Travelling up to the Gold Coast very soon for a week with the family (young kids + teenagers)… looking to avoid all the expensive theme parks yet still have fun (on a budget).
Suggestions please….
Gold Coast in September? What to Do (Family Friendly)
Krazyy on 07/09/2024 - 22:27
Comments
Disagree with this. There’s fun free/cheap stuff for kids on the Gold Coast moreso than other regional areas and in addition to the beaches.
Bring your pushies - plenty of flat riding to check the coast out.
Depends a bit where you are staying and if you have a car or not. Anyway here’s a generic list not knowing more.
- Tallebudgera creek (lovely spot for a swim or paddle board)
- Burleigh Headland walk (takes you round to Talle creek via the bush
- Broadwater parklands (though someone slashed the giant bouncy pillow a few days ago, not sure when it will be fixed) good place for a bike ride, the rockpools splash park, there’s also a ninja warrior course at Harley park https://www.outdoordesign.com.au/landscape-supplies-hard/pla…
- HOTA current kid’s exhibition is https://hota.com.au/whats-on/live/exhibitions/kingdom-of-kin… and you can walk to the top and get some great views There’s also Sunday markets at HOTA which are pretty good
- Pacific Fair, Play Street, Ping Pong Tables and there’s very often free events on eg at the moment there’s a circus performance on at certain times https://www.pacificfair.com.au/what-s-happening/explore-the-… (better for the younger kids) you can also do shop and drop at EMF kids if you want the leave the younger kid/s in a play centre and take the teenager shopping or to a movie
- Swell sculpture festival is on until 15 Sept https://www.swellsculpture.com.au/whats-on-swell-2024/
- Currumbin is good to visit outside of the festival too, there’s a nice creek, Currumbin alley for surfing (can get lessons there), elephant rock and the club there does meal deals on weeknights
- Hire a kyak and paddle out to wave break island seaway kyaks hires them (you don’t have to do the tour)
- Imaginator immersive art experience https://imaginator.com.au/ (not cheap but cheaper than theme parks)
- Pizzey Park - Australia’s largest pump track, there’s also a skate park and public swimming pool nearby
- Bounce trampoline park, these are all over Australia, but it’s pretty fun
- Either David Flaeys or Currumbin wildlife sanctuary if you want to do a wildlife park.
- Currumbin rock pools and Cougal cascades
- Skypoint has great views. It’s included in dreamworld tickets but if you’re not doing theme parks the breakfast buffet deal is not bad https://www.skypoint.com.au/breakfast/
- Kurrawa surf club for breakfast or lunch followed by a swim, play for the young kids in the all abilities park (has some nice big slides, zip lines) and if you have bikes cruise down hedges ave and then head west to bam bam bakehouse. There’s also putt putt on the other side of the highway
Some websites
https://www.mrslardeedah.com/ (Geared more towards locals)
https://www.whatsongoldcoast.au/Home
https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/Services/Roads-transport-pa…Having said all this the theme parks are still fun if you can get a deal. The SeaWorld accommodation deals that include movie world, sea world and wet and wild are probably the best value for non locals. But there’s a lot to do outside of the theme parks. Trams and buses are 50c at the moment so make use of that.
Appreciate your list, those activities though can be found in any of the major cities around the country. But what gold coast is missing is iconic features without the theme park, but even in this regard some of the theme parks are in just dated conditions and you probably get more value if you want to go overseas for such. Beach in Gold Coast is overrated too and more geared towards surfer than toddlers. You can easily have more fun for kids going to Cairns than the Gold Coast if you take the theme park out of the equation.
I’m not saying it’s the worlds greatest holiday destination, but I’d definitely say it’s better than many other destinations for activities even without the theme parks.
Eg Cairns, part of the attraction there is being able to go to the reef, but that costs as much if not more than the theme parks, so it’s not really a fair comparison relative to OPs post. Other than an artificial beach (required as you can’t swim in the normal ones), cairns doesn’t offer anything that the GC doesn’t. Further south on the tweed coast there’s far less in terms of dining and attractions and that’s the same all the way down south until you hit Sydney pretty much. Then the in Sydney things are far from each other. Lots of nice places all down the coast, but less ‘stuff’ than the GC, if stuff is what they are looking for. In terms of staying in a resort or holiday park with pools and kids activities, those are available on the GC too, and there’s some pretty good ones here. With the parks and shopping centres, sure other places have those but some of the GC ones are much bigger with more variety like the broadwater parklands, the pizzey pump track and pacific fair. I’ve travelled a lot, including with a kid and GC does have a lot. It’s honestly a great place to raise a kid, I think harder for tourists to navigate hence the list above and that’s not even that extensive. There’s places like paradise resort, indoor skydiving, 2 lego shops, artvo, Apple Store, game over, escape rooms, cruises etc I really can’t think of anywhere that’s not a capital city that has all of that plus the beaches, forests even if you take the theme parks out of the equation.
I do like the theme parks but as a local love the fact we have annual passes so we don’t feel like we’re missing out if we only go for a few hours, the lines are long, rides are closed or weather is bad. I feel for the tourists that pay full price and have that experience.
Mate, your perspective of gold coast is a place to live, not a place for someone doing family holiday because all of that is very ordinary for a large city.
Thanks for the suggestions. We're currently on holidays staying in coolangatta. We're brisbane locals with yearly passes to the theme parks as well. Here with 4 kids (8,6,3 and almost 2). Any awesome playgrounds you can suggest? We often go to the one near twin towns. But thanks for the other suggestions!
I’m In Burleigh the two I reckon are top notch between coolie and here are:
Pirate park palm beach https://experiencegoldcoast.com/places-to-go/southern-gold-c…
AndSchuster park https://www.mrslardeedah.com/schuster-park-tallebudgera/
Both often have a lot of locals on weekends for parties but great otherwise
Travelling up to the Gold Coast very soon for a week with the family (young kids + teenagers)… looking to avoid all the expensive theme parks yet still have fun (on a budget).
I'm glad it's you and not me trying to avoid the theme parks with young kids and teenagers.
Enjoy the traffic.
Go to the beach.
If you like nature and want something a little different to the beach, I enjoy driving up to Tamborine Mountains, few easy walks there with nice swimming holes. On a windy day you'll also see hang gliders launching themselves off and a few specialty shops up there some people like to browse.
then you'll miss out on the fun, that's all the Gold Coast was known for, you could drive out further south and west to enjoy the nature but there's plenty places in Australia that offer similar.