Stay in style steps from the beach The heritage-listed Mantra Lorne is Victoria's oldest continually run guesthouse, writes MARK DAFFEY.
(Clockwise from top left) The Night dining pizza bar at Mantra Lorne; learning to surf at Lorne beach; a resort room; Mantra Lorne has 277 rooms, which include resort rooms and one- bedroom, self-contained apartments; the resort's grounds; junior tennis on the Mantra Lorne synthetic courts.
AUSTRALIA L orne, just a two-hour drive south-west of Melbourne, on Victoria's Surf Coast, wraps around Louttit Bay, and is a popular stopover ontheGreat Ocean Road. 
The Mantra Lorne is Victoria's oldest continually operating guesthouse, dating back to the 1860s when the Mountjoy family realised that "summer visitors would be more profitable than chancy crops grown 20 miles from a country railway station".
It occupies five hectares between Mountjoy Parade and the beach, justover the Erskine River.
THE SPACE Eleven accommodation wings cluster around the main Heritage Hotel and Conference Centre building and a 19th-century timber ballroom full ofcharacter. Many of them opened inthe 1930s when Erskine House, asitwas known then, reached peak popularity. Today there are 277 rooms, configured between resort rooms andone-bedroom self-contained apartments. On-site facilities include a croquet pitch, lawn bowls, putting green, lawn and synthetic tennis courts, indoor swimming pool, gymnasium and Endota Day Spa.
Anoutdoor cinema also operates during the summer.
THE ROOM Lorne Pier is visible through a gap inthe cypress pines from our one- bedroom ocean view apartment.
We're in the Laird wing, named after John Laird, one of the two Geelong architects (the other was Tom Buchan) who designed the 1936 and1939 extensions to the original heritage-listed main buildings. It's a cosy, European-sized apartment and was one of the 110 rooms recently refurbished with updated furnishings and fittings, buffed floorboards and anew lick of paint. The bedroom is spacious - almost as big as the open- plan living area. The lounge has twin sofas, one of which is a sofa bed.
Larger families can book adjoining apartments. There are also shared laundry facilities.
THE FOOD The kitchen in our self-contained apartment includes full cooking facilities - a stovetop, oven, microwave, full-size fridge-freezer and dishwasher. One oversight is alack of space for storing food - asmall pantry would be handy.
Onsummer evenings, a barbecue would be appreciated on the balcony, where sulphur-crested cockatoos are regular visitors. Otherwise there's theLarder restaurant, which spills outside to a beer garden that is open during summer weekends. Buffet breakfasts are served daily from 7am to 10.30am, with an Italian-inspired a-la-carte menu available from 5pm.
Happy Hour also starts then. The new bar was part of the refurbishments, as was the adjacent lounge bar that's an ideal sitting room for winter aperitifs beside the fireplace. When it comes tolocal restaurants and cafes, you're spoilt for choice along Mountjoy Parade. Take your pick from seafood, Middle Eastern, Asian and Mexican cuisines or simple old fish and chips beside the beach.
STEPPING OUT Louttit Bay is a lovely family beach which rarely attracts the sizeable swells that can roll in from the Southern Ocean around these parts.
The foreshore contains the Lorne Sea Baths, a trampoline centre, skate park and adventure playground - enough to keep kids of all ages amused.
Thetown is surrounded by the Great Otway National Park, where hikes anddrives through the temperate rainforest of the Otway Ranges lead to gushing waterfalls and tranquil picnic areas. Erskine Falls, nine kilometres inland, is the best known and most frequented waterfall in the region.
Cape Otway is a 90-minute drive south-west, and the Twelve Apostles are a further 30 minutes away. Bells Beach is 40 minutes in the opposite direction.
ESSENTIALS Mantra Lorne, Mountjoy Parade, Lorne, Victoria 3232. Family Adventure Packages in a one- bedroom apartment start from $199*, and include full buffet breakfast, complimentary bike, lawn bowls and buggy use. Couples Escape packages in a Heritage Hotel Room start at $149*, and include two glasses of wine, share plate, full buffet breakfast and late checkout.
*Prices valid until   December 25.
One-bedroom apartments cost $319 during   January, or $379 in   February, room only.
HIGHLIGHT The resort's proximity to the beach and shopping strip.
LOWLIGHT Sorting out a botched reservation, then discovering another car in ourallocated parking space.
Mark Daffey was a guest of the Mantra Lorne.