Top Luxury Stays For Less In Australia

Flax linen sheets with vineyard views? Al fresco hot tubs? Festoon lights and flat screens? Fleur Bainger explores how tiny cabins, holiday parks and select resorts are reimagining what’s possible in the affordable luxe space.

Never did we ever think we’d see a four-poster bed in a caravan park. And yet here we are, gazing with bewildered awe at white draping billowed by split system air conditioning, with views of a wooden deck sparkling with strung globes. There’s also a flat screen, a lumberjack-style wood-panelled kitchen with a microwave and a swish, en suite bathroom – all wrapped within canvas walls, and all from $179 per night.

Camping holidays used to mean rugged sleeps on hard ground after your air mattress betrayed you. Going off-grid tended to be code for ocean baths and smoke-fragranced clothing with a rubbish bag shoved in the boot. But none of it, it seems, is true anymore. Or at least, it doesn’t have to be.

The basic options are still there, as are the high end, but for those searching for a more comfortable experience in a beautiful spot, without necessarily breaking the bank, holiday parks, tiny cabins and clever resorts are coming to the rescue. Campgrounds are adding ‘glamtainers’, designer cabins and even office pods to the mix. Tiny cabins provide adults-only, eco-luxe and chic stays with the luxury of not having to share a wall. Resorts are expanding access to all price points. These days if you can think it, you can probably find it. Here’s to a different kind of getaway.

Tiny cabin stays

Tiny cabins have been causing dilated pupils and heart-held sighs with their pocket-sized seclusion since the first low-impact accommodations came on the scene around 2017 in Australia. Since then, hundreds of solar-powered stays have been positioned on private farms, vineyards and bushland. Is there anything more luxe than gaining access to places you’d otherwise never get to step foot on? Actually, there is.

1. The Retreat House by Wikloe

In NSW, recordings of yoga classes and guided meditations are provided at digital detox haven The Retreat House by Wikloe , along with picture-window views of Mount Marsden and furniture hand-built from salvaged timber (from $360 per night).

2. Henry by Hidden Cabins

In Western Australia’s lesser-known Ferguson Valley wine region, Henry by Hidden Cabins has curated books on chasing the slow life, handmade ceramic crockery and a king bed swaddled in flax linen, all fit into 15 square metres (from $300 per night).

Henry by Hidden Cabins in WA — It doesn’t get cosier or cuter than the Henry by Hidden Cabins.

3. Into the Wild Escapes

Into the Wild Escapes has cabins of all shapes, styles and sizes in nearly every Australian state, many adorned with deck baths, fire pits and loft beds (prices start at $197 per night).

4. Heyscape – Tiny Cabins

Beyond the compact cuteness, niche lures are being added to the mix. Heyscape , which has positioned 26 off-grid, eco boltholes across WA in just four years, has recently introduced ‘work from roam’ cabins, kitted out with high-speed wi-fi and good coffee in dreamy settings, as well as dog-friendly cabins, accessible cabins and fit-for-family cabins. Going a step further, Heyscape launched new premium iterations, including some in Margaret River’s coveted Yallingup that opened in June 2023, and others launching in Esperance in September.

“To have that room to breathe while retaining creature comforts is rare and quite unique," says Tenealle Harper, Heyscape’s guest experience manager. The family-owned company’s very comfortable standard cabins cost from around $300 per night, while the primo versions that might include a soaking tub made from a concrete wine vat, a motorised cinema screen for movies in bed and even a soon-to-open private airstrip, start at $590 per night. What began as affordable luxury is now diving into the high-end.

Heyscape’s premium off grid cabin in Yallingup, WA — Heyscape’s premium off-grid cabin in Yallingup, WA, surrounded by rolling green landscapes.

5. CABN X

It’s also happening in South Australia, where big player CABN is opening a collective of new, adults-only CABN X retreats in August 202. With each pod 30 metres apart, the four Barossa winery-positioned cabins are designed as a group getaway. Each is adorned with a private sauna and huge, scoop bath; they will set you back from $695 per weeknight – and significantly more on weekends. It’s steep but consider this: comparative neighbouring properties price themselves from $600 to $700 per night.

“When we launched CABN X, the concept was to bring the comfort of a five-star hotel room to nature, but with some key differences," says CABN CEO Michael Lamprell. “Luxury, off-grid accommodation that … is curated to encourage disconnection from everyday life and reconnection with nature and one another."

Meanwhile, regular CABNs kitted out with Weber Qs, solar air conditioners and indoor fireplaces cost from around $300 per night, granting the same level of ecotherapy for less. New eco-CABNs planned for 2025 will combine the best of both worlds. Future tiny homes, to be positioned along the 102-kilometre Cooloola Great Walk through Queensland’s Great Sandy National Park, will be graded into different categories, ranging from ‘minimalist’ to ‘sustainable luxury’.

a woman relaxing on the deck of a CABN X in the Barossa Valley — Relax on the deck of a CABN X in the Barossa Valley. (Image: Martin Callow Photography)

Glamping spots

As Insta-worthy tiny cabins are amped with extras and the nightly rates climb accordingly, holiday parks and camping grounds are stepping in with zhuzhed-up options that cast new light on the traditional budget sector. These typically daggy places have long made sensational locations accessible to those on tighter purse strings, and now their sprawling proximity to beachfronts, iconic hiking trails and bucket-list sights is appealing to those who don’t fancy a night in a tent.

an aerial view of NRMA Ocean Beach Holiday Resort — NRMA Ocean Beach Holiday Resort is nestled between the bush and the beach on the NSW Central Coast.

6. NRMA Parks and Resorts

NRMA Parks and Resorts has introduced glamtainers – fancy-pants sea containers – to its ringside Umina Beach location on the NSW Central Coast.

glamtainers at NRMA Ocean Beach Resort — The sleek ‘glamtainers’ at NRMA Ocean Beach.

With styled furnishings, chic wood panelling and floor-to-ceiling glass, they’re a leap from the usual expectations of a holiday resort (from $149 per night). At its Merimbula Beach park, a claw-foot bath sits on the deck of a view-blessed safari tent (from $214 per night).

a look inside the bedroom of a glamptainer at NRMA Ocean Beach — Sleep inside the shipping container turned luxe tiny home at NRMA Ocean Beach.

7. Tasman Holiday Parks

Rapidly expanding Tasman Holiday Parks is amping its Bendigo offering with a four-poster bed inside each of its new Glamping Miners Tents, along with the park pool, mini golf and movies beyond the zipper. There’s also a new office pod – one of many remote working spaces that Tasman plans to roll out at caravan parks in 2024, including Bright, Geelong, Racecourse Beach and Airlie Beach. “It’s at times great to be able to run meetings when you’re not sitting in your cabin or your glamping tent," says Tasman CEO Nikki Milne.

With its access to the Whitsunday Islands, Airlie Beach also has new, air-conditioned, en suite eco-glamping tents that include camping’s most breathtaking opulence: a regular-sized dishwasher (from $191 per night). Six tiny homes are also on the cards, alluring additions that are also planned for Queensland’s South Mission Beach and WA’s Yallingup.

8. Alpine National Park

By summer 2023, Bright’s Victorian alpine park will have two-storey modular cabins with picture windows and outdoor fireplaces. “People were actively seeking new experiences during Covid and it introduced a new customer to holiday parks," says Milne. “There’s just such intrigue in really high-end, beautifully finished tiny homes."

While parks can’t offer the people-free privacy of a typical tiny cabin, they make up for it with go-kart tracks, bouncy pillows, kayaking and coffee trucks. “In our business, you can access all the social amenities whether you’re spending $30 per night for a campsite, or if you’re spending at the top of the price point," says Milne. “You get a whole range of experiences that you simply wouldn’t get if you were in a traditional hotel complex." And while that price point is climbing north in tune with rising sophistication, Milne says it hasn’t weakened the thirst. “Sometimes your most expensive stock is the first to sell," she says.

9. El Questro and Kings Canyon Resort

Iconic destinations such as the Kimberley’s El Questro and the Red Centre’s Kings Canyon Resort have long embraced the very Aussie, egalitarian approach of granting all visitors – from campers to top-tier travellers – access to the same natural beauties.

an aerial view of Discovery Kings Canyon Resort — Discovery Resorts – Kings Canyon has undergone a serious polish.

G’day Group, which acquired both properties in 2021, has since put some serious spit and polish into Kings Canyon’s 128 standard and deluxe resort rooms, building competition for its glamping tents.

a bathtub in a deluxe suite at Discovery Parks Kings Canyon — Soak in a bath with a view at Discovery Resorts – Kings Canyon.

a spacious deluxe suite at Discovery Resorts - Kings Canyon — Stay in a spacious deluxe suite at Discovery Resorts – Kings Canyon.

10. Discovery Parks and Resorts

The G’day Group also owns regional holiday parks around Australia under the Discovery brand, which first dipped its toe into glamping with the new-build safari tent village, pool and bar-restaurant at Discovery Resorts – Rottnest Island in 2018.

an aerial view of the safari tent village at Discovery Resorts – Rottnest Island — The new-build safari tent village at Discovery Resorts – Rottnest Island offers low-impact glamping in one of WA’s most striking island locations.

Wildly popular despite rising nightly rates (prices start around $289 and climb to $689, in low season), its fierce demand will no doubt be replicated at Discovery Parks – Broome , where a $15-million upgrade will see 30 new deluxe cabins, several pool-view studio cabins and a number of safari-style glamping tents – each with private balcony – open in October 2023.

They chase changes at Discovery Parks – Cradle Mountain , where new deluxe cabins opened mid-year with underfloor bathroom heating and gas log fireplaces (from $500 per night). The glam-factor will soon jump again when new designer-style cabins open in the Tassie forest with floor-to-ceiling windows, bathtubs and robes. The price point is expected to pinch, reflecting the conservation area location and its shortage of accommodation options. For those not wanting to pay it, camping and older cabins offer the same attributes, minus the luxe trimmings.

“This diversity of accommodation offerings in our parks, including elevated glamping facilities and upgraded cabins … present an appealing alternative that is attractive to all kinds of travellers," says G’day Group chief investment officer Amanda Baldwin. “[Including] some who may not have originally thought a holiday park would have an accommodation option that suited them."

a balcony in one of the Red Centre resort’s deluxe suites — One of the Red Centre resort’s Deluxe Suites, where wild meets luxury.

What do we mean by luxury?

The ultimate luxury – be it affordable, high end or camping-cheap – is, of course, location. The ability to be so close to a beach you can hear the waves crash, positioned within a stone’s throw of a hike to a gaping gorge or ensconced in nature where no other humans tread is perhaps the most valuable thing of all. It’s this that unplugs us from the daily grind and resets us with a restorative perspective. And really, what price can you put on that?

back view of two people sitting outside a cosy tent at Emma Gorge, El Questro — Settle into cosy quarters at Emma Gorge, El Questro.

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Just 15 years ago, Federal Mills was a very different place. Once among the most significant industrial sites in Victoria, the historic woollen mill was one of a dozen that operated in Geelong at the industry’s peak in the mid-20th century, helping the city earn its title as ‘wool centre of the world’. But by the 1960s global competition and the rise of synthetic fabrics led to the slow decline of the industry, and Federal Mills finally shuttered its doors in 2001. Within a few years, the abandoned North Geelong grounds had become makeshift pastoral land, with cows and goats grazing among the overgrown grass between the empty red-brick warehouses. It was a forgotten pocket of the city, all but two klicks from the bustle of the CBD.

Geelong cellar door wine bar — Geelong has shed its industrial identity to become an innovative urban hub with reimagined heritage spaces. (Image: Ash Hughes)

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Today, the century-old complex stands reborn. The distinctive sawtooth-roof buildings have been sensitively restored. An old silo is splashed with a bright floral mural, landscapers have transformed the grounds, and the precinct is once again alive with activity. More than 1000 people work across 50-plus businesses here. It’s so busy, in fact, that on a sunny Thursday morning in the thick of winter, it’s hard to find a car park. The high ceilings, open-plan design, and large multi-paned windows – revolutionary features for factories of their time – have again become a drawcard.

Paddock Bakery andPatisserie — Paddock Bakery and Patisserie is housed within the historic wool factory. (Image: Gallant Lee)

At Paddock , one of the precinct’s newer tenants, weaving looms and dye vats have been replaced by a wood-fired brick oven and heavy-duty mixers. Open since April 2024, the bakery looks right at home here; the building’s industrial shell is softened by ivy climbing its steel frames, and sunlight streams through the tall windows. Outside, among the white cedar trees, families at picnic benches linger over dippy eggs and bagels, while white-collar workers pass in and out, single-origin coffee and crème brûlée doughnuts in hand.

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

Paddock Bakery can be found at Federal Mills. (Image: Gallant Lee)

“A lot of people are now seeing the merit of investing in Geelong,” says Paul Traynor, the head of Hamilton Hospitality Group, which redeveloped Federal Mills. A city once shunned as Sleepy Hollow, and spurned for its industrial, working-class roots and ‘rust belt’ image, Geelong has long since reclaimed its ‘Pivot City’ title, having reinvented itself as an affordable, lifestyle-driven satellite city, and a post-COVID migration hotspot.

And the numbers stand testament to the change. In March 2025, and for the first time in its history, Greater Geelong became Australia’s most popular regional town for internal migration, overtaking Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Current forecasts suggest Geelong will continue to outpace many other Australian cities and towns, with jobs growing at double the rate of the population.

Tourism is booming, too. The 2023-24 financial year was Geelong and The Bellarine region’s busiest on record, with 6.4 million visitors making it one of the fastest-growing destinations in the country. It’s not hard to see why: beyond the city’s prime positioning at the doorstep of the Great Ocean Road, Geelong’s tenacity and cultural ambition stands out.

As Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design, Geelong is swiftly shaking off its industrial past to become a model for urban renewal, innovation, sustainability and creative communities. The signs are everywhere, from the revitalisation of the city’s waterfront, and the landmark design of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and Geelong Arts Centre, to the growing network of local designers, architects and artists, and the burgeoning roster of festivals and events. That’s not even mentioning the adaptive reuse of storied old industrial buildings – from Federal Mills, to Little Creatures’ brewery ‘village’ housed within a 1920s textile mill – or the city’s flourishing food and wine scene.

The rise of a food and wine destination

Restaurant 1915 is housed within a restored former boiler house. (Image: Harry Pope/Two Palms)

Traynor credits now-closed local restaurant Igni, which opened in 2016, as the turning point for Geelong’s hospo industry. “[Aaron Turner, Igni’s chef-patron] was probably the first guy, with all due respect, to raise the bar food-wise for Geelong,” he says. “People now treat it really seriously, and there’s clearly a market for it.” While Igni is gone, Turner now helms a string of other notable Geelong venues, including The Hot Chicken Project and Tacos y Liquor, all within the buzzy, street art-speckled laneways of the CBD’s Little Malop Street Precinct. Many others have also popped up in Igni’s wake, including Federal Mills’ own restaurant, 1915 . Housed within the cavernous boiler house, 1915’s interior is dramatic: soaring, vaulted ceilings with timber beams, exposed brick, a huge arched window. The share plates echo the space’s bold character, playing with contrast and texture, with dishes such as a compressed watermelon tataki, the sweet, juicy squares tempered by salty strands of fried leeks, and charred, smoky snow peas dusted with saganaki on a nutty bed of romesco.

The Woolstore , one of The Hamilton Group’s most recent hospo projects, opened in February. It occupies a century-old riverside warehouse and exudes a more sultry, fine dining ambience. Much like Federal Mills, the blueprint was to preserve the original brickwork, tallowwood flooring and nods to the building’s former life. That same careful consideration extends to the well-versed, affable waitstaff as well as the kitchen. Head chef Eli Grubb is turning out an eclectic mix of ambitious and indulgent mod Oz dishes that deliver: strikingly tender skewers of chicken tsukune, infused with hints of smoke from the parrilla grill, and glazed with a moreish, sweet gochujang ‘jam’; nduja arancini fragrant with hints of aniseed and the earthy lick of sunny saffron aioli; and golden squares of potato pavé, adorned with tiny turrets of crème fraîche, crisp-fried saltbush leaves, and Avruga caviar, to name but a few stand-out dishes.

Woolstore menu — Woolstore’s menu is designed for sharing.

Breathing new life into historic spaces

On the city’s fringe, hidden down a winding side road with little fanfare, lies a long-dormant site that’s being gently revived. Built from locally quarried bluestone and brick, and dating back to the 1870s, the complex of original tin-roofed mill buildings is lush with greenery and backs onto the Barwon River and Buckley Falls; the audible rush of water provides a soothing soundtrack. Fyansford Paper Mill is one of few complexes of its time to survive intact. It feels steeped in history and spellbindingly rustic.

“We were looking for an old industrial place that had some charm and romance to it,” explains Sam Vogel, the owner, director and winemaker at Provenance Wines which moved here in 2018. When he first viewed the building with his former co-owner, it was in such a state of disrepair that the tradie tenant occupying the space had built a shed within it to escape the leaking roof and freezing winter temperatures. “To say it was run down would be an understatement,” he notes. “There was ivy growing through the place; the windows were all smashed. It was a classic Grand Designs project.”

Provenance Wines moved to Fyansford Paper Mill in 2018. (Image: Cameron Murray Photography)

The team has since invested more than a million dollars into their new home. Where paper processing machinery once sat, wine barrels are now stacked. Vaulted cathedral ceilings are strung with festoon lights, and hidden in plain sight lies a shadowy mural by local street artist de rigueur Rone – one of only three permanent works by the artist.

While the award-winning, cool-climate pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay naturally remain a key draw at Provenance, the winery’s restaurant is a destination in itself. Impressed already by whipsmart service, I devour one of the most cleverly curated and faultlessly executed degustations I’ve had in some time. It’s all prepared in a kitchen that is proudly zero-waste, and committed to providing seasonal, ethical and locally sourced meat and produce under head chef Nate McIver. Think free-range venison served rare with a syrupy red wine jus and a half-moon of neon-orange kosho, shokupan with a deeply savoury duck fat jus (a modern Japanese take on bread and drippings), and a golden potato cake adorned with a colourful confetti of dehydrated nasturtiums and tomato powder, and planted atop a sea urchin emulsion.

handcrafted pieces — Bell’s handcrafted functional pieces on display.

The complex is home to a coterie of independent businesses, including a gallery, a jeweller, and its latest tenant, ceramicist Elizabeth Bell, drawn here by the building’s “soul”. “There’s so much potential for these buildings to have new life breathed into them,” says Bell, whose studio is housed within the old pump room. “Even people in Geelong don’t know we’re here,” she says. “It’s definitely a destination, but I like that. It has a really calming atmosphere.”

A Melbourne transplant, Bell now feels at home in Geelong, which offers something Melbourne didn’t. “If this business was in Melbourne I don’t think it would’ve been as successful,” she notes. “It’s very collaborative in Geelong, and I don’t think you get that as much in Melbourne; you’re a bit more in it for yourself. Here it’s about community over competition.”

10 unique luxury stays for less in Australia