{The Nest Travels} Manly, a close family escape

Recently we were lucky enough to spend a wonderful couple of days as a family at Manly.

SLEEPS:

We stayed Novotel Manly for two nights and were genuinely pleased with our stay.

A downfall is that it is quite pricey for a standard hotel room. Having said that, the room was lovely and clean, but nothing spectacular.

We had a room with two queen beds (which worked perfectly for our little family) but if you had more than two children you would need a bigger room.

The room had a small balcony which overlooked the back of Manly (in particular the cricket field) which entertained the little birdies for ages!

Another great feature was the inclusion of complementary towels for the pool. This was brilliant for our little family as we were able to use our beach towels soley for the beach and not have to use wet, soggy towels again for the pool.

The staff were friendly and generous with their time. They offer a concierge facility which can assist you in many ways.

For the grown ups, there is a lovely bar in reception that offers beautifully cold drinks after a long day at the beach.

EATS:

One of the best features of staying at the Novotel is the breakfast that is offered daily at their own restaurant Zali’s. For $20 per adult (kids eat free) you can eat at a delicious buffet. Once eating here in the morning we didn’t eat again until dinner time! Offering everything from coffee, yoghurt and organic fruit for the mumma-bird, to pancakes and fruit salad for the kids. It really was delicious. The hubby-bird especially loved the personalised egg bar when you could choose how you wanted your eggs cooked. Plus, of course there was loads of bacon, sausages and general hubby-bird favourites.

Another brilliant meal we had was when we ventured into the city (after a very exciting Ferry trip) and ate at Eat Love Pizza at Darling Harbour. The little-birdies delved into calamari, chips and salad from the kids menu (that also included a drink and icecream) and us big people enjoyed a Zucca pizza (think roast pumpkin, sage and gorgonzola, topped with toasted pine nuts) as well as a Salumi pizza which was full of chilli, sopressa and gorgonzola. Bloody delicious my friends and would go back in a heartbeat.

DO STUFF:

The obvious at Manly is the beach. It is patrolled, the lifeguards are friendly and it’s a pretty great beach for kids.

One of the highlights for any visit to Manly is the opportunity to catch the Manly Ferry. This heads directly into Circular Quay and offers quite the exciting adventure for the little birdies in your life.

You can spend time in the shops of the ‘Corso’, or as I am a self-confessed shopaholic I used the excuse to catch a ferry to the city as an opportunity to explore David Jones, Myer and Michael Kors.

LOCATION:

We loved Manly because it was only about three (3) hours from home.

The location of where we stayed was perfect because we were directly opposite the beach and after a short walk (that even the toddler-bird completed without significant whinging) we had the choice of two patrolled beach locations.

Immediately opposite the hotel and located on the edge of the beach was a park for the little ones. This was brilliant for burning excess energy.

The ‘Corso’ offered excellent surfwear shopping and an easy way to waste a couple of hours.