The Esplanade Motel

The Esplanade Motel sits at 568 The Esplanade on the Warners Bay waterfront, a renovated lakeside motel with modern rooms and views over Lake Macquarie. Dogs are taken in a limited number of designated pet-friendly rooms, so the entire booking hinges on ringing ahead and securing one of those rooms rather than booking standard stock online.

Dogs at the motel

Only a small number of rooms are set up for dogs, and they must be booked specifically in advance, ideally by phone on the motel's published number. Expect a dog occupancy fee of around $40 per stay plus a refundable bond of about $250, returned at checkout after a room inspection. Public booking details do not spell out size or breed limits, so confirm them directly, especially with a larger dog. Failing to pre-arrange a pet room risks check-in refusal, so treat the phone call as part of the booking rather than an optional extra.

Max: budget for the bond up front even though it comes back. And ask for a room closest to the foreshore path, because that walk is the reason you booked here.

The place

Rooms are modern and comfortable after the renovation, with lake views from many of them, a clean pool, an EV charger and a coffee van on site. It is a straightforward, well-kept base rather than a boutique stay, and the location is the strength: you step out onto The Esplanade, metres from the flat paved foreshore path that runs along the lake.

Close by with the dogs

Dogs stay on-lead along the Warners Bay foreshore path and reserves, and the strip's cafes seat dogs at outdoor tables, so you can walk, coffee and be back without moving the car; Lena's Cafe and Bar and Hippo Espresso are both in range. For off-lead time, the Speers Point Fenced Dog Park is a short drive north, and Croudace Bay Dog Park at Eleebana is another nearby option.

More options are on the New South Wales pet friendly stays guide and the Warners Bay destination page.