Okay, hear me out. What if you didn’t go anywhere these holidays?

Not properly anywhere, anyway. No 4am alarm, no airport car park maths, no one crying in a departure lounge because the iPad’s flat. You’d pick up a campervan in Sydney, drive it straight home to the Beaches, load it in your own driveway — kids chucking in pillows and boogie boards and that one stuffed toy that apparently can’t be left behind — and by dinner time you’d be parked at Narrabeen. Kids in the water. Grown-ups sitting outside a van that isn’t home but feels a bit like it.

Sounds like cheating. It kind of is. But it works, and here’s why: the holiday feeling was never really about the distance, was it? It’s sleeping somewhere that isn’t your bed. Cooking brekkie outside. Waking up somewhere green. You can get all of that without leaving the Northern Beaches, because — and we forget this when we live here — people fly from the other side of the world to see the peninsula we do the school run on.

So what’s the actual plan?

Base yourself at North Narrabeen and just… stay there. That’s the plan. The lagoon’s behind you, the beach is across the road, and everything else — Manly, Palm Beach, Ku-ring-gai — is a day trip. You’ll spend more time in the water than in the van, which is exactly how it should be.

Your base: Sydney Lakeside Holiday Park, North Narrabeen

If you haven’t been inside Sydney Lakeside Holiday Park, it’s the one tucked between Narrabeen Lagoon and North Narrabeen Beach, and it’s a bit of a local cheat code. The Council calls it one of the only beachfront caravan and camping spots in Sydney, and once you’re in there you get why people book it a year out. Powered sites, ensuite sites if you’re not doing shared amenities with a toddler (fair enough), camp kitchens, barbecues, a splash zone and playgrounds — and then the good stuff, which is free: lagoon one way, surf beach and the North Narrabeen rockpool the other.

That lagoon/beach combo matters more than you’d think. Little kids who’d get dumped at the surf beach can paddle in the lagoon for hours. Older ones disappear to the patrolled beach. Everyone meets back at the van for lunch. It’s an easy setup, and easy is underrated when you’re holidaying with children.

Picking up the van

Get the van the day before you check in if you can swing it. Loading at home is a luxury you don’t get on a fly-away trip — bikes go in, the good esky, everyone’s own pillow, board games for a rainy night. For four or five of you, you want a van with two double beds and a kitchen you’ll actually use, because you will. Most mornings, in fact.

Packing’s easy because you already know this place. Rashies, hats, sunscreen, snorkels, a picnic rug. One warm layer each for sitting outside at night — the lagoon gets a breeze — and that’s about it. And if you forget something? You’re twenty minutes from home. Try doing that from interstate.

And the days in between

Not every day has to be an Event. Some days it’s the North Narrabeen rockpool and that’s it. Some days it’s the playground at Collaroy and a bakery run. Maybe you just go back to whichever beach your family argues is “ours” and do nothing there for four hours. That’s allowed. You’re on holidays.

What it costs, roughly

No flights. No airport parking. Barely any fuel. Your real money is the van and a powered site at peak season, and both of those are cheaper the earlier you book them — spotting a pattern here?

After that it’s mostly free days. The lagoon trail: free. Snorkelling at Shelly with your own gear: free. Your spendy outing of the week is $12 into the national park and a family ferry fare to The Basin.

Who’s it best for?

Little ones, under five: this trip is kind to you. Lagoon paddling instead of surf, short bits of flat trail instead of big hikes, and when someone’s done at 4pm, they’re done — dinner, bed, no transfer bus. Nothing on this itinerary involves being stuck somewhere with a tired toddler. Nothing.

Primary schoolers get the full version and they’ll know it. Snorkelling with a blue groper. Riding the lagoon in sections like it’s a stage race. A lighthouse climb. Arriving somewhere by ferry with no road in or out — to a seven-year-old that is a genuine expedition, and they’re not wrong.

Before you book — the sensible bits

Swim between the flags at the surf beaches; on rough days, stick to the lagoon, the ocean pools and Shelly. If you’re heading into Ku-ring-gai in summer, check the park alerts and fire danger before you go, and follow whatever fire ban rules are in place at the holiday park.

Parking near the Palm Beach ferry wharf is paid and timed, so get there early on Basin day or you’ll be doing laps. And book the van and the site well ahead for the December–January weeks. Every family in Sydney has exactly the same holidays you do.

Saving the big trip for later?

None of this stops you doing a big trip another time, by the way. Do the local loop this summer, and if the kids are still pestering you by winter, that’s when a booking with Travellers Autobarn makes sense, up in Cairns, where July’s the dry season and it’s reef instead of lagoon.

Or if New Zealand’s the one on the fridge list, the Travellers Autobarn depot in Auckland is where a North Island run of hot pools and glowworms starts. Both great trips. Both can wait. This summer, holiday in the place everyone else wishes they lived.