What are the best things to do in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales?
The best things to do in Coffs Harbour include the Big Banana, Muttonbird Island and Nymboida River Rafting. Other good Coffs Harbour attractions include the Butterfly House, Solitary Islands Aquarium and Forest Sky Pier.
Coffs Harbour (population 73,018) is the largest town between Newcastle and the Gold Coast as you drive up the New South Wales North Coast. It’s not perfectly half way between Sydney and Brisbane – Coffs Harbour is 532km north of Sydney and 384km south of Brisbane. But this Mid North Coast city has enough energy and attractions to be worth a couple of days’ stop on the drive north.
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Things to do in Coffs Harbour, NSW: Big Banana and Butterfly House
Australians know Coffs Harbour best as the home of the Big Banana, the first and most infamous of Australia’s Big Things. The Big Banana was originally a marketing gimmick to sell bananas. Now it’s an amusement park, with waterslides.
Get off the Pacific Highway, however, and there are more things to do in Coffs Harbour. Wildlife attractions in Coffs include the Coffs Harbour Butterfly House and Dolphin Marine Conservation Park. The Coffs Harbour Butterfly House is like an aviary, but with butterflies, and has a maze on-site.
Dolphin Marine Conservation Park and Solitary Islands Aquarium
The Dolphin Marine Conservation Park is a Seaworld-esque aquarium, with penguins and seals as well as dolphins. It offers dolphin and seal encounters, which feel a bit iffy in Australia, given that you can swim with dolphins in the wild elsewhere.
The Solitary Islands Aquarium at Charlesworth Bay Beach has a more educational aspect to it. At the Southern Cross University’s National Marine Science Centre, the Solitary Islands Aquarium is more along the fish in tanks model. It aims to showcase the diverse aquatic wildlife that lives around the Coffs Coast – particularly around the Solitary Islands.
What to do in Coffs Harbour: Solitary Islands snorkelling and lighthouse
The Solitary Islands are pretty good for snorkelling, too. Jetty Dive runs Solitary Islands snorkelling trips for $160. Turtles and dolphins are often spotted along the way, and there’s a great mix of tropical and sub-tropical fish around the islands.
Alternatively, you can take a Solitary Islands cruise with Whale Watch Experience. The half day cruises depart from Coffs Harbour International Marina and focus on the striking lighthouse of South Solitary Island. The Solitary Island cruises run between December and April, costing $120.
Between June and November, however, Whale Watch Experience concentrates on whale-watching cruises. This is the time of year when humpback whales are migrating up and down the New South Wales coast.
6 fab Coffs Harbour experiences to book in advance
- Glide through nature – on a Boambee Creek kayaking tour guided by a marine scientist.
- Jump out of a plane – with tandem skydives that land on the beach.
- Go kayaking and wildlife-spotting – on a coastal adventure.
- Head into the hinterland – on a rainforest and waterfalls day tour.
- Test your nerve and agility – at the Treetops Coffs Harbour adventure course.
- See migrating humpbacks up close – on a whale-watching cruise.
Things to do in Coffs Harbour, NSW: Muttonbird Island
You don’t necessarily need to be on a boat to see the whales, however. Muttonbird Island opposite Jetty Beach is no longer an island – it is linked to the mainland by a causeway, which doubles as a breakwater. But it is still an important nesting site for the muttonbirds (or shearwaters). Go to the island’s peak or east coast, and you can often spot the whales passing by, however.
The Muttonbird Island Nature Reserve is run by the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service, which also manages several national parks around Coffs Harbour. These include the Bongil Bongil National Park, Bindarri National Park and the Ulidarra National Park.
Coffs Harbour National Parks & Forest Sky Pier
The Coffs Harbour national parks all have different qualities to them. Bongil Bongil National Park to the south is a good bet for fishing and beach barbecues, and is famed for its large koala population. Bindarri National Park to the west is more about bushwalking and mountain biking. Ulidarra National Park near Korora, just north of Coffs Harbour, offers marvellous birdwatching and 4WDing tracks.
Orara East State Forest is just outside Ulidarra National Park, and is home to the Sealy Lookout inside the Bruxner Park Flora Reserve in Orara East State Forest.
The main reason to come to the Sealy Lookout is the Forest Sky Pier, a cantilevered platform that looks out over the forest and coast. The Forest Sky Pier is 15 metres high, and juts out 21 metres above the original lookout.
Gumgali Track and Treetops Coffs Harbour
Also in the Orara East State Forest, very close to the Forest Sky Pier, are the Gumgali Track and Treetops Coffs Harbour. The Gumgali Track is an interpreted walking route, with signs explaining the local Aboriginal history and Indigenous uses for plants. Treetops Coffs Harbour is an adventure ropes and zipwires course, similar to Go Ape in the UK. It’s one of several Treetops sites – there’s another in the Cumberland State Forest in the West Pennant Hills suburb of Sydney.
Things to do in Coffs Harbour: Surf rafting & Nymboida River
If it’s adventure you’re after, however, you might prefer to try white-water rafting on the Nymboida River. Exodus Adventures offers white-water rafting tours and tubing adventures on the Nymboida. You can also get an adrenalin rush off the beach in Coffs Harbour – Exodus Adventures also runs sea kayaking and surf rafting tours. If you’re wondering what surf rafting is, it’s basically white water rafting, but in the crashing ocean surf.
Coffs Coast beaches
Of course, you can enjoy that surf without paying for a rafting tour. Coffs Harbour has several beaches, of which Park Beach and Diggers Beach are lifeguard-patrolled and close to the city centre. There are several other excellent Coffs Coast beaches to the north and south of Coffs Harbour. Try Boambee Beach, Sawtell Beach and Bonville Beach to the south, or Sapphire Beach, Moonee Beach and Emerald Beach to the north. There’s a well-sited caravan park in Emerald Beach, if you want cheap accommodation, and the Look At Me Now Headland is a great place for spotting wild kangaroos. The Coffs Coast continues north of Woolgoolga to surfing hotspot Arrawarra.
The Coffs Harbour weather is at its best in spring, and the Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour drive takes around an hour and 40 minutes.
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