'This sleepy Aussie holiday spot feels just like Byron Bay, minus the crowds.'

Stretched on the back deck, engrossed in the final stages of a deeply intense game of Uno, only the sound of the dumping surf nearby interrupts the twilight heat.

Half-drunk cans of Pasito bead with condensation in the heat, while a pile of hot chips so thoroughly doused in chicken salt it looks radioactive sits atop grease-stained paper beside us.

It's 2025, but it could just as easily be the summer of 1996, when I was still a primary school kid with a sock tan wearing Billabong boardies (what happened to girls' boardies BTW?) over my swimmers.

In spite of every quaint coastal town in Australia claiming itself as 'the new Byron', capturing that laidback, surfer vibe that has seen tourists flocking to Australia's most iconic beach town for decades is getting harder and harder to do.

Yet just 25 minutes up the M1 from the now-boujie-fied hotspot, nestled between a meandering creek and the Pacific ocean, is the tiny little beach 'burb that time forgot.

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Dotted with '50s Australiana beach shacks in the shade of towering spotted gum and tangled bougainvillaea, New Brighton — tucked in between Brunswick Heads to the south and South Golden Beach to the north — is worth putting on your Airbnb watch list.

Image: supplied.

It delivers precisely the type of beach-house holiday you had as a child: sandy bums, fish and chips for dinner, and bare feet on bike pedals as you cruise the peaceful streets. 

A few weeks back, that's precisely what my husband and I did, after being gifted an Airbnb voucher for a milestone birthday (and the promise of free babysitting from my parents so we could make our escape sans children!). This is how we found ourselves languidly passing the time over card games well into the balmy evening.

A yellow-brick general store selling everything from wine and souvenirs to zinc and bait sits beside sail-fringed, fibro-clad neighbourhood cafe, The Salty Mangrove, which boasts a short menu punching well above its weight and a regular lineup of live music and cocktails in the evenings. 

The venue's iconic fish sandwich — described by Good Food as 'worth the eight-hour drive from Sydney' — is excellent value, and best enjoyed after being tossed around in the waves that crash just one block to the east.

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And while puttering around the shady streets collecting fallen frangipanis is a perfectly pleasurable way to spend an afternoon with young kids, you don't need to venture far to inject some extra excitement. 

Riverfront oasis Brunswick Heads is a fishing, boating and swimming hotspot that has retained the simple, barefoot feel of the quintessential summer holiday, albeit while being given the boujie Byron treatment when it comes to its boutiques and restaurants.

Image: supplied.

Nosh on elegant Japanese bites with a view of the river at Trouble San, or wander around the corner to what is possibly the best beer garden in Northern NSW, the Brunswick Hotel. With a summertime food mainstay by Darren Robertson and Andy Allen (the culinary brains behind Three Blue Ducks), it's worth popping in for some seriously elevated pub fare (think Australian bay lobster rolls and prawn toast with nam jim).

A little further afield, the spoils of the Northern Rivers hinterland also lay in wait. Sunday markets, sleepy villages and laidback distilleries all make a perfect pivot for a few hours out of the sun — but ultimately, all of this is optional. 

Because a pile of hot chips, the beach, and a quiet seaside village are really the only ingredients you need.

Feature image: Supplied.