Travelling with kids in Australia is genuinely brilliant — but finding the right place to stay makes all the difference. The best family resorts in Australia aren’t just about kids’ clubs and pools (though both are important). They’re about locations that give children room to run and explore, activities that engage different age groups, and enough space and facilities for parents to actually relax rather than constantly entertain. The best ones do all of that and more.
Australia has an extraordinary range of family-friendly accommodation, from beachside Queensland mega-resorts with waterslide parks to intimate wilderness lodges where kids can spot wallabies from the verandah. There’s something for every family, every age group, and every budget — and the sheer variety of Australian landscapes means the backdrop is always spectacular.
Here are the best family resorts in Australia, broken down by region and type, so you can find exactly the right fit for your family.
📋 TL;DR — the quick version
- 🏊 Best for water parks and resort facilities: Sheraton Grand Mirage Port Douglas, Peppers Noosa, Daydream Island.
- 🦁 Best for wildlife experiences: Longitude 131° (Uluru), Freycinet Lodge (Tasmania), Silky Oaks Lodge (Daintree).
- 🏖️ Best beachside family resort: Tangalooma Island Resort, Qualia (Hamilton Island), Peppers Beach Club Palm Cove.
- 💰 Best value family resorts: Oaks properties, RAC Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort, Discovery Holiday Parks.
- 🎯 Look for: multiple pools, kids’ clubs (3–12 age range), babysitting services, interconnecting rooms or villas, and proximity to beach or family activities.
- 📅 School holiday booking tip: Australia’s peak family travel periods are December-January and June-July — book 6–12 months ahead for popular resorts.
🌊 Queensland — the heartland of Australian family resorts
Queensland is Australia’s premier family holiday destination, and for good reason. The Whitsundays, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Port Douglas, and the Cairns region all offer exceptional family resort options with warm weather, great beaches, and resort infrastructure that’s among the best in the Asia-Pacific region.
🌴 Daydream Island Resort, the Whitsundays
Daydream Island is one of Australia’s most family-friendly island resorts, and it has just completed a major renovation that makes it better than ever. Located in the Whitsundays, the resort sits on a small, car-free tropical island accessible by a 25-minute ferry from Airlie Beach. The resort wraps around the island’s edge and features multiple pools (including a kids’ pool and a lagoon pool), a waterslide, a marine aquarium where kids can feed rays and fish, excellent restaurants, and a kids’ club that caters to different age groups.
The surrounding Coral Sea is exceptional for snorkelling directly from the beach, with reef sharks, turtles, and colourful fish commonly seen just metres from shore. Day trips to the Great Barrier Reef, Whitehaven Beach, and sailing adventures are all available through the resort. The island’s small size means everything is walkable, kids can roam safely, and the whole experience has a magical castaway quality that children absolutely love.
🏨 Sheraton Grand Mirage Port Douglas
The Sheraton Grand Mirage is the flagship family resort in Port Douglas and one of the finest resorts in northern Queensland. Set among tropical gardens just steps from Four Mile Beach, the resort’s extraordinary lagoon pool system — several connected pools winding through the grounds, connected by swim-through channels and featuring a large waterslide — is the centrepiece of an exceptional family experience. The pools are set in lush gardens and are genuinely spectacular, rivalling anything you’ll find in Bali or Thailand.
The Port Douglas location is ideal for families — the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest are both nearby, Mossman Gorge is 20 minutes away, and the town itself has a lovely main street with good restaurants and an excellent Sunday market. The Sheraton offers a kids’ club, babysitting services, and interconnecting family rooms. It’s at the higher end of the budget scale, but the combination of facilities and location is hard to beat.
👉 Book family activities near Port Douglas and Cairns on GetYourGuide →
🐬 Tangalooma Island Resort, Moreton Island
Tangalooma is one of the most unique family resort experiences in Australia — a full-service island resort on Moreton Island, just 75 minutes by fast ferry from Brisbane. The resort’s signature experience is the wild dolphin feeding that happens every evening at dusk, when a small pod of wild bottlenose dolphins swims into the shallows to be hand-fed by guests under ranger supervision. For children, this is a deeply magical experience that they’ll talk about for years.
Beyond the dolphins, Moreton Island offers quad bike tours through sand dunes, snorkelling on the Tangalooma Wrecks (deliberately sunk ships now covered in coral and teeming with fish), whale watching tours (June to November), and endless beach activities. The resort has several pools, a kids’ club, water sports equipment hire, and accommodation ranging from modest hotel rooms to well-appointed beachside villas. It’s excellent value for a Queensland island resort and the accessibility from Brisbane makes it ideal for a long weekend family escape.
🏖️ New South Wales — beach resorts for Sydney families
🌊 Crowne Plaza Terrigal — Pacific, Central Coast
The Crowne Plaza Terrigal on NSW’s Central Coast sits directly above Terrigal Beach — one of the most beautiful beaches within easy reach of Sydney — and offers a genuinely excellent family resort experience just 90 minutes from the city. The hotel has a large pool, a well-equipped kids’ club, and rooms with ocean views that make for a dramatic backdrop. Terrigal beach is excellent for swimming, and the surrounding Central Coast has plenty of family activities including Pelican Feeding at The Entrance, the Australian Reptile Park, and several excellent national parks.
🏄 Peppers Noosa Resort (just over the border in Queensland)
Technically over the border in Queensland, Peppers Noosa is the go-to for NSW families willing to make the 2-hour drive north. The resort is set on the Noosa River, has an excellent pool complex, and is within walking distance of Noosa’s beautiful national park beach — one of the only patrolled surf beaches in Australia within a national park. The hinterland has excellent rainforest walks, glowworm caves, and strawberry farms that kids love. Noosa itself is a sophisticated, lovely town with excellent restaurants and a relaxed, upscale feel.
🦘 Victoria — family resorts beyond the beach
🐧 Eagle Ridge Resort, Phillip Island
Phillip Island is Victoria’s premier family day-trip destination, famous for the Little Penguin Parade, and Eagle Ridge Resort is one of the best places to stay on the island. Self-contained villas amid rolling farmland with views of the Bass Strait make for a beautiful base, and the proximity to Phillip Island’s many family attractions — the penguin parade, Seal Rocks, the wildlife park, the Go Kart Racing circuit, and excellent surf beaches — means you’re never short of things to do. The resort has a pool, a playground, and is close to the ferry to the mainland.
🏔️ Falls Creek and Mt Hotham resorts (winter)
For families visiting Australia in the northern summer (which is Australian winter), the Victorian snowfields offer a genuinely exciting family resort experience. Falls Creek and Mt Hotham both have ski-in ski-out accommodation, excellent ski schools for children aged 3 and up, and resort facilities designed around the needs of families. Learning to ski or snowboard in Australia is a wonderful experience — the resorts are well-managed, English-speaking, and far less overwhelming than the mega-resorts of North America or Europe.
🌿 Eco and wildlife resorts — for the nature-loving family
🌳 Silky Oaks Lodge, Daintree Rainforest
Silky Oaks Lodge near Mossman Gorge is the finest eco-lodge in the Daintree Rainforest and one of Australia’s most extraordinary places to stay with children who are interested in wildlife and nature. Treehouse bungalows perch over the Mossman River in the rainforest canopy, with the sounds of the forest and the river as your constant soundtrack. Guided rainforest walks, night torch tours, river floating, and a beautiful riverside spa make this a resort that genuinely engages both children and adults.
For older children (roughly 8 and up), the Daintree experience is extraordinary — the rainforest’s sheer age and biodiversity becomes a living science lesson. Younger children will need close supervision on the more rugged walks, but the resort team is excellent at accommodating families with children of different ages. Note that this is a luxury property — rates are significant — but for a special family trip, it’s an experience that will stay with your children forever.
🐬 RAC Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort, Shark Bay
Monkey Mia in Western Australia’s Shark Bay is one of the world’s most famous wildlife interaction sites — wild dolphins swim into the shallows every morning to interact with guests. The RAC resort here is well-run, affordable (by resort standards), and offers accommodation ranging from campground sites and safari tents to comfortable hotel rooms, making it accessible to a wide range of family budgets. For children, the morning dolphin interaction is a genuinely life-changing experience with wild animals. The surrounding UNESCO World Heritage Area offers stromatolite viewing at Hamelin Pool, dugong watching from boats, and Shell Beach.
👉 Book family activities and tours in Western Australia on GetYourGuide →
💡 Tips for booking Australian family resorts
- Book 6–12 months ahead for school holidays. Australian school holidays in December-January and June-July are the busiest periods for family resorts, and popular properties fill up fast. The earlier you book, the better the rates and the more room choice you’ll have.
- Check the kids’ club age range. Most resort kids’ clubs cater to ages 4 to 12. If you have toddlers or teenagers, check what’s actually on offer for those age groups — some resorts are much better than others for younger children or teenagers.
- Ask about interconnecting rooms. If you’re travelling with young children, interconnecting rooms give you the security of being adjacent to your kids while still having adult space when they go to sleep. Always request this at the time of booking and confirm it in writing.
- Look for resort credits and packages. Many Australian resorts offer family packages that include resort credits, kids-eat-free deals, or activity vouchers. These can represent significant savings and are worth seeking out.
- Consider self-contained villas for longer stays. For stays of five or more nights, a self-contained villa or apartment with a kitchen is often far better value than a hotel room, and it gives children the space to spread out and gives parents the ability to manage meals independently — which saves a significant amount of money.
