Arrival
Minimum Stay Variations
No of Guests & Configuration
Visitors Policy
Child Policy
Finding Us & Parking Information
Group Transfers by Bus or Limousine
Boat Use Policy
Arriving by your own Boat
Accessibility
Kitchen & Self-Catering
Fishing
Insects
Wet Weather Options
Weddings & Other Functions
Shopping Facilities
Massage & Spa Services
Smoking Policy
Pet Policy
Check in via our private boat transfer is available between 4pm and 6pm on the day of arrival.
The boat transfer will be from our meeting point at the Eastern Public Wharf off Kirkpatrick Way, Berowra Waters.
To arrange a later arrival time, or multiple transfers if not every member of your party can arrive together, please advise us in advance. An additional fee may be required.
Check out is by 10am on the day of departure.
With regards to organising an earlier check in time than 4pm, or a later check out time than 10am, we are always very happy to be flexible around check in time depending on whether we have vacating guests on the same day, condition of the property after that check out, and availability of boat transfers; or whether we have guests arriving on your day of departure.
However, we can only undertake to advise you of an early check-in and later check out time possibility no more than 48 hours prior to your booking commencement date.
If we do have guests departing the same day as your arrival, we normally find we need the hours between your check in time to prepare the Lodge to the high standard we know our guests expect. Having said that, if it is possible we will do everything we can to check you in earlier. If this scenario looks likely on the day, normally our guest relations manager to phone you around lunch time to confirm what’s possible. NB 2pm is usually the earliest possible time.
Our Welcome Pack we will email you prior to your stay will include detailed driving directions and maps and instructions on how and where to meet us when you arrive at Berowra Waters. Also included are all the things you will need to bring and leave behind with you, and what you’ll find at Calabash Bay Lodge by way of provisions and facilities.
We do regret to advise that we are unable to offer 1 night only stays. We have a minimum 2 night booking policy at both weekends and midweek, and for weekend bookings, Friday and Saturday nights must be booked together.
Our normal booking policy is for Friday and Saturday nights to be booked together. If a Friday afternoon check in is not possible for your group, you would be most welcome to check in as early as you like on Saturday morning, but we would still book the property from Friday for your exclusive use for the Friday and Saturday night rate.
Our maximum sleeping capacity is 8 guests. Two additional infants up to 12 months of age can be accommodated for an additional fee for a maximum total of 10.
Two of our bedrooms have king sized beds that can be split into twin beds. Please advise preferred configuration upon booking.
Subject to request in writing and approval by management, in certain circumstances we may agree for day visitors to visit guests staying at the property. No more than 10 persons may be on the property at any one time. The same terms and conditions apply to day visitors as guests staying overnight at the property.
We do regret to advise that it is not our normal practise to offer site visits due to the logistical difficulty being a water-access only property and the high occupancy level of the Lodge. WE would recommend that you visit our website www.calabashbaylodge.com.au to view our extensive photo gallery – there are photographs of all of the rooms available and in concert with our extensive media coverage, we believe this should give you a strong impression of the property’s quality.
Calabash Bay Lodge is a great destination for kids and very safe with regards to being on the absolute waterfront and a water-access only location. We accept families with children of all ages without restriction.
We have children’s size lifejackets in addition to adult ones, and their use is mandatory anytime the kids are in the boat or around the pontoon area. Our pontoon does front onto 3m of deep water. We would normally recommend your children are fitted with these in the house before heading outside, so anytime they are in the gardens adjacent to the pontoon area, they will be safe and sound.
We also have a lockable swimming pool style gate on the main entertaining deck, which prevents access without supervision down into the garden area near the water.
We also have one cot and one highchair at the property, and kid-safe plastic bowls, cups and plates. If you have more than one infant, you’ll need to bring along a travel cot.
We normally recommend to our guests to have a look at Google Maps to overview our location. If you enter “Calabash Bay Lodge, Berowra Waters, New South Wales”, it will drop a pin right over the property, and give you a good aerial view of the distance to the nearest road access point at Berowra Waters, and roads to the city. It can also provide advice on the journey time from your departing location in order to plan your trip accordingly, and if you check immediately prior to your departure, will provide an updated journey plan based on live traffic information along the route. If you’re travelling outside of peak hour it’s approx. 45 mins to the CBD from Berowra Waters Rd, however, during peak hour or wet weather this can double.
The trip time from the public wharf at Berowra Waters by water taxi to Calabash Bay Lodge is approx. 10 mins.
All transfer and arrival information will be well covered in the Welcome Pack we’ll send you in advance of your stay, however, with regards to parking, the closest road access point to the city is on the eastern side of the river, where parking is along a regular public road called Kirkpatrick Way which runs adjacent to the river, and where the public wharf is located – this is our official “meeting point”. Kirkpatrick Way is a public road with unrestricted parking hours and no parking meters. The area we normally advise you park is along a section of the road that has security cameras with 24 hour monitoring by the Berowra Waters residents association. We just advise that you exercise the same amount of caution you would on any public road in Sydney by not leaving any visible items or valuables in your car.
If you’d prefer not to leave your vehicle parked on the public road, or if you are worried about the security of a hire car or trailer, a secure casual car park that also accommodates trailers can be booked for a daily fee directly with the Marina at Berowra Waters. This is located on the western side of the river, and is accessible via short free vehicular ferry ride across from Berowra Waters Rd on the eastern approach. We recommend booking in advance if you desire the secure facilities, particularly in summer and at holiday periods, as they are limited and fill quickly. Contact Michael on 9456 7000 for enquiries and bookings. It’s an approx. 5-10 minute boat drive from where your car will be parked up to Calabash Bay Lodge, and its easy for us to meet you for your arrival boat transfers at the wharf adjacent instead of our regular meeting point at the Eastern Public Wharf.
You might like to hire a mini bus for your transfers – previous guests have found Easy Shuttle (www.easyshuttle.com.au or 1300 793 912) to provide good service and value for money (you can do an online quote on their website), but other local companies worth contacting might be Hills Airport Shuttle on 1300 139 271 or Dural Mini-Bus Service on 9651 2141. As we are not a licensed travel agent, we are unable to book these on your behalf, but are happy to liaise directly with whomever you book as to driving directions and arrival instructions to Berowra Waters.
A recent guest used www.royalelimousines.com.au as a surprise for his girlfriend (for a weekend stay in which he proposed in fact!) and reported to us that their service and quality of vehicles was excellent.
The boat included as part of our rates is a 4.2m front-drive runabout boat – with automatic key start, weather-proof bimini (canopy), full tank of fuel included, seating up to 4 persons. It is fitted with a 10 knot restrictor to make it suitable for unlicensed drivers.
As part of our check-in procedure, you’ll receive a briefing on safe operation. At the end of the briefing you will be given a boat use agreement, where you will acknowledge receipt of the safety briefing and that use of the boat is at your own risk. Lifejackets, including for children, mandatory safety equipment, and a full tank of fuel is provided. NB The boat cannot be driven after dark by unlicensed drivers, so that needs to be taken into consideration if you have any late arriving guests you are planning to collect yourself. In that scenario, an additional water taxi transfer will need to be booked and paid for.
You are very welcome to bring your own boat – we have capacity to berth 2 additional boats on our private pontoon. For boats up to 6m, you are welcome to moor directly at our private pontoon. For all larger boats, you will need to moor on our private deepwater mooring immediately off the Lodge’s pontoon. Please advise the size of your boat and tonnage in writing. We provide use of a runabout boat as part of your accommodation package, which you can use to tender across to the mooring if you don’t have your own tender.
The closest public boat ramp to launch your boat from a trailer is at Berowra Waters Marina, off Bay Rd, accessible via the western side of the river via Dural and Arcadia. Immediately next to the ramp are unrestricted car and trailer parks in a council car park. Alternatively, a secure casual car & trailer park can be booked for a daily fee directly with the Marina at Berowra Waters. We recommend booking in advance if you desire the secure facilities, particularly in summer and at holiday periods, as they are limited and fill quickly. Contact Michael on 9456 7000 for enquiries and bookings.
Please note well that access to Berowra Waters with a boat trailer cannot be made from the eastern approach via Berowra Waters Rd, as the vehicular ferry across the river doesn’t accept large boat trailers, and the road has a number of tight hairpins that may risk your trailer jackknifing. We recommend driving into Berowra Waters via the western approach via Bay Rd, through Dural and Arcadia for these reasons, as well as also being on the right side for the boat ramp.
It’s then an approx. 5-10 minute boat drive from the boat ramp up to Calabash Bay Lodge (there is a 4 knot speed limit along the stretch of residential waterfront properties from the Marina up to Calabash).
For all arrivals to Berowra Waters with a boat, our normal procedure is to meet you at the public boat ramp and escort you up river to Calabash Bay Lodge, where we will then provide your arrival orientation at the property. If you are instead wishing to boat in from Broken Bay, Pittwater, Cowan Creek, or Sydney Harbour, we can furnish you with more details of the property location and GPS coordinates prior to your arrival so you may arrive directly. We will meet you upon the agreed check-in time at the Lodge for your welcome orientation.
NB Houseboats are not permitted to moor at any of our private moorings, and we do not permit guests from houseboats to enter the premises at any time. There are no public moorings available in the immediate vicinity of the Lodge.
NB Extra guests sleeping on vessels you may moor on our private moorings are not permitted in conjunction with a stay at Calabash Bay Lodge – the maximum of 8 guests on the property at any one time is inclusive to guests staying on any boats using our private moorings. This will be strictly enforced.
Due to the water-access only nature of the property, there are a number of things to be taken into consideration. There are approx. 20 stairs from the ground level up to the main access point into the property, where the main outdoor deck and entertaining level are situated. These are very wide steps, and once the top has been reached, any person with accessibility requirements need not go anywhere else for the duration of the stay. This is a flat level with one of the four double bedrooms on this level, with it’s own ensuite bathroom complete with toilet and a walk through style shower (no steps). We do regret to advise that there are no handrails fitted in the shower cubicle. This same level is also where the kitchen, dining room, living area, and outdoor entertaining deck are situated, so for all intents and purposes, once this level has been accessed, any persons with accessibility requirements will able to enjoy all the facilities and company of their group. There is then an internal staircase to the upper level with the Master Suite, also with private ensuite, and 2 further bedrooms and main bathroom. This staircase is carpeted so much easier on the knees, but can be completely avoided if necessary. The person will also however need to be prepared to get in and out of a boat for arrival and departure.
We do have a fully equipped kitchen for your use in preparing meals during your stay.
To help you with catering planning if you choose to bring your own supplies for the weekend, we suggest you bring along as much of what you’ll need for your stay with you – as once you’re relaxing on the water you really won’t feel like getting back into your car and facing civilisation! There are however multiple shopping options nearby off river should you find you need something you’ve forgotten or if you need to restock.We do supply basic pantry provisions like olive oil, spices, flour, sugar, balsamic vinegar etc and organic fair trade coffee you can use in a plunger, as well as a supply of capsule’s for use in our automatic Lavazza espresso machine (so you don’t miss out on cafe quality coffee while you’re on the river) and loose-leaf teas by T2. You will receive a detailed list of this and more before your stay.
The things you will need to bring along include all of your perishables, fruit & veg, eggs, meat, and the main ingredients you would normally use to prepare meals. We would advise you to bring a generous amount of breakfast provisions like eggs, bacon, pancake mix, cereal, yoghurt etc that you can pick and choose from over each day; ingredients for several lunches – we always recommend a generous supply of ham off the bone, mustard, yummy sourdough bread, gourmet sausages to cook on the BBQ & mixed salad leaves.You’ll also need supplies for your dinners, but don’t forget there’s always the option of grilling the fresh fish any keen fishermen will catch during your stay.
We have several fishing rods, a crab pot and some tackle. If any keen fisherpeople in your group have any lures or specific tackle rig they prefer to use, then we would recommend they bring it along with them, just in case they’re not satisfied with our set-up (depending on how “keen” they are!) We don’t supply bait as most of our guests have their own preference. All of the service stations along Berowra Waters Rd and along the Pacific Highway stock bait and berley which you can pick up on the drive to us, and there’s also supplies at the Berowra Waters Marina shop, 5-10 mins down by boat from the Lodge.
It really does depend on the weather and time of year. As normal for Australia, there are mosquitoes around normally in the warmer months of the year, and that may or may not increase depending on humidity and wet weather. We are however well prepared at the Lodge to handle them. We have insect repellent both Aerogard and a chemical free variety for personal application, mozzie repelling plug-ins for indoors, an outdoor Mortein mosquito lantern, sandalwood and citronella incense sticks. This is all not to mention that all the doors and windows have flyscreens, with the exception of the dining room louvres and the front door – at dawn and dusk particularly and overnight, we’d recommend these are obviously kept closed.
The Lodge will keep you well entertained rain, hail or shine. We do have board games including Pictionary, Monopoly, Top Gear, backgammon, cards, a boules set, a Nintendo Wii with some sports games you can play team tournaments (golf and tennis enthusiasts will be happy), and a huge library of classic and all time favourite movies on an Apple MiniMac so you can have some movie marathons, plus Foxtel Platinum HD TV and a book library.
Our boat we provide as part of your package has a full bimini so you’ll be well protected from the elements when heading out boating or fishing – and the fish certainly don’t mind getting wet! In between inclement weather you can go for a bush walk from the back of the property up to the Calabash hotel ruins, which takes about 15 mins. We recommend bringing along waterproof jackets and pants if wet weather is forecast so as to make the best of whatever the skies throw at you!
We do regret to advise that our property is not able to be hired for functions or events.
Local water-access only restaurants Peat’s Bite or Berowra Waters Inn are however well equipped to host groups of 10-150 for weddings and other events.
If you were interested in hosting a wedding ceremony and reception at either, we would love to complement the experience by providing accommodation for your wedding party, or the bride and groom at Calabash Bay Lodge either pre or post wedding.
If a relaxed waterfront wedding on the Hawkesbury is something you are looking for, then we would recommend that you consider Peat’s Bite, which is about 10 mins away by water taxi from our location: http://www.peatsbite.com.au/weddings.html. They have more extensive grounds and facilities to host weddings, and can provide some additional accommodation on site. Tanya the manager would be happy to discuss with you, please let her know we recommended you.
If you are staying in conjunction with a wedding, we may upon application provide consent for day visitors to visit guests staying at the property, such as hair and makeup artists, and photographer. Please contact us to discuss.
The Berowra Waters Marina has a well stocked shop with essentials like fresh milk, bait, beer and wine, some deli items and pre-prepared meals, open between 8.30am and 5pm during weekdays and until 6pm at weekends. You can use the boat supplied as part of your package and tie up at the adjacent jetty.
For everything else, you’ll need to head back to the car and zip the 10 mins up the gully road to the local shopping centre at Berowra Heights on Turner Road. Here you’ll find a Coles supermarket, butcher, baker, newsagent, chicken shop & a larger bottle shop. It’s also a good spot to stop in for any self-catering supplies when you’re first arriving as well. More extensive shopping facilities are also available at the Westfield shopping centre at Hornsby, another 20 mins south of Berowra. There you’ll find Coles & Woolworths supermarkets, a Thomas Dux store, and lots of speciality stores.
Yes please ask us about massage and day spa services that can be organised to come to Calabash Bay Lodge for in house treatments.
Calabash Bay Lodge is a non-smoking property.
We accept pets on the condition that they are kept of out of doors at all times and are well supervised. (This makes this policy more amenable to dogs). As our property is styled as a luxury retreat, it is not amenable to pets being allowed indoors.
If you do wish to bring your pet along, we would require written consent to specific terms and conditions of rental, and a pet bond of $300 per pet would also be required in addition to the regular security bond.
We also accept all certified/registered Guide Dogs accompanying a guest who is visually or hearing impaired. More information is available on request.
For four legged guests, the Lodge has a large weather-proof entertaining deck for sleeping with a swimming pool style gate preventing access to the gardens, so your dog will be safe and contained through the night.
While most of the garden is fenced, there are some areas a dog can slip through, so your dog should be well supervised at all times to prevent it from accessing the bushland and disturbing local wildlife, and adjoining property, and particularly if it’s inexperienced around water. The downstairs lawn area is fully fenced to the river, however, please note access to the pontoon is not fenced and fronts onto 3-4m of deep water.
You should also be aware that there are dogs living in many of the permanent residences to either side of Calabash Bay Lodge, so if your dog isn’t used to dogs in its vicinity and is prone to barking, you may find your holiday may be less relaxing than you anticipated!
There is also high risk of paralysis ticks in the Hawkesbury River area – if you’re not familiar with this we would recommend seeking advice from your vet first. Preventative medication can be administered before a stay. There is a vet however nearby at Berowra Heights and we can furnish you with the number of in case of any emergencies.
If you have an indoor pet you need to find accommodation for during your stay, located close to us at Galston is Pet Resorts Australia http://www.petresortsaustralia.com/, which offers full boarding services for cats, dogs and more at very reasonable rates. Being only 20 minutes drive away, you can easily drop your furry friend off before your stay at Calabash Bay Lodge and pick up en route home afterwards.
We also accept all certified/registered Guide Dogs accompanying a guest who is visually or hearing impaired, as well as Assistance Dogs from registered organisations. Guide Dogs and Assistance Dogs can stay free of charge and are welcome inside the property. Please see below for more information:
– Guide Dogs must be trained and accredited by their applicable Guide Dog Association under the banner of Guide Dogs Australia.
– The Guide Dog must have a medallion on their collar with their guide dog registration number.
We also accept Assistance Dogs from the following organisations:
– Animal Assisted Therapy Australia Inc
– Assistance Dogs Australia
– Association of Australian Assistance Dogs (NQ) Inc
– Australia Support Dogs Incorporated
– Canine Partners as a Member of Assistance Dogs International
Guests who are accompanied by an Assistance Dog must carry documentary evidence of the Assistance Dog’s accreditation with one of the above organisations.
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Calabash Bay Lodge is a boutique luxury retreat for the discerning gourmet traveller in a unique and exemplary water-access only location at Berowra Waters on the Hawkesbury River.
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