10 things to do on the Gold Coast with a few hours spare!
July 29, 2014 By Darren Rowse
There’s more to the Gold Coast than vast stretches of impossibly long sandy beaches and a week’s worth of theme parks, but if you’ve only got a few hours spare between workshops, here are ten quick tips to get below the surface. Or is that, the surfers?
1. SkyPoint
The Gold Coast has more canals than Venice! And from the 77th floor of the Q1 Building you can see just about all of them; plus the gob-smackingly pretty impact of the long line of surf and the surrounding mountain ranges. Best time to go is at sunset when you can order a chilled bevvy and watch the resort city slowly fire up its fairy lights. More adventurous souls can harness up and take a tour that scales right to the top of the tower.
2. Palazzo Versace Couture High Tea
No bags and no Bushells here; this is high tea at its most fashionable. Every day between 11.00am and 5.00pm, three tiers of posh bites like cake pops, pumpkin croustade and mini quiches, are paired with lavish teas and served in the lobby of the world’s first fashion branded hotel. Whoever said tea was cheap was not talking couture. You need five friends to join and prices range from $48 through to $140 per person, the latter will have you join the ranks of royalty and pair some crisp Dom Perignon with your hot brew.
3. Surfers Paradise Beachfront Market Window shopping takes on a new meaning every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday night when 120 stall holders and hundreds of treasure hunters descend on Surfers Paradise for a beach side bazaar. Aside from treats like hot buttered popcorn and designer cupcakes, there are the usual arts and crafts stalls and also a raft of furry Aussie animals ready to pose for the tourists. Friendly stall holders make this a great place to amble while the sunsets.
4. Sea World
Get your mermaid on and get to Seaworld. With only a couple of hours spare, we say cut the rides and spend time swimming with the dolphins. Granted you need a mini windfall to do it (at $229 per person), but you can’t put a price on happiness and we all know that Flipper owns the concept of glee. Otherwise, put your Happy Feet forward, step out on the man-made ice and waddle up to a Gentoo or King penguin at Seaworld’s own Penguin Encounter. At just under a metre tall and highly animated, these funny birds act like a ‘tuxed’ up four year old around an Iced Vo Vo when the pilchards come out.
With 42 kilometres of stretchy beachfront, you’d think it would be hard to pinpoint the best beach on the ‘Goldie’. Not for me. Burleigh Heads is where it’s at. Shady Norfolk Pines filled with squawking parrots and a protected bay that leads to an impossibly beautiful national park pushes this to the ranks of celebrity status. After all the activity, make a beeline to Burleigh’s nosh spots. My vote goes to The Fish House for its Spaghetti with Bug Meat or Oskars for anything with a view. At these joints, any closer to the ocean and your feet would get wet.
Once the domain of the $500 t-shirt, Marina Mirage today is home for more than 80 retailers – thankfully most don’t need you to refinance the home. I picked up a pair of styling flip flops from Tommy Bahama that came with a 2 inch heel and some pineapple bling for $50; proving the perfect accompaniment for a two-course meal at Vie restaurant, right next door. For the latest in fashion, check out Ridley and the new Adrenalin boutique.
Tucked away in an arcade that time forgot is possibly the best caffeine on the coast. This funky little venue serves ridiculously good coffee and a menu to match. Try the black coffee pudding or go the whole hog and order up the degustation menu. Then chill out to the mellow tunes of Johnny Cash. Beware, this place is not easy to find, but it’s well worth the hunt.
I scoffed when the fine boys at Get Wet Surf guaranteed I would stand up on my first lesson. But, less than 20 minutes in the water I did what the chicks in Puberty Blues wanted to do – and that is surf. Get Wet is located on an uncrowded beach (important for the first few face plants) a few kilometres north of Surfers Paradise at the Spit. All up it takes around two hours to learn a wobbly Hang 10.
9. Get creative at Rabbit and Cocoon
Discover the Gold Coast’s first official creative precinct in Miami, a short 10-minute drive from Surfers Paradise. Open to the public Monday to Friday, the project was born in 2010 when three Gold Coast-ians banded together to create a space for passionate residents to run their arts practices. On Saturday night, the precinct plays host to Miami Marketta, a laneway bustling with dozens of food stalls and serving up everything from dumplings to fresh ravioli – all with live music in the backdrop.
10. Tamborine Mountain Distillery
Okay, you may need more than a few hours to do this one, but it’s worth it. When the Ward family couldn’t sell the fruit they had grown on their Mount Tamborine orchid they turned to fermenting the leftovers and the Tamborine Mountain Distillery was formed. Today, the distillery is Australia’s smallest operating Pot Still Distillery and remains a family business right through from fruit picking to bottling the final product. Join the distillery for a tour, talk to the owners and taste why the distillery has won a number of local, national, international awards.
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