Sometimes the best family holiday is the one where you leave the family at home. A few days in The Tweed in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales reminded us just how much parents need a chance to slow down, reconnect and be looked after, too.
There is a particular kind of tiredness that comes with having young children. You don’t necessarily notice it happening. You just keep going. School lunches, washing, dinner, finding missing shoes, bedtime, early mornings, work, repeat!
So, when my husband and I boarded a plane to Australia for three nights without our three kids aged three, four and six, we were excited – and a little nervous, too.
What we didn’t realise was quite how exhausted we were. We sat down on the plane and promptly fell asleep.
And honestly, that may have been the first sign that this trip was exactly what we needed.
The luxury of having someone else look after you
Our first stop was Husk Distillers in the Tweed Valley, where we settled into a long, leisurely lunch before a tasting. There was something lovely about having the decisions made for us, sitting down to a set menu, eating beautiful food and simply enjoying the pace of the afternoon.
Even the Ink Gin, which changes colour when mixed with tonic, felt like a little bit of magic.
But it was when we arrived at Halcyon House in Cabarita Beach that the real exhale happened.
The difference was almost immediate. The music was calm. Everything moved at a slower pace. We were offered a cocktail when we arrived. Nobody needed anything from us. Instead, someone was looking after us.
And after years of being the people responsible for everyone else, that feeling was surprisingly powerful.
Halcyon House is a boutique beachfront hotel, with just 22 rooms and suites, overlooking Cabarita Beach. It manages to feel luxurious without feeling enormous or impersonal, and that intimacy became one of my favourite things about staying there.
Our room was beautiful, but it was the thoughtful details that really stayed with me.
Then there was dinner at Paper Daisy, Halcyon House’s hatted restaurant. The food was exceptional, but there was something equally wonderful about being able to have a long, indulgent dinner and then simply walk upstairs to bed. No driving. No checking the time. No working out who was doing bedtime.
Just dinner, a glass of wine and bed. It was bliss.
That evening, after dinner, we came back to find the bed turned down, freshly baked cookies waiting for us, and water beside the bed. Tiny things, perhaps. But when you’re a parent who spends most of your day anticipating what everyone else might need, having someone anticipate what you might need feels like an extraordinary luxury.
The next morning, we did something that almost never happens at home.
We slept in!
We discovered there was so much more to The Tweed
The temptation with a luxury hotel is to stay there. And we certainly enjoyed plenty of time by the pool, cocktails in hand, taking advantage of the quiet and the feeling that we had nowhere else we needed to be.
But one of the things that surprised us most about The Tweed was how much there was to do beyond the beautiful coastline.
We started the next day with breakfast at Apex Dining, looking out over The Tweed, before wandering through the Tweed Regional Gallery.
We’re certainly not art experts, but that was part of the appeal. We could simply take our time, look at what caught our attention and enjoy being somewhere without having to rush through it.
Then came the Northern Rivers Rail Trail.
We hired e-bikes and set off for around 24 kilometres through the Tweed Valley.
Now, we ride bikes with our kids at home, so we’re very familiar with the family version of a bike ride: someone falls off, someone needs a snack, someone suddenly can’t possibly ride another metre.
This was different.
There was sunshine, a light breeze, little fruit stalls along the way, bridges and a glow-worm tunnel. It felt like an adventure rather than an activity we were trying to tick off.
And at the end was a local pub with a basketball court and a swimming pool for kids. We didn’t have our children with us, but we immediately thought: we need to bring them here. That became a recurring theme of the trip. We were enjoying having time without our kids, but we were constantly noticing places we’d love to bring them back to.
The kind of holiday where you don’t have to choose between relaxing and exploring
After the Rail Trail, we stopped at Kat Harvey Cheese for toasted sandwiches – exactly what we needed after a long bike ride, before getting ready for dinner at Bistro Livi.
After such a big day, it would have been easy to call it a night, but Bistro Livi was worth getting dressed up for. The hatted restaurant delivered everything you’d hope for from a fine-dining experience: impeccable food, beautiful wine and genuinely thoughtful service. It was sophisticated without feeling stuffy, and another reminder of just how much great food is part of The Tweed experience.
The days were full, but they didn’t feel exhausting. And that was the difference. We weren’t rushing from one thing to the next. We had the capacity to actually enjoy where we were.
The following morning, we headed out onto the Tweed River for a rainforest and river cruise.
We settled at our dining table with tea, coffee and cake, before heading upstairs to the open deck.
Then the surprises started!
Dolphins appeared alongside the boat. Pelicans gathered as they were fed. Hawks circled overhead.
Lunch was made up of local produce, prawns, cheeses, breads and butter, so that we were quite literally tasting The Tweed while looking at it.
It was one of those experiences that felt completely different from what we’d imagined when we first boarded. And it reminded me of something I’d noticed throughout the trip: when you slow down, you really do notice more magic.
We’d also been told when we arrived at Halcyon House that we’d just missed whale migration season and the chances of seeing whales were very slim. Yet over the four days, we saw more than 15 whales – from our own balcony! I’d never seen whales in the wild before, and seeing them from our room was one of those moments that stopped us in our tracks.
It gave the whole trip another little spark of wonder, that feeling of what else might happen if we just slow down enough to notice?
Maybe parents need to ‘un-adult’ too
It turns out we’re not the only ones craving this kind of escape.
Expedia’s Unpack ’27 report identifies “un-adulting” as a travel trend for 2027 – grown-up getaways designed to provide a genuine break from responsibilities and reconnect travellers with a sense of carefree joy.
And I can understand why.
For parents, switching off doesn’t always mean sitting beside a pool for three days.
Sometimes it means riding an e-bike through the countryside.
Sometimes it’s drinking a cocktail in the sunshine.
Sometimes it’s seeing dolphins from a riverboat, spotting whales from your balcony or discovering a glow-worm tunnel.
And sometimes it’s simply eating dinner without someone asking you for ketchup.
The Tweed has been named one of Expedia’s 2027 Destinations of the Year, with traveller search interest up 35 per cent. After experiencing it for ourselves, it’s easy to understand why.
There’s a rare combination here: beautiful beaches and hinterland, incredible food, adventure, nature and genuinely special accommodation, all without feeling like you’ve travelled to the other side of the world.
And from New Zealand, it’s surprisingly accessible.
Coming home rested and refreshed
By the time our three nights were over, something strange had happened. It felt like we’d been away for a week. Not because we’d crammed every possible activity into our itinerary. Quite the opposite.
We had slept. We had eaten slowly. We had talked. We had laughed. We had explored. We had sat by the pool and done absolutely nothing. We’d remembered what it felt like to be a couple, rather than just Mum and Dad.
And then we were genuinely excited to go home. Our kids had been happy and well looked after while we were away, and the three-night length felt just right. They’d missed us, we’d missed them, but we came home feeling rested rather than needing another holiday to recover.
Maybe that’s the real luxury of a parents’ getaway.
It’s not about escaping your family. It’s about taking enough time to remember yourself so you can come home and enjoy them even more.
And after three nights in The Tweed, we did.
13 October, 2026
