Three of our favourite Mid North Coast towns sit on the same short stretch of coast, all reached off the highway around Kempsey, each about 30 to 45 minutes from the next. They share the same clear water and the same laid-back pace, but they give you three very different holidays, and picking the wrong one for your crew is the most common mistake people make on this coast. Here is the full comparison, based on our own time in all three.
The quick answer
- Hat Head if you want quiet, empty sand, a clear creek and nothing to do. The smallest and calmest of the three, wrapped in national park.
- South West Rocks if you want a bit of everything with a real town behind you: a calm swimming beach in the centre, history, diving, cafes and a supermarket.
- Crescent Head if you surf, want to learn, or want cafes and a livelier scene with a younger crowd.
If you cannot choose, do not. They are close enough that a week can take in all three, and we cover a sample route at the end.
The three towns in one minute
Hat Head is a village inside a national park: one general store, a takeaway, a bowling club, a holiday park on the creek and a few streets of holiday houses. Korogoro Creek runs clear through the middle, kangaroos graze the headland, and the beaches run empty in both directions. There is no supermarket and no scene, which is exactly the point.
South West Rocks is the biggest of the three and the easiest all-rounder: a proper town centre with a supermarket, bakeries, pubs and a country club, the calm pocket of Horseshoe Bay right in the middle of town, the ruins of Trial Bay Gaol on the headland, and world-class diving at Fish Rock. It carries a family crowd all summer without feeling like a resort strip.
Crescent Head is the surf town, a National Surfing Reserve built around a long, mellow right-hand point break that helped shape Australian surfing. It is the busiest and most polished of the three, with the most cafes, a boutique hotel with a proper bar, and a younger crowd. Barnetts Bakery is the local institution for a pie after a surf.
Swimming and beaches for the kids
South West Rocks wins the calm-water contest. Horseshoe Bay is a small, protected, horseshoe-shaped beach behind the breakwall in the centre of town, one of the safest swims on this coast for young kids, with Little Bay at Arakoon adding a sheltered turquoise pocket that is made for a first snorkel.
Crescent Head and Hat Head both answer with a creek. At Crescent, kids paddle in Killick Creek beside the beach while the longboarders walk past; at Hat Head, Korogoro Creek does the same job with even fewer people, clear tannin-stained water over white sand. For toddlers, Horseshoe Bay is the safest bet; for primary-school kids who can splash all day, any of the three works.
For more on this, see our guide to the calmest swims on the Mid North Coast.
The surf
Crescent Head, by a distance. The point throws a long, even wall on the right swell, it is welcoming for beginners on small days, and there are surf schools and board hire in town. When the point is crowded, the beaches down Point Plomer Road (Racecourse, Delicate Nobby, Big Hill, Point Plomer itself) spread everyone out.
That said, surfers who value space over quality should not write off the other two. South West Rocks has beach breaks along Trial Bay and the wilder Gap Beach near Smoky Cape, and Hat Head has fun, completely uncrowded banks where your biggest competition is a fisherman. You trade wave quality for solitude.
Fishing, boating and diving
South West Rocks is the standout. The Macleay River and Back Creek give you calm water for the tinnie and the kayak, the breakwall and beaches fish well, and offshore sits Fish Rock, one of the country’s great dives: an ocean cave running through an island, with grey nurse sharks on the doorstep. Divers plan whole trips around it.
Hat Head is the fishing village of the three, with beach, rock and creek fishing that locals guard jealously, and several holiday houses set up with boat access. Crescent Head fishes perfectly well, but the town’s heart belongs to the surf.
Walks and wildlife
All three back onto headlands and national park, and all three watch humpbacks pass from about May to November.
- Hat Head: the Korogoro Point loop around the headland is one of the best short walks on the coast, with kangaroos on the grass at dawn and dusk.
- South West Rocks: the gaol-to-Little Bay walk at Arakoon, Monument Hill behind town, and the lighthouse tracks at Smoky Cape, where the whale watching is as good as it gets around here.
- Crescent Head: the headland lookout above the point, and the wilder Goolawah beaches stretching south.
Food, coffee and a beer
Crescent Head has the most going on: several cafes, the tavern, the country club, Barnetts Bakery, and the bar and restaurant at the Sea Sea Hotel, which has quickly become the place to be. Prices lean to the tourist end.
South West Rocks eats like a proper town: Shoeys Bakery for coffee and pies, Sixty Degrees for breakfast, pubs, a country club and a supermarket to stock the holiday house.
Hat Head is the general store, the takeaway and the bowling club, full stop. Bring supplies from Kempsey or South West Rocks and lean into it.
Where you will stay, and what it costs
Hat Head is holiday houses plus the holiday park between the creek and the beach, and most of the houses are bring-your-own-linen with 9am checkouts. It is generally the cheapest of the three, and NPWS camping at Hungry Gate is the cheapest bed on this whole coast at about $12 a night. The catch: tiny stock that books out months ahead for summer, often to repeat families. See our Hat Head picks.
South West Rocks has the most choice by far: the flash villas at Salt from about $400, motels from about $130 (the Seabreeze pub rooms are the cheapest beds opposite the beach), two big holiday parks, an adults-only retreat at Arakoon and plenty of beach houses. Campers get the postcard option: the NPWS campground directly below the gaol walls. See our South West Rocks picks.
Crescent Head runs from about $140 motel rooms at The Med to $300-plus at the Sea Sea Hotel, with the holiday park holding the best position in town between the creek and the point. The surf-camp crowd heads down Point Plomer Road to Waves Campground and the NPWS camps. Crescent books out fastest of the three: summer, Easter, good swells and the Malibu Classic weekend all fill the village. See our Crescent Head picks.
Taking the dog
Crescent Head is probably the friendliest overall: Delicate campground south of town is one of the few beach camps on this coast that takes dogs, The Med keeps a pet-friendly cottage, and the holiday rental books include pet options.
South West Rocks answers with Ingenia’s pet-friendly sites on Back Creek and the dog-friendly stretch of the creek right beside them. At Hat Head, the holiday park takes dogs on sites outside peak season if you book direct, and Muller’s Cottage hosts dogs happily as long as they sleep outside.
One honest warning for all three: these towns sit against national park, and dogs are banned on national park beaches and tracks. Check the boundaries before you let them off the lead.
Crowds, seasons and booking ahead
Crescent Head is the busiest year-round, with weekend and swell crowds on top of the holiday peaks. South West Rocks peaks hard over summer and the school holidays, then goes quiet and lovely. Hat Head barely registers a crowd outside January, but its handful of houses disappears earliest, because the same families rebook year after year.
For all three: summer, Easter and long weekends need booking months ahead. The shoulder seasons are the local secret, especially May to November when the whales are running and prices drop.
Pick by trip
- Toddlers and young kids: South West Rocks for Horseshoe Bay and the services, with Hat Head the runner-up if you are happy self-catering.
- Learning to surf, or a surf trip: Crescent Head, no contest.
- A couples weekend: the Sea Sea at Crescent Head or Salt at South West Rocks for comfort; Hat Head if your idea of romance is an empty beach.
- Two families or a big group: a holiday house at Hat Head or South West Rocks; Alkira on Korogoro Creek is the flash option if you are splitting it.
- Camping: the gaol campground at South West Rocks for the postcard, Delicate for the dog, Hungry Gate for simplicity, Waves for the surf.
- Divers and serious fishos: South West Rocks.
Doing all three
The three towns form a neat triangle off the highway at Kempsey, each about 30 to 45 minutes from the next, so a week covers them without feeling rushed. Our pick of the route: start with two or three nights at Crescent Head while your surf muscles are fresh, cut across to Hat Head for two nights of doing nothing well, then finish with two or three nights at South West Rocks for the gaol, the diving and a proper coffee. The whole loop slots neatly into a longer Mid North Coast road trip.
Quick questions
Is Hat Head worth visiting? Yes, if you want quiet. It is one of the last places on the coast where an empty beach is the whole show. If you need cafes and entertainment, stay at Crescent Head or South West Rocks and day-trip in.
Which is best for families? South West Rocks for young kids, thanks to Horseshoe Bay and the town services. Hat Head for families who want the kids in the creek and off the screens. Crescent Head for families of surfers.
How far apart are they? Around 30 to 45 minutes’ drive between any two, all reached from the Pacific Highway at or near Kempsey.
Do I need to book ahead? For summer, Easter and long weekends, yes, months ahead in all three. Crescent Head also books out for the Malibu Classic longboard weekend, and Hat Head’s houses go to repeat guests first.
Which is cheapest? Hat Head, generally, and camping is the budget answer everywhere: about $12 a night at Hungry Gate, with the gaol campground and the Point Plomer camps not far behind.