April 2019 saw us head over to Queensland, Australia to visit the Gold Coast and Brisbane over 10 action packed days. We fly from KL to the Gold Coast on an overnight flight so arrived bleary eyed after little sleep, some due to being excited for the trip ahead but mostly due to not being able to sleep on an Air Asia flight. This was Aida’s third visit down under and Maya’s second.
The first challenge on arrival was how to get to our hotel in Surfers Paradise (surely the best name of a town in the world?).
There are a number of options and the quickest and most expensive is of course a taxi. This was out of my budget so we decided to get the Sky Bus. You buy a ticket directly from the airport, the counter is just outside departures and it costs about $15 each for a return ticket (make sure you know your return flight time so you can get the correct bus back as you need to give a time there and then). This took us about 40 minutes and is pretty straight forward. If you need to go even cheaper then you can get the 777 bus to Broadbeach (about half way) and then the tram direct to Surfers or anywhere else you require. The problem with this can be the purchasing of tickets which is straightforward once you are in the know, but can be a pain when you arrive in a new country.
One of my main reasons for heading here at this time was the fact that both the Gold Coast Titans and Brisbane Broncos NRL teams had home games during our time so we could head to both, much to the excitement of Aida and Maya. This was Aida’s third visit to Australia, Maya’s second and my 6th. Having spent plenty of time in both cities I knew that we were going to enjoy the days ahead.
The Gold Coast has a somewhat strange reputation. Many use it as a holiday destination, students flock here for good weekends on the beer and now many from Sydney and Melbourne relocate here as it’s a cheaper city to live and work and the weather is generally always warm.
I split our stay up to incorporate the NRL games so we had 3 full days in GC, then 3 days in Brisbane before heading back to the Gold Coast for 4 full days. Getting around the city is pretty easy as the tram heads from Broadbeach all the way to the train station (where you connect for the train to Brisbane), and is easy to get tickets from the machines at every stop. The journey to the connection takes at least 30 minutes from Surfers and then a further hour by train. Tickets again available from the machine direct to Roma Street, Brisbane or wherever you need to get off.
Before all that we had 3 days to soak up some sun on the Beaches which stretch for as far as the eye can see. The view from SkyPoint Observation Deck is great and we spent an hour up there marveling at the views. Australia isn’t a cheap place to visit, far less so than when I first visited in 2002, so eating out can be tricky and of course expensive. For lunch we would head to the supermarket, usually Woolworths in the mall as it had some good deals on (after 5pm many items become half price) and for dinner we found a really good vegetarian called Govindas which was $15 for all you could eat (Maya was free). I was quite sceptical as I didn’t see me being able to find much to eat but I was pleasantly surprised at the options and liked it that much that we went again on our return from Brisbane. There are lots of free things to do on the GC, we enjoyed Southport which is a few stops on the tram from Surfers and of course there is lots of shopping to be done.
The main things to do in the GC are to visit one or more of the theme parks and I bought ours online prior to our visit; the 3 day Village Roadshow pass which we would do on our return. If you know someone in Australia, get them to buy for you as it’s much cheaper. Prices were well over $120 for Aida and myself with Maya’s a little cheaper. Once there, if you were a local they were selling 2 for $100 so bare that in mind.
Before that though we had 3 days in Brisbane, 1 hour further north. Brisbane looks and feels like a big City in comparison to the GC but less so than Sydney or Melbourne. We stayed 3 nights at the George Williams Hotel on George Street which was a prime location for getting around the city. The main place to visit is Streets Beach on the South Bank, just over the river from our hotel. This is a man made beach with pools in the heart of the city. Fantastic! We spent two days there as well as exploring the city and some museums. We left our main suitcase in the Gold Coast hotel only taking the bare minimum. However, we had a possible disaster when we realised we left Maya’s costume at the beach on day 1 so had to go and buy a new one. We were recommended Best & Less which turned out to be a great recommendation as it sold both lots of costumes for Maya but also Mango clothes for her and for me lots of supporter NRL gear, at a much cheaper price than Retro Sport. We even found a few of these stores back in the Gold Coast so spent quite a bit of money on clothes in there.
On Thursday night it was time to head to Suncorp Stadium, home of the biggest Rugby League team in the world; the once mighty Brisbane Broncos. We got there early to take in Caxton Street, where all the bars are and on match day can be quite lively. With Maya, this wasn’t to be so we went and got some photos with The King of Suncorp: Wally Lewis. His statue has now been joined by the likes of Alfie Langer, Darren Lockyer and Big Mal, so photos taken with all. Entrance to the best RL Stadium in the world is pretty cheap compared to going to watch football or even RL in England. For a Thursday night, just over 30,000 people turned up to watch the game vs West Tigers from Sydney. The standard of RL may be better than the UK but the atmosphere sucks. One sole guy trying to get some singing going but it sounded more like being in a library. The Tigers scored in the final minute to take home the two points and leave the locals down and out. Maya was so enthralled in the game that she slept the whole duration of the match, falling asleep just after complaining that she didn’t like the fire which was fired into the air when the players came out the tunnel.
We headed back to the Gold Coast the next morning and into the same hotel; Paradise Island Resort. Our room wasn’t as good as the first stay but was still good enough for our needs and wants. Breakfast here was good, we enjoyed sitting next to the water and filling ourselves up without overindulging. Friday night in Queensland means two games of NRL and the 6pm KO happened to be the Gold Coast hosting the Penrith Panthers. We got the tram and bus to Robina and stopped off just outside the stadium and headed to the Mall as we were a little too early. Finding the way to the stadium from here was easier said than done as we couldn’t locate the entrance we came in from. Finally we saw some Titans fans and followed them on a 20 minute trek to the Stadium. Maya managed to stay awake here as she had her face painted before the game so loved having her photo taken with this. It wasn’t a classic game (the Titans finished bottom of the table in 2019), the one thing I remember most is buying Maya a $5 bag of chips (fries) and her dropping them much to my despair. The Titans provided free buses to different parts of the city so we jumped on the one heading back to Surfers to get ready for the final three days which would see us finally get to the theme parks.
The three theme parks you can visit on our package where; Warner Bros Movie World, SeaWorld and Wet n Wild Water Park. You can visit these as many times as you wish, or go to just one of the places every day, but they have to be over three consecutive days.
Our first stop was to Wet n Wild. I love water parks and Maya is getting to an age where she loves being in the water although at present she is more like Aida and not into the more high adrenaline rides. Thankfully the weather was kind on this day and was quite overcast, the previous time I’d been here I got severely sunburnt! A great day was had by all although I went on lots of rides alone due to Maya not being allowed to and Aida having to stay and watch her (not that she was wanting to go on some).
Next up was SeaWorld and I was assuming that this would be my least favourite as I thought it may be basically a large aquarium. I was therefore surprised to see that it was much more including rides for both young and old (Nickelodeon World for Maya and rides such as Storm Coaster and Jet Rescue for adults). Maya loved the performances which included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Paw Patrol. 5pm closing time came too quickly as we headed back home contemplating whether to come again on day 3.
Despite the great time we had in SeaWorld we stuck to our plan and headed to Movie World, a theme park for all ages. Maya loved the shows (apart from Hollywood Stunt Driver as she said it was too noisy) especially getting close and personal to the Warner characters. The rides were of mixed success. Some she was brave and would go on, others she said they were too scary! Aida and myself again had to take turns going on the more action packed rides, I even tricked her to going on the Superman ride which is not for the faint hearted. She was not happy!! Luckily as it was Monday so the park was less busy as it would have been on the weekend so there wasn’t much queuing up.
If we lived on the Gold Coast we’d certainly be purchasing one of the year long passes, great value for money!
Our time came to an end and we reluctantly headed back to the airport the following morning (I still had time off work so should in hindsight added in somewhere like Moreton Island or Byron Bay to the trip). If we get the opportunity, we will head back here although a trip to Western Australia would possibly be our next destination if we do head back down under.