Show off your town without playing tour guide.

Your people are coming to Harrington. Here’s how to show family or friends a genuinely good time with less stress for you.

Harrington is where the Manning River finally makes it to the sea, after winding its way from the Barrington Tops down through the valley and past Taree and Wingham, two hundred kilometres of river journey ending at a breakwall, a lighthouse hill and a town that has been watching boats come and go since the 1860s.

There’s a taste of holidays from our past here. Your guests will feel that the moment they step out of the car.

Start the day right

Start at Beach Street Dispensary for the best coffee in Harrington with delicious treats you’ll want to eat everyday, not just on holidays.

The breakwall built in 1894 to protect the entry channel for shipping now serves as a scenic walk and a great fishing spot. Walk it in the morning with a coffee and keep an eye on the river mouth.

The pelicans are reliably stationed on the colourfully painted power poles waiting for the fishing boats to return, which is the kind of detail that makes you realise Harrington has its own rhythms and doesn’t particularly need anyone’s approval for them.

The riverbank promenade runs for three kilometres and is a genuinely lovely morning walk, with bollards marking out the town’s maritime history as you go.

Send them off to explore

Pilot Hill Lookout provides expansive views over the river delta, and the graves on the hill bear witness to the pilots whose task was to guide boats over the bar. It’s a quietly moving spot, worth the short climb.

Crowdy Head is ten minutes north and contains two things worth knowing about. The lighthouse, one of only two along the 190 kilometre Barrington Coast, sits high on the headland and delivers a 360-degree view that doubles as one of the best whale-watching vantage points on the coast between May and November.

And Diamond Head in Crowdy Bay National Park, just beyond, is where the kangaroos come down to the beach. Not as a tourist attraction, just as something they’ve always done. Send your guests there late afternoon and they’ll come back talking about it for days.

End the day together

Shoreline Tavern overlooks the Manning River and does local seafood and modern Australian cuisine in a setting that makes dinner feel like the right reward for a good day.

The Harrington Hotel, with its river views and fresh seafood menu, is the other reliable choice.

Club Harrington rounds out the options with waterfront dining seven days a week and lawn bowls available for anyone in the group who feels the urge.

Feeling like something simple but tasty? Nate’s Pizzeria is simply the best, they’ve won multiple awards for it. 

For guests staying longer

Taree is thirty minutes south and covers everything a larger town can offer.

The coastal drive north through Crowdy Bay National Park toward Laurieton is one of those routes that seems to get better the further you go, with Crowdy Head, Diamond Head and the long empty beaches of the national park all accessible along the way.

One last thing

Harrington operates on its own schedule and that’s the point. The fishing boats go out early, the pelicans wait, the river does what rivers do.

There’s a pace here that city people find slightly disorienting at first and then deeply restoring. Give your guests a day to find it.

You bring the people. Harrington will handle the rest.