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How to Have a Retro-Packed Weekend on the Mornington Peninsula
Written by Paul Chai
Australia’s retro-motel makeover trend is in full swing and now Mornington Peninsula has a drive-up-to-your-door stay that has been thoroughly modernised and provided with social common areas both inside and out for guests to mingle.
Pulling into the fairy-light-strung courtyard at The Keith Motel on the Mornington Peninsula, you’re likely to see a family having a bite and laugh at the central cabana or if the weather turns filling up the couches in the indoor lounge. It still has the simple bones of a motel where you can park by your front door, but guests now have plenty of luxury touches to elevate the experience.
Base yourself at The Keith
Just off from Capel Sound Beach, The Keith Motel is a perfect home for a coastal-chic weekender. The walls are painted sunscreen-white with tropical welcome mats and The Cabana, an outside social space, has pale stones under foot and plenty of seating with access to an open kitchen for grilling and chilling. The Lounge is an indoor common area with comfy couches and the motel’s reception. The Keith’s rooms are also bright white but with sandy and rocky tones on details and soft furnishings; coastal scenes decorate every room with seascapes by local artist Catherine de Boise.
Cycle through some local history
If you, like me, have visited the Peninsula before and never made it right to the end, you are missing out on its biggest attraction. Point Nepean National Park might have more history packed into a few kilometres than anywhere else in Victoria: there is the indigenous Bunurong stories from when the bay was a floodplain with a waterfall spilling into the sea, the tales of separation and struggle in the quarantine station and a memorial where Prime Minister Harold Holt went for his fateful final swim. The first shot fired in Australia in World War II took place on this point as a German ship attempted to run after war was declared. You can see all of this on a guided tour with Emocean ebike tours (“electronic motion by the ocean”). Guide and owner Dean Saunders delivers the local history with energy and passion, leading us on tours of the underground concrete army bunkers, the “disappearing guns” that are a technical marvel and through the scenic coastal track. And the bikes? They fly along faster than a seagull after a hot chip.
Lunch at St Andrew’s Beach Brewery
When you turn up at the perennially popular St Andrew’s Beach Brewery you may well be led to your table housed in a former stable. This unique brewery concept has seen co-founder Andrew Purchase first build a racetrack and stables on this patch of land and later turn the same space into a brewery and taproom (the stables) and a pear and apple orchard (the grass racetrack) to make cider. Pile your stable table high with paper-thin octopus carpaccio, beef croquettes and spicy Hawkesbury River calamari, plus a huge range of wood-fired pizzas.
Make a scented candle at Red Hill Candle Co.
Located in the Dromana Habitat, a collection of makers in the Dromana Industrial Estate, Red Hill Candle Co encourages customers to make their own signature-scented candle at its Scent Lab. Would-be candlemakers are faced with a dizzying array of scent combinations and taught the ins and outs of scent-matching in a fun class that can be tailored for adults and kids.
Have a rum tasting at JimmyRum
Around the corner from Red Hill Candle Co, JimmyRum was founded by career seamen James McPherson who is a lively presence behind the tasting bar most weekends. Jimmy will take you through the history of rum, distilling in Australia and his passionate collection of local rums: Barbados rums, spiced rums and the signature Rumrum. Stay for a meal and try oysters with a Navy-strength rum and shallot vinaigrette, scallops in pesto sauce and southern chicken bites. And take away a pack of JimmyRum premix cans that are low on sugar and big on flavours like pear punch and Jimmy’s take on a dark and stormy.
Visit Alba Thermal Springs and Spa
Owner of The Keith Motel, Alba Thermal Springs and Spa is the perfect way to unwind on a peninsula getaway. Start with breakfast at Thyme, the healthy-but-tasty restaurant guided by Karen Martini. Here you can have a bagel with housemade gravalax while you watch the bather in white robes float ethereally by; then grab your own robe and hits the thermal springs with pools named things like the Cove and the Upper and Lower Cascades. They vary in size and temperature, including a very cold option for waking you up, and make for a fun way to relax.
Discover the Mornington Peninsula
