The winners of the 2013 Qantas Australian Tourism Awards have been unveiled at a glittering ceremony in Sydney.
In the Tourist and Caravan Parks category, the best caravan park in the land was named as BIG4 Cairns Coconut Holiday Resort in Queensland; with second place going to BIG4’s Adelaide Shores Caravan Park in South Australia; and third place being awarded to the Nambucca River Tourist Park in New South Wales.
Obviously, the judges were not simply looking at the need of grey nomads in making their determination … but it would still be interesting to hear what grey nomads think of the decision.
And, it would be interesting also to hear which caravan parks you think deserve the official ‘Grey Nomads Champion Park Tourism Award’.
Comment below to let us know how you found staying at the winning parks; and to nominate a great grey nomad-friendly park.
Should be called Cabin Parks
Gee I wish I could afford their rates.
G’day Phil.Pls see my comment at 5.33pm today. Cheers.
Yes Cairns Coconut is very expensive. A very nice park which also has very reasonable rates is Cool Waters in Brinsmead. Freshwater Creek is at the bottom of the property, they have a swimming pool, campers kitchen, clean toilets and amenities, you can feed the turtles and watch the fish, (no fishing lines allowed lol).
Mmm Best CP for Grey Nomad’s..
Well For Victorian’s ..
— I nominate Greens Lake..
> Plenty of fresh water..
> Good ambiance
> Great company
> Has a Toilet block so access to some fresh water..
> Not far from shop’s..
> Has a few surrounding Large Towns so plenty of shopping Option’s
> Plenty of entertainment on the weekends.
Has Both shady and Full sun spot’s it’s your choice of what you want..
– Not many restrictions
>> You can take your dog’s, Just maintain control of them and make sure that you Pick up All Doggie mess’s..
OH Yeah forgot the Best Thing about Greens Lake…… IT’s FREE [ NO COST ]
so there is my Victorian Nomination..
Are there other Spot’s that GN’s Love.. I can’t say from personal experience yet But from a Reading of this Forum.. There are far better spot’s for Grey nomad’s than compared to Caravan Park’s..
J
Where exactly is Green Lake?
They have to be kidding. Why not call them the most expensive van parks and leave it at that
Never a truer word was spoken Karol Fisher.
Caravan Parks? What are they ? Now I remember,We had a Park in Narooma NSW for 15 years. They are the places where they cram you in and charge $60. a night for 2 people peak season. We still go to the coast constantly from Canberra and haven’t stayed in one with our Campervan for 2 years. Good to know all the best spots to FREE CAMP and fish.
The Cairns Coconut would be without a doubt, one of the best Parks in Australia. We have stayed there on four different occassions over the years and will stay again if we can afford the hike from Busselton W A . We too have suffered from the economic downturn a few years ago. Don’t be too hard on the park owners who are prepared to develop good properties that end up like the Coconut.
Five years on the road full time and only 3 nights free at Fletchers Creek. For my money one of the best presented and reasonably priced in Qld would be the Capella Caravan Park, no major bells and whistles just well maintained, clean and quiet friendly hosts made us welcome
We did a Big Oz Trip in 2008/9, driving all the way round Oz in a converted Toyota Coaster. We stayed at 100s of parks during our year and two of the best were at 80 Mile Beach, WA, and Mallacoota, Vic. Both places we only intended staying a couple of nights but stayed over a week at 80 Mile beach and 3 weeks at Mallacoota.
Try Marble Bar Caravan Park, very friendly owners, they greet each caravan outside their office as you drive in.
Then at Happy Hour they come down and greet you again with details of all the places you can visit while in the area.
Places like this won’t be in the count for the best Caravan Park as they are not in the big towns and can’t afford to pay the many $$$$’s needed to win the 2013 Qantas Australian Tourism Awards at a glittering ceremony in Sydney.
So who was the person that stayed in every caravan park in Australia during 2013 to come up with this winner???
The Wanderest in Richmond NSW takes some beating!
Most Grey Nomads are not looking for all the bells and whistles swimming pools playgrounds tennis courts etc they just want a clean site clean amenities with plenty of hot water and friendly staff from the front counter to all through the park we have stopped at many parks in our travels and that is what all the grey nomads say they want We stay at a park in Woolgoolga nsw beach one side shops the other retail therapy just go into Coffs Harbour no bells and whistles at this park but so friendly from front counter
Lake Placid Tourist Park in Cairns is beautifully maintained and reasonably priced. It’s peaceful, has a lovely pool and great camp kitchen with BBQ. Situated beside the mighty Barron River it offers the real feel of the rainforest including the visiting bush turkeys. It’s only 20 minutes to Cairns City or 5 minutes to a choice of major shopping centres. Top spot.
Never have, never will, on a 2 week trip from the hunter valley to Phillip Island via Jindabyn and return we only used show grounds and some of the best out of the way camping spots that could be found. Just don’t like over priced parks, we don’t need all the BELLS & WHISTLES>
A few years ago a caravan park owner had their story page in the Cairns newspaper complaining about the free campers at a free camp a few K`s up the road. Their complaint was that had 20 vacant sites and the free camp was full.
Would they not be better off if they dropped their price a little and had a full park.