No time to read? Watch this video we took of our time at the Echuca Olde Penny Arcade…

The Olde Penny Arcade at Sharp’s Magic Movie House is located in Echuca, a busy little town which shares the Victorian/New South Wales border with its twin town on the NSW side, Moama.

Even though it had been many years since I had last visited Echuca, I had always remembered the Penny Arcade as a fascinating and unique attraction. In revisiting, it completely lived up to my expectations – this is such a fun place for the whole family!

At the Penny Arcade you’ll find vintage movies playing in the old-fashioned cinema area, and a huge collection of antique games to play with in the games area. All of the machines are beautifully preserved and in great working order, which is amazing considering their age!

What are the Penny Arcade machines like?

To operate each machine you must first purchase a container of genuine old Australian Pennies. Then off you go – it’s all you’ll need to play.

The Penny Arcade is full of curious oddities! Try your luck on the claw machine, built in the 20’s in Chicago, to see if you can win a bag of popcorn (works every time!). The mystic Fortune telling gypsy dispenses a fortune card. Then there is the strength tester, the electricity machine (I fell for that one!), the firehouse, the learn to be a pilot game, find out what your true personality is, and many more – this is old-time fun of a very special kind.

There’s something really wonderful about watching the kids enjoying playing with the old machines too. Simple ball games, spinning predictor machines, flicking-card stop motion machines – the children were having an absolute ball. No ipads or playstations here, yet they were so engaged with what they were doing.

In all my travels, I can’t remember coming across anything like the Penny Arcade. It really is like stepping back in time. If you are visiting Echuca, don’t miss this special gem of a family attraction!

Let’s go Mum were hosted guests of the Echuca Olde Penny Arcade, however all opinions remain firmly our own

How to get to Echuca / Moama, Victoria

Have you ever been to the Echuca Olde Penny Arcade? What did you think? Tell us in the comments here!

The post Family fun at the Echuca Olde Penny Arcade appeared first on Let's go Mum.

In September we went for a road trip around Tasmania and caught the Spirit of Tasmania ferry from Devonport across Bass Strait and back to the Australian mainland.

This video is a quick guide to what it is actually like to drive your car onboard the Spirit of Tasmania.

Driving onboard is actually very quick and easy, and once parked you simply stroll right in to the ship. There is even a special area for pets to travel! Grab your overnight bag and go and relax for the trip across Bass Strait, which takes around eight hours. On board this deluxe ship, it’s a really enjoyable journey.

Tip:  It may be wise to leave your car unlocked, so that your car alarm isn’t set off by the movement of the ship. Otherwise, you may find yourself coming back to a car with a flat battery when it’s time to disembark!

To see the stunning hotels and locations we stayed in during our Tasmania road trip, read our Top 5 Amazing Tasmania Hotels blog here

Watch our video of how to drive onto the Spirit of Tasmania

Play the video to below to watch us boarding the Spirit of Tasmania…

Watch it on YouTube here

Have you ever sailed on the Spirit of Tasmania? Did you take your family car? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Spirit of Tasmania ferry – video of what it is like to drive your car on board appeared first on Let's go Mum.

In September we went for a road trip around Tasmania – and got caught in a major cold-snap blizzard!

We had been staying in the beautiful port town of Strahan after touring the Gordon River, and were headed next for Hobart. We were driving along the Lyell Highway, climbing up out of Queenstown when it started to snow, and it continued as we made our way through the mountains of the World Heritage Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. This is a beautiful drive at any time, but it is also one of the slower major routes in Tasmania and requires careful driving. Our whole journey that day took an epic 8 hours (with breaks) for 300kms – usually this trip takes around 5 hours.

This trip was the girl’s first experience of real snow, and they had an absolute ball, asking me to stop so they could leap out to “feel” the snow. Brooke was so excited that she forgot to put her shoes on at first, and went bare-foot for her very first snowball fight!

Going to the Tasmania West Coast? Get a 4WD hire car!

We saw no other vehicles for hours that day, and I had never driven through snow before. Thankfully we had been upgraded by Budget hire car in Hobart. We had originally booked a medium car, and we were upgraded to a 4WD hire car for free – and this was a very lucky thing too, in hindsight! In our big 4WD, we were warm, safe and secure driving through some pretty heavy blizzard conditions. If you’re travelling in Tasmania in the winter/spring months on the West Coast, I would highly recommend that you consider a 4WD. I suspect this was also the reason we saw next to no other vehicles on the road that day – the smaller hire cars just couldn’t cope with that much snow over the road – at times we could barely see the road!

Even though conditions were challenging, the incredible beauty we witnessed made it so worthwhile. We later learned at the first roadhouse we came to after descending from the mountains, that even the logging trucks had halted going back up into the mountains that day!

But really, only video and photos can tell the story, so here is a vlog record of what we saw – and it was just amazing!

To see the great hotels and locations we stayed in during our Tasmania circumnavigation road trip, read our Top 5 Amazing Tasmania Hotels blog here

Watch the video of our Strahan to Hobart national park blizzard trip

Play the video to below to watch our blizzard road trip…

Watch it on YouTube here

Have you ever been to the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Tasmania Wild Rivers National Park – watch the video of our very snowy road trip! appeared first on Let's go Mum.