Things to do in Lakes Entrance: Where to Stay, Eat, Drink & Play

The best things to do in Lakes Entrance include soaking at Metung Hot Springs, cruising the Gippsland Lakes, eating harbour-fresh seafood at Sodafish, wandering The Slipway, paddling Cunninghame Arm and making the inland detour to Buchan Caves.

Most of them begin with water. At the eastern end of Ninety Mile Beach, the Gippsland Lakes meet the sea and the town seems built around the exchange: fishing boats rocking in the marina, pelicans eyeing off the jetties, a footbridge crossing Cunninghame Arm before disappearing into dunes and a long stripe of sand. It has been a Victorian summer staple for generations, but there is far more happening here now than fish and chips after the beach.

Sodafish cooks seafood landed by neighbouring fishermen, new downstairs sibling Crudo packs sourdough focaccia, charcuterie and wine for afternoons on the water, and weekends can involve a floating lake house, wood-fired sauna or a boat ride to a winery. The lakes are still the reason to come; increasingly, everything around them is the reason to stay.

The Best Accommodation in Lakes Entrance

Idle Lake House

A former floating Chinese restaurant is now one of Lakes Entrance’s best-looking places to sleep. Idle Lake House sits directly on the Gippsland Lakes, reworked with curved walls, floor-to-ceiling glass, two queen bedrooms and a bath house staring straight across the water. There’s a ladder off the deck for morning swims, your own boat mooring and KOHO Sauna next door for the hot-cold circuit. The new Idle & Unwind package folds in private sauna sessions and a BONES General gift card too.

Western Boat Harbour, 160 Esplanade, Lakes Entrance

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Metung Hot Springs Glamping

Twenty minutes from Lakes Entrance, Metung Hot Springs has turned glamping into a fairly persuasive argument for staying overnight. The safari-style tents come with king-size four-poster beds, ensuites and private decks, each with its own geothermal bathing barrel overlooking either the lagoon or hillside. Guests also get access to the hot springs throughout their stay, plus a welcome drink and breakfast delivered to the tent the next morning. Bathrobe, barrel, breakfast: very little admin required.

73 Storth Ryes Avenue, Metung

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Eight Acres

Eight acres, a pool beneath the palms, fire pits, farm animals and enough lawn to lose the children for a while: Eight Acres has the regional-weekend formula down. Stay in one of seven two-bedroom farm cottages, several of them dog-friendly, or take a glamping tent and wake to birds instead of an alarm. Afternoons can disappear into the games garden and pool before everyone reconvenes around the fire once the light goes pink over the paddocks.

303 Colquhoun Road, Lakes Entrance

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The Mariner 

The Mariner has committed wholeheartedly to the bit. Dark hallways mimic a ship’s lower deck, bedroom doors carry cabin numbers, and the Captain’s Quarters comes with a wood fire, built-in bookshelves and portraits of various salty-looking sea dogs. Upstairs, things brighten into an ocean-liner-style lounge and galley kitchen with lake views. It sleeps six, welcomes small dogs and puts the Metung Hotel within strolling distance. Bring a novel and lean into it.

Metung

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Teulu House

There is a lovely bit of geometry happening at Teulu House, a curved, courtyard-style home sitting above Lake King in tiny Nungurner. Floor-to-ceiling glass keeps the water in sight from the bedrooms, living room and dedicated bathing room, while an enclosed courtyard hides an outdoor shower and dinner table from the world. It sleeps four, is wheelchair-friendly and puts Metung Hot Springs ten minutes away. Lakes Entrance is fifteen. The name means “family” in Welsh; the house feels made for disappearing with yours.

135 Kleinitz Road, Nungurner

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The Moorings at Metung 

The Moorings at Metung is made for anyone who wants the lake to do most of the talking. The waterfront apartments look straight across Bancroft Bay, while Lake King suites and townhouses put wide water views within easy reach of the village. There’s a solar-heated outdoor pool, a 29-degree indoor saltwater pool, a full-size tennis court and, best of all, a private marina if you’ve arrived by boat. Breakfast, swim, tennis, jetty. Repeat as necessary.

44 Metung Road, Metung 

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The Best Places to Eat & Drink in Lakes Entrance

Crudo Wine & Provisions

Lakes Entrance finally has the deli its boating culture deserves. Crudo Wine & Provisions, from Sodafish owners Emma and Nick Mahlook, sits downstairs from the restaurant with house-baked sourdough focaccia, mortadella and stracciatella rolls, anchovies, cheeses, antipasti and very good bottles stacked along the shelves. Pre-order a grazing box, pull up at the jetty and collect the whole thing by boat. Cold Chablis, focaccia under one arm, the Gippsland Lakes out front. Lunch is looking excellent.

Middle Boat Harbour, The Esplanade, Lakes Entrance

BONES

BONES General feels like the coastal milk bar of childhood got older, found very good local produce and started pouring mimosas. The shelves hold East Gippsland eggs, honey, meat and vegetables; the kitchen turns the same haul into Reubens, maple-bacon toasties and thick-cut local sourdough; and brunch can quite happily become a bottle-opening situation. Friday nights stretch things further with vino, music and the occasional tacos-and-margaritas affair. Even the bread comes from a 16-year-old local saving for a surfboard. Beach town nostalgia, with much better groceries.

24 Barkes Avenue, Lakes Entrance

The Bush Cafe at GLaWAC

A few minutes out of Lakes Entrance, The Bush Cafe at GLaWAC is a place to eat and learn something at the same time. Proud Gunaikurnai chef Kevin Murray works with local produce and flavours such as saltbush, mountain pepper, wattleseed and bush tomato, drawing on foods long connected to Country. After lunch, wander through the Aboriginal Art Gallery next door. The cafe also sits within GLaWAC’s wider Bush Foods Program, which is growing, harvesting and packaging traditional ingredients on Gunaikurnai Country.

27 Scriveners Road, Kalimna West

Sodafish

At Sodafish, the fishing fleet is close enough that dinner can feel like an extension of the harbour. Boats knock softly against Middle Boat Harbour outside while Nick Mahlook, back in his hometown after years at Stokehouse and The Atlantic, builds the menu around whatever has come in from neighbouring fishermen. Start with scallop ceviche bright with finger lime, then move to whole roasted fish slicked with burnt butter and capers, or prawn spaghetti with chilli and garlic. Sunset hits the water, glasses catch the light, somebody orders tiramisu with Wyanga Park muscat. Ahh, the good life.

Middle Boat Harbour, The Esplanade, Lakes Entrance

The Slipway

The old winch sheds are open, beers are being poured, somebody has a Gippsland Jersey milkshake in hand and the smell of fried seafood is drifting across the deck. The Slipway has become one of Lakes Entrance’s best afternoons out, stitched together from four very East Gippsland names. The Minotaur sends out fried gummy shark tacos, whitebait and the occasional sea urchin special; Sailors Grave handles the beer; Gippsland Jersey keeps the dairy kiosk humming; and FLOAT fills the restored sheds with exhibitions, weaving circles, workshops and visiting artists. Fishing boats sit just beyond the railings. Idyllic, much?

480 Esplanade, Lakes Entrance

Nick’s Thai 

By dinner time, Nick’s Thai is usually doing exactly what you want a coastal-town favourite to do: tables full, curries landing hot and somebody ordering another round. The family-run restaurant has built its reputation on laksa, Pad Thai, beef Massaman and green curry, with salt-and-pepper squid and king prawns in the mix too. It’s casual, warm and right on the Esplanade, an easy answer when fish and chips have already had their turn.

601 Esplanade, Lakes Entrance

Albert & Co

There is something pleasingly old-school about starting a Lakes Entrance morning at Albert & Co with the fishing fleet moving across Cunninghame Arm outside. The cafe began life in a little milk bar in 2015 and still keeps breakfast and lunch rooted in East Gippsland, from seafood unloaded nearby to herbs picked from its own garden. Coffee is Five Senses, dinner returns through the warmer months, and the famous vanilla slice is the one to tuck into the car for later.

201 Esplanade, Lakes Entrance

SARDINE dining

The 45-minute drive to Paynesville earns its keep at SARDINE dining, Mark Briggs’ one-hat dining room overlooking Raymond Island. The menu moves with the catch and the season, currently running from rock oysters and dry-aged bonito to blue swimmer crab casareccia, sardine fillets with smoked garlic aioli and local greens slicked with yuzu butter. Stay for dessert, then wander next door to SARDINE Cantina for another glass. East Gippsland does destination dining very well.

69 Esplanade, Paynesville

Metung Hotel

Metung Hotel has been pouring drinks beside Bancroft Bay since 1870, and honestly, the location still does a lot of the talking. Grab a table out by the water, order local seafood or a pub classic, then watch boats nose up to the wharf while the resident pelican crowd gathers for the long-running noon feed. The wine list keeps things Victorian, the beer is cold, and on a blue-sky day lunch has a habit of drifting into late afternoon.

64 Kurnai Avenue, Metung

Boatshed Food & Wine

Boatshed Food & Wine has taken an old North Arm boat shed and filled it with bottles, good snacks and the sort of lunch that starts with anchovies and somehow ends with another glass. The family-run Lakes Entrance favourite pours Gippsland wines alongside interesting imports, while the kitchen moves through local whitebait, kangaroo salami with native myrtle, burrata with harissa and nduja prawns. Take a bottle from the shop on your way out. Future-you will be pleased.

54 Marine Parade, Lakes Entrance

The Servo

Right opposite the footbridge to Ninety Mile Beach, The Servo Lakes Entrance is the town’s open-air answer to post-beach hunger. The big dog-friendly yard fills with picnic tables, local musos and jugs of cocktails, while the kitchen heads firmly into American BBQ territory with 12-hour smoked brisket, ribs, burgers and wings. It is one of the easiest places in Lakes Entrance to turn an afternoon drink into dinner, especially once someone plugs in a guitar.

595 Esplanade, Lakes Entrance

Sailors Grave Brewing

Sailors Grave Brewing has spent a decade making beer that tastes unmistakably of East Gippsland, and its 2024 move to Dunetown, a farmhouse brewery between Marlo and Cape Conran en route to Lakes Entrance, finally gave the whole operation room to breathe. There are 16 taps, a seasonal food menu and beers brewed with things like seaweed, sea salt, native grass seed, mushrooms and oysters. Take a guided tasting with co-founder Gab, stay in one of The Little Drift tiny homes next door, or just settle in for lunch with the paddocks out front and the goats somewhere nearby.

85 Marlo Plains Road, Marlo

Things to Do in Lakes Entrance: Experiences & Attractions

The Saltwater Creative Co

At The Saltwater Creative Co, a Lakes Entrance afternoon can involve clay on your hands and a glass of wine within reach. Nephelle Wallis’s ceramics studio runs wheel throwing, hand-building and resin workshops, with the two-hour Wheel & Wine session the one to book for a weekend away. Beginners are very welcome, and private groups can add in local grazing boards, wine and cocktail kits from BONES next door. It’s part art class, part excellent excuse to lose track of the afternoon.

24 Barkes Avenue, Lakes Entrance

Cruise to Wyanga Park Winery

There are easier ways to get to Wyanga Park Winery, but none as good as arriving by boat. The cruise leaves Lakes Entrance, slips past the fishing fleet and North Arm wildlife, then pulls in for lunch and a tasting at Gippsland’s oldest winery. Estate-grown Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet sit alongside the house oddity worth trying at least once, frozen Muscat. Back on land, the mood is old-school regional in the best way: timber, local art, sunny decks, a winter fire and Mexican dinners on weekends.

248 Baades Road, Lakes Entrance

Plan a Winter Trip Around East Gippsland Winter Festival

If Lakes Entrance in summer is all bare feet and fish-and-chips paper, winter has become its stranger, moodier sibling. The East Gippsland Winter Festival takes over the region for a month with lanterns glowing along the foreshore, cold-water dips at The Slipway, kayak-to-sauna sessions, fire-lit dinners and chefs turning up for one-off feasts. In 2026, Guy Grossi joined Sodafish’s Nick Mahlook for the sold-out Inverno lunch, while Lakes Lights sent enormous illuminated sculptures and hundreds of handmade lanterns through town after dark.

2026 dates: 19 June–19 July

2027 dates yet to be announced

Swim, Walk or Surf Ninety Mile Beach

Cross the footbridge over Cunninghame Arm and the town falls away quickly, replaced by dunes, salt air and the long gold line of Ninety Mile Beach. Main Beach is the easiest place to swim, with patrols during school holidays and weekends from December to Easter, while Eastern Beach adds barbecues and a playground for slower family days.

If walking is more your speed, take the 4.6-kilometre Entrance Walk along the lake edge to Flagstaff Hill, then loop back along the sand; seals and pelicans are regular sightings around the rocks. Further east, Red Bluff is for experienced surfers only, with reef breaks and no patrols.

Sitchu Tip: Go late in the day when the wind drops and the beach turns copper under the last light.

Main Beach, Lakes Entrance

Soak at Metung Hot Springs

Steam lifts off the hilltop pools at Metung Hot Springs while Lake King stretches out below. The geothermal water rises from more than 500 metres underground, then feeds spotted-gum bathing barrels, lagoon pools and the stargazing pool on the escarpment. Work your way between warm water, cold plunges and the floating sauna, then take the stone reflexology path barefoot before another soak. On the final Friday of each month, bathing runs until 9pm, which is especially lovely once the sky starts turning apricot over the lakes.

Sitchu Tip: Book a 45-minute spa treatment after bathing. The current menu includes the Metung Mist full-body massage, using the hot springs’ signature body oil.

73 Storth Ryes Avenue, Metung

Take to the Sky, Then Paddle Home

This one starts in a helicopter and ends on a paddleboard. Venture Out’s Heli SUP lifts off over the Gippsland Lakes, flies the coastline, then drops you near a remote stretch of Ninety Mile Beach. From there, the chopper leaves and a guide leads the paddle back towards Lakes Entrance, past the Entrance channel and across open water with the town slowly coming back into view. It is gloriously over-the-top regional adventuring, and exactly the sort of story you’ll still be telling months later.

347B Esplanade, Lakes Entrance

Head Underground at Buchan Caves

Forty-five minutes inland from Lakes Entrance, the road folds into Krauatungalung Country and a landscape with nearly 400 million years beneath its feet. At Buchan Caves Reserve, guided tours descend into Fairy and Royal caves, past calcite-rimmed pools, stalactites, stalagmites and underground stream passages carved slowly through the limestone. The caves sit within Buchan Munji, an important Gunaikurnai meeting place with cultural significance stretching back thousands of years.

Royal Cave has the grander chambers and around 300 steps; Fairy Cave is tighter, with roughly 260. Either way, the temperature below ground hovers around 17°C, which feels especially good in summer. Book ahead, then bring bathers for the spring-fed pool back above ground. It was built in 1938 and still fills with icy water straight from the caves.

Sitchu Tip: Tours are the only way into the show caves, and Parks Victoria recommends booking at least 24 hours ahead.

98 Caves Road, Buchan 

Make an Afternoon of Buchan

Once you’re back above ground, give Buchan a little time. Main Road still has deep verandahs and old shopfronts, The Roadie does burgers and coffee, and the Bakehouse Gallery gives you somewhere to poke around before crossing the red-and-white Swing Bridge over the Buchan River. Finish at Buchan Caves Hotel, rebuilt after the 2014 fire and now under new publicans Kirstie and Paul, for a cold beer and dinner beneath corrugated iron and weathered timber.

Sitchu Tip: If it’s hot, detour to The Bluff Reserve, a kilometre north of town, for a swim beneath the granite rock face.

Buchan, Victoria

Cruise the Gippsland Lakes

The water is the whole point here, so at least one afternoon should be spent on it. Hire a little putt-putt from Victor Hire Boats or a no-licence boat from Blue Riviera and nose along North Arm under your own steam, stopping for a swim or lunch when something looks good. Prefer somebody else at the helm? Lonsdale Eco Cruises spends three hours searching for seals, sea eagles and the rare Burrunan dolphin, with warm scones coming out of the galley halfway through. Or go wonderfully old-school aboard PAM, a restored 1902 pearl lugger that sails from Cunninghame Quay at morning and sunset.

The Esplanade and Marine Parade, Lakes Entrance

Hire a Kayak and Paddle the Gippsland Lakes

A kayak from Venture Out puts Lakes Entrance at eye level. Push off into Cunninghame Arm, slip beneath the footbridge, skim past Flagstaff Jetty and keep an eye on the channel for seals or dolphins. Two hours is plenty for an easy paddle; with four, you can head into North Arm and make lunch at Wyanga Park Winery part of the route. Venture Out also runs a 2.5-hour guided island-hopping trip through three quieter pockets of the Gippsland Lakes. Water bottle, hat, arms ready.

347B Esplanade, Lakes Entrance

Go Down the Rabbit Hole at Griffiths Sea Shell Museum

You’ll know Griffiths Sea Shell Museum when you see the enormous octopus clinging to the roof. Inside, things only get stranger. Glass cabinets hold thousands upon thousands of shells, glowing coral, preserved deep-sea oddities, a goblin shark and even a two-headed baby snapper shark; somewhere beyond all that, there’s a model railway too. Open since 1962, it has the gloriously analogue energy of a childhood coastal holiday attraction nobody thought to sanitise.

Sitchu Tip: Save time for the shell-heavy gift shop on the way out.

Summer: 9am–5pm daily; winter: 10am–4pm daily

125 Esplanade, Lakes Entrance

Lakes Entrance still has the holiday bones people remember: fish and chips by the water, pelicans at the jetty, sandy feet and the footbridge stretching towards Ninety Mile Beach. What has changed is everything around them. There are now mimosas at the modern milk bar, focaccia collected by boat, ceramics with wine, geothermal pools above Lake King and dinners cooked metres from the fishing fleet. East Gippsland is having a very good moment.

Keep the road trip going with our guide to the best things to do in Gippsland, then plot a few more stops with Victoria’s best beaches and our favourite unique holiday destinations.