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In the rugged highlands surrounding Mount Hotham sits Dinner Plain, a thriving snow village with a reputation for hospitality stretching back to the nineteenth century. For hikers, skiers, and alpine explorers, this tiny settlement represents the apex of remote adventure. For casual visitors, it’s a chance to hit the reset button – to inhale the icy mountain air, survey the panoramic vistas of snow-hung bushland and forget, momentarily, the chaos of everyday life.
You can get to Dinner Plain via land or air, but getting behind the wheel and taking the long way up is certainly more scenic. Named the Great Alpine Road, this magnificent route winds along the mountain ridgelines, giving travellers a chance to gaze out at scrub-covered highlands and deep gorges. You’ll pass through remote villages and epicurean eateries, each of which offers a unique insight into rural Victoria, before your journey culminates near the slopes of Mount Hotham, over 1500 metres above sea level.
Once you arrive, you’ll encounter one of Dinner Plain’s two faces: summer or winter. Unlike the more northerly states, where the seasons gently blend together, the middle of the year means snow at Dinner Plain. There’s a great range of frozen fun to be had, whether you’re an experienced skier or someone who’s natural habitat is a bit warmer, and there’s plenty of kid-friendly options as well. There’s beginner ski classes, more advanced downhill and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, tobogganing, snowshoe walks and dog-sledding, as well as uniquely winter activities like onsen retreats and a visit to the Blizzard Brewing Company.
During the rest of the year, you’ll have full access to the natural beauty of Mount Hotham and its surrounds, which can be traversed with hiking and running trails or via mountain bike, depending on your preference. For the snap-happy and Instagrammers in your family, there’s countless amazing photo opportunities – meltwater creeks trickling between fronds of heather, sheer granite cliffs plunging into the eucalypts, and vast, blue-hung mountain ranges as far as the eye can see.
Dinner Plain. It’s picture perfect, no matter the season. Visit today with Club Wyndham.
