Earlier in November, I headed down to Margaret River with hubby and 16 month old son. We were renting a house with 4 other couples and their children. The plan was to chill and enjoy the weather which was set to be rather warm on Saturday, the first hot day this season.

We stayed at Burton Farm, which is a 6 bedroom house located on the same property as Cheeky Monkey Brewery and Killerby wines. Perfect because when you have baby and time is not on your side, you don’t want to spend that little time travelling in a car to breweries or wineries. Well you might want to, but you just can’t…well you could but with the effort, time, potentially unhappy child, well it all adds to the mix and leaves you feeling exhausted all before you’ve had a taste of wine or beer!

During the Saturday morning the plan was for some of us to go surfing but having searched a few beaches, we decided surf wasn’t going to happen that day. So option b was to head to the beach with the kiddies and chill and that’s when I saw some great waves! But they were huge, too big for me!

Going home for lunch was followed by a few ideas among the group of meandering down to the brewery. I was totally up for that, especially as I was hoping the walk in the push chair would send my little one to sleep. And soon enough, post lunch and milk, a 7 minute walk  over stones and a rocky path sent the little one into a world of slumber for about 2 hours.

So I used that time wisely! I had a beer paddle to try; I love trying new and different beers. I’m still developing my beer palate! What’s so great is that it comes with notes and the tasting sample is just enough to enjoy and refresh the palate.

I headed over next door to try the wines on tasting at Killerby Wines. It’s a different part of the brewery with its own entrance to the vines out the back but all under one roof. Quite a cool set up really; a winery and a brewery with reasonably priced food and of course all the necessary facilities I now appreciate.

1. Single cement floor: no going up stairs with pram here
2. Spacious: you can take your pram to your table or to the bar, without getting in anyone’s way
3. Baby changing facilities: a game changer! You don’t have to kneel on the floor and put your back out and put your child on the not-so-clean floor while you change them
4. High chairs: and plenty of them! To eat alongside your baby in relative peace makes the whole going out process so much easier!
5. Stationery/sticker books: Admittedly my son is too young for this but soon he won’t be and it’ll keep him entertained while the parents eat their lunch. No need to wolf down food with the risk of indigestion here!
6. Kiddie meals: why share your meal with your child when the kiddie meal is a reasonable price and portion size? Great idea!
7. Playgrounds: remember the monkey bars and how fun they were when you were a light young kid? Well there were two types here plus four slides. It catered from the youngest up to 10 year old. With mine being so young, I of course watched him in the playground and helped him on the slides but if you had a group of you with more mobile children you could take it in turns watching the kids tire themselves out while the others enjoyed sampling the local food and beverages (all in moderation of course)!

I love the fact that there are quite a few breweries popping up with kid friendly facilities in Margaret River. When I say kid friendly, I mean playgrounds with swings and slides and monkey bars, baby changing facilities and all that I mentioned above.

Having children means you have to plan a lot more on any trips out. So when you want to go out and enjoy your afternoon, you want to know that you won’t be faced with tight spaces in the restaurant, bored children, expensive menus and tiny toilets too small for a parent plus baby. Ease of mind means you can actually try and relax and enjoy your time out of the house. The kid friendly places have got a good thing going on….those parents will come back and keep spending their time and money there.

So to all the breweries and pubs and restaurants out there that make it easy for parents to come out and enjoy lunch on your premises, without hassle, thank you and thank you. And we will keep coming back (with well-behaved children) and when we do get round to affording a babysitter, we’ll be back for dinner!