Best Water Park in Coffs Harbour
When tourists come to Coffs Harbour from Sydney, Melbourne or some other city, they often ask me if there are any water parks in Coffs Harbour.
In my opinion, you don’t need a water park when you’ve got amazing natural water play areas. You’ve just got to find a place that suits your kids’ ages. But when you’re from the city, you’re habitually used to going to artificial play areas and ‘holiday activities’ costing money.
paid attraction Water Park Coffs Harbour:
Of course, there is a water park at the Big Banana, and a much smaller play area at the Coffs Harbour War Memorial Pool. If you want to stay in Coffs Harbour accommodation with water parks and pools, the best options are Darlington Park and the Big4 Park Beach caravan parks (you have to stay here to get access). Everyone loves the Big Banana, it’s amazing, but you’re not really experiencing the beauty and fun of the Coffs Harbour region if you just visit the paid attractions.
FREE to visit water play in Coffs Harbour:
My favourite spot to recommend to families is the Woolgoolga Creek Falls Walking Track, in the Sherwood Nature Reserve.
It’s easy to get to. It’s incredibly beautiful. And it has heaps of nature play opportunities. Young children love throwing rocks in the magic-coloured blue pools. Primary school aged children love crossing the (easy) creek paths, where they feel like great explorers and adventurers. And older kids, teens, love that it’s a pretty easy but interesting hike to a waterfall, that doesn’t take hours and still is really satisfying. It’s the sort of walk you can bring friends with you, even people with no hiking experience. The creek crossings are incredibly picturesque and fun, whether you walk to the waterfall or not.
Visiting the creek track is one of our favourite things to do on the Coffs Coast with kids. Hands down.
Other places for water play with children:
Boambee Creek Reserve. Bring your floaties, kayaks, paddle boards or hire them there. You can go fishing or swimming, or just muck around. There’s a playground and lots of BBQ areas, grassy picnic areas and tables.
Moonee Creek. Another nice creek area for younger children.
Urunga has a pontoon to jump off, shallow areas for younger children and heaps of fishing spots. It’s great if you’ve got a boat or kayak, or want to walk and play on or around the boardwalk.
Woolgoolga Lake is another great spot for floating around, fishing, swimming and playing. It’s got a picnic area too.
The Jetty Beach is super sheltered. It’s nice if your kids aren’t used to waves and ocean swimming.
The Corindi River estuary, AKA Red Rock Reserve, is another gorgeous creek area.
The Sawtell rock pools and ‘granny bay’ (this place has heaps of different names, depends who you’re talking to). Accessed via the Bonville Headland, there is a lovely sheltered area for swimming, where the old grannies love to float around (i.e. ‘granny bay’ and young families come to play). At low tide the rockpools are revealed, and there are a few deeper spots that become gorgeous little swimming pools. Be careful of the kids around the rocks, they might need shoes to protect themselves from oyster shell cuts.
Of course everyone has their favourite areas. The key thing is to ask a local (like me). We’ve been here for years and are still only scratching the surface of all the amazing things there are to do in the Coffs Harbour region with kids.
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