The Mid North Coast is one long run of beaches, backed by national park as often as by town. Some are patrolled and easy, with a kiosk and a car park behind them. Others you reach on foot and share with nobody. Here are the best, grouped by the kind of day you are after. For the calmest, clearest water for little kids, see also our guide to the calmest swims on the Mid North Coast.
For a patrolled family swim
The safe pick is a beach with flags and a surf club behind it.
- Town Beach, Port Macquarie is patrolled year-round, a short walk from the town centre, with a kiosk and a holiday park right behind it.
- Flynns Beach, Port Macquarie has a surf club that has stood here since 1929, a cafe, rock pools and the local surf schools.
- North Haven Beach sits below Norfolk pines with a surf club at the southern end, where the breakwall takes the edge off the swell.
- Horseshoe Bay, South West Rocks is a protected cove in the middle of town, one of the safest swims on the coast.
- Main Beach, Nambucca Heads is a warm, patrolled beach right by the painted V-Wall.
- Mylestom, near Bellingen, pairs a calm Bellinger River swim with a patrolled ocean beach.
For calm water and small kids
When the surf is too much for little ones, the creeks and protected bays are the answer. Korogoro Creek at Hat Head and Killick Creek at Crescent Head both turn clear, calm and shallow near high tide. Little Bay, just past Trial Bay Gaol at South West Rocks, is a sheltered pocket of turquoise that is lovely for a snorkel, and the River Baths at North Haven give you an easy river swim out of the surf.
For a surf
Crescent Head is the one that put this coast on the map: a National Surfing Reserve built around a long, peeling right-hand point that has been a longboard favourite for generations. For a beach break, Lighthouse Beach at Port Macquarie runs for kilometres and picks up plenty of swell, while Gap Beach near South West Rocks and the beaches of Gaagal Wanggaan (South Beach) National Park at Nambucca are wilder and better for experienced surfers.
For an empty beach
If you want the sand to yourself, walk a few minutes from any car park here and the crowds vanish. Hat Head has long, clean beaches backed entirely by national park. The southern end of Lighthouse Beach at Port Macquarie is wide, wild and quiet, with beach fishing and four-wheel driving on the sand. South of Crescent Head, the Goolawah and Racecourse beaches draw campers and surfers chasing a quieter break.
For the scenery
Some beaches earn the drive on looks alone. Shelly Beach at Port Macquarie has the Sea Acres rainforest rising behind it and a natural rock pool at the southern end. Trial Bay at South West Rocks runs for kilometres under the sandstone ruins of the old gaol. And the open beaches around Nambucca Heads are dotted with wind-carved sea stacks and backed by Norfolk pines at the river mouth.
Dogs and four-wheel drives
For dogs, Nobbys Beach at Port Macquarie is the main off-leash stretch close to town, and dogs run off the lead on Lighthouse Beach south of Watonga Rocks. At Crescent Head, dogs are allowed on the northern side of the Killick Creek bridge, on a lead until a signed off-leash zone. Four-wheel driving is allowed on the southern end of Lighthouse Beach and on the beaches south of Crescent Head, both with a permit. Rules and access change, so check the signs on the day.
Before you go
Patrol seasons shift from year to year. Most beaches here are patrolled over summer and the school holidays, with Town Beach in Port Macquarie patrolled all year. Check Beachsafe for live patrol times, flags and conditions, swim between the flags where there are any, and keep an eye out for rips on the long open beaches.