Review: Lightning Ridge Outback Resort and Caravan Park, Lightning Ridge NSW

Time of stay: December 2020

Overall

The Lightning Ridge Outback Resort and Caravan Park is located on the left as you come into town. We stayed for 2 nights and booked 2 sites as we were staying with friends. You need to be careful and let them know that you have a camper trailer or caravan as originally, they had us on a tent site (we’d booked an unpowered site), which is essentially just a small oval surrounded by pylons so we would not have been able to get our camper in. They did quickly and easily move us to a camper trailer site though.

Overall we were extremely impressed with Lightning Ridge. The town is fantastically quirky and the location of the caravan park is great. It is well located to lots of attractions in the area, has clean amenities (although fairly dated), a pool and an onsite bar (also open to the public). It also has a restaurant on site, however it had been closed due to Covid and hadn’t opened again by the time we stayed. We were actually only planning on staying one night and ended up booking an extra one.

Price

It cost us $33 per night per site. So $66 in total for 2 nights. This was for an unpowered gravel site. This included 2 adults and 2 kids.

Campsites

We booked 2 sites for 2 nights. They were both gravel unpowered sites that were fairly flat with plenty of room. There is also a little garden in between each site so you don’t feel like you’re on top of your neighbour.

They also have gravel powered sites, a small oval area for tents as well as various cabins and motel rooms.

On one site we had our Jayco Camper Trailer and on the other was a three-room tent. We could easily fit the camper trailer with awning and floor mat our and out car on the site.

All of the sites are on one side of the park with the motel units on the other. The sites have bathrooms and a laundry centrally located.

Amenities

The amenities were clean, although looking tired and dated. There is only one set but the caravan park wasn’t busy when we were there, so we never found more than one or two people in there at a time. We didn’t use the laundry so cannot comment on that.

Camp Kitchen

There is a BBQ and sink to use, however we didn’t use them as they were on the other side of the park and we had our own cooking facilities.

Location

We found the location of the Lightning Ridge Outback Resort to be excellent. We walked to the information centre one morning to find more information about the town and could also walk to the bowling club for dinner one night.

It is also conveniently located to town with only a short few minute drive to anything you need.

Playground / Kids Entertainment

There was a playground but it was an old wooden one that has probably seen better days. The kids mainly played around our campsite or on the small grassed area near the bathrooms.

Pool

The pool at Lightening Ridge Outback Resort looked good. We didn’t end up using it as we took the kids to a water park in town but there was plenty of places to sit around it and it looked like a good pool. Not huge, but enough for the guest that were around at the time. It the park was full and it was a hot day, I can imagine it would get very busy.

Coffee & Food

There is a nice pub on site with an outdoor area and bottle shop. There is also a restaurant but that had been closed due to covid and hadn’t reopened yet.

Overview

If you’re planning on just spending time at the Lightning Ridge Outback Resort and Caravan Park, then you might find yourself lacking with things to do (unless you want to spend all your time at the pub). But as a base to explore the town, this park was great. Well located, with good sites, we didn’t feel crammed in and spent a great relaxing couple of nights.

Camp Kitchen – BBQ – Sink – Shared fridge – Undercover	Yes Yes Yes N/A N/A
Pool – Heated	Yes No
Playground	Yes
Jumping Pillow	No
Other kids entertainment	No
Bikes/Scooters allowed	Yes
Food/Drinks available?	Yes (restaurant & pub)
Mobile phone reception	Yes
Laundry	Yes (cost)
Family bathroom	Not that I saw
Dump point	No
Maximum people per campsite	N/A
Extra charge for children	No