After the eight day sail from New Zealand, I was happy just to get ashore in Australia. But it was even better than hugging earth, because of where we landed in Australia, Gold Coast. Our time visiting Australia’s Gold Coast was divided between exploring the area and prepping to sail north.
About Australia’s Gold Coast
Gold Coast is a region on the Tasman Sea in the south of Queensland, Australia. Comprised of hundreds of lakes and canals, with barrier islands and an intra-coastal waterway, it’s possible to travel by boat or bike, which is great for us! Plus, there’s an extensive transit system of trams and buses.
Gold Coast encompasses several coastal towns. We were based in the northern part of the region, concentrated in Southport, Main Beach, and Surfers Paradise, surrounded by vacationers and beaches.
Full of theme parks, Gold Coast reminded us of southeastern Florida, where cruise ships dock and Jimmy Buffet restaurants abound. Although we didn’t see a Margaritaville, we walked by Wahlburgers and plenty of other chains. Gold Coast, known for its beaches, is a popular weekend and vacation getaway from Brisbane, a city less than 80KM north. Get advice on the perfect way to spend 3 days in the Gold Coast.
While the touristy aspect of Gold Coast wasn’t for us, we loved the beachfront bike paths, dining and entertainment options, and excellent provisioning.
Weather
We also loved the weather in southern Queensland. The sun shines on Australia in a way it didn’t on us in New Zealand, land of the big cloud. Even though we arrived in Australia at the beginning of winter, it was warm. As we were preparing to leave Bay of Islands, temperatures dropped as low as 3C most nights. Comparatively, Gold Coast lows were around 10C, and up as high as low 20s. The water was warm also, making visiting Gold Coast much more comfortable. Unfortunately, a month later we’re in the middle of an Australian cold snap, but we were welcomed to Australia with warm weather.
Boat Work
After our passage, we had boat repairs and general cleaning to do. Brian did the bulk of the work, and the biggest job was emptying out and cleaning one of our fuel tanks. Somehow the fuel and tank had gotten soiled and tainted. He found an excellent engine mechanic who diagnosed the problem, cleaned the tank, and disposed of the many gallons of dirty diesel.
I helped too, going up the mast in the marina to reattach our lazyjacks on the sail.
We found a local laundromat to do several loads of laundry, dried out the boat and wet linens, and all the other boat cleanup jobs after days of bouncing around on rough seas.
Provisioning in Australia’s Gold Coast
Gold Coast is an amazing place to reprovision. Who cares that the authorities took our rice? The shops have everything. Some shops are accessible by dinghy, and as everything is flat, we often shopped by bike. Not only did we shop at big well-stocked supermarkets, we found incredible specialty shops, from Italian grocers to European markets and artisan butchers selling aged waygu beef. We are over 2000 miles and a world away from Tonga!
Cycling
Having bikes on the boat worked out well here, as Gold Coast is mostly flat and full of great bike trails. We cycled along the paths near the beaches and to the lighthouse and spit, and rode across the bridge to the malls and shops of Southport. With sun setting at 5PM, we just have to get our bike rides in early.
Gold Coast Events
We took advantage of the fun events in Gold Coast during our short stay there. On our first weekend, we found a free music street fest just outside our favorite mall, in Southport. All the bands were local, played their own original music, and were very talented.
Eating and Drinking in Gold Coast
As a popular weekend and vacation destination, Gold Coast offers a huge array of places to eat and drink. On our first night, we went to dinner with our friends Jan and Greg from S/V Viridian at a classy Japanese spot. Delicious and busy on a Friday night, we heard Happy Birthday sung at least five times while eating our sushi and sashimi at Yamagen.
When visiting Australia’s Gold Coast, diners can try almost any kind of cuisine in any atmosphere. In Surfer’s Paradise, we enjoyed craft beer at BOB and experienced oyster Happy Hour at Surfers Pavilion.
Closer to the marina in Southport, the fish markets like Peter’s open for lunch, dinner, or takeout. They serve such fresh seafood, from cooked prawns to fish and chips and more. We were in a great location to get our first taste of Australian cuisine.
The Gold Coast Hinterlands
Toward the tail end of our stay in the marina, we rented a car to drive inland to the Gold Coast Hinterlands. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time, but we got to do a short hike near beautiful Tambourine Mountain.
Also unfortunately, we went on a Saturday and everything was incredibly crowded. It took us four tries to find a restaurant to feed us lunch! The first and third were too incompetent to take our orders, and the second was too busy. We lunched in an incredible English pub with cool decor and atmosphere, so our trip to the Hinterlands wasn’t a loss.
Our first week in Oz, visiting Australia’s Gold Coast, was a great introduction to this huge country. Please share your thoughts or any Queensland recommendations in the comments!
We’re slowly making our way north by sailboat, so keep following our progress. 
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How wonderful that one dosn’t need to have a car to get around!
You’re right, Lorraine! It’s great Gold Coast has so many options aside from cars. And the weather was perfect for biking and walking when we were there.
Thanks for the honest feedback on the Gold Coast. It looks beautiful, and I’d really enjoy biking around the tracks. That said, I grew up on the Florida beaches and I generally look for beaches that are a bit more off the beaten path.
Gold Coast did remind us of Southern Florida, Sonia, with the good part (parks and beaches) and the more touristy. It is a very popular Australian vacation getaway!
Sounds like my kind of vacation with oysters, bike rides, and awesome coastal views.
Funny thing I found about restaurants in Australia… their service kinda sucks. So, I’m not surprised at all about your Hinterlands experience, unfortunately. I decided it’s because restaurant servers don’t survive on tips there, which is a great motivator for good behavior in the U.S.
You are doing my dream trip (sailing!) Those beaches look wonderful, and I wonder, can you swim in them or are there animals in the sea that are a bit dangerous? I heard so many things about sharks, poisonous creatures in the sea in Australia, but never been there myself. To be honest, the tales of dangerous wildlife is making me a bit hesitant to visit but maybe I am just overly cautious, was happy enough stomping round semi rural areas of Bangladesh in Dengue season.
Good question, Anya. Gold Coast is currently safe for swimming, as long as you stay in the marked areas where there is a lifeguard. This is because of the rip tides, though, not dangerous animals. There are parts of Queensland, further north, where swimming is unsafe due to bull sharks in the water. And near Cairns, they have to put nets in the water so there’s safe swimming away from crocodiles. And then when summer comes, the water is full of stinger jellyfish, so people don’t swim then either. We haven’t gone swimming much, but mostly because it’s winter and it’s a little cold for us (low 20s C air and water).