A small hotel and restaurant · NSW South Coast
Fourteen rooms, one quiet beach.
An adults-focused hotel on a headland near Narooma, with an ocean pool down the path and a restaurant built around the long lunch. Come for two nights. Most guests wish they'd booked four.
Guests 16 and over Breakfast included Four and a half hours from Sydney
The idea
We built the hotel we kept looking for: small, slow and right on the water.
Tidewell started as a tired 1960s guesthouse on the headland. We spent two years rebuilding it in spotted gum and lime-washed render, with windows that actually open, then kept it to fourteen rooms so it never feels busy, even in January.
There's no wedding lawn, no conference room and no televisions in the rooms. There's a library with a fire, bikes in the shed, a kitchen garden and a path down to the ocean pool. Guests are 16 and over, so the mornings stay quiet.
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14
rooms, and never more
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4
minutes down the path to the ocean pool
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85%
of the menu grown or caught within 100 km
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9
years on the headland
A Garden Room, 8am, doors open to the courtyard.
Rooms
Three kinds of room, all of them quiet.
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Garden Rooms
from $640
On the ground floor, each with a walled courtyard, an outdoor shower and the water showing through the banksias. The quietest rooms in the house.
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Ocean Rooms
from $780
Upstairs, with a balcony facing straight out to sea and a deep bath by the window. Leave the doors open and you'll hear the surf all night.
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The Headland Suite
from $1,150
The old owners' quarters at the end of the house: a sitting room with a fireplace, a daybed on the deck and a bath that looks across the whole bay.
In every room
- A king bed made up in washed linen
- A record player and a shelf of good books
- Coffee roasted twenty minutes up the road
- Robes and towels for the walk to the pool
- No television, unless you ask for one
A day at Tidewell
From first light to the last candle.
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6.00am
First swim
The ocean pool fills on the high tide and catches the sun at about six. Robes are in a basket at the top of the path, and there's coffee in the library by the time you're back.
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8.30am
Breakfast, slowly
Served until eleven, in the dining room or on your balcony. Sourdough from our own oven, eggs from a farm up the valley and rock oysters if you're that kind of person.
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2.00pm
The long afternoon
Lunch runs late, then the beach below the house, a book on the deck or the bikes out to the oyster sheds on the inlet. Nobody will ask what your plans are.
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7.30pm
Dinner, by candlelight
A shorter menu, the candles lit and the fishing boats heading out past the point. Then the fire in the library, and the sound of the water with the windows open.
The dining room
Lunch is the main event.
Dom cooked in Sydney for fifteen years before moving down the coast. His menu changes every morning around what's close: rock oysters from the inlet, line-caught fish, lamb from a farm at Bodalla and whatever the kitchen garden is giving up that week.
Twenty-eight seats, a long table by the window and no second sitting. Lunch is open to non-guests from Thursday to Sunday.
Rates
Ways to stay, priced plainly.
Every rate includes breakfast, the bikes, the pool, and everything in the pantry except the wine. Prices include GST and change a little with the season.
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A night or two
from $640
a night for two, breakfast included
Any room, any time of year. Fridays and Saturdays are two nights minimum.
- Breakfast until 11am
- The ocean pool, bikes and library
- Check-out at 11am, later when we can
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How most guests stay
The long weekend
from $2,390
for two, three nights
Friday to Monday, which is how most of our guests stay. Lunch and dinner are taken care of.
- Three nights, breakfast daily
- Dinner for two on your first night
- Long lunch for two on Saturday
- Check-out at 2pm on Monday
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Midweek, slowly
from $2,240
for two, four nights
Sunday to Thursday, when the beach is empty and the kitchen has time to talk.
- Four nights for the price of three and a half
- Dinner for two on one night
- A picnic basket for the headland walk
The whole house. For a birthday, a small wedding lunch or a team that needs to think, take all fourteen rooms and the dining room from $13,500 a night for up to 28 guests. Ask Marnie about dates.
Your hosts
Run by the people who live here.
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Marnie Ashby
Host and co-owner
Ran front of house at two Sydney restaurants before she and Dom bought the old guesthouse in 2015. She'll know your name before you've parked.
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Dom Ashby
Chef and co-owner
Fifteen years in city kitchens. Now cooks for twenty-eight, grows half of what he serves and swims at the pool every morning before service.
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Josie Tran
Restaurant manager and sommelier
Built the wine list around the South Coast and the Canberra District. Ask her which bottle she's excited about this week.
From the guest book.
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We booked two nights and stayed five. The lunch alone was worth the drive.
Kate, Annandale
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We swam every morning, read every afternoon and didn't look at a phone once.
Rob, Kingston
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Marnie remembered how we take our coffee from a visit two years before.
Anna, Hawthorn
Before you come
Good questions.
Anything else, call 0491 570 159. Reception's open every day from 7am to 9pm, and you'll speak to someone who works here.
Can we bring children?
Tidewell is for guests aged 16 and over, which keeps the house quiet and the pool calm. If you're travelling with younger children, we're happy to suggest good family places nearby.
How far is it from Sydney and Canberra?
About four and a half hours from Sydney down the Princes Highway, and under three hours from Canberra over the Clyde. If you'd rather fly, Moruya airport is 40 minutes away and we'll collect you.
Can we come for lunch if we're not staying?
Yes, from Thursday to Sunday. Book ahead in summer: there are twenty-eight seats and staying guests get first call on them.
What's your cancellation policy?
Cancel 14 days or more before arrival and we'll refund your deposit in full. Inside 14 days, we'll move your booking once to any date in the next twelve months.
Do you cater for dietary needs?
Of course. Tell us when you book and Dom will plan around it. Vegetarian, vegan, coeliac and most allergies are no trouble with a little notice.
Is there an accessible room?
One Garden Room has step-free access from the car park, a level-entry shower and wider doors. The path to the ocean pool is steep, so we'll drive you down whenever you'd like.
Get in touch
Come and stay a little longer.
Use the dates bar for rooms, or send us a note for anything else: a lunch booking, the whole house, a gift voucher or a question about the drive. Marnie or Josie will reply within a day.
- Phone
- 0491 570 159
- Where
- A headland near Narooma, NSW South Coast. Directions come with your booking.
- Reception
- Every day, 7am to 9pm