Halse Lodge is a heritage-listed timber boarding house at 17 Noosa Drive, built around 1880 and one of the very few surviving examples of nineteenth-century Queensland Sunshine Coast accommodation architecture. Set among palms on a slope between Hastings Street and the national park, it is still in operation as a backpackers' hostel.
Even if you are not staying, the deep wraparound veranda, the steep tin roof, and the slightly faded white weatherboards make it worth a short detour. The on-site bar is a relaxed place to sit for an afternoon drink, and one of the few spots in Noosa Heads that still preserves a bit of the surf-shack atmosphere from before the resort era.