Your whole house in the country

The short version

The whole house, not a room in it

The Landscapers Rest is one house and you get all of it. There is no reception desk, no shared entrance and no other guests in the building. The front door is yours for the length of your stay, and so is everything behind it: two bedrooms, the bathroom, the living room, the kitchen, the laundry, the veranda and the yard.

That matters more than it sounds. It means you can cook a proper dinner instead of eating out twice a day, put a load of washing on halfway through a long weekend, and come back from a cellar door at four in the afternoon without walking past anybody. Four people can spread out across two queen bedrooms without anyone drawing the short straw on a fold-out.

The house sits in Bombira, just above the Mudgee racecourse. Two cellar doors are directly across the road and there are more than thirty-five across the region. The town centre is a three minute drive, or a twenty minute walk if you would rather leave the car where it is.

How it runs

Arrive when you arrive

Check-in is from 2:00 pm and it is self check-in through a lockbox, so there is nobody to meet and no arrival window to hit. If you are coming from Sydney that is roughly three and a half hours by the Bells Line of Road, about three from Newcastle and an hour and a half from Dubbo. Late arrivals are fine. Earlier or later times can usually be arranged if you ask when you book.

There is off-street parking for up to four cars, so a second couple travelling separately does not create a problem. Checkout is 10:00 am.

The kitchen is a real one, not a kitchenette: oven and cooktop, a full fridge and freezer, dishwasher, microwave, kettle, toaster and a coffee pod machine, with cookware, crockery and glassware already in the cupboards and a dining table that seats four. Bring food and you are set. The laundry has a washing machine, which is the difference between packing for two nights and packing for two nights with a toddler.

Linen and towels are provided, with extra blankets and pillows in the house. Both bedrooms have their own air conditioner, a fan and blockout blinds. There is a wood fireplace inside for the cold months and a fire pit outside with firewood supplied, so a winter evening does not have to end when the sun goes down.