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.
Pool · Mount Gambier in numbers
Stays in Mount Gambier
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.
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.