Alpine Lodge

Stayed here for 2 nights with our kids aged 8 & 10. There's not much else around in the area and the only places you can buy food/meals is basically the lodge restaurant or the shop across the road. They kindly squeezed us into the restaurant even tho we hadn't booked. We ended up going back the second night too. On our second day we came back from our walk (highly recommend the Mt Robert circuit) and found there was a powercut cue to a power pole being knocked over, no power in the entire town. They ran a generator to keep things going at a minimum level, and the helpfulness and attitude of the staff was amazing. They gave us boiling water from the main kitchen to make cup noodles for lunch, and were generally super helpful in a difficult situation. I was even more impressed that when the power came back on just a half hour before dinner service they were able to do their full menu right away. The rooms themselves are pretty old but functional enough, we stayed in one where there was a mezzanine level with 3 single beds, the climb up with the ladder was super awkward and the upper level was a bit stuffy, could do with a fan or skylight up there.

Two night base on our 1000 km cycle tour adventure. We arrived during a storm to a warm welcome. Well positioned, functional, friendly staff.

St Arnaud is such a small town and my expectations weren’t high. However, the restaurant was excellent with very good food, great choices, lovely wines, fantastic service.