Norfolk Island Accommodation

There are many accommodation choices on Norfolk Island, it comes down to what you require. We needed accommodation for three, and wanted to be self contained. I had pages and pages of comparisons of the many different hotels. Prices ranged from under $80 per night (you get what you pay for) right up to over $300 per night. Much of the accommodation is for a couple. There are houses for weekly rent that will accommodate families and larger groups, and accommodation can be found all over the island.

We wanted to stay in the historic area of Kingston, but all accommodation for 3 people had been booked, or wasn't available, so we looked in the town of Burnt Pine. Most accommodation included car hire, and an orientation tour of the island. A lot were self contained, which we wanted, so it was the 'extras' we were looking for. We chose the Cumberland Resort & Spa, and couldn't have been more happy. The staff were wonderful, always smiling and chatting and making sure we had everything we needed, especially on Sunday, the day we arrived, as everything was shut, I mean everything. More about that in a blog later.

First impressions were underwhelming but we were pleasantly surprised when we got to our unit. We walked into a large living area with a fully equipped kitchen, full size fridge and freezer, microwave, toaster, kettle, sandwich press, comfortable lounges, big screen TV with Foxtel,...

.... with breakfast supplies for the first day. Milk, juice, eggs, and bread. There was also a basket of tea, coffee, sugar, and a basket of jams, Vegemite, peanut butter and butter. 

The unit had two double bedrooms, both with a TV, and en-suite with massage shower, and the main bedroom with a spa bath. 

The second bedroom had no window, other than in the en-suite so it was a little dark, and that suited Jonnie as he likes the dark.

There was a lovely outside eating area and a BBQ.

 

We had breakfast out there most days, and one dinner, however it was too cold at night, so we ate inside. It would have been nice to have had a small dining table to eat at. Eating at the kitchen bench was not very comfortable.

We did eat well while we were there, both in home cooking in the unit and eating out. (Again food will be another blog)

We also had seating outside the unit, so if one wanted to sit in the sun one could.

The unit was really good, beds comfortable, fans in each room, a heater in the main living area, which we used and it heated up the unit quickly. I should not here that Norfolk Island doesn't have any air-conditioning anywhere, so Summer may be a bit warm for some people. Plenty of lights though.

The staff were lovely, helpful and friendly and always smiling. The accommodation included 500mb of data a day - heaps for three of us for text messaging and social media. One morning Peter decided to check his emails and 'other stuff' and we ran out before 2pm - he didn't do that again. The grounds were well kept with lovely flowers.

We had been told the cars on the island were all old, and the rental cars certainly were... but they work and all we needed was a car to get us from A to B, which it did.

The resort had a free fruit case near the common areas, but we never saw anything in it other than spider webs - and we had to walk past it every morning at 8ish.

The spa pool was tiny and heated. It had a lot of 'gadgets' to make the different jets run. So good after walking all day.

The hotel had everything we needed. We did take with us our own lunch containers and an air tight container for biscuits (and used them on the place with our own food). Next time I would take a couple more air tight containers, mainly because I don't like using throwaway plastic wrap for left overs. We also took our own coffee and tea travel cups. There was a picnic set and travel rug that we didn't use, but a small esky bag would have been good, so next time..... there was a freezer block in the freezer which we did used. Also we would take a small table cloth, like we have in the car, for our picnics - we do a lot of picnics when travelling.

We did look at some other accommodation while there, and Burnt Pine seemed to have the better accommodation, but if you want scenery, there are two lovely, but smaller ones at Kingston. Maybe next time we might choose the scenery, but if staying in Burnt Pine we would stay at Cumberland.

Peter's video blog here.