The best place to stay in Yamba, NSW
A smart new stay adds a dash of Mediterranean glamour to the beach town of Yamba on the NSW North Coast.
Sheree Commerford is in the details. At her newly launched beachside retreat in Yamba, New South Wales, the tastemaker has considered every flourish, from the hand-painted tiles on the whitewashed exterior to the handmade oak dining tables within. Staying at Il Delfino earlier this year, I resorted to using Google Lens, the image recognition app, to ascertain the provenance of seagrass chairs, brass lamps, geometric tiles and playful ceramics. If Commerford sold seashells by the seashore – which, in a sense, she is doing with these pearlescent pads – I would probably aspire to buy them, too.
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Set on a bluff between Main Beach and Convent Beach, Il Delfino consists of five self-contained units. They are snug but snazzy spaces – three of them with two bedrooms and two with one – offering unfettered ocean views. Commerford is better known as a fashion designer, visual merchandiser and digital personage than a chatelaine, and all her aesthetic know-how converges here. To update a ramshackle 1940s-era cottage, she engaged a bevy of local builders, metalworkers, artisans and artists – Heidi Middleton, for one, painted cubist murals in each apartment. Commerford preserved heritage elements, including window frames, timber floorboards and Art Deco archways.
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Mad for the Mediterranean, especially its beguiling seaside guesthouses, she named each suite for an Italian playground. After an easy self check-in, a friend and I settled into Portofino, which has a rust-and-red palette, while another friend was ensconced in the green-accented Scopello next door. Below us was a communal area with white sun loungers and pomodoro-red umbrellas. Bottle-green waves caressed the rocks beyond. We ventured to local beaches, explored hiking trails and hit up exceptional restaurants in town like El Ocaso. The high point was drifting back to Portofino, where we gathered to eat local prawns, swill rosé and loll around on the striped banquette of the terrace.
The yassification of Yamba has been building steadily, and Il Delfino definitely elevates the breezy surf town. But while the apartments are arrayed with Smeg coffee machines, Sonos speakers and vintage bibelots, they’re not so precious that you feel you can’t scatter sand in them after a beach swim. The block has a shared laundry if you fancy hanging out your washing like an Italian nonna. The units can be rented individually or collectively for a social gathering. Il Delfino is Italian for dolphin and you might glimpse, from your balcony, a pod of them whirling by. But the most recurring guests I spied were a pair of water dragons who couldn’t resist admiring the classy new digs. ildelfino.com.au