Tumby Bay Caravan Park

Tumby Bay Caravan Park sits on Tumby Terrace, a short walk from the foreshore and jetty of this Eyre Peninsula town, and its pet policy is unusually clear for a caravan park: dogs are welcome on camping and caravan sites, kept on a lead at all times, with owners cleaning up after them. Cabins are generally pet free, with one exception, Cabin 5, which is pet friendly and has to be booked through the park office rather than online.

That single pet friendly cabin matters, because Eyre Peninsula trips tend to be driving-heavy, and a cabin night with the dog on board, air conditioning running and the sand hosed off outside is worth planning around. Call the office directly and ask for Cabin 5 by name; if it is taken, the powered sites are the fallback and the park is compact enough that a lead-walk to the beach is easy either way.

Dogs at the park

The lead rule is park wide, which is normal for caravan parks where kids ride bikes and sites sit close together, so this is a stay for a dog that settles rather than one that needs to sprint. The compensation is outside the gate: Tumby Bay's beach and foreshore are the town's pride, and the water here is the calm, turquoise variety that makes swimming with your dog a genuine pleasure rather than a wave-fighting exercise.

Worth knowing

Tumby Bay is roughly half an hour north of Port Lincoln, so it works either as a base for the southern Eyre Peninsula or as a stop on the way up the coast. If you are building an itinerary, the Port Lincoln dog park makes a good leg-stretch stop, and the Port Lincoln Tourist Park covers the bigger-town end of the trip. The South Australian dog-friendly stays list pulls the rest of the state's options together.

Max: One pet friendly cabin in the whole park. Scarcity creates character. Book early, is my advice to my humans.