Gold Coast Holiday....

[Bully]

yes the weather up here during june/july etc during the day is nicer then adelaide winter. low 20s. But there is a day or so during the weeks in winter it gets to max of 18/19. but does not get as cold with the wind.

the sea water up here is warmer then SAs because of the location, but its not that much better. The other day on my holidays i went for a walk at burleigh heads on gold coast and decided to go for a swim there and the water was very cold. maybe on occassion that the water is warm but not every day. Brisbane does not have beaches, only goldie and sunshine coast. The closest beach to brisbane is scarbourgh beach in redcliffe (north brisbane)that i visit every week, but this is nothing to write home about, no waves, hardly and sand which is a dark orange.

[Wedgie]

We went up there in August a couple of years ago and spent a week in Brisbane and a week on the Gold Coast.
Our only regret was the week on the Gold Coast as all of the theme parks are almost the same travel time from Brisbane (excluding Sea World) as they are the Gold Coast because you're going against the traffic.
We had our best times venturing up the Sunshine Coast so staying in the heart of Brisbane (Spring Hills) was fantastic, I found the shopping better on the Sunshine Coast and Underwater World and Australia Zoo were fantastic, much better days than the theme parks because you're not spending most of your day standing in a line.
I love Wet and Wild as Ive always loved water parks but Dreamworlds Water Park was easier to get to slides quicker. Sea World had improved a hell of a lot since I was there in the early 90s and Movieworld is good but except for some rides it doesn't change much and is a bit cheesy (the Police Acadamy Show was the same 16 years later!!).
Ive stayed at the Gold Coast 3 times and think its hugely overrated, it was actually better in the 80s and more alive then IMHO when Grundys and other things were open.
Dont spend money on Ripleys, biggest rip off out.
We stayed at the Gold Coast on Paradise Island whiich is a quick walk to the mall but secluded at the same time, the kids loved the pool there.
IMHO catch a plane to the Gold Coast, stay only a couple of days there, move on up to Brissy and take in a couple of the theme parks from there (freeways go from middle of town both ways, great roads) and head up to the Sunshine Coast for a bit longer and enjoy the places up there, its not quite as bad as the Gold Coast yet and much prettier.
We did it the other way around (Brissy than Gold Coast) and regretted not being able to spend more time on the Sunshine Coast.
We were also lucky as when we were at Brisbane they had their fireworks, riverfire or something, very spectacular!
Oh and we went there in non school holiday time too, but instead of lining up behind kids you just line up behind middle eastern people, when I went there in the 80s and 90s I thought I was in Japan but when I went there a couple of years ago I thought I was in the Middle East, lots of tourists from there!
Ive given the kids the option to go there again but they're not keen so we're planning a trip to Thailand next year with them instead.

[bazza1]

Ripleys has closed down Wedgie, went there a couple of years ago and the guy taking the photograph of his Mrs got me a beauty

[Dutchy]

Police Academy Show is no more also

[Bully]

river fire is to celebrate the brisbane river. a week long festival.

they have a fly over (dump and burn) its called by 2 f1-11s. But this has been canned thanks to grandma and grandpa wanting to go to bed with no noise.

Agreed, the freeway system up here is great, ONLY at night. During the day and at peak you might as well take a picnic as you wont be moving far at all. Especially the Gateway motorway, one to avoid from 5:30am to 9:30am and at night from 2:30pm - 7pm.

People up here dont know how to merge properly and this ads to frustration. Have sat in gridlock on the gateway motorway for 2 hours straight once, and every morning its just shocking. You think that south road has a jam in adelaide. You aint seen nothing yet......until you see it up here. Poorly designed freeways with short entrances/exits. Million and 1 trucks on the system

[A Mum]

Dumb question number 1001

Sorry in advance for my dumbness...lol...
I have not travelled on an aeroplane for about 20 years.

How much (weight) for luggage per person would one suggest to pay the airline??

I suppose we will try and travel up 'light' of course buy stuff up there and bring back.

Thankyou in advance for your suggestions

[AFLflyer]

Dumb question number 1001

Sorry in advance for my dumbness...lol...
I have not travelled on an aeroplane for about 20 years.

How much (weight) for luggage per person would one suggest to pay the airline??

I suppose we will try and travel up 'light' of course buy stuff up there and bring back.

Thankyou in advance for your suggestions

Suggest to pay the airline??
Are you asking how much luggage you are entitled to take back per person? Which airline are you flying, it should say on their website?

[AFLflyer]

On the topic of GC. im going up there in a month for a week and looking for stuff to do.

Im not a massive GC fan, but are visiting people there.
Im keen to go for a drive up into the hinterland one day and another day drive down to Northern NSW as far as Byron Bay.

thinking maybe a theme park, but not overly keen - i like the water ones though.

Was also thinking sth straddie day trip - anyone been there?

[Brucetiki]

Dumb question number 1001

Sorry in advance for my dumbness...lol...
I have not travelled on an aeroplane for about 20 years.

How much (weight) for luggage per person would one suggest to pay the airline??

I suppose we will try and travel up 'light' of course buy stuff up there and bring back.

Thankyou in advance for your suggestions

Depends on the airline.

Tiger charges for 15kg of checked luggage (they have higher options but if your planning on bringing more than 15kg it'll be cheaper flying with another carrier). They also strictly enforce the 7kg hand luggage (some staff do make you weigh your hand luggage)

Jetstar and Virgin charge for 20kg of checked luggage for their cheap fares, but include luggage in their premium fares. Jetstar are also quite vigilant on enforcing hand luggage weights (I saw someone offloaded from a Jetstar flight because they were over their hand luggage limit).

Qantas includes 20kg of checked luggage (and onboard food/drink) in the price of their ticket.

[A Mum]

Thanks everyone

I suppose a better question might have been...

What is the 'average/weight' luggage that you all take on holiday with you?

[Psyber]

I don't know about local travel, but I did my 12 days in South Africa with a total of 15Kg including my hand luggage -IIRC it was 12Kg and 3Kg.

[Dutchy]

On the topic of GC. im going up there in a month for a week and looking for stuff to do.

Im not a massive GC fan, but are visiting people there.
Im keen to go for a drive up into the hinterland one day and another day drive down to Northern NSW as far as Byron Bay.

thinking maybe a theme park, but not overly keen - i like the water ones though.

Was also thinking sth straddie day trip - anyone been there?

Drive down to Byron is a great day trip, esp to get away from the Gold Coast.

Water parks are great fun, but dont go anywhere near a theme park if its in school holidays, nightmare.

White Water World (Dreamworld) has a slide that goes uphill, quite amazing

[AFLflyer]

Thanks everyone

I suppose a better question might have been...

What is the 'average/weight' luggage that you all take on holiday with you?

when going OS. nevery carry more than about 12kgs + a bit of hand luggage, it makes life a alot easier.
Always bring back a bit more.

[A Mum]

Thankyou for the 'indications'

Well hopefully I 'paid' for enough luggage (I was asking in case I thought I should go and 'pay' for more kgs)

I allowed 15kg per teenager and 20kg between A Mum and A Dad.

I will just 'spread the load' and hopefully not have too much kg

[A Mum]

Well we have now been and returned

We didn't have any problems with Tiger - they were great, staff were great, everything was great.
Only a 37 minute delay leaving and a 20 minute delay returning - so all good

Was a great holiday – although I must say I have not walked so much in many, many, many months…lol.

Day one saw us relax at our holiday apartment - what an awesome spot we managed to get, and the place we stayed at was fantastic, would recommend it to anyone, very close to public transport, right on the beach - (Breakers North Holiday Apartments).

We didn't hire a car but chose to use the public transport - it worked out great - we weren't in any hurry to do anything so if we had to wait for a bus then so be it.

We went to Seaworld which we all loved - at about 3pm we got hit with a massive thunder/lightening/tropical storm, the rain drops were a fair size...lol... but that didn't dampen the mood - it just added character to the holiday and we all looked like drowned rats and had a great laugh !!

We also went to Movie World - where A Dad and A Son went on the Superman ride – A son loved it, A Dad says he loved it, but the photos say different… LOL !!
The kids lined up twice for the Scooby Doo ride, but gave up both times, it was chaotic in there, masses of people, way too overcrowded which I suppose is expected given school holidays, but we didn't enjoy it at all - we left very early, couldn't even get on a bus at this stage - they were so full. That was our 'downer' day

Outback Spectacular was the best money we spent all holiday - it was fantastic, every single one of us loved it, absolutely loved it, whoever thought of this idea is a genious, right from the show, to the set up, to the photos, to everything - if you are going to the Gold Coast I would recommend this to anybody above anything else !!

The rest of our time we spent in the apartment relaxing, in the pool/spa and shopping - and for A Dad who "hates shopping" I've never seen anyone shop so much !!! ...lol.

We ended up spending our last couple of days catching up with friends that we hadn't seen for 15 years - who happen to be die hard Collingwood supporters, so watched the grand final with them.

The weather was good - even though it rained a bit it was still warm and didn't affect us at all, only time it really affected us was on the flight out, was torrential and we had to sprint across the tarmac - the whole plane was full of very saturated people...lol.

The view from our balcony (Photos don’t do it justice however):

[mighty_tiger_79]

did you venture to Pacific Fair???

now theres a place to get lost in!!!!

[A Mum]

We had an hour or two to kill on the last day - so yes we did then - but we only touched the surface...lol.
So I don't think that actually counts as 'going to'

[mighty_tiger_79]

did you visit the harbor town up there?

[A Mum]

No - heard it was overrated...lol

[Dutchy]

Nice AM, we usually stay at the Breakfree Wings Resort which is just around the corner from where you stayed (has the Pink Poodle sign on the Hwy)

As Ive said before we avoid the school holidays up there, accomodation is half the price and the crowds at the parks are non existant, you can walk onto any ride you like, some they just let you stay on if you want to go around again!

Agree with you about the Outback Spectacular, is a great night out and you get a good feed and would almost pay as much going out to a restuarant up there anyway. Its a good fun night with a serious story line