Best Hotels with a Pool in Mount Gambier
Families and couples who want a swim at the end of a Limestone Coast driving day have exactly one address in Mount Gambier. Arkana Motor Inn and Terrace Apartments has an indoor heated pool with a spa, and because it is indoors and heated it works in July as well as January, which is not a small thing in this part of South Australia. The property sits two minutes by car from the town centre and six from Blue Lake, with free on-site parking, guest laundry and a barbecue area in the gardens.
Mount Gambier has more water than almost any inland town in South Australia and almost none of it is for swimming. Blue Lake is the town's drinking supply, Valley Lake sits in its own crater, and the karst springs south toward Piccaninnie Ponds belong to divers rather than paddlers. That gap between how much water surrounds the town and how little of it you can get into shapes the whole visit. The compensation is a landscape of craters, sinkholes and caves that keeps children occupied all day.
Stays in Mount Gambier
One pool in a town of this size is worth planning around rather than hoping for. Mount Gambier sits inland from the Southern Ocean at the volcanic end of the Limestone Coast, and swimming in the crater lakes is not on the table, so a heated indoor pool is the only reliable water for a family that has been in the car since Adelaide or Melbourne. Anyone travelling with children in the shoulder seasons should book this property first and build the rest of the stop around it.
Arkana Motor Inn and Terrace Apartments is built for people arriving off a long drive with children in the back. The indoor heated pool with spa is the reason to book, and being under a roof means the Limestone Coast wind does not decide whether anyone swims. Beyond the water there are air-conditioned rooms and apartments, family rooms, a children's high chair, satellite television, electric blankets and a minibar, along with guest laundry that earns its keep on a long trip. Continental breakfast can be delivered to the room. Free on-site car parking handles a wagon, a roof box or a trailer.
The location does the rest of the work. Mount Gambier town centre is two minutes away by car, so dinner does not turn into an expedition, and Blue Lake is six minutes, which puts the crater rim track within reach before breakfast. Blue Lake Golf Course is ten minutes from the motel for anyone who packs the clubs. The gardens are large, with a barbecue area and outdoor seating, and that combination of pool, laundry and barbecue is what makes this a three night base rather than a one night stop between Adelaide and Melbourne.
The trade-off should be said plainly: there is only one hotel pool in Mount Gambier, so if Arkana is full during South Australian school holidays there is no equivalent to fall back on among the town's other stays. Families in that position usually shift the swim to the day rather than the evening and lean on the volcanic sights instead, since Cave Garden in the middle of the shopping street, the sunken garden at Umpherston Sinkhole and the tour through Engelbrecht Cave under the road hold children's attention for longer than most parents expect on a driving holiday.
A traveler's takeThe pattern here is easy to predict. The car comes off the Princes Highway in the late afternoon, the bags go in, and the children are in the indoor pool within twenty minutes while the washing goes on in the guest laundry. Dinner happens two minutes away in the town centre, and the next morning starts with the Blue Lake rim before the wind comes across the crater and the day heats up.
Local tips
- 1Book Arkana Motor Inn and Terrace Apartments early for South Australian school holidays, because it is the only Mount Gambier stay with a pool and it fills first.
- 2Use the guest laundry on arrival rather than departure day, since a long Limestone Coast trip generates more washing than a single evening can dry.
- 3Do not plan on swimming in Blue Lake, as it is the town's drinking water supply and closed to swimmers regardless of the season or the weather.
- 4Ask for the continental breakfast delivered to the room if you are heading for Melbourne, because the highway leg is long and an early start makes the difference.
- 5Take the ten minute drive to Blue Lake Golf Course if you travel with clubs, then get back for the pool before the late afternoon wind arrives.