A classic weekend activity for the Sydneysider is to go spend some time at Port Stephens located 2 hours North of Sydney. If you want to get out of the city, why not have a look at it? And if you don’t want to or can’t drive, you can book a small group day tour. I personally completed it with Mount’n Beach Safari who offers it as Dolphin Magic Tour.
REVIEW FOR TRAVEL PLANNING ADDICTS - Dolphin Magic Tour
I selected my self and paid fully for this activity. This review is based on my experience from beginning 2014.
Tour company: Mount’n Beach Safari
Tour: Dophin Magic Tour
Transportation: the van was comfortable and in good shape
Organization: lack of clarity for the time sandboarding otherwise OK – a lot of time in the car
Food: Great food. One of the best on all the day tours I did.
Knowledge guide: Guide was fun and nice and adapted to how much information we had already hear.
Ambiance: Ok
The best: Spotting dolphins
The not so good: the crowd on the boat
I just want to warn you that it is a long day trip with a lot of time on the road and you get just a snapshot of this area. However he does feel good to see something else to discover than the big city. Seeing the Dolphin was great but generally I was a bit disappointed by the area. Although I love sand dunes, I much preferred my tour of the South Coast which also had a dolphin cruise, check out my post about it!
SAND DUNES OF STOCKTON BEACH
Our first stop was Stockton Beach with the largest beach sand dunes in Australia – stretching 40 kms. At Stockton beach we jumped on a 4WD to get to the dunes and try some sandboarding. I was disappointed that there was not more 4WD driving but the location for the sandboard was really nice.
Sand Boarding at Port Stephens
I have better shots of the people going down but I did not get permission to publish them. They all had a lot of fun. I did it before in Western Australia and enjoyed it but climbing up those dunes is difficult. The setting here was really good.
STOP AT NELSON HEAD
After that we drove back to the Port Stephens and enjoyed a quick stop admiring the view at Nelson Head.
LUNCH BREAK
Lunch was great. Next to the marina we had a lot of choice. I too the fish of the day which was very savory and the others took the hot or cold seafood plate. As you can see food photography is not my talent… I really need to learn about it…
CRUISE IN PORT STEPHENS
After lunch we rushed to get on the boat for the dolphin cruise. We spotted several dolphins but because of the shape of the boat and the number of people it was not always easy to admire them. I enjoyed more my cruise in the nature paradise of Jervis Bay. But still, seeing wild dolphin is great. Check out those shots:
You can also swim in the net for 20 min at the back of the boat at the end of the cruise. I have photos of it but because of the children on it I have decided not to publish them. They seem to have a lot of fun!
At one point I got that shot which is funny as it looked like it has 2 fins but it is just 2 dolphins.
Have you ever have fun sandboarding?
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These are amazing shots! Australia is really diverse.
Thanks. Yes it is. And I love every bit of it!
Hey that looks fun! Maybe I’ll invite my team from Assurance trees for a sand boarding adventure at Port Stephens too! By the way, your lunch really looked savory! Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for sharing.