Just like humans, pets love a weekend away.
Pet friendly usually means outdoor destinations, and the Sunshine Coast has plenty of those from cafes and markets to beaches and breweries.
In fact, the Sunshine Coast is Australia’s craft beer capital with the most breweries per capita in the country and now the region’s distilleries are making a spirited run to earn their own place on the top shelf.
Diablo Co is one such distillery. It started as a passion project for owner Dimitris Limnatitis.
When business began in 2017, Dimitri’s focus was on Ginger Beer with local ingredients packing quite the punch.
Diablo’s then kicked into high gear, producing seven spirits and 10 liqueurs.
“We started with our vodka because we already distill our vodka anyway and our lychee liquer, and then from there we went and sourced a lot of local products,” Dimi said. “Everything we do is gluten free, every single thing and in our gin we use Mediterranean botanicals.”
“The main reason we did all these is because they go extremely well with our ginger beer.”
Just next door is Nil Desperandum. The team here popped the cork on their first barrels of rum in February 2022.
“We’re based on the Sunshine Coast, an area that was always famous and well-known for its cane fields,” said Nil Desperandum’s Michael Conrad. “Coupled with that the beautiful rich dark aromatic rums of the Caribbean, particularly those from Barbados and Jamaica.”
Michael puts a dash of art, science and of course a little love into every bottle.
“We have one of the only sources of pure organic molasses,” he said. “We bring that in here, it’s mixed with water, a few little other wonderful bits and pieces and fermented and from there we distil it and age it in small oak barrels for years.”
“Apart from the molasses that goes into it you do get some lovely characters like that coming from the oak that it’s been matured in. The barrels that they were in were originally wine barrels and then they’ve had fortified wine in them meaning immediately prior to the rum so every time the oak gets used for something it puts another flavour into the memory of that timber.”
It’s not just rum on the menu though. There’s gin and vodka too.
With so many cool distilleries to visit, you’ll need a place to stay that’s close by.
Sunshine Valley offers charming cottages nestled in beautiful gardens.
“We’ve got the three cottages here so they’re all self contained, they all have their own verandah with a barbecue, outdoor fenced area as well,” said owner Nina Taylor. “It’s about 3.5 acres in total. So that’s what we also did with the cottages, just spread it out nicely so it’s nice and private still for everybody.”
“Also it’s great for the dogs if you want to take your dogs with you because we’ve got about an acre off leash where you can let your dogs run and do whatever they like to do and we also actually have two dog parks that are fully fenced and one of the dog parks also has an agility course.”
For the human visitors, another bonus is the location.
“We’re only 15 minutes drive to the beautiful beaches, 15 minutes drive to the hinterland and also when guests do arrive with their dogs, we give them information about dog friendly walks, restaurants, cafes, so they know exactly where they can go and take their pet with them and of course a little welcome basket for the dog as well.”
There are treats for the humans too with Nina able to organise a locally made platter to your cottage for you arrival.
No matter the holiday, the Sunshine Coast has the holiday for you. Check out all the possibilities and get excited at www.visitsunshinecoast.com
