Escape from the city to the Swan Valley

But it isn't always possible to pack up your life and head away for weeks at a time, specially if you have kids.

The Swan Valley offers a simple and close-by solution. You can get there in about half an hour from Perth's CBD.

The Swan Valley boasts many of the features of some of the other tourist regions in WA wine, food, produce and art, plus a few unique ones. It is also very family-friendly.

I road tested the region recently, with a wife who loves to relax and two kids (six and two-year-old girls) who make it difficult to do so. We booked into a two-bedroom apartment at The Vines Resort and Country Club, which also has hotel rooms.

The Vines boasts one of the best courses in Australia, used for international tournaments in the past. It's beautifully maintained, but far from a leisurely walk, or drive, in the park. There is plenty of trouble you can get into off the tee with water, bunkers and some unforgiving rough. The rude thing, if you do manage to hit the ball down the middle, you may have some large big red kangaroos to contend with.

The Vines main area has two pools and a variety of dining options from Muscat's Restaurant to the Greenside Cafe.

And if someone doesn't feel like hitting the fairways, they can hit the spa. The Spa on the Green has a number of packages, depending on your needs.

You don't have to venture back to the main building to find things to do though. The apartments have TVs, with some Fox channels and in-house movies. There is also a pool (and barbecue area) for all apartment tenants to use.

The rooms are pretty well equipped. If you'd rather prepare your own food, the kitchen has almost everything you need.

The apartment we stayed in also backed up against the lake on the back nine of the course. Our balcony sat over the 16th hole and was a good place to sit and watch golfers try their luck on the 164m par three.

The kids loved the lake as much as the golf balls did. The ducks hung around throughout the day looking for a feed and the turtles poked their heads up occasionally.

If you want to sit around and relax, this is the perfect surroundings.

But the Swan Valley offers so much more.

After we cooked up our own breakfast we went on search for a real coffee (there are coffee-making facilities in the rooms).

We found it at the Margaret River Chocolate Factory, which obviously is more than two hours from the South West.

It's a great venue for lunch (open until 4.30pm) seven days a week. Or you can just grab a cake, or cup of hot chocolate. There is an outside dining area that has easy-listening live music on the weekends. But the Chocolate Factory is all about one thing chocolate.

There are bowls of milk, dark and white chocolate to taste at the front of the building and there appeared to be a line for them the whole time we were there. You can also watch as some of the products are being made.

The hardest part of the visit was helping the kids pick their souvenir to take back to the apartment for afternoon tea.

Supa Golf

The Vines golf course is not for everyone. But Supa Golf is.

If the little white ball of traditional golf is too hard to hit, or the club heads a little small, then you have to give this a crack before giving up on the game altogether. The balls are bigger and lighter in Supa Golf and the club heads bigger. The hole you aim for is 2.5 times bigger than on a proper golf green.

For that reason, the game attracts a much wider audience (from six years old).

Give yourself three hours to play the whole course and if you still haven't had enough, then try the putt putt course.

Wineries

Not all of the best wines that come out of WA are from the Margaret River Wine Region. The Swan Valley does pretty well too.

There's a wine trail to follow and brochures that focus on the cellar doors in the area.

These are littered throughout the area and there's a great variety from which to choose.

Straight across from the Chocolate Factory is Lancaster Wines.

The Valley is known for shiraz, my favourite, and Lancaster's Old Vines goes pretty well.

Verdelho, also a favourite variety from the region, is also on the Lancaster menu.

The cellar door at Lancaster may not be as flash as some others, but the offering is as good as any around.

But you can only keep kids occupied at a winery for so long while you taste.

Breweries

The micro-brewery has taken WA by storm. And in the Swan Valley you have a few to choose from the Duckstein Brewery, Elmars in the Valley, Feral and Ironbark Brewery.

We were looking for somewhere to have lunch and hadn't been to Mash before (right next door to Supa Golf). It was a hot day, and the water spray sending a cool mist into the outside dining area was pretty attractive.

The buffalo wings with house-made smoky mesquite barbecue sauce and sour cream ($19 entree) was a bit bigger than I expected and could have done for my main. They left me with no chance of knocking off my angus rump steak sandwich ($22) as well.

The kids spent their time running between the playground and grazing on their chicken nuggets and chips $12 (includes soft drink/juice and a bucket of ice cream).

One of the features of these breweries is the different beer flavours on offer. Mash is no different and the fresh taste of the Sgt Pepper Golden Ale took a lot of the sting out of the day's heat.

Ice Cream Factory

The best way to finish off lunch on a hot day is with a creamy ice-cream and nearby is the Ice Cream Factory.

If you didn't have the kids, then the vodka distillery is just next door. But this day required ice- cream for the big kids as well as the little.

There is a heap of flavours to choose from, plus the usual Streets and Nestle suspects in the freezer.

But the pool beckoned and a small barbecue dinner was all that was needed before the four of us called it a day.

We'd had only a taste of what the Swan Valley had to offer, but it was enough for one day.

www.swanvalley.com.au

www.vines.com.au

www.chocolatefactory.com.au

www.getgolfing.com.au

www.mashbrewing.com.au

Open day

The Vines is having a free family open day on March 6.

It's being targeted for all ages. For the kids there will be colouring in competitions, laser clay shooting, kids' movies on a big screen, kids cooking classes, putting competitions with golf pro Mark Tibbles, a bouncy castle and plenty of giveaways and prizes. Adults will be able to enjoy beer and wine tastings, while enjoying some fantastic food and listening to music.

The golf course will be open as well. If you register from 10.30am at the resort shop you can play for free, but must have your own clubs (first come, first tee-off). And take your bathers, in case it's a warm day.