Salt and Snow

Snowy Mountains, NSW

The Snowy Mountains

We have been back five times in seven years — a ski hotel the first time, then a caravan park cabin, then three stays at NRMA Jindabyne, two of them under canvas. This page is the record so far; the written guide is being put together.

Where
Jindabyne and the Snowy Mountains, NSW
Stayed
29 Jul – 3 Aug 2018 · 29 Jul – 1 Aug 2022 · 22–26 Dec 2023 · 12–14 Jul 2024 · 11–14 Jul 2025
Trips
Five, between 2018 and 2025
Base
NRMA Jindabyne for three of them
In
Hotel, cabin ×2, tent ×2
Sites
Powered

The record

Five trips, seven years

Same country every time, and a different way of staying in it almost every time — hotel, cabin, tent, cabin again.

  1. 29 July – 3 August 2018

    Perisher Valley

    Smiggins Hotel, Smiggin Holes — in the snow, indoors

    The first one, and the only time we have stayed inside the resort itself. No tent, no trailer, none of the kit that came later — just a room, a set dinner menu each night, and boots drying on the carpet. Five nights, half board, dinner and breakfast every day. We drove ourselves down to the Skitube at Bullocks Flat and back again each day, which is the part of this trip worth reading about — see getting up the hill.

    Driving down the Monaro — 29 July 2018, 16:44
    Lake Jindabyne seen from the road, blue water and low scrubby islands under a clear winter sky
    Lake Jindabyne on the way up — 30 July 2018, 11:33
    Snow poles lining a cleared road climbing into the mountains, snow on both verges
    Snow poles on the climb — 16:32
    Snow falling across the Perisher runs and lift towers, seen from a lodge balcony at dawn
    Snowing at breakfast — 30 July, 07:19
    The climb from Jindabyne, ninety seconds of it — 30 July, 15:28
    The car park on the good morning — 30 July, 10:11
    Snow banks and campervans — 30 July
    The same road two days later — 31 July, 08:38
    Lifts still running at the end of the day — 30 July
    The Village Eight Express, mid-morning — 1 August
    The main slope on a busy day — 1 August
    Learning, badly, with commitment — 1 August
    First turns without help — 1 August
    Three pairs of ski boots standing open on a patterned carpet to dry
    Boots drying — 12:19
    A green and cream Skitube carriage standing at the platform with its doors open
    The Skitube — 1 August, 16:33
    The Perisher snowsports school sign and trail map board standing beside the snow
    The trail map — 11:52
    Perisher Valley lodges banked with snow below a bare treed ridge
    The village — Eiger Chalet and the White Spider, Perisher Valley — 13:05
    An avenue of bare poplars along the Monaro highway with cars on the road and dry paddocks beyond
    Poplars on the way home — 3 August, 11:13
    A packed snow car park below a ski village, lodges on the slope above and a beginners area with lift queues off to one side
    Smiggin Holes, mid-morning — 30 July 2018, 11:15
    The same car park late in the day under a pale sky, snow-covered cars, two figures walking up the cleared road towards the lifts
    The car park emptying — 16:43
    A long steel footbridge over a snow-covered creek leading to a very large car park, banners along the rail and the village buildings beyond
    The footbridge into Perisher Valley — 1 August, 12:25
    A long timber and glass lodge beside a groomed run in early light, one figure walking across the snow towards the lift
    First light on the slope — 2 August, 07:43

  2. 29 July – 1 August 2022

    Old Adaminaby

    Rainbow Pines Tourist Caravan Park — bungalow

    On Lake Eucumbene, north of Jindabyne. A caravan park rather than a hotel, and a bungalow rather than a tent — the tent was a year away. This was the trip we drove up to Yarrangobilly and swam in the thermal pool, in July. It was also the first time we had ever towed anything — a trailer hired for the trip.

    A hired box trailer with a lockable lid and a roof rack on top, parked on a driveway behind a dark grey SUV with a rolled awning on its roof bars
    The hired trailer, five days before we left — 24 July 2022
    A wide snowfield with a few distant figures walking on it, under a mackerel sky of small even clouds
    Snow and a mackerel sky, Perisher — 30 July 2022, 16:10
    An adult and a small child seen from behind, hand in hand, walking away across tracked snow towards low snow-covered hills
    Onto the snow at Perisher — 30 July, 16:12
    The stone rim of the Yarrangobilly thermal pool, with warm water bubbling in at one corner
    Yarrangobilly thermal pool, where the warm water comes in — 31 July, 14:40
    A small child in a brown snowsuit and red beanie standing on tracked snow, looking down at their gloved hands, long afternoon shadows across the frame
    Long shadows at four o’clock, Perisher — 30 July, 16:30
    Children sitting at a table in a caravan park camp kitchen, timber-lined walls, green vinyl bench seating and a kitchenette behind
    The camp kitchen at Rainbow Pines — 31 July, 10:54
    Cloud sitting low in a forested valley between ridges, seen through bare branches
    Cloud in the valley at Yarrangobilly — 15:59

  3. 22 – 26 December 2023

    Jindabyne, in summer

    NRMA Jindabyne — tent, powered site

    The first time under canvas up here, and in the middle of summer rather than the snow. Thredbo and Perisher on the same trip.

    We had been to the Snowy Mountains twice before — in 2018 and 2022, both times in winter — and had always wondered what the place looked like without the snow. This was the first stop on a two-week loop — Sydney to the mountains, on into Victoria, and home again — so the car went fully loaded: the trailer, the bikes, everything.

    We reached the park at about half past eight on the evening of the 22nd, and that was too late. It was getting dark, the neighbours were already quiet in their tents, and we were the ones hammering pegs into the ground. It took us about an hour and a half. The children were tired, and dinner still had to be made. We had put the tent up a couple of times before, but never quickly, and never in the dark.

    The 23rd was bright and sunny, blue sky and small clouds over the lake. We walked down to the water beside the park, the children played on the foreshore, and we came back along the lake again in the evening. The evenings were cool even in December — we needed light jackets.

    On Christmas Eve we drove up the Kosciuszko Road to see the ski country without its snow. Smiggin Holes and Perisher Valley were close to unrecognisable — we kept trying to match what we saw with what we remembered under snow, including the hotel we had stayed at in 2018 — and almost nobody was there: one or two people, the odd car, buildings shut up for the season. It felt like a ghost town. We stopped at the surge tank on the Kosciuszko Road as well.

    Christmas Day was the wet one. We drove to Thredbo and took the Merritts Gondola up the mountain. At the top it was raining hard and there was nobody else about — no snow anywhere, cold, but nothing like the cold of winter. We took a few photographs, came back down, and had lunch at a Mexican place we knew from earlier visits. That evening we cooked in the park’s camp kitchen, played Sequence at its tables, and dressed up for photographs by the lake. On the 26th we packed up and headed on into Victoria, to NRMA Bright.

    A straight road running between tall poplars towards low hills, late afternoon light and a scattering of cloud
    Poplars on the drive in — 22 December 2023, 18:54
    A grey SUV parked on grass with soft bags strapped to the roof rack, towing a high-side box trailer carrying three bikes on a rack and a jerry can
    Parked up, still loaded — 20:26
    A boy seen from behind looking out over Lake Jindabyne, a wooded point of land, a speedboat and a round hill under big white clouds
    The lake beside the park, the next morning — 23 December, 11:50
    A canvas tent with its front room zipped shut on a gravel and grass site, a ground mat in front, poplars and the lake behind
    The tent in daylight, pitched the night before — 13:41
    The side of the same canvas tent, its guy ropes pegged into dry ground, camp chairs and a table beyond it and cars parked across the park road
    Main room and front room, and nothing else — 14:35
    Lake Jindabyne at dusk, pink cloud over dark hills and lamps along the shore reflecting in still water
    Dusk on the lake — 23 December, 20:54
    A park road running uphill between pitched tents, a rooftop tent, caravans and parked cars towards a timber amenities building in early light
    The park waking up, Christmas Eve — 24 December, 07:02
    A small pool of dark water in thick green alpine grass, boulders on the slope beyond and heavy cloud above
    Alpine bog where the snow usually is — 14:05
    A boy standing on an old timber bridge over a grassy creek, a gravel path curving past a rocky hill under dark cloud
    On the bridge, looking up the valley — 14:05
    A boy walking through green alpine heath below a slope scattered with granite boulders and wind-bent snow gums
    Granite, heath and snow gums, no snow — 14:08
    An empty road through Perisher Valley past fuel bowsers, lodges and a long glass-fronted hotel under storm cloud with a patch of blue sky
    Perisher Valley in summer, nobody about — 14:19
    Turning a full circle in Perisher Valley — lodges, lifts and car parks, all shut for the summer
    A tall ringed concrete cylinder on a circular platform with steps, a stone wall and a ridge behind, under dark storm cloud
    The surge tank on the Kosciuszko Road — 14:36
    The Alpine Way curving past Thredbo village, lodges stepped up a forested hillside under heavy grey cloud
    Thredbo from the Alpine Way — 24 December, 15:47
    Bare, leafless trees in the foreground against cloud pouring across a forested mountainside above Thredbo
    Cloud coming down over Thredbo, Christmas Day — 25 December, 12:07
    Gondola cabins on a cable above snow gums and a dirt service track, the ridge ahead lost in cloud
    Into the cloud, Christmas Day — 25 December, 12:09
    The top of the gondola, socked in — empty tables, cabins coming out of the fog
    A wide lake seen from a hillside, with a wooded island in the middle distance and houses along the far shore
    The lake on the way back — 14:02
    A game of Sequence laid out on a camp kitchen table, hands holding cards around the board and red and blue counters in play
    Sequence in the camp kitchen, Christmas night — 18:38
    An empty numbered concrete camp slab with a low stone retaining wall and poplars behind, everything packed away, a neighbour’s camper trailer on the next site
    The site, packed up and empty — 26 December 2023, 13:41

    What this stay taught us. It was our first time with the tent here, and a lot of how we camp now comes from what went wrong on this trip.

    Arrive in daylight. Pitching after dark on a quiet site is slow, noisy and stressful, for you and for the people around you. Every peg went in by hand with a hammer.

    Plan the site before you pitch. We put the tent up the way we had learned so far — main room and front room — without thinking about how to use the rest of the site.

    Have somewhere covered to sit that is not the tent. One day it rained very heavily. With only the tent up there was nowhere outside to sit, so the chairs came into the front room and everyone sat in there, and keeping the water and mud out while people went in and out was a job of its own.

    What we changed. A few days later at NRMA Bright we laid the site out properly for the first time and put a Coleman gazebo over the kitchen. That is the setup that came out of this trip.

    Pack a jacket in December. The days were warm and bright; the evenings at Jindabyne were cool, and the top of the gondola on a wet Christmas Day was cold.

  4. 12 – 14 July 2024

    The winter under canvas

    NRMA Jindabyne — tent, powered site

    The winter trip in the tent — there on the 12th with the tent up in daylight, Thredbo on the 13th, Perisher on the 14th, and home to Sydney that night.

    We went back to the same park seven months after the summer trip, this time in the cold, and this time better prepared. We booked a powered site, and we changed how we used the tent to deal with the weather.

    The big change was the front room. We always put it up, but this time it became the kitchen itself, inside the tent, so we could cook and eat without going out into the cold. We brought the microwave from home, the air fryer, the sandwich maker and the toaster, all running off the site’s power, along with our portable fridge and two tables. It kept us warm, and it worked very well.

    The other change was the site itself. In December the car and trailer had ended up a little way from the tent, because we did not yet know how to use the space. This time the tent with its front room, the trailer and the car all fitted on the one site. (The rooftop tent on the trailer came later.) We had no real trouble putting the tent up this time.

    On the 13th we went to Thredbo. You park in the big public car park where the village starts, and from there it is a walk of ten to fifteen minutes up to the gondola — a nice walk — or a free bus that drops you a couple of minutes from the gondola station. There was a big queue for the gondola, as there always is in winter, but at the top the big food court that had been shut in summer was open and full of people. Down by the gondola there was a bungee trampoline for the children. Back near the car park there is a coffee shop where we had coffee and, cold as it was, ice cream.

    On the 14th we drove up to Perisher. It started snowing just as we were parking. We did not go into the food court; we stayed outside in the snow taking photographs, and our youngest built a small figure out of snow and leaves. We drove back to Sydney that night.

    An Oztent RX-5 with its front room pitched on a bare winter site, the car and bike trailer parked alongside under leafless trees
    Pitched, first morning — 13 July 2024, 09:57
    A grey SUV with a roof awning hitched to a box trailer carrying bikes, parked beside a canvas tent on the same grassy site under bare poplars
    Tent, trailer and car, all on the one site — 13 July 2024, 09:59
    The crowded beginner slope at Thredbo in bright sun, skiers and boarders spread across thin snow with a chairlift running up the ridge behind
    The bottom of the hill at Thredbo, lunchtime — 13 July, 12:08
    A child in snow pants and a harness bouncing on a blue-padded bungee trampoline on a fenced court, lodges on the hillside behind
    The bungee trampoline down by the gondola — 13 July, 15:06
    A child in a grey hooded jacket slumped forward over a picnic table with the hood pulled down over their face, both hands around a takeaway cup
    Done for the day — 13 July, 15:50
    Snow starting as we parked at Perisher — 14 July, 12:30
    The Thredbo Alpine Coaster — and how much of the hill was still grass
    A small snowman with a carrot nose and twig arms standing in churned-up snow covered with footprints
    Snowman, in well-trodden snow — 14 July, 15:08
    Lake Jindabyne under heavy cloud, with the town on the far shore and dry winter grass in the foreground
    Lake Jindabyne, weather coming in — 14 July 2024, 15:46
    The front room of an Oztent RX-5 set up as a camp kitchen, with a microwave, air fryer, toaster and electric frypan on a covered table and a fridge underneath
    The front room, doing kitchen duty — 16:22
    Low winter sun through the mesh window of a canvas tent, falling across the camp kitchen table
    Four o’clock light, mid-July — 16:22
    Granite and dry grass on the road out — the country between the highway and the snow

  5. 11 – 14 July 2025

    Back in July, in a cabin

    NRMA Jindabyne — cabin

    Same park, same month as the year before, and this time we took a cabin — our first at NRMA Jindabyne, though we had stayed in a bungalow at Old Adaminaby in 2022.

    July trips are always school-holiday trips for us, and there is no long weekend in the July holidays, so both of us take at least one extra day of leave to make them work. We left around midday on Friday the 11th and were in the cabin by evening. With no trailer to tow and no tent to put up, we felt relaxed before we had even arrived. The Snowy Mountains feel like a second home to us by now.

    Saturday the 12th was the day we got wrong. We had bought our Thredbo passes before we left home, but we set off late and were near Thredbo after eleven. There was so much traffic that cars were being stopped from going any further. We waited in the queue for about an hour before we were asked to turn round and go back. So we drove back to Jindabyne and had lunch at Beach Burrito Co. on Kosciuszko Road, the Mexican place we have kept going back to since 2018.

    On Sunday the 13th we started early to beat the queue, and it worked. It was a sunny day with hardly a cloud. We spent most of our time on the Alpine Coaster beside the gondola station — the children rode together, and I went on my own.

    On Monday the 14th we did what we do on every visit here: a family photo shoot beside the lake, next to the park, with my wife in a sari. Then, already packed, we drove up to Perisher. It was full of snow — snowfields as far as we could see from the car park — so we stayed outside rather than going into the food court, played in the snow, and our youngest built a small snowman. From there we drove straight home to Sydney.

    We had the Starlink with us this time, and used it in the cabin at night to watch films and TV shows.

    The steel gantry of the chairlift base station at Thredbo with rows of chairs parked underneath, snow-covered slope and sun flare behind
    Chairs parked at the Thredbo lift station — 13 July 2025, 11:45
    The curving steel track of the Thredbo Alpine Coaster above its loading station, snow on the slopes and gondola cabins crossing behind, under a bright sun
    The Thredbo Alpine Coaster, the day we got in — 13 July 2025
    A broad open snowfield rising to a treed ridge under a deep blue sky, with small distant figures scattered across it
    Deep blue, mid-July — 14 July, 11:30
    Figures silhouetted against bright snow on a toboggan slope, one kneeling beside a sled, churned snow in the foreground
    On the toboggan slope — 11:30
    Three seconds of it — the slope, mid-morning

    Get to Thredbo and Perisher early on a winter weekend. Once the resort car parks are full, traffic on the road in is stopped and turned back — it happened to us with our passes already bought. The traffic officer we spoke to in the queue told us that only people staying inside the resort were being let through; everyone else was turned back. On peak days Thredbo itself suggests arriving an hour before the lifts open.

The practical part

Getting up the hill

What we would want to know before booking anything — including the one we worked out too late, which cost us most of a week.

Jindabyne is the last town.

Fuel, food, chain hire and the park pass are all there, and there is nothing above it.

Allow forty minutes at the very least from Jindabyne up Kosciuszko Road to Perisher, and more on a weekend or in the school holidays — it is mostly single lane and the weather does what it likes.

Thredbo is the other direction, up the Alpine Way.

A few minutes out of town the Snowy Hydro surge tank stands beside Kosciuszko Road, a tall concrete tower with a lookout at its foot; it is the point where the drive stops being farmland and starts being the climb.

Chains are a legal requirement, and it is about the car rather than the conditions.

Every vehicle that is not a 4WD or AWD must carry properly fitting snow chains inside Kosciuszko National Park between June and the October long weekend — whether or not there is snow on the road that day.

Hire outlets are in Cooma, Berridale and Jindabyne, and the chains have to fit your tyres, so know the size before you turn up.

In 2018 we drove a rented AWD and were told at the counter we would not need to carry any.

That turned out to be exactly right, and it is the one piece of advice from that trip that has never needed revising.

The Skitube is a separate direction, not a short cut on the way.

It leaves from Bullocks Flat, which is about twenty minutes from Jindabyne along the Alpine Way — the opposite road from the one that climbs to Perisher.

From the terminal it is ten minutes to Perisher Valley and another seven up to Blue Cow.

Worth knowing before you plan a day around it: you are choosing between two roads out of town, not adding a train to one of them.

Blue Cow has no road.

Not a closed road in bad weather — no road at all through the winter.

The Skitube is the only way in and the only way back out, and the resort hauls its freight and rubbish up and down the same line.

So if anything you have booked happens at Blue Cow, the train is not one option among several; it is the plan.

This is the one we got wrong, and it cost us most of a week.

In 2018 we stayed at Smiggin Holes, up the mountain, and our lessons were at Blue Cow — so every morning we drove down off the mountain, out along the Alpine Way to Bullocks Flat, and took the train back up.

An hour or more each way, five days running.

What we did not know until near the end of the week is that Perisher Valley was a short drive from the hotel the whole time, and that it is itself a stop on the Skitube line, seven minutes short of Blue Cow.

We had picked the longest way round and repeated it daily, and nobody was going to tell us — it was our own gap.

The reason we were at Blue Cow at all was a discount.

We had bought the lessons as a package from Costco rather than through the hotel, on the assumption that it would be cheaper.

It was not — booking directly would have cost less, and the hotel was beside the snow.

But the part that actually hurt was not the money: the ticket chose the mountain, and the mountain chose the commute.

So check where your lesson actually is before you buy it.

Beginner lessons do not run at the same part of the mountain all season — Perisher moves them between Smiggin Holes, Blue Cow and Perisher Valley as the season goes on, and publishes which is which.

A lesson at Blue Cow commits you to the train in both directions that day.

A lesson at Smiggin Holes or Perisher Valley does not.

Work out where you will be sleeping and where the lesson runs from, and only then look at what it costs.

A cheaper ticket that adds two hours of driving to every day of a five-day holiday is not cheaper.

Sort out dinner before you plan the last run.

Coming off the snow at dusk and driving down feels like the natural end to the day, and by the time you are back in Jindabyne a good part of the town’s kitchens are already closing for the afternoon.

We lost several evenings that way before we started thinking about the meal first and the last hour on the hill second.

Checked September 2026. The chain rule, the park entry fee and where the beginner lessons run are all published by the park and the resort and all of them move — confirm them against the current season before you drive.

Getting there

How far it is, and how to get there without a car

One map, and one question: how far south, north or inland is this actually? Then, if you are not driving, what runs — and what does not.

JindabyneJindabyne coach stopBullocks Flat — SkitubeCoomaCanberra stationCanberra AirportSydney 200 km
500 km by road · about 5 hr 30 driving — the line is straight-line distance, not the route

Train and coach, all year

NSW TrainLink train Sydney Central to Canberra, then coach 775 through Cooma to Jindabyne. Listed as daily, year round. Eight to nine hours.

Winter only

Greyhound runs a Snow Express straight from Sydney Central to Jindabyne and on to the Perisher Skitube terminal, about six and a half hours. It is a winter service and the 2026 dates were not published when we checked.

The last bit, in winter

The Snowy Mountains Bus Service runs Jindabyne to Thredbo calling at Bullocks Flat Skitube terminal, about fifteen services a day, 6 June to 4 October 2026.

$20 one way, $31 return, and the return fare includes park entry.

From Bullocks Flat the Skitube runs underground to Perisher Valley in ten minutes, then a free resort shuttle goes on to Smiggin Holes.

The last leg. In winter this is one of the few Australian alpine trips you can genuinely do without a car.

The Jindabyne coach stop is 300 to 500 metres from the holiday park gate, both on Kosciuszko Road, and Skitube plus the free resort shuttle will put you at Smiggin Holes.

Arriving by Skitube also saves the $29 a day winter park entry.

In summer you need a car.

Skitube does not run outside the season, the resort shuttle stops, and the Snowy Mountains Bus Service stops.

The road to Perisher is open but nothing scheduled runs on it.

Note too that Cooma’s Snowy Mountains Airport has no scheduled flights — the nearest airport is Canberra.

Checked September 2026 Check before you book.

Every service above was checked against the operator’s own timetable rather than a travel site, but timetables change and some operators publish no frequency at all — where that is so, we have said so instead of guessing.

Confirm on transportnsw.info or with the operator before you rely on a connection.

If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.

Worth the drive

What there is to do

Everything in town is free — the lake, the shared path, the visitor centre. Everything in the mountains sits inside Kosciuszko National Park, which charges a vehicle fee for every day you drive in: $29 in the snow season, $17 the rest of the year, separate from any lift ticket. Yarrangobilly is the exception — it has its own $4 gate.

  • Lake Jindabyne foreshore and the shared pathStraight out of the park. The lake is a dammed storage, so the width of the exposed foreshore changes through the year with Snowy Hydro operations.Free
  • Snowy Region Visitor CentreIn town, 8:30–5 daily. Where you buy the park pass — and where you can borrow a personal locator beacon free of charge before any alpine walk. Worth doing.Free to enter
  • Jindabyne Surge Tank lookoutThe tall concrete tower standing beside Kosciuszko Road as the climb out of Jindabyne begins — part of the Snowy Scheme, with a lookout pulled in off the road alongside it. Nothing to book and nothing to pay; it is a two-minute stop and the point where the drive stops being farmland and starts being the mountains.Free
  • Waterfall walking track, Sawpit CreekGrade 3. One of the lower, more sheltered walks, and a better shoulder-season option than the alpine tracks.Park vehicle fee applies
  • Wildbrumby Distillery sculpture walkOn the Alpine Way. The grounds and sculptures appear to be free to wander; the cafe serves meals Thursday to Monday only, so check before planning lunch there.Grounds free
  • Thredbo villageA ski resort in winter and a walking and mountain-biking base in summer. Quite different things operate in each season — check what is running before you drive up and pay the park fee.Park vehicle fee applies
  • Thredbo Alpine CoasterRuns year round, unlike the scenic chairlift. Minimum age eight.Ticketed
  • Mount Kosciuszko summit walkFrom Thredbo by chairlift, or from Charlotte Pass. National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) states the Charlotte Pass route is snowbound June to October with no marked snow poles — and in winter you cannot drive to that trailhead at all. Treat it as late spring to autumn.Park vehicle fee applies
  • PerisherReached by road, or by the Skitube from Bullocks Flat — which starts outside the park entry station, so it avoids both the daily vehicle fee and fitting chains.Park fee and lift tickets
  • Yarrangobilly Caves thermal poolA spring-fed pool that sits at 27 °C all year — you can swim in it in the middle of winter. Reached by a short but steep walk down from the car park. On the Snowy Mountains Highway well north of Jindabyne, so a full day out rather than an afternoon. The caves alongside are a separate ticket from the visitor centre.$4 per vehicle per day
  • Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre, CoomaAn hour north, and the best wet-weather option in the region. Free parking for caravans and trailers. Weekend hours are only 9–2, so a Sunday afternoon will not work.Free

Checked September 2026 Check before you go.

Fees, opening hours and seasonal closures change, and we have not been to all of these.

Distances are approximate — put the name in your maps app rather than trusting our figure.

If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.

Local, for us

Groceries, mandirs and where to eat

Jindabyne has one Indian restaurant and no Indian grocer.

Cooma, an hour north, adds a second restaurant.

For atta, dal, spices and frozen paratha you need Canberra — buy on the way down.

There is no mandir and no gurudwara anywhere in the Snowy Mountains.

Indian grocery

  • Nothing in Jindabyne or CoomaThe nearest dedicated Indian grocers are in Canberra, about two and a quarter hours north. The Phillip and Belconnen shops sit close to the Monaro Highway, so they are an easy stop on the drive down.

Mandirs and gurudwaras

  • Sri Vishnu Shiva Mandir82 Mawson Drive, Mawson ACT. About 2 hr 10 from the park. Mawson is the first part of Canberra you reach coming up the Monaro, so it is the closest and the easiest to stop at.
  • BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir236 Robin Boyd Crescent, Taylor ACT. Opened March 2024, on the far north side of Canberra — roughly twenty minutes further than Mawson.
  • Gurdwara Sahib Canberra15 Hickey Court, Weston ACT. The nearest gurudwara — about 2 hr 15. Ring ahead for diwan times; we have not been able to confirm them.

Pure vegetarian — any cuisine

  • Nothing in the Snowy MountainsNot Indian, not vegan, not Buddhist, not a juice bar. We checked properly rather than assuming: every venue listed in Jindabyne and Cooma serves meat alongside its vegetarian dishes. Two places that would have qualified — Beatnik and Rawsome Earth, both in Cooma — have closed.
  • Sweet Bones Bakery CafeShop 3, 3 Scullin Place, Scullin ACT. Fully vegan bakery and cafe, and the nearest place in any direction that serves no meat at all — about two and a quarter hours north. Note it moved from Braddon, so most listings still show the old address.
  • In practiceYou will be ordering the vegetarian dish at a mixed kitchen locally. If a fully meat-free meal matters, plan it into the Canberra leg of the drive.

Indian restaurants — vegetarian and non-vegetarian

  • 159 Indian CuisineUnit 2, 33 Kosciuszko Road, in the Old Town Centre — a few hundred metres from the park, walkable, and the only Indian restaurant in Jindabyne.It reopened under this name on Christmas Day 2025 with a bigger dining room and ground-floor access.Before that it was Mr Chef, and before that Raj Tandoori, at the same address.Older signage and listings will not match, and some still carry a different shop number. (02) 6456 1346.
  • Cooma Indian Restaurant171 Sharp Street, Cooma — about an hour north. North and South Indian, buffet and takeaway. Sources disagree on whether it opens Mondays, so ring first. (02) 6452 2458.

Checked September 2026 Please check before you drive.

These were verified online, not by us in person, and small businesses close, move and change names without updating their listings.

Distances and times are rough — put the address in your maps app rather than trusting our figure.

If something here is wrong or has closed, tell us and we will fix it.

Where next

Other places in the record

Distances are straight-line from this park to that one, which is enough to tell you whether two trips could be one.

40 kmRainbow Pines, Old AdaminabySnowy Mountains, NSWthe Lake Eucumbene side, and why we tried it130 kmWoodbine Park Eco CabinsSapphire Coast, NSWa couple of hours down the road130 kmNRMA Merimbula BeachSapphire Coast, NSWa couple of hours down the road130 kmBIG4 Merimbula LakeSapphire Coast, NSWa couple of hours down the road

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