Hidden in plain sight: why this gorgeous town in NSW is my new holiday favourite

I've grown very fond of the seaside town of Huskisson by the end of a low-key, three-night mini-break. There are a number of reasons why. The no-guilt fish and chips, for one, because you must eat them, daily if necessary, in a town where signs yell such things as "world famous fish n chips" and "Husky's only beer and vodka batter".

And the eponymous beach, a shimmering, dark blue beauty first thing in the morning - made even more special when, on my final day, Jesus beams explode from behind a cloud, backlighting a lone kayaker making their way across the bay,

Our accommodation, too, is a highlight. I probably spend too much time hanging out in it, at the expense of exploring further afield. But this escape is the chance for a reset - an opportunity to embrace full vegging in a place that feels like a home away from home. And, when we do venture out, we keep to Huskisson itself - strolling its beaches and streets, browsing its shops and boutiques, eating and drinking at our pick of its cafes, restaurants, breweries, hotels and those takeaways doing interesting things with batter.

Huskisson, with a permanent population of less than a thousand, sits on the shores of Jervis Bay in the Shoalhaven region on the NSW South Coast - the latter a beloved holiday destination generally in our household, although we rarely get this far south, typically pulling up about 50 kilometres earlier, at Gerroa or Gerringong, for a sneaky sun-and-sand getaway.

Many in the NSW and ACT will know Huskisson - or at the very least will have heard of it - but it deserves to be on the national radar. It's been crowned NSW's best tiny tourism town for the past three years. Apparently, it knows what it's doing, having been luring holidaymakers since the 1890s. The area is famous for white-sand beaches - especially Hyams Beach, a 10-minute drive south, which for years has laid a claim to the world's whitest sand.

Yet even that can't tempt me beyond the town limits. I'm more than happy with the not-quite-as-white sand on Huskisson Beach, which is at the end of the street that we're staying on. The 300-metre walk down there is past some delightfully old-fashioned shacks, and much fancier, much larger, more recent houses.

Our rental, whimsically named the Oyster Catcher, is somewhere in between. It's an architect-designed home, and from the outside has those retro fibro-shack vibes which seem to me sensitive to this town's down-to-earth holiday heritage, and to the wild and bushy surrounds - from the non-beach end of the street, Jervis Bay National Park is a stone's throw away.

The park is home, among many creatures, to the boobook owl, which we hear "boobooking" in the night - and so it all makes sense when we come across the Boobook on Owen independent book shop the next morning, well situated on the waterfront side of Huskisson's main street.

It's on Owen Street that we eat breakfast at bustling cafes like 5 Little Pigs, where the black sesame granola with matcha panna cotta sounds interesting, but I opt for sweetcorn fritters with togarashi dressing and shiso (Japanese basil). One lunchtime, I home in on World Famous Fish n Chips takeaway. A bit overwhelmed by the menu's vast choice in this seafood-rich region, I keep it simple with the $19 lunch pack: a fillet of blue grenadier with three calamari rings, all crispy on the outside and succulent within.

When it comes to dinner time, however, we spend two of our three nights eating in, squeezing all the drops out of our time in the spacious, airy, sustainably designed Oyster Catcher, which has features like a servery window in the kitchen that opens onto an outdoor breakfast bar and a dining table beyond, set on a wooden deck overlooking a native-plant-filled garden. Inside, the decor turns the beach feels up to 11 - a wooden surfboard greets in the entryway; pretty pastels pop on walls, and in furniture and artworks. The wallpaper in our bedroom has a palm tree motif; the windows are louvred; and one wall of the lounge room is a row of glass doors that slide away to flood the place with sunshine and breezes.

Afterwards, we take a walk down Owen Street, drawn like moths to a building lit up like a fairytale gingerbread house. It's Huskisson Pictures, a historic cinema that shows latest releases while being a hub of local history - screening movies for more than 70 years but a community hall long before that; a site of dances, concerts and parties since 1913.

I'd return to Huskisson just for the chance to see a movie there.

The writer stayed courtesy of the Oyster Catcher