Mittagong Holiday Park

Mittagong Holiday Park sits on the Old Hume Highway at the gateway to the Southern Highlands, a working caravan park with cabins for families and sites for travellers who want to break the Sydney-to-something journey. The park has a tidy, homey feel with clean cabins and clean amenities, and the rail line nearby brings some train noise that light sleepers should weigh.

It serves the weekend Highlands crowd as much as the highway stopover traffic.

Dogs at the park

Per the park's own pet policy, dogs are welcome on all powered caravan and camping sites plus selected pet-friendly cabins, by application at time of booking and subject to manager discretion. The conditions are detailed: vaccination certificates, council registration and flea-free status required; dogs never left unattended; leashed outside cabins; and out of common areas.

Apply when you book rather than arriving with a dog unannounced, and have the paperwork ready. The rules are strict by caravan park standards, but they are also explicit, which beats the vague version where nobody can tell you what is allowed until you are standing at the office window.

The booking shape is one dog per booking unless management approves more, and owners sign the pet policy agreement at check-in. The fee typically runs about $20 per accommodation per day, with service animals exempt.

Inside the pet cabins the boundaries stay firm: dogs sleep on their own bedding, keep out of the bedrooms and off all furniture, and park crockery never feeds a dog, with an extra cleaning fee waiting on the other side of any of it.

Two practical notes carry weight: overnight freight trains on the nearby rail corridor rattle noise-sensitive dogs, so ask for a site or cabin at the back. In the Highlands winter, bedding on the floor turns cold, so pack a blanket or raise the bed.

There is no fenced off-leash run inside the park, so the 2-metre lead holds outside your site. The Box Vale Mine Walk trail out of town is the local stretch, on-lead for the wildlife and the railway cuttings.

Worth knowing

The application-and-discretion model means a dog booking is not automatic, so lock it in early and confirm the category. The Southern Highlands position puts Bowral, Berrima and the wineries within a short drive, and Mittagong has the lake walks that make a weekend work.

Make a day of it

The Highlands are a strong dog weekend: market towns, garden walks and leash-friendly streets. Fitzroy Falls and the Reservoir Picnic Area work as day trips, and the wineries around Sutton Forest welcome dogs outdoors by individual house rules.

NSW dog friendly stays lists dog friendly stays across NSW for the rest of the loop, and Tide at Blueys Beach is the coastal counterpoint.