Forrest Holiday Park

Forrest Holiday Park sits on Station Street in the little Otways township of Forrest, a family park that leans into the mountain bike country all around it. The topics guests talk about spell out the character: glamping tents, powered sites, pet friendly cabins, hot showers, a camp kitchen, and cows mooing in neighbouring paddocks. Forrest is the trailhead town for the Otway bush and the mountain bike network, so the park fills with riders, families and campers using it as a base rather than a stopover.

Dogs at the park

Per the park's own frequently asked questions page, dogs are welcome when they are recorded on the booking before you arrive, with a $50 fee per stay in the dog friendly cabins. Dogs can stay on campsites and in the designated dog cabins, fenced yards included, which is the detail that matters if you want to sit outside with the gate shut.

The limits are equally clear: no dogs in non designated cabins or the glamping tents, and never in the amenity blocks or the camp kitchen. Book the right accommodation type up front and the dog rules sort themselves out.

Guests who have stayed in the pet cabins call out the fenced yards as the feature that makes the stay work, though the yards are sized for a settle rather than a sprint, so plan proper exercise off site. The bush setting brings wildlife through, koalas and wallabies included, which keeps the on-lead rule around the park a sensible one. Otway clay after rain is real: an old towel and a rinse jug in the boot save the cabin floor.

While you're out there

Forrest's single track and the Otway forest drives are the reason most guests are here, and the coast is an easy drive over the range. The Lake Elizabeth circuit near town is an on-lead forest walk where dawn and dusk give you the best odds of spotting a platypus, with wallabies and echidnas in the understory as reason enough to keep the lead short.

Wild Dog Creek beach at Apollo Bay gives the dog a run on sand at the far end of the day, and the Barham River Walk is a softer option if you want a riverside leg stretch before the drive home. The Apollo Bay Foreshore Promenade rounds out a coast day.

If Forrest is booked out, more dog friendly stays in Victoria are listed across the Otways and beyond.