This is a story about A grand drive down the pacific highway – a slower road that is well worth the detour.
If you are driving to a weekend getaway in a holiday home in Kiama, Gerringong or Gerroa, it’s just two hours by road from Sydney.
These beautiful south coast villages are a dream destination of rugged coastal cliffs, famous surfing beaches and small villages, where a cosmopolitan cafe-lifestyle rubs shoulders with welcoming country friendliness.
Driving from Sydney on the freeway, you will pass signs with mysterious names like the Grand Pacific Drive, Bulli Pass, Bald Hill Lookout, Helensburgh until you abruptly reach the very edge of the southern tablelands.
There before you is a magnificent view of Illawarra Coast Range escarpment as it drops away to reveal the rich and bountiful greens of the southern coastal plains, the deep blue waters of the Southern Pacific Ocean with the white dividing sands of the beaches stretching as far as the eye can see.
Your holiday home awaits and Coast and Country Holidays will have your short-stay home accommodation ready for you when you arrive in Kiama, Gerringong or Gerroa.
One of Australia’s finest driving experiences
But if you wonder what you might have missed by-passing all those romantic-sounding names on the freeway sign-posts as you are driving to your holiday home getaway, well, you are right to wonder.
For there is another way to drive to our southern coast and country that’s even more amazing.
About an hour out of Sydney, you should turn toward the coast following Lawrence Hargrave Drive to Helensburgh and Stanwell Park. Soon you will pass the Sri Venkateswara Temple, and you should plan to stop at the Bald Hill lookout for a few minutes to take in the views.
On a fine weekend, you can watch the hang-gliders launch themselves into the wild blue yonder, just as Australia’s pioneering aviator, Lawrence Hargraves did in November 1894.
From a park behind the beach at Stanwell Park, that will be just below you, Hargraves proved that stable, human flight was possible for the first time.
As you drive south, you’ll pass Hargraves’ former home at Coalcliff, and soon, you will be on the Sea Cliff Bridge, a remarkable and beautiful piece of engineering that coils around the cliffs and is cantilevered 50 metres out to sea.
We locals say that if you’re coming from Sydney, it’s worth making this trip twice because the views are best heading north on your way home.
What an introduction to the coast and country wonderland you are about to enter where rolling hills with dairy herds and vineyards meet with magnificent rainforests and National Parks.
Everywhere you travel here, you can almost feel the ever-present waves surging onto the harbour shores at Kiama, or smoothly rolling onto our pristine beaches where you and your loved ones can swim, surf and play.
And Coast and Country Holidays have exclusive holiday homes that put you in the centre of things in the beautiful villages of Kiama, Gerringong and Gerroa.
And there, you will know that just around the corner is a coffee shop or restaurant to while away the day and one of our beautiful holiday homes, for you to spend the weekend in comfort and convenience.
We hope to see you soon.