm with shallow lagoons you can step into for hands-on stingray and reef-shark interactions. Independently run, ecotourism-focused, and the only place in the region you can do this.

An open-paddock brewery at Bobs Farm shared with Port Stephens Winery — daily 2:15pm brewery tour, full restaurant kitchen, bocce courts on the lawn, and a tap range that's been the regional pioneer since 2006.

A 25-acre wildlife park at Salt Ash inside the service radius — free-roaming kangaroos and wallabies you can hand-feed, plus koalas, Tasmanian devils, and keeper talks throughout the day. The kid-friendly default if the koala sanctuary feels too clinical.

The working marina that doubles as Nelson Bay's town centre — cruise berths along the eastern arm, a strip of waterside cafes and seafood takeaways along Teramby Road, and a foreshore walk that gives you the whole harbour panorama. Every dolphin and whale cruise boards here.

Port Stephens' highest accessible vantage point at 160m on Lily Hill Road — a 100m flat path from car park to viewing deck, with a panorama from Newcastle's stacks south through Tomaree, Yacaaba and Stockton Dunes north. The orientation stop locals send first-timers to.

An 1872 lighthouse keeper's cottage on the bluff above Little Beach, restored as a small maritime museum with a free heritage display and the Inner Light Tea Rooms in the original quarters. The harbour-mouth view from the lawn matches anything on the coast.

A grassy headland between Little Beach and Nelson Bay declared a marine sanctuary since 1983 — and consistently rated one of the top shore-dive sites in NSW. Sponge gardens, seagrass beds, and resident eastern blue gropers a few metres off the rocks.

The northern tip of the 32km Stockton dunes — where the surf beach meets the Worimi Conservation Lands sand mass. The Aboriginal Place status recognises the Worimi people as continuous custodians; the foreshore is where most quad-bike and camel operators start their tours.

A 9-hectare community-run reserve on the Tanilba Bay foreshore with mangrove boardwalks, native nursery, and a small population of resident wild koalas. Free entry, run by volunteers — the closest you'll get to seeing a koala that isn't fenced.

32 kilometres of the largest moving coastal sand mass in the Southern Hemisphere, co-managed by the Worimi people and NSW National Parks. Permits required for 4WD access; walk-on access is free from Birubi Point or James Paterson Street.