Gold Coast & Brisbane

Don’t let the promise of ‘Surfers Paradise’ fool you! With 2-million visitors, the Gold Coast is Australia’s busiest holiday resort – more about mass tourism à la Majorca or Miami Beach than surfing perfection. There really are a heap of surfers though, the water’s warm, and reliable winds accompany a summer that lasts 6-8 months. Fortunately, the partying is focussed on the densely built-up Surfers Paradise with its hotels, apartment blocks and shopping centres. The rest of the coastal strip is much more relaxed, the forested inland virtually untouched, and the 1.8-million metropolis of Brisbane 50km north is considered Australia’s most liveable city.