The Basin at Ku-ring-gai: Sydney's hardest weekend booking

The Basin campground at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park has 114 tent sites. It's accessible only by ferry or a steep walk. And it still books out for weekends year-round — not just school holidays, not just summer. Every weekend.

About 45 km from Sydney CBD, it's the closest bushland-and-beach camping option for most of Sydney. That proximity is exactly the problem.

For a full breakdown of how NSW's booking system works, see our state-by-state guide to Australian camping bookings.

How to get there

The Basin sits on the western shore of Pittwater, inside Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. There's no vehicle access to the campground.

By ferry: Palm Beach Ferries runs services from Palm Beach Wharf roughly hourly between 9am and 5pm. Single fares are about $10.80 adult, $5.40 child. The ferry ride is about 20 minutes.

On foot: A steep 2.8 km track descends from the West Head Road car park inside the national park. The road is sealed and 2WD accessible. Park entry is $12 per vehicle per day. Important: the West Head Road gate locks at 8:30pm during daylight saving and 6pm the rest of the year. If you drive in and walk down, make sure your car is out before the gate closes.

By water taxi or private boat: The Basin has a wharf. You can arrange a water taxi from several points around Pittwater.

The campground

All 114 sites are unpowered tent sites — no caravans, no campervans, no vehicles. Sites are unallocated: you pick your spot when you arrive. The campground accommodates up to 350 campers.

Facilities are solid for a walk-in campground: flush toilets, cold showers, free gas and electric BBQs, picnic tables, drinking water, and hand-wash laundry basins. A campground manager sells ice, bait, and firewood.

No pets allowed.

How bookings work

The Basin is booked through NSW National Parks using the RezExpert system. The booking window is rolling: new dates open as the window advances, and how far ahead varies by campground.

There's no single release day and no ballot. New dates appear as the window advances. The campers who check most often get the best dates. Weekend dates can sell out within hours of appearing.

For tips on finding sites during school holidays across all states, see our school holiday campsite guide.

When cancellations happen

NSW National Parks' current refund policy:

• 31+ days before arrival: 75% refund
• 0-30 days before arrival: 50% refund
• Booking fee (2.5%): non-refundable in all cases

A shake-up is proposed but not yet live. NSW has proposed scrapping the booking fee, moving refunds to 80% down to 3 days before arrival, and replacing per-person charges with per-site pricing. As of August 2026 none of that is in force and no start date has been announced, so the rules above are the ones that bind your booking.

Under the current policy, the 31-day mark is when most cancellations cluster. Campers who booked speculatively cancel while they can still get 75% back. A second, smaller wave happens when people decide whether a 50% refund is worth releasing their weekend. If the proposed structure lands, expect that pattern to compress: with refunds dropping at the 3-day mark instead of 31, cancellations would bunch much closer to arrival.

NSW Parks has no waitlist. Cancelled sites reappear on the booking portal for whoever happens to be checking. No notification.

Because The Basin has year-round demand (not just seasonal spikes), cancellations also happen year-round. Any given weekend might see a site or two come back. The problem is timing — you'd need to check constantly.

What to do if it's booked out

Schnerp monitors NSW National Parks bookings for The Basin. You tell us your preferred dates, and we watch for openings. When a campsite becomes available, you get an alert so you can book it before someone else does.

You can set up a Basin availability request in under a minute.

If The Basin doesn't work out, Bonnie Vale in Royal National Park is a drive-in Sydney option with the same NSW booking framework. Depot Beach is farther down the South Coast and uses that system too.

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