CityMag Stays: Good Vibes, Robe
In this travel series, CityMag checks in at Robe holiday home Good Vibes and discovers the beaches, breweries, wineries and vibrant main street that keep visitors flocking back to this coastal hamlet each summer.
Good Vibes by name, good vibes by nature.
Robe. For this journalist, the very word instantly conjures memories of chilly Easter surfs at Long Beach, hours spent four-wheel-driving through Little Dip Conservation Park, late nights hopping from the Caledonian Inn to the Robe Hotel, morning bakery stops and pure salt-infused relaxation.
The town has changed a lot since I first started visiting Robe well over a decade ago. But in many ways – thankfully – it hasn’t.
My younger visits were fuelled by campfire cooking and the odd pub feed, but the town now offers everything from Italian dining to a chic tapas wine bar, and brunch as good as you’ll find in a capital city.
Luckily, the fish and chips haven’t changed.
In February, CityMag headed to the South East and stayed in a new AirBnB called Good Vibes – located a few blocks off of the main street of Robe.
Good Vibes is among a stable of accommodation options offered by Robe Lifestyle Properties.
It is located inland from the main road – close to Mahalia Coffee and the Robe Town Brewery, which we’ll get to very soon. It’s also nice and quiet, at the end of a cul de sac.
Good Vibes is a “contemporary oasis” built in 2024, with modern Scandi vibes and a comfortable layout that has us feeling like we’re on holiday as soon as we walk through the door.
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It sleeps up to 10 guests across four bedrooms, including one with two double bunks for junior holiday makers.
The modern climate control system is excellent, and CityMag enjoys the thought that has gone into creating a desk space with an external monitor, should you need to bring the laptop to keep up with things back at the office.
Good Vibes is ideal for a couple of families, with plenty of separation between kids and adults, and a nice back yard with plenty of lawn for activities. The kitchen is awesome, but on this trip, we’ll be enjoying epic feeds in Robe.
Luckily, the Robe Town Brewery is a short distance away from Good Vibes, as we need a refreshing beverage after the drive (we came from Adelaide via lovely Penola where we stopped for an ale at the Royal Oak).
Here, inimitable brewer Maris Biezaitis combines hand-foraged indigenous bush tucker with ancient, low-tech brewing methods to create what might be some of the world’s most unique beers.
The brewery has a vibe on Fridays with the live open-mic jam night. There are food trucks on Fridays and weekends.
It’s likely that the brewer himself will pour your tasting flight, so be sure to ask for a tour of his brewing setup which is unlike any other.
Our favourite beers are the Jetty Jumping pale ale, Amber sweet dark ale, Solstice Baltic porter and the Little Wild Muntrie sour fruit beer, made with muntries picked in the local dunes.
When dinner calls, you can’t go past schnitzels or seafood at the Caledonian Inn, which also has a mean curry on the specials board.
If you’re having lunch there, check out the upper-storey dining space where you can enjoy a view of the ocean across the rinks of the Robe Bowling Club.
For day two, we’ve been invited by brewer Maris to go four-wheel-driving through the dunes of Little Dip Conservation Park on a glorious day that calls for a little dip in the Maldives-blue water of a small sandy bay.
Robe’s southern location means it’s significantly cooler than Adelaide year-round, but we’ve scored unusually warm weather on this trip – the summer sun igniting the ocean a spectacular shade of electric blue.
Before the day’s activities, we indulge in breakfast at Drift Robe where the eggs benny is divine. So too is the coffee.
Drift is a busy yet wholesome hub of locals and some visitors enjoying coffee and brekky, and a great place to leisurely watch the slow movement of cars and people down the main street.
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After our adventure through the dunes, basking in the magnificent coast and national park, we need more sustenance.
One of our local sources gives us a tip to procure our pies and sausage rolls from The Pastry Place Robe – a small, gourmet patisserie where you can grab legitimate croissants and other treats.
If you’re a history buff, you can check out the Robe Historic Cemetery – be sure to take your smartphone and load up robewalk.com where you can download audio stories of the triumphs and tragedies of those buried there.
Just watch out for stray golf balls from the neighbouring golf course, and listen out for shouts of: “four!”
Robe’s interesting Historic Cemetery is located alongside Robe Golf Club.
There’s also the free mobile app Discover Robe, which will help you further uncover the rich history all around the town.
In the evening, we head to the Obelisk lookout at sunset and opt for dinner at the Italian restaurant Olive’s Robe, which has an expansive, leafy al fresco space out the back. The pasta is tempting, but we couldn’t go past the pizza menu and it doesn’t disappoint.
With this view, just 20 minutes up the coast from Robe, Cape Jaffa Wines is a must-visit.
One of the charms of this country town is being served at a restaurant by the same industrious young staff member who served you breakfast in the morning while working their second job at the cafe.
After our second and final night at Good Vibes, there’s time for a sunrise walk at the Obelisk and a quick swim at Robe’s main beach, out to the newly reinstated pontoon floating in the bay.
Then there’s a choice of many cafes and bakeries to fuel up with breakfast and barista-curated caffeine, before starting our drive back up the Coorong.
Just a few minutes down the road, we marvel at the camels grazing at Robe Camel Farm (the source of Humpalicious Camel Milk) which sadly we aren’t quite on time to join a farm tour. We’ll have to come back.
Cappa Jaffa Wines’s popular winery guard dog, Jenny.
But we do have time to stop at Cape Jaffa Wines, where we’re greeted by the winery dog Jenny – a popular and pretty Maremmano. We pick up a couple of bottles, and a few Loophole beers, which are made on-site at Cape Jaffa Wines.
Waving goodbye to Larry the Big Lobster at Kingston SE sadly signals the finale to our all-too-quick road trip.
But the drive – less than four hours – passes surprisingly quickly and bodes well that we’ll be back in Robe sooner rather than later. Let the good vibes roll.
CityMag and SALIFE was a guest of Good Vibes and Robe Lifestyle Properties.
Larry seemed a little crabby on our visit. Until next time!