Feb 8, 2025 3 min read australia

Day Trip to Daylesford - Final Part Daylesford Town Center, Paradise Bookshop and Harvest Cafe

We couldn't leave Daylesford without exploring the town center! Daylesford felt like a typical Australian country town - small sh0ps, lots of locals but also tourists from other parts of Victoria, lots of cafes offering typical Australian fare.

One surprise was that it had an organic cafe and health foods shop: Harvest Cafe Daylesford.

Max and I were not so hungry after our big breakfast at Cliffy's Emporium, so we decided to just have some smoothies instead of a full meal. While it was awesome to see an organic, health foods store and cafe here, unfortunately the experience we had at Harvest Cafe wasn't great. The staff were grumpy and made me feel like I was an unwanted nuisance.....or an unwanted migrant to their country. For context, I have been living in Australia for over 10 years, and spent well over 10 years in New Zealand before that. Australia and New Zealand are home for me.

The smoothies were nothing to rave about, but the sitting area of the cafe was nice and had some cool products. We bought some incense for Mum (and me).

Maxi thought that we ordered the same smoothies this time as we did last time we were here. He was partially right. He ordered the same smoothie. I ordered a different one!

Our smoothies this time around. Notice the chocolate one makes an appearance again!

While wondering around after we finished our drinks, we came across a rustic looking bookshop and I immediately remembered coming here last year! My feet just automatically started walking inside hehe.

I love love love libraries and bookshops. This was amazing! It looked small from the outside but was huge inside, its walls lined with floor to ceiling bookshelves. They had not just new books but also really old ones. Max and I spent a while browsing through the books on religion and spirituality, looking specifically at books on Buddism.

I loved wandering around the bookshop and found some books by Thich Naht Hanh, which I bought. Last year while here, I bought a couple of books and a colouring book from here.