Spotlight on Barwon Heads

Nestled between Ocean Grove and Torquay, the cute little hamlet of Barwon Heads is a gourmet, golf, beach, walking and cycling delight. It’s around 90 mins from Melbourne’s Bayside suburbs or 75 minutes from Melbourne’s CBD but has the feeling of being further away from city life due to it’s cute little bridge crossing as you enter town and its wild and rugged 13th beach.

In summer, there’s a weekly Saturday Community Market with delicious treats and locally made homewares, clothing and art plus the Spiegeltent which hosts musicians and theatre acts throughout January. There’s also food trucks set up around town offering dumplings, tacos, coffee etc. and a couple of pretty decent restaurants – our fav. is #HanoiKitchen for dinner and Starfish for breakfast. There’s also the iconic #BeachHouseBarwonHeads out on the pier and of course, the Pub and a pretty good fish ‘n chip shop. My favourite thing to do at Barwon Heads is the hike along the river from the pier, up over the bluff, along the clifftops overlooking 13th beach and then back via the golf course / campground in to town. Then if it’s hot, a good long swim in the river!

Three things to tick on a trip to #Barwon Heads are: 1. The 13th beach clifftop walk 2. The Saturday Community Market and 3. Swim in the Barwon River.

Bella Bellarine Peninsula trio: Ocean Grove, Point Lonsdale and Queenscliff

The three towns at the start of the Bellarine Peninsula before you hit Barwon Heads offer a trio of delights. Historic Queenscliff is where the ferry comes in, Sleepy Point Lonsdale has the iconic Lighthouse and bustling Ocean Grove is a true surf town.

Ocean Grove is Barwon’s big sister and a lot busier, spread out and populated. The highlight here is the beautiful surf beach which is patrolled in two places and has a stunning new surf lifesaving club with a restaurant and kiosk that serves delicious jaffles – we had the cauliflower cheese and black pepper jaffle from the kiosk and it was crispy, gooey and divine! Ocean Grove has a busy mani street with lots of restaurants and cafes and a great bike path that winds from Barwon through to the end of the Grove.

Point Lonsdale, 16km from Barwon has one sweet strip of cafes and shops, a lovely foreshore walk with playground and gentle beach and a fabulously long pier near the Lighthouse where you can almost touch the ships going out the heads into Bass Strait!

Queenscliff boasts some seriously grand old hotels and historic buildings dating back to when it was settled in the mid 1800’s. Hesse street is the main commercial street with lots of lovely little shops, cafes and restaurants. Gellibrand Street is home to most of the grand old hotels and guest houses and the Marine, down ear the Ferry wharf is the latest addition with cafes and restaurants with boat and sunset views! You’ll also find the zesty El Barquero taco truck down at the ferry terminal -this pop-up Mexican restaurant is a real treat in summer for margaritas and mexican corn, nachos and tacos..