Yamba sits where the Clarence River meets the Pacific, a small North Coast town with more salt air than polish. It has the beaches and cafes you expect from this stretch of New South Wales, but it is not just another resort strip: the river mouth, headland, old lighthouse and Angourie pools give it a clear shape and a good day's worth of wandering.
Start at Pilot Hill and Yamba Lighthouse, where the view takes in the river entrance, breakwalls and surf beaches. Turners Beach sits below the headland, while Main Beach and the ocean pool are close enough to turn the centre of town into a barefoot loop.
The best short excursion is south to Angourie Blue and Green Pools, old quarry pits that filled with water beside the sea. They are part swimming hole, part local ritual, and they sit near surf beaches and the edge of Yuraygir National Park. Yamba is not Byron Bay and should not try to be; its charm is that it still feels like a working river town that happens to have very good beaches.