What can Unshackled say about Jindabyne?
Get yourself here — you will not be disappointed.
We can only speak for Jindabyne in summer, after the Christmas and long-weekend rush, but it absolutely delivered. We’re not usually caravan-park inclined; however, the NRMA park right in the centre of town and on the edge of the lake was spot on. Even better, you can drive straight onto the lake’s beach — something we took full advantage of daily, setting up the car awning, packing lunch, and escaping the heat of the day.
Lake Jindabyne is clear, refreshingly cool, and framed by the magnificent Snowy Mountains. Pure magic.
The town itself has a relaxed alpine-resort feel, with plenty of shopping and services catering for winter snow sports, summer skiing, hiking, and mountain biking. There is a Woolworths with pricing comparable to larger towns, along with a great selection of cafés and pubs to refuel after a day out.
A day trip to Thredbo was a definite highlight. With temperatures sitting above 35°C for most of our stay, the cooler mountain air was a welcome relief. We took on the Mt Kosciuszko Summit Walk — a 13 km return, graded as a level 3 hike. Access to the trailhead is via a chairlift, offering fantastic views over the downhill mountain-bike trails and, on the return, across Thredbo Village.
The walk is predominantly uphill but follows a secure metal-grated walkway until the final kilometre or so, where it transitions to gravel and cobblestone. The recommended time is 4–6 hours. Unshackled, not quite as fit as we,had hoped, completed the ascent in 3 hours 40 minutes — at a steady pace, with plenty of stops to soak in the scenery and even a surprise snowball fight in a small patch of lingering snow. Late January and still snow pockets tucked into the crevices around us — unexpected and delightful.
Rugged rocky peaks, sweeping views, blankets of wildflowers, and trickling alpine streams made this a truly breathtaking walk and one well worth doing. Costs for the day were $17 for a National Parks day pass and $130 for our lift pass, which gave access to all lifts and the gondola.
After the hike, we wandered through Thredbo Village and paused at the Thredbo Landslide Memorial — a moving reminder of the village’s history. The village buzzes at this time of year with mountain-bike enthusiasts, and while we would have loved to tackle the MTB trail back down to Jindabyne, time and weather weren’t on our side. The region is packed with MTB trails and dedicated parks, making it a dream destination for riders.
From Jindabyne, we continued on to Cooma to visit the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre. Having followed the Snowy Hydro Scheme from Tumut through to Jindabyne, this felt like the perfect way to round out the experience. The centre offers an immersive theatre presentation that spans the project’s history through to the present day. The sheer scale of the original Snowy Hydro construction between 1949 and 1974 is mind-blowing, and learning about the harsh conditions and methods used back then really highlights the contrast with the incredible complexity and innovation behind Snowy 2.0 today.
Jindabyne and the surrounding region — well and truly unshackled.
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