Yamba- Pacific Hotel

We decided to go on a road trip late 2009 for a holiday, it had been many, many years since we have driven nearly up to the border.

We had a family vacation with Roger ( FIL) and Chris ( BIL) at a wonderful house in Ballina which was right on the Richmond River. The river was about 10m from the back deck. Talk about a house with a view! Not quite a pub but wonderful place to spend many hours having a few drinks, BBQ and many good conversations.







In preparing for this, I searched the north coast of NSW and found a nice looking pub at Yamba, it looked like it would be a great place to spend a few hours and also looked to have a wonderful view.
My plan on stopping into small towns on the way home started with Yamba.

We arrived about 10.30 am on the Saturday morning, we drove straight to the point to check out the view across the Pacific Ocean. Just lovely! We looked back and there sitting on the cliff overlooking the beach was the Pacific Hotel. We had quickly found what we were looking for. We drove around and walked into the pub. A pub can be just a pub or a pub can be more, this was much more. We walked over to the window and the view was amazing even though it was a little cloudy.



There is no balcony to sit on, the small balcony is for those requiring a quick puff of their smoke however all the tables are lined up across the front of the pub facing the ocean.

How good was this? I had my perfect view!

I checked with the owner and all the rooms were booked, so we quickly went back to the point, found a lovely motel with a very well priced room, parked the car and walked back to the Pacific Hotel. On the way, we passed a very nice looking restaurant and booked in for 7pm that evening.

It was now 11.30am by this time and it certainly looked like we had found our place for the day.
We chose a table right near the windows so I could look at my view to my hearts content. The beer tasted pretty bloody good also!

The pub quickly filled with patrons, many we found out were coming from all around for a wedding at the lighthouse and the reception down at the surf club. I really hoped the weather would improve for the bride.

Mid afternoon we had lunch, they have a very nice bistro and the prices are probably a little on the higher than average for the bistro but the meals were very generous. The wine by this time was tasting exceptionally good!

From time to time I would pop out on the balcony to get another shot of the view. The clouds vanished and the sun came out, perfect wedding weather. Check my photo below looking north, looks even better in the canvas I had made.


The south view down to the beach was just as nice!

What great day, great pub, great atmosphere and then something unexpected happened. My beautiful view was suddenly filled with two hangliders having a wonderful time. They soared from the lighthouse to the left to over the beach to our right. How lovely they looked. As they passed only a few metres from where we were sitting I was able to get a few good shots.

There you have it, a great pub with an exceptional view and built in entertainment also. We stumbled out about 6.30pm had dinner at a restaurant we don't remember what the heck it was called and slept until morning to see what the next day will bring as we headed south for more places to visit.

My search for the best view.....

I am searching for the best pub with the best views in the world, or Aussie to start with, probably NSW to start with as I don't venture much out of the state at this time.

I work hard all week ( and some days on some weekends) and find the ocean sucks all the stress out of me, hence why I just love an ocean view. I can look at it for hours!

I will start with the last pub I have visited first. I must admit its going to be pretty hard to beat. I went to this pub the last 2 Saturdays and would go every weekend if I could!

Scarborough Hotel is located south of Sydney and north of Wollongong on the coast. You can either drive south via Stanwell Park or you can get the train like I did. Takes about an hour and a half from Central and is the way to go if you want to have a few ( and a few more) drinks like I did. Check the train timetable south coast line for times, they aren't very frequent so you will need to plan.

I arrived at 10am and its a short 10 walk south down to the pub. The pub has been done up inside and has a lovely verandah overlooking the ocean. The verandah seats has about 8 tables which seat 8.

Venturing downstairs to the beer garden which over looks the ocean is something to take your breath away. You have uninterrupted views right down to the water and out over the ocean. It's so beautiful I am best to let this photo I took speak for itself, its worth more than one thousand words in my opinion.


Well? I bet you agree! The outdoor area has 3 Bali style huts which are usually reserved for functions. There is also about 15 tables which seat 8 so its a huge beer garden. These fill up pretty quick so if you get there before noon you should be able to get one.

Whats the next important thing to the view? The food of course. Their big brekkie is really big and the bacon and eggs is fantastic. I loved the dips and sour dough bread and the King Prawn Curry was amazing! My hubby said the eye fillet steak he had was the best ever, big call I know and he was a bit pissed by then and its widely known in our street he cooks the best steaks but he tends to tell the truth when pissy! hehe

We had to time the walk back to the station to make sure we got the train, its a 2 hour wait for the next one. We bypassed the 4.30 one but made it for the 6.30pm one. Had a lovely day with lovely views and cant wait to go back again!

Let me know what you think!


Looking back towards the pub