Where to base yourself
Byron is expensive and it books out, and the difference between a good trip and a frustrating one is usually which side of town you sleep on. This is a guide to the areas rather than a list of properties.
Everything within ten minutes on foot: the main beach, the start of the lighthouse walk, the restaurants and the bakeries. You will pay for it, and in peak weeks you will not want to move the car once you have parked it. The courts are a short drive out on Ewingsdale Road, in the opposite direction to the beach traffic.
Five minutes south, backing onto a long open beach and the national park, with a small shopping strip of its own. Quieter, more residential, better value than the town centre, and an easy run to both the courts and the beaches. Good if you want to be near Byron rather than in it.
South towards Ballina: Lennox has a beautiful point break, a lake behind the dunes for small kids, and a village that has not been swallowed by tourism. Twenty minutes from the Byron courts and much closer to the Ballina end of the regional club's sessions, which is worth knowing if you plan to play often.
Inland, green, cooler at night, and considerably cheaper than the coast. Bangalow is a proper village with a good pub and a Saturday market; Ewingsdale puts you closest of all to the courts. The trade-off is a drive to the beach, which in January is a smaller sacrifice than it sounds.
Twenty minutes north-west, with the Brunswick River nearby and a very different character — a working town with an alternative streak rather than a resort. Houses and rentals rather than hotels, which suits a week or a month. Brunswick Heads on the coast nearby is the low-key alternative to Byron itself.
The shire has holiday parks close to the beaches and campgrounds in the national park south of town. They fill months ahead for summer and school holidays, and they are the sensible option for anyone travelling the coast with a van — and a surprising number of pickleball players do exactly that.
We don't take bookings or earn commission. Court and session details sit on where to play, and the rest of the shire is covered under things to do.