You know you’re in for something special from the moment you pull up at the entrance to this Big4 resort caravan park at Renmark on the Murray River in South Australia. The palm trees and modern dark grey corrugated iron buildings, give you the feeling you’re entering a tropical resort and then you spy glimpses of a resort style pool and the kids waterpark play area. To top it off, you know it’s a big park when you have to follow a staff member in a golf cart to be directed to your site.

The park has one kilometre of river frontage which is why it’s so popular with water skiers, boaties and fishers but it’s the facilities spread throughout the park that no doubt have families returning here regularly. There are close to 300 powered sites and around 30 unpowered sites, plus ensuite caravan sites and cabins looking more like holiday houses, to choose from.

Facilities in the park include the resort pool, water play park, games room, TV room, basketball and tennis courts, toddler playgrounds, fitness room, outdoor deckchair cinema and pump track. This list still doesn’t have everything available at this park, but I’m sure you get the idea. The guest information sheet we received when checking in was a short story in itself. We stayed at this park for only one night in between free camps and as you can guess, luxuries like those offered by this park don’t come cheaply.

We had a fantastic waterfront site with sweeping views of the Murray River and saw it from a golden sunset afternoon to a misty freezing morning the next day.

The cost for our stay after using a Big 4 loyalty card was around $48 which sounds ok considering all the facilities provided but when you consider it was winter low season and there were barely any people in the park after Covid restrictions had been lifted, I would hate to be paying for a week’s stay at peak times. Having said that, we loved our stay there and if you intended making the park your destination and using all the facilities I’m sure it would be a terrific destination in itself.

Our position on the river front meant we had the best seats in the house to watch pelicans on the river, boats out and about and even a paddle boat in the mist. One sight we didn’t expect, was a mob of kangaroos in the morning mist, taking advantage of the fresh green grass in the park. They stayed around long enough for a few quick photos before bounding back into the bush at the edge of the caravan park.

From the park it’s an easy stroll along the riverfront into the town of Renmark and there are other walking and cycling trails you can take in other directions too. This was a luxury park to stay in and definitely one worth revisiting.

Cheers

Glenys