A popular spot to camp for a night or two before or after a Cape York trip is at Laura’s Peninsular Hotel. Behind the Peninsula Hotel (also known as the Laura Hotel or Quinkan Hotel), you’ll find a lovely green and shady campground, which is ideal for all different camp setups, including tents, vans and camper trailers. It is also pet friendly.
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Where is the Peninsula Hotel?
The Peninsular Hotel is located in Laura on Deighton Road (the main road in town), right next to the General Store. At the General Store you can pick up a range of groceries and there is also fuel available here.
Laura is considered to be the start of Cape York – mainly because this is where continuous bitumen road ends.
Camping At Laura’s Peninsula Hotel
At the Peninsula Hotel, there is the option of either powered or non powered sites. There is also drinking water available and the ability to fill up your own water tanks before setting off.
Dogs are welcome to camp with you, although they must remain on a leash at all times.
Rates for camping vary depending on the season; however they start at $10 per person for a non powered site, with an additional $4 being charged for a powered site. We paid $35 per night for 2 adults and 1 child for a powered site during our recent stay.
If you decide not to take your van with you up to Cape York, you can leave it at the Peninsula Hotel in their secure lock up area for $4 a day. Alternatively, if you stay at the campground and have a meal at the pub on the way there and back again, then they’ll store your van for free.
Facilities at the Peninsula Hotel
While facilities at Peninsula Hotel are fairly basic, here you’ll find everything you need for a reasonably comfortable stay.
The campground has two small amenity buildings. They are fairly basic and certainly nothing flash, but provide a reasonably clean (could be cleaner) place to go to the toilet and take a shower. However, it’s worth noting that the shower cubicles don’t have anywhere for getting changed – it’s just a shower, so you’ll need to get dressed outside in the main bathroom area.
Meals are available at the pub; however, when I went in and asked to see the menu, I wasn’t given any clear explanation from the staff there as if there was a menu or what’s on offer. However, I did see people having meals and I gathered it might just be a set menu each night. You can, of course, also purchase drinks and snacks at the bar.
If you need any additional supplies to cook your own meals, there is the General Store next door.
In terms of laundry facilities – I was told there weren’t any; however I’ve heard from others that there is – so perhaps they weren’t working while we were there.
Laura’s Peninsula Hotel – Our Verdict
While the campground is fairly basic, I found it a really nice place to stay. The campgrounds are very spacious, green and shady and make for a lovely setting. However, the toilets and showers are fairly basic and certainly won’t be up to most people’s standards.
Probably the most off putting thing about camping at the Peninsula Hotel is most of the staff are quite rude or just unhelpful. I also saw staff being rude to other guests as well. Any questions I asked were only half responded to and never with any clear response. It kind of put me off asking anything further.
If you can get past the unhelpful staff, the campground is very nice and is very cheap too.
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Hopefully you found this review on camping at the Laura Peninsula Hotel helpful. You might also be interested in our guide on all the places to stay in Laura here or this guide on things to do while in Laura here. We’ve also got a range of guides for staying in Cape York, such as camping at Archer River, Bramwell Station and Punsand Bay.
