We've fallen in love with the Coffs Harbour region. It's perfect for kids and Brent & Katrina's place close to Sapphire Beach is the perfect launching pad for the area.
The house is situated in a very new and well thought out suburb surrounding Sapphire Beach. Although for people from cities such as Melbourne or Sydney, this might seem like a long distance from Coffs Harbour itself, it is not all all. A short distance from the property is a 110km/h that allows you to arrive quickly when coming into the area, but equally, easily escape for day trips from the property. What would take 30 minutes drive in Sydney, takes only 8 minutes at most in this neck of the woods.
The property is a short walk through nice leafy streets to the gorgeous Sapphire Beach. This appears perfect for the more serious swimmers, but close by is a playground for the families with young kids (like ours).
From this location though, there is a very wide range of beach types and anyone visiting the area will want to return as soon as possibly (it was a recent trip only a month ago that made us return).
As for the property itself, it is very well laid out and a very neat place. There is a perfect place to park the car, and there is enough space for a family of 4. While there are 3 true bedrooms, one is instead used as a TV room. Normally in AirBnB's we don't find the TV is a big deal because it's usually put somewhere as an afterthought, but in this case, every member of the family found a reason to sit comfortably on the couch and watch the nice TV to unwind.
The blinds in each of the bedrooms do blackout nicely, meaning that during even the brightest of mornings, a sleep in is possible (that's important!). And the beds themselves were comfortable enough to send our 3 and 4 year old to sleep immediately; that's a bonus, because that doesn't even happen at home sometimes.
Many will come here in summer, and for that all rooms have ceiling fans and a split aircon system.
The bathroom is large and has both a bath and a shower. Best of both worlds means that families with kids like ours, can use a bath (this is not common these days in new homes, but glad it was not missed here). But of course, the shower is large and very comfortable to use.
The property is large and extremely clean. We believe Brent and Katrina have an eye for detail and design. The colour palette really lets you know you're within a stone's throw of the beach.
The only issues we found were that while there is a lot of living space to rest, the kitchen is just sufficient enough for some basic food preparation. Furthermore there are no laundry facilities in the house.
We met Brent on arrival and expressed our concerns. He was very welcoming and was already onto solutions for us in terms of at least drying our swimming gear (which was to be the main items needing cleaning anyway). But for those that are desperately needing a large wash, there are facilities close by that should suffice.
With that in mind that, the property is good value with comfortable, clean living spaces. No one should really want for more.
We knew we were in good hands when we met Brent. His hospitality extended to an accidental item left behind at the property. He went above and beyond in sending the item back to us in Sydney. While this is not expected, it's the sign of a good host who was willing to help us even when we had left.
Yes - this is a long review. But we enjoyed it so much, we wanted to express this comprehensively.
We're certain anyone reading this will also have a similar experience when staying.