If you want to enjoy Orange’s fantastic restaurants, wineries and hotels, but have accessibility needs, fear not – the town’s best venues have you covered.
Destination NSW
Sep 2023 -
2
min readWhere to stay
Orange has some great places to stay, and many have good accessibility. Quest Orange, in the heart of town, for example, has one-, two- and three-bed accessible serviced apartments, with features including wide hallways and wheelchair-friendly laundry facilities.
Also in town, the luxurious de Russie Boutique Hotel offers an accessible suite with elevator access, as well as a kitchenette and ensuite bathroom configured for wheelchair access. It’s a similar story at Byng Sreet Boutique Hotel, where rooms are on the ground floor, and an accessible suite is specially equipped for those with limited mobility.
If you want to stay among the vines, options include the Turners Vineyard Motel, just a few minutes from town but with a backdrop of rolling hills. It has two ground-floor studios, accessible rooms with wheelchair-friendly access and bathrooms.
Where to eat
Orange’s remarkable dining scene makes fabulous use of the amazing produce that grows in the rich local soils – and lots of venues are accessible. Printhie Dining, for example, may be on the slopes of Mount Canobolas, 1,000m above sea level, but the restaurant is on one level, which is great for accessibility, and there’s parking, too.
Meanwhile, in town, options include Charred Kitchen & Bar, which has a wheelchair ramp and accessible bathroom so everyone can enjoy the remarkable things that emerge from ’Lucifer’, its wood and charcoal oven.
At street level, famous Racine Bakery is hard to pass. You’ll want to linger over homemade sausage rolls, quiche Lorraine, beef Burgundy pie and lemon meringue tart. There’s also plenty of space for those with limited mobility at Byng Street Local Store, where you can enjoy excellent coffee and a great selection of breakfast and lunch favourites.
Where to drink
Borrodell – home to a vineyard, fruit orchards and a trufferie – also occupies a steep site on the slopes of Mount Canobolas, and offers dramatic views over this stunning countryside. But both its SkyBar – where tastings take place – and its Sister’s Rock Restaurant are wheelchair friendly, with accessible bathrooms.
Also on the slopes of Mount Canobolas, Heifer Station offers wine tasting in a century-old shearing shed. It provides priority parking, accessible and ambulant toilets, wheelchair access between buildings and to some of the gardens, and two mobility ramps that can be moved as needed.
Ross Hill Wines also offers wheelchair access to its cellar door. And, if you phone ahead, the staff will make sure you get good seating, with plenty of room to settle in, relax and enjoy a wine tasting flight.