Thredbo Diggings Campground; decent, cheap camping near Thredbo
If you want to visit Thredbo, there’s a couple of places you can camp very close nearby, and one of them is known as Thredbo Diggings. We spent a couple of nights here recently, and wanted to share our experience, what you need to know before going, and whether it’s worth a visit or not.
It’s an interesting camp site with lots of benefits, and a few drawbacks too.
Where is Thredbo Diggings Campground?
You’ll find this camp site roughly 10 minutes drive to the East of Thredbo Village, right off the Alpine Way. It’s several hundred metres off the main road, not sign posted with anything huge, and you can just hear traffic from camp.
What does it cost, and do you need to book in advance?
Camping here is just $6 per booking, and that’s it. It doesn’t matter how many people are camping with you, or how long you’re staying for, it’s a flat $6. You need to book online through the NSW Parks website, or if you arrive and a spot is available you might be able to book it on the spot. The phone reception here is fantastic.
Is it 2WD and Caravan friendly?
Yep, and you’ll see a lot of both come through the camp. I will say though, that a number of the camp sites are quite small, and you can have issues getting a bigger van into spots, so look carefully at the map and book accordingly.
The drive down to the camp site is a single lane, gravel road for a short period, and if you met another vehicle someone would likely need to reverse a bit, but the road is kept in decent condition and suits all types of vehicles.
What are the camp sites like?
Of all the camp sites we’ve done in NSW, Thredbo Diggings probably has the pokiest ones. Most are quite flat, but they’re really small, and on first view, I mistook two sites for one!
Only a couple of the larger camper or caravan camp sites have water views, with the rest set further back. The tent camping is quite large, with several level areas and some great spots overlooking the water.
The camp site itself is fairly small, in terms of the number of people it hosts each night, and the day use people that come through too.
What amenities are there at Thredbo Diggings?
This campground has fire pits, picnic tables, drop toilets and a stunning river that you can easily get to. There’s no other amenities.
Swimming and fishing at Thredbo Diggings
This camp site is extremely popular with those fishing for trout. Majority are fly fishing, and you’ll see a number head off each afternoon in search of the elusive trout. There’s good fish to be caught if you know what to do (we clearly don’t!), but you’ll see them jumping around.
If you’re game, you can swim in the river, with a beautiful little crossing to suit young kids, that gets deeper as you swim out into the pool.
Does it get busy?
Yes. This is a very active camp site, and I’m told on the weekends it can be absolute mayhem. Asides from the number of people camping here, people use it as a base, meaning there’s always traffic coming and going. Add in the day use people, and you have a camp site that has a lot of people driving around, with bikes going everywhere too.
It’s not unpleasant, but its certainly busier than we’re used to!
Mountain bike trails around Thredbo
One of the major attractions around Thredbo outside of winter is the Mountain bike trails, with more options for riding than you could poke a stick at. A lot of people who camp at Thredbo Diggings, or visit for the day do so purely to ride their bikes, and it’s a pretty magnificent part of the world to do so. You can ride towards Thredbo, or the other way, with lots of different tracks to suit varying skills.
What’s worth doing at Thredbo?
This makes for a pretty great base to go and visit Thredbo Village, and it’s a popular place for mountain bike riding, hiking, having a coffee, walking through the beautiful part of the world, hopping on a chairlift, having a meal or doing the Bob Sled.
In truth, we’d planned to do the chairlift and 2km walk at the top, and then the walks around on Charlottes Pass side. However, we messed up big time, with the chairlift shut for maintenance for the entire duration of our stay, and the walks only being accessible via a 40 minute drive around through Jindabyne.
We still did several of the walks, and managed to get the kids on the Bobsled, which was a whole heap of fun, but its worth looking at when things are going to be closed!
Walks nearby
You can walk from Thredbo Diggings in either direction along the river. They’re both bike trails, but pedestrians are common too, and it’s a magic part of the world.
Alternatively, head out towards Charlottes Pass and there are more walks that you can do than you’d be able to do in a week here.
Thredbo Village has lots of walks and hikes available too, some of which can be started from a chairlift ride.
Would we recommend a stay here?
If you want to see Thredbo, and are keen on Mountain Biking, Trout fishing or hiking, it’s a great place to camp. It is close to everything, quite picturesque on the water and a nice place. However, its also very busy, the sites are pokey and there are much nicer camping areas further away (like Island Bend).
If you have no plans on seeing Thredbo or the above, I’m going to say there are nicer places to camp. That said, its still a decent camp site, its priced very well and there’s no denying its a magic part of the world.
We went to Three Mile Dam after this, and then Long Plains Hut, and they’re both much quieter, and different again.
