In 2010, I made a dream come true: I moved to Byron Bay, New South Wales – back to my home country of Australia. After a decade living in New York City, it was blissful. The beautiful northern beach town perches on the easternmost tip of Australia. Its sunsets, surf, sand, sunrises and people-watching are world-class. Whenever the existential rush of Manhattan used to overwhelm me, I plotted my escape there. I took American friends to show them the ultimate in Australian beauty and lifestyle. But when I moved there, I discovered that Byron Bay is not the place to holiday in Australia.
When I was a kid, rainy days and Byron went together. With its hippies and peeling shopfronts draped in windchimes, the town became a haven away from the camping and less-sheltered beaches at Broken Head, where my family and I set up tents and stoves most Christmases after driving for a whole day north from suburban our home in suburban Canberra. Byron and Broken are a seven-minute drive apart on a windy, rainforest-lined coast road. Byron, then was a dishevelled main street with a Mexican takeaway, a few stellar restaurants, beautiful girls wearing liberatingly oversized dresses and men with dreadlocks. Sometimes, Byron Bay was a room, usually at the Wollongbar Motel (+61 2 6685 8200, wollongbar.com, singles from £90, doubles £97).
The Wollongbar is still unpretentious and convenient and Byron can still feel dreamy, but these days it's also jampacked. When I moved here I paid Manhattan prices to live five minutes out of the centre and got stuck in traffic driving in to town to buy groceries that were more expensive than in New York.
So, I started exploring my options, and finding neighbouring townships such as Newrybar, Coopers Shoot and Bangalow. I was awakened to the seaside havens and hinterland destinations that the bubble of Byron had blindsided me from.
When people now ask me where they should stay on their Byron holiday, I suggest the Bangalow Hotel (+ 61 2 6687 1314, bangalowhotel.com.au, singles from £47, doubles £60), the Eltham Hotel (+61 2 6629 1217, elthampub.com.au, rooms from £64), and The Channon Butterfactory Tavern (+61 2 6688 6522, thechannon.com.au, singles from £47, doubles £64, family £80). In other words, not Byron and not even on the beach.
These are local hangouts, classic pubs in tiny towns amid hilly farmland that morphs into rainforest and waterfall territory. There's so much fantasy in this landscape. Here, solid hippies, wealthy retirees and chilled out dudes coexist.
I tell them to visit Nimbin, of course, – the infamous commune-esque town that tourists still travel to on rainbow-coloured buses seeking Amsterdam-style delights. Just beyond Nimbin at Lillian Rock, the Blue Knob Markets every Saturday are real-deal farmers' markets with homemade bread, chocolate, pasta and vegetables. Before Nimbin, the Channon touts itself as the craft capital – it's an elegant tiny township with a busy market every second Saturday. It is also the turning point into Nightcap national park, which is full of magical walking tracks, waterfalls and grand escarpments, and so many native birds and protected creatures such as the endangered Fleay's barred frog. There's the 4½-mile rainforest walk looping around Minyon Falls, which tumbles 97m down cliffs of solidified lava. The walk is rocky and scrambled in parts but breathtaking, especially the icy swim at the foot of the falls. There's also a challenging overnight walk from Mount Nardi, inviting stargazing from bush camps along the way.
The pinnacle of this post-volcanic playground is Mount Warning, 1,156m of volcanic remnants that reigns solid and stoic over the entire Northern Rivers region. If you do no other walks, tackle the 5½-mile round-trip climb through eucalypts and rainforest to the mountain's peak. Aim for a morning hike: the peak gives 360-degree views across lava-formed land and apparently gets the state's first sunrays. It's not an easy walk, especially the final ascent, though there are chains for assistance.
Back at base, stop at Mavis's Kitchen (64 Mt Warning Road, Uki, +61 2 6679 5664, maviseskitchen.com.au) for slow-cooked, organic fare – Bangalow pork with apple sauce and crackling, snapper-and-vegetable pie or just a Devonshire tea. Mavis's also has rustic cabins and a full country house (from £150 per night per couple).
I'm not saying skip Byron Bay – the snorkelling and eating there will die hard. When I visit, I always have a morning swim and grab a cane sugar-sweetened coffee at Cane Bar (Cavanbah Arcade shop 4, 4 Jonson Street, canebar.com.au) and take yoga classes at Byron yoga centre.
And if staying in the hinterland isn't the dream, base yourself in Lennox Head, Byron's cooler cousin.
I'd stay at the Lennox Head B&B with its mosaic staircases and plunge pool (+61 2 6687 4493, no website, units from £98). (There's also a perfectly fine caravan park on the edge of the tea tree Lake Ainsworth) Lennox is smaller than Byron with one main street and a fraction of the frills. It is an old-school surfie town, and though house prices have risen in past decades Lennox is still home to working-class families as well as the Sydneysiders who've escaped here to set up hair salons and cafes and live the simple lifestyle that Byron now has a hard time delivering.
Early morning beach walks are great in Lennox Head, especially for dog lovers. There's also a captivating dawn surf culture. Stop at Blackboard Cafe (50 Pacific Parade, blackboard.net.au) for coffee and the blueberry and coconut bread, spread with lime and honey butter. Dine later at Quattro (90-92 Ballina Street, +61 2 6687 6950, quattro-restaurant.com) on the main square. It's a busy, delicious Italian restaurant, the al mare pasta is zesty with thyme-cream sauce and prawns.
From Lennox, visit Brunswick Heads, which is the epitome of a charming seaside town. It's a 25-minute drive north up the highway. Spend a day swimming in Brunswick's protected ocean lagoon or surf in front of the 50s brick surf club. It has plenty of restaurants and twilight markets.
Just across the highway is Mullumbimby, another two-street town with vintage stores and grainy, organic nibbles – the pizza at Milk and Honey might be the area's best. From Mullumbimby, drive inland to Upper Wilsons Creek for a day of fruit platters, body wraps and speciality massages at Botanica Day Spa (+61 2 6684 0120, brdayspa.com.au).
All this can be done from Lennox, as can a 20-mile walk along the coast ending (or beginning) in Ballina, which winds around rock cliffs and through corridors of nourished native plants. Along the walk is my favourite view in the world. My heart always flutters as I round the cliff towards Sharpe's Beach and I mount a grassy rise above a rocky drop: the view shoots out across the Pacific and all the way up and around the coastline that leads to Byron, the lush, somewhat messy green of the protected coast contrasting with the stark blue ocean on sunny days and romantically misty grey any other time.
Such soulfulness isn't absent in Byron but you'll fight to find a spot to chill. Once I'd lived there, I realised the casual town of my dreams is now not that unlike a small Manhattan, a self-sufficient bubble, energetic, expensive, where one can avoid the world at large. That's nice for a morning surf or a night out, but I'm relieved to report that there's a whole world just a drive away.
• Emma Pearse's first book, Sophie: Dog Overboard, is based in Mackay, Queensland. It is available from guardianbookshop.co.uk for £7.19 including post and packaging
