How to get there: Turn off the New England Highway at Melbourne Street, East Maitland. Melbourne Street becomes Morpeth Road, which takes you directly into Morpeth's Swan Street.
What to take: Your time. As long as you're dressed to walk and explore the town at a leisurely pace, Morpeth will reward your patience.
Who should go: The town provides plenty of historical and consumer treasures, making it suitable for everyone in the family.
What to see: The bridge is a major attraction, best viewed from the small park beside or the bar of the adjacent Commercial Hotel.
What to do: The Morpeth Ghost & History Tour (0401 539 313) takes 21/2 hours to explore the history of the area and its paranormal present.
Where to eat: Morpeth Woodfired Pizza Cafe (173 Swan St Morpeth, 4933 9737) offers plenty of gourmet pizzas, incorporating rich ingredients like duck, tandoori chicken and venison.
Best kept secret: Ma Beattie's Ginger Beer Factory (5 Green St Morpeth, 4933 1407). Ma's company brews old-style cordial concentrate, with everything from ginger beer to sarsparilla.
MORPETH still feels like a step back in time.
Visitors can be forgiven for thinking the town is too small to entertain them for long, but Morpeth's quiet facade quietly slips away when you start to probe the historic village.
The town was once Australia's busiest and largest seaport yes, seaport established in the early 1800s.
Its frontage to the Hunter River made it a major commercial trading port, eventually becoming the hub for trade in the Hunter and surrounding districts.
With such rich history, it's little wonder a heritage order protects the entire village from straying too far from its roots.
There's plenty of sightseeing and shopping to keep you occupied on a lazy summer day.
The town is best appreciated on foot, meandering along Swan Street to appreciate all the hidden treasures.
The heritage streetscape conceals a plethora of antique stores, cafes and vintage-looking pubs to keep a keen shopper busy for the best part of a day, and close enough to the river to just watch the water go by.
While the Commercial Hotel sits directly opposite the Morpeth Bridge, the oldest example of an overhead braced Allan truss bridge still in use, the River Royal Inn has a quiet country feel.
Swan Street is the beating heart of Morpeth. Old sandstone gutters and tiny paved laneways complement the smattering of small cafes and specialty stores that reward inquisitive wanderers through the main street.
Darting off into the rest of Morpeth is equally enthralling.
While the main street is lined with historic buildings, including the CBC Bank (Swan and Northumberland streets) and the courthouse-cum-museum opposite, the undoubted architectural highlight is Closebourne House.
Overlooking the town, the town founder's homestead is a grand building. Although it is private property, visitors can still get close enough to enjoy its splendour without trespassing.
Across Tank Street from Closebourne House is the St James Anglican Church, a beautiful building with a solid view back across Phoenix Park and Morpeth itself.
It's a perfect spot to finish, and contemplate what it all might have looked like when Morpeth was new.
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