Laid back Byron Bay (festivals, surfing, whale watching, dolphin spotting, coastal walks, Indigenous experiences, beach fishing, arts and crafts), Byron Bay beaches - Byron Main Beach (smaller waves close to shore), The Pass Beach (easy ride out, great long boarding - wide rollers), Watego's Beach (where the cult of longboarders gather), Tallow's Beach (south of the headland, long beach bigger surf) - 2,200,000 candle power Cape Byron Lighthouse (historic lighthouse tours, cafe, walk track), Broken Head Nature Reserve (Two Sisters Rocks), Brunswick Head Nature Reserve, Julian Rocks Nature Reserve, Cape Byron Hedland Reserve (reputedly one of the most beautiful places in the world, rainforests, stunning cliffs, brilliant vistas, Arakwal National Park (taking in Tallow Beach), Boat Harbour Nature Reserve (walking track, viewing platform, Wilson River, Coopers Creek, remnant pilings of historic wharf from riverboat era), Broken Head Nature Reserve, Mooball National Park (subtropical rainforest, rare endangered fauna - long-nosed potoroo, marbled frogmouth, red-legged pademelon, Stephen's banded snake and the giant barred frog), World Heritage Listed Mount Warning National Park (eroded remnant central plug of an ancient volcano. Views of Tween Valley), Nightcap National Park (100m tall waterfall Minyon Falls), Tyagarah Nature Reserve (secluded 8 km beach, birdwatching, fishing).

Port Macquarie, Mid North Coast Maritime Museum (former naval lookout station), Flagstaff Hill (great ocean views), Port Macquarie Historic Grave Yard (tells a tale of early settlers), whale migration (early winter and summer lots of headlands overlooking the sea to spot them from). The Lighthouse (a great place to see views down the southern coast to Laurieton), The Alma Dopel (former merchant sailing ship - is moored there most of the year), Kooloonbung Nature Park (sedge land, wet land, mangroves, paperbark and eucalyptus forest, koalas, birdlife, flying foxes roosting in the trees and water dragons), Camden Haven, Kendall (waterways, fishing National Parks, beaches and swimming creek at Swans Crossing), Wauchope (history, and gateway to the hinterland open plateaus, fertile farmlands and pockets of rainforest), Comboyne (dairy farming village, walking trails, Rawson Falls, Ellenborough Falls single drop 200 metre cascade).

Choose what you would like to experience en-route today - Crescent Head or Wauchope, Kempsey, Trial Bay Gaol (historic ruins of the jail from 1886, beach, museum and memorial), South West Rock, Macksville, Nambucca Heads, Urunga, Sawtell, Bongil Bongil National Park, Boambee, Coffs Harbour (banana plantations, iconic Big Banana, great fishing - us oldies remember in the 1980's when Kylie Minogue's alter ego, her "Charlene" character in “Neighbours” made Coffs Harbour famous throughout the English speaking world when Charlene regularly visited her Mum in Coffs Harbour), hug the South Pacific Ocean alongside Korora, Emerald Beach, Sandy Beach, Woolgoolga, Arrawarra, Corindi Beach, Susan Island (rainforest recreation reserve with large fruit bat colony), Grafton (in springtime see the townscape awash in an amazing sea of purple jacaranda flowers), Maclean, Iluka or Yamba, Evans Head, Ballina, Lennox Head, Suffolk Park, Cape Byron (dolphins and in season, whales), Ocean Shores, Murwillumbah (or M'bah to the cogenesis - friendly art deco town in the fertile Tweed Volcano Valley, off the highway, known for 'alternative lifestylers' Hare Krishna, antiques and cafes, 13 km from the NSW border with Queensland), Coolangatta (the southernmost suburb of Gold Coast, on the state border of Queensland and New South Wales). Direct driving 476km (6hours) .