Discovery Parks - Carnarvon

Discovery Parks Carnarvon is a big caravan park on Robinson Street at the southern edge of town, the standard stop for travellers working the Coral Coast highway between Perth and Exmouth. The park runs powered sites with concrete pads for vans and big rigs, chalets and cabins, a camp kitchen, a jumping pillow and clean amenities, and food trucks and a coffee van rotate through the grounds in season. Carnarvon is the supply town for the Gascoyne, with the banana and mango country along the river, the one mile jetty and the Blowholes south of town as the draw cards.

Dogs at Discovery Parks Carnarvon

Per the chain's dog friendly park terms, this is a designated dog friendly park with up to one dog per booking, or two with prior written consent, and a dog fee of $20 per dog per night. Dogs are only permitted in the designated pet friendly accommodation types, being sites and selected pet friendly cabins, and cabin scope varies by park, so check what is available before you book. Dogs stay on leash, mess is cleaned up immediately, and declared restricted breeds are excluded.

The park page also notes there is an off leash dog park on site, which is unusual for a caravan park and handy for giving a travelling dog a proper run.

Guests rate that yard as the standout for travelling dogs: fenced, stocked with poo bags and bins, and the first proper run many dogs have had since the last big town. The grounds suit morning and evening loops, and in the hotter months the air conditioned pet cabins are the move for older or heat sensitive dogs.

Worth knowing

The written consent for a second dog is a real requirement, not a formality, so email the park ahead of arrival if you travel with a pair. The restricted breed exclusion is chain wide policy and it is applied at the gate.

The pet friendly cabins are the scarcest stock on the Coral Coast in the winter rush, so book months out rather than rolling up hoping. And plan day trips around the unattended dog rule: the Blowholes and the national park country inland are no dog zones, and there is no pet sitting at the park, so someone stays back with the dog or the day trip shrinks.

Max: the off leash yard inside the park was the first proper run I'd had since Port Hedland.

While you're out there

The Coral Coast highway gives few dog friendly stops, so the stays listed for Geraldton further south, including Geraldton Caravan Park and Belair Gardens, are the practical next link on the chain. For the wider set, the Western Australia dog friendly stays page collects the state's options.