A buzzing arts and culture scene, small boutique stores and busy eateries, bars, breweries and distilleries set Orange apart from other wine regions – here’s how to experience it all in one trip.
I just returned from a trip to Orange and while it is well-known as a popular foodie getaway, a lot of visitors don’t realise that it’s also a vibrant arts and culture hub. Artists are drawn to the cheaper rents in regional towns and their creativity, in turn, attracts visitors. Making Orange the ideal regional escape; come for the country charm and enjoy the sophistication of urban amenities. Here’s how to spend four days exploring in Orange.
Day 1: Arrive in Orange for seasonal festival feasting
Foodie travellers are always guaranteed good eating in Orange, but those in the know book their visit to coincide with one of the region’s many culinary festivals. Orange FOOD Week is the longest-running regional food and wine festival, held around Easter. There are roughly 50 events run over 10 days, showcasing the region’s winemakers, chefs and growers.
The 10-day extravaganza also offers all kinds of workshops. (Credit: Georgia Bragg Photography)
Sign up for a fire-cooking masterclass. (Credit: Pip Farquharson)
Sculpt and sip during a pottery making class. (Credit: Georgia Bragg Photography)
Orange Region Fire Festival also hosts plenty of wine and dining events.(Credit: Georgia Bragg Photography)
Take in a roster of live performances and concerts. (Credit: Will Reid)
Orange Region Fire Festival is a 10-day extravaganza held every year in August, with a focus on local artists and musicians turning dining venues into performance spaces, plus fire-inspired dining and wine events including winery bonfires and fire-cooking masterclasses. While here, it would be rude not to go on a truffle hunt at Borrodell Estate, which runs in July and August, then enjoy a truffle lunch. If you can time it, its annual black-tie and gumboot truffle hunt and dinner is a winter feast of fine dining and truffles.
Orange Wine Festival happens over 10 days annually in October. Expect around 40 events that celebrate the region’s award-winning cool climate wines, including unique food and wine collaborations, vertical wine tastings, behind-the-scenes cellar door experiences and more.
Visit in late spring or summer for stone fruit and cherry picking. Hillside Harvest is a fourth-generation family orchard that has fruit available from November to June.
Day 2: Coffee, hobbies, wineries
But first, coffee. Good Eddy is the place to go in downtown Orange if you want something reminiscent of a cult Melbourne cafe (sadly, it isn’t open on weekends).
Earth and Fire pottery studio in nearby Molong runs one-off classes on Saturdays for those who want to get their hands dirty and bring home a unique souvenir. Owner Jude Keogh also runs private classes for two or more people.
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Sample handcrafted wines at Rowlee Cellar Door. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Walk Rowlee's vineyards.(Credit: Destination NSW)
A set degustation lunch at Printhie Dining. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Printhie Wines' state of the art Cellar Door. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Enjoy the views at De Salis Wines. (Credit: Destination NSW)
On the way back to Orange, explore the wineries near Canobolas: Printhie Wines, De Salis Wines and Rowlee Wines are all in the same vicinity. If you fancy a long, lazy, fine dining lunch, Printhie Dining offers a degustation menu while Rowlee has a restaurant with a la carte menu or garden bar slinging woodfired pizzas and good vibes.
Head back to town and settle in at The Union Bank’s courtyard for the evening before heading to its award-winning Schoolhouse Restaurant for dinner. The all-day menu features local producers such as Tilda Chianina beef. Hot tip: Don’t miss the potato scallops.
Dine at the Schoolhouse Restaurant. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Day 3: Countryside town hopping
It would be a pity not to explore the region’s surrounding countryside and cute little towns. It’s only 40 minutes to Carcoar, an exquisitely preserved 19th-century historic village of less than 300 people, which bills itself as “a town that time forgot."
Grab a coffee at A Thousand Words Gallery and Espresso Bar as you browse the works of Australian artists, many of whom live locally. Gallery founder Felicity Wells says it’s not hard to find new works to exhibit, because many artists are inspired by the natural beauty of the Central West.
Find a treasure in Tomolly. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Refuel at The Village Grocer. (Credit: Destination NSW)
The award-winning Tonic restaurant in Millthorpe. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Spend the rest of the morning exploring the town’s five (yes, five!) museums: get nostalgic at the 20th Century Toy Museum, browse vintage treasures at The Rustic Flamingo or homewares at Tomolly. Lunch options include pub classics at the Carcoar Royal Hotel or cafe fare at The Village Grocer, owned by television personality Edwina Bartholomew.
Orange Regional Gallery exhibits a range of works from local, regional and national artists. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Leave the car at the hotel, forget about designating a driver and spend the day strolling, sipping and eating. Most of Orange’s food and wine venues are conveniently located around Summer Street, making it easy to explore on foot.
Orange Regional Gallery has been going strong for 40 years, showcasing the works of local, regional and national artists. If you fancy purchasing rather than just browsing, it’s a 20-minute walk to the top of Summer Street to find The Corner Store Gallery, which gets in new work from local and national artists every week. Owner Madeline Young also has a space at Dirty Jane’s Antique Emporium in the middle of Summer Street, which showcases her artists. And just off Summer Street is Jumbled, a sprawling fashion and homewares store that includes an exhibition space that rotates monthly.
Invest in a local artwork at Jumbled. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Stop for lunch at Parrot Pizzeria, part of Parrot Gin Distillery’s cellar door and match your slice with a handcrafted gin or rum. Find Badlands Brewery on a laneway just off Summer Street and discover why their craft beer has won awards at the Sydney Royal Beer & Cider Show.
The intimate Italian restaurant, Lucetta Dining. (Credit: Monique Lovick)
Wine bars in wine country are a wonderful way to sample the best local drops without having to visit multiple wineries. Start the night at Summer St Wine Room and end it at Hey Rosey, a 20-seat wine bar that’s open until 11pm. Both venues will do enough snacky bites to satisfy you, but it’s worth breaking them up with a visit to Lucetta Dining, an intimate Italian restaurant from Sydney hospitality veterans who moved to Orange for a tree change.
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Where to stay
Soak up the maximalist vibe of a stay at Bon Bon. (Credit: Supplied)
Each of the four self-contained apartments have a different colour scheme. (Credit: Supplied)
A romantic glamping option at Nashdale Lane. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Orange’s accommodation options are brimming with personality. Bon Bon is a set of four boutique, self-contained apartments in town. Jumbled’s owner, Pip Brett, is behind it, which explains the fun, maximalist vibe. Rosemary Lane is a charming, thoughtfully restored three-bedroom cottage, Yallungah Boutique Hotel is a former heritage homestead with a contemporary design and The Oriana is a retro-style hotel complete with a poolside sauna.
The luxury Basalt accommodation. (Credit: Destination NSW)
If you fancy a farmstay over the perks of being within walking distance to the CBD, Basalt Luxury Accommodation has three architecturally designed villas set on a cherry orchard. Loco at Ross Hill Wines is a first-class converted train carriage that makes a cute couples retreat and Nashdale Lane Wines has two luxury glamping tents on the vineyard.
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Renata Gortan is a freelance journalist who has been telling stories professionally for nearly 20 years, but asking people questions all her life. Her freelance work has been published across a wide range of print publications and online sites, including The Australian, Delicious, News.com.au, BodyandSoul.com.au, Vogue Australia and more. She was a staff writer at The Daily Telegraph in Sydney for nearly a decade and held a variety of roles including food reporter, fashion reporter, interiors writer and travel writer. It was a great gig because she is always hungry and got to write about food for a living. From there, she branched out to exploring travel through a culinary lens. She is endlessly curious about what we eat, how we eat, the way food helps shape culture and how dishes can reveal so much about people and places.
This winter, these secret Sydney harbour suites are the staycation we’ve been looking for.
Whether it’s the crisscrossing ferries or the white sails of the Opera House rising out of blue depths, Australia’s biggest city lives for its harbour. But while locals might glance at that watery expanse on their daily commute across the Bridge, it can still be hard to truly connect with Sydney’s maritime soul. The secret: seeing the harbour eye-to-eye, right at water level. And what better place to submerge yourself in that energy than sleeping there? That’s where Pier One Sydney Harbour comes in (and with new all-inclusive bed and breakfast benefits, there’s even more to love).
All-inclusive VIP benefits
Book in for the all-inclusive VIP treatment.
The hard truth is that it will be very difficult to tear yourself away from your ultra-luxurious harbour home-away-from-home to explore the city. If you want to make leaving even harder, opt for Pier One’s all-inclusive VIP treatment.
The Bed and Breakfast with Suite Benefits package turns up the volume on what is already the ultimate staycation, with complimentary valet parking, daily breakfast for two and turndown service. The biggest perk? Enjoy a bottle of French champagne every day during your whole stay
Pier One Sydney Harbour
Step into a piece of history with all the modern comforts. (Credit: Dave Wheeler)
The five-star Pier One Sydney Harbour is quite literally old Sydney through and through. Built on what was once a working cargo wharf and the passenger terminal for those heading to the North Shore before the bridge was constructed, the heritage building sits right between the tangle of cobblestones, pubs and alleyways of The Rocks and the historic docking zone of Walsh Bay – at the centre of the city’s old sea trade.
If knowing the hotel’s history isn’t enough to get your sea-longing going, the interior design certainly will. As soon as you step up to the concierge desk in the lobby of the restored building – which underwent a $15 million redevelopment in 2019 – you’re immersed in Sydney’s seafaring tale. Weathered wood panelling and white marble floors surround you, while loop lighting installations hover above the bar island just beyond, ringed with stools ready for intimate, martini-tinted conversations. Steel rivets and timber beams speak to its past, and glass-walled views anchor you firmly in the present-day life on the harbour.
Pier One Suites
Enjoy incredible views from your suite.
Across the 189 rooms and suites built on and over the water, the maritime theme continues. Sculptural aged brass fittings, exposed girders, colour schemes that evoke shifting currents, and mirrors that reflect ripples that – depending on your booking – sit just metres from your pillow.
United on theme yet unique in set-up, each room or suite is different. On the ground floor, dog-friendly rooms with direct access to the pier are all prepped for pampered pups, while others have views and even balconies overlooking Walsh Bay, the Bridge and the Harbour.
But the 19 suites step things up even more. Gaze out through floor-to-ceiling windows, or get even closer. Your private balcony is made for sipping a Nespresso coffee on as the sun comes up – or soaking in the bathtub of the Admiral Suite on the deck, a drink from the locally stocked mini bar in hand. This mini bar was recently completely transformed, so you have more Aussie favourites to choose from, including alcohol and snacks.
Dining at Pier One
Settle in for an afternoon of good drinks and views.
Once you’re checked in, start your afternoon with a spritz at PIER BAR – or arrive by boat via the private pontoon if the occasion calls for it – and settle into one of the cabanas. Weekdays bring Happy Hour (or ‘sunset hour’ at Pier One); weekends bring the DJs. After an even sweeter experience? The Everyday Creamery and Matcha Kiosk is slinging mango and vanilla soft serve – classic and those spiked with Midori and gin alike.
PIER Dining is an ode to contemporary Australian flavours across the terrace, pier and dining room. On its seafood-leaning menu are Sydney rock oysters from Merimbula, potato scallops with salmon roe and crème fraîche, chicken with melting sundried tomato butter, vodka rigatoni with Shark Bay prawns. And the ‘Pierlova’ – that’s pavlova with chocolate, dulce de leche and banana is worth saving room for. Make sure to ask for the wine list – it’s 100 per cent Australian drops.
Around town
Explore the neighbourhood during your stay. (Credit: Destination NSW)
If you’re strong enough to polish off just one last pastry from the breakfast buffet and walk out the door, we applaud you. Luna Park across the harbour beckons with its wide grin, while a glance upward might spur you to climb the Bridge’s famous iron arches. The Opera House – just across Circular Quay from the Museum of Contemporary Art – sings out for a concert.
You’ll want to book ahead for those hot-ticket performances at Sydney Theatre Company and Sydney Dance Company, just a few minutes’ walk south of the hotel. Ten minutes further brings you to the waterfront bars, restaurants and clubs of Barangaroo, or the karaoke, gardens and dim sum of Chinatown further afield.
Keep the mellow of your weekend getaway going with a stop at Barangaroo Reserve, watching the yachts go by – all before returning for that Sydney sundowner at Pier One.
