I just came back from a lovely first family getaway (it's been two years in the making!). Excuse the long review. We decided to visit Peppers Salt Resort and Spa at Kingscliff after hearing rave reviews and they weren't wrong! It was a great place to visit with the kids - they had a ball. I have a 2 year old and an 8 month old. It is probably aimed at families visiting with older kids (e.g. 7+) but we still loved it.
They have two fantastic pool areas - a Tropical pool, which gets sun most of the day and has a spa area and the vast Lagoon pool, which includes sand, plunge pools and also a spa. It features deck chairs in the sand area, where cocktails can be ordered from the bar and brought over to you.
We purchased a package with two rooms and a bath spa. It overlooked the Tropical pool. I believe all rooms feature at least a pool view. When we opened our front door, it had a foyer area with another two main doors behind it, so it could be split...if you were visiting with friends. One side of the resort is a Quiet area, so if you were looking at visiting for a bit of peace and quiet, you can do that too.
Our package also included a buffet breakfast daily. What I really enjoyed about this, was the fact that everything was freshly made...including the eggs - no powered egg here. They also offer in-house movies for free, which means you can watch most of the recent rentals for free! This was great for when the kids were in bed.
We had to visit the GP for a sudden rash that developed with my daughter while there (turned out to be a sunscreen allergy) and the reception staff were great. They rang around and found someone who could fit us in and then told us where to go.
Everything is in walking distance for your convenience. This includes, the beach (not flagged though), a pub which has a great playground for kids, restaurants, a gelato shop, hair salon, bottle shop and IGA for your shopping needs. In comparison to the previous reviewer, we actually found the restaurants relatively priced but the prices of ordering room service or visiting in-house spa, quite pricey. We were also disappointed by the dessert menu available, so we didn't order in.
Negatives to our stay:
- Bad internal communication. I had run up weeks in advance to be assured they had a cot for our room. I was reassured there was one but when I arrived, they had the notes but they hadn't been passed onto room keeping, so they had to bring up a cot. Similarly, they one of us listed for breakfast, instead of 4.
- Really poor signage. The signage in the place was really disappointing. I'd expect more. You had to navigate for yourself out of the lift, just to find the reception. Similarly, you had to guess where the Tropical pool was located and if the Season restaurant was where you were meant to have breakfast. I didn't even try to find the gym!
- Noise can carry and we unfortunately had a group who wanted to party above our place one night while our young kids were trying to sleep. I know this can't really be helped by the resort.
- We had swimmers fall over the balcony, which of course was once again our fault but normally you could go get them yourself from where they fell. In this case, we had to ring reception and trouble the guests that were staying below just to retrieve them because they fell into their 'private' but not so private plunge pool area.
Positives:
- Facilities, including individual room facilities
- Capsule coffee machine in room (but only first two capsules were free)
- Didn't have to bring own cot, had highchairs
- Walking distance to everything
- In-room movies
- The staff really do go out of their way for you read more