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The Best Inns and Bed & Breakfasts
- Underground Motel (White Cliffs, NSW; tel. 1800/021 154 in Australia, or 08/8091 6677): All but two of this motel's rooms are underground. Rooms are reached by a maze of spacious tunnels dug out of the rock beneath this opal-mining town.
- Paradise Bay Eco Escape (The Whitsunday Islands, QLD; tel. 07/4946 9777): You'll be one of only a maximum of 14 guests staying in the 10 comfy and recently refurbished beachfront cabins at this island eco-retreat (formerly South Long Island Nature Lodge). Sea kayak, snorkel, swim, hike rainforest trails, dine with other guests outside under the Milky Way, and take sailing trips on the lodge's own yacht. Considering you'll only shell out for wine and maybe a seaplane trip to the Reef, this is a great value for its exclusivity.
- Kingfisher Bay Resort (Fraser Island, QLD; tel. 1800/072 555 in Australia, or 07/4120 3333): If it weren't for the ranger station and natural-history videos in the lobby, the wildlife walks, the guided four-wheel-drive safaris, and the other ecoactivities, you'd hardly know that this comfortable, modern hotel is an ecoresort.
- Binna Burra Mountain Lodge (tel. 1800/074 260 in Australia, or 07/5533 3622) & O'Reilly's Rainforest Guesthouse (tel. 1800/688 722 in Australia, or 07/5502 4911), both in the Gold Coast Hinterland, QLD: Tucked almost 1,000m (3,280 ft.) up on rainforested ridges, these cozy retreats offer fresh mountain air, activities, and instant access to the hiking trails of Lamington National Park. At O'Reilly's you can hand-feed brilliantly colored rainforest birds every morning.
- Emma Gorge Resort (The Kimberley, WA; tel. 1300/134 044 in Australia, or 08/9169 1777): At this spick-and-span little safari camp on the 400,000-hectare (1-million-acre) El Questro cattle station, guests stay in cute tents with wooden floors and electric lights, eat at a rustic gourmet restaurant, and join in the many hikes, bird-watching tours, river cruises, and more.
- Prairie Hotel (Flinders Ranges, SA; tel. 08/8648 4844): From the outside, it looks like any other outback pub, but the guest book is full of Hollywood's A-list. The restaurant is most well-known for its feral food (camel, kangaroo, emu, and bush herbs and native spices); keep an eye out for the distinctive road signs advertising the menu on the way into the town. The rooms in the historic hotel have also become a favorite with visiting movie stars, as Flinders is often the backdrop for films.
- Freycinet Lodge (Freycinet National Park, Coles Bay, TAS; tel. 1800/420 155 or 03/6225 7000): These ecofriendly bush cabins are right next to one of the nation's best walking trails. The ocean views from the magnificent restaurant and the surrounding balconies are spectacular.
- Cradle Mountain Lodge (Cradle Mountain, TAS; tel. 13 24 69 in Australia, or 03/6492 1303): Just minutes from your comfortable cabin are 1,500-year-old trees, moss forests, craggy mountain ridges, limpid pools and lakes, and hordes of scampering marsupials.
- Sal Salis, previously Ningaloo Reef Retreat (Coral Coast, WA; tel. 02/9571 6677): Hidden within the sand dunes, just meters from the Indian Ocean and the magical Ningaloo Reef, is this tiny ecoretreat. The large safari tents are set up on raised timber floors, the sunsets are superb and kangaroos bound past. It's privacy and peace par excellence.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before
planning your trip.
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