‪The property is quite beautiful, a great representation of an Australian rural outback setting. During our stay there were 3 other families staying and with the property being quite large, you didn't really encroach on each others space, so it was a pretty private and relaxing stay.

The good: -

- accommodation is clean and one room catered for our family of 6 quite well. With an in house kitchen you can make your own meals and also BBQ.

- the daily animal feeding tour is a hit with the kids, plus they were happy for our kids to simply tag along with any adult supervision, maybe that makes us terrible parents, but that extra hour of morning quite time away from the kids is a highlight for the adults too.

- the friendly donkey - yes, a highlight for our family. The farmer gave us some carrots and apples and allowed us to hand feed the donkey on site. That was a lot of fun for the kids and the donkey was very friendly.

- the maze, we did the maze together as a family and it was quite fun.

- the tractor ride, although costs extra, was something unique and fun. You also get the history of the property, a good tour of the property and then cross the street to fish for prawns in the creek. That was awesome.

- horse riding. Again, an additional cost, but well worth it. Controlled horse rides through the beautiful farm and for all riding levels. My kids loved it. I stayed behind with the youngest and did the pony ride, not as fun for me, but the youngest loved it.

- the shared adult lounge. There is a TV, pool, table and wood fire. Its largely designed for adults to share after hours, but the managers allowed us to use with our families during the evenings. It was a nice place to unwind in comfort.

- the boomerang and whip cracking experience. This was quite novel for us city slickers. The kids also enjoyed learning how to throw boomerangs and crack a bull whip.

The not so good:-

- you can't have a fire, you have to pay for a bonfire which is pretty expensive and not private. You end up sharing a bonfire with other guests and that's not all bad, but staying on a rural property you really want to sit by a nice evening fire and just soak up the surroundings in your own private way.

- fishing in the damn, wow what a let down. My sons and I tried every morning at 6am and every evening at 5-6pm. We were told there were plenty of fish in the damn and they are easy to catch. We didn't get any fish, or even a nibble. I am not an expert fishermen, but have caught fish before and know how to catch fish, if they actually exist. I suspect there were either smaller numbers than expected or none at all.

- Prices - overall the room rates, inclusions and additional costs for items that should be included does leave a little sour taste in the mouth. You want to feel you got value out of your vacation and with the expensive room rates and additional items, it adds up pretty quick. But this didn't change our experience, we had a wonderful time.

Overall its a very nice property, enjoyable and we loved our stay.‬

كُتب بتاريخ 27 سبتمبر 2017

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Ashgrove53 مساهمة

‪Lilydale Farmstay‬

العائلة • يونيو 2017

‪We just spend three nights at Lilydale, a farmstay 1.5 hours from Brisbane. We had a great weekend holidaying with 4 families and took over the whole venue, we had the place to ourselves except on Saturday for three hours when its open to the public.
The staff were very accommodating, and the 8am/3pm feeding of the animals everyday was a highlight for the kids. This took about an hour and we had kids, lambs, ducklings, chicks, eggs to collect and cows to milk and feed everyday. Kane was great and related well to the kids, we had 13 kids so he did a great job entertaining them as we went round the animals each day.
Rebecca was a great host and offers of campfires and hot chocolates and coffees was great. There is a pool in the summer, a maze for the kids and lots of walking to be had in a picturesque valley. With Mt Barney National park just down the road it was a great spot.
On the drawbacks side, the accommodation is dated in the homestead and you would want to take over all three suites or sharing with strangers in close proximity may not suit. The other independent cabin is more modern but 750m down the road from the homestead and was a bit of a pain for the family that stayed there, they had to drive up and back to the rest of us.
It was also an expensive weekend, every bonfire cost $50 per family ($200! a night) which we thought was ridiculous, and every coffee/ hot chocolate was charged which was cheeky when they asked the kids if they wanted one first - as if they are going to say no. We said no to the tractor ride as this was another $20 per kid. As the accommodation was up to nearly $400 a night, we thought they could have thrown in a few extras for the price. Can't say we would go back but we did enjoy our weekend with friends and the kids loved it!‬