After enjoying Australia’s remoteness and lonely beaches in the Tropical North and having experienced the most amazing flight of our lives, it was time to go for something more mainstream – we made a stop in Surfers Paradise!

We first passed Brisbane, Australia’s 3rd largest city. It was our first glance of a big city after visiting Singapore and we almost missed it 🙂 The city is designed in a way that all the main roads are underground, so there’s actually not much traffic downtown. We weren’t aware of this so we had to go back to see it from above (ground actually). It made a good first impression on us, but we had to leave it for next time. Even if you take 5 weeks like we did, you cannot see everything so except Sydney and Melbourne we decided to skip longer visits to the biggest cities despite passing by them (Adelaide, Townsville, Canberra etc.).

South of Brisbane lies the Gold Coast. Our friends from Australia and fellow travelers did not recommend us to visit the area. It has the perception of being too touristic, but we decided to stay there anyway for 2 nights on our way further south.

What to expect?

The Gold Coast was kind of our getaway from our busy travels and a stop in Surfers Paradise was an ideal place for relaxing, shopping or partying. We ended spending most of our time relaxing. I had an impression of being a smaller town but expect a big city on the long beach with countless skyscrapers.

Where to stay?

After being on the road and staying in a motorhome for so many days, it was so nice staying at a great hotel and have a more premium experience. We stayed at Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort & Spa. Enjoyed all of its facilities including room service, the gym and the bath with a view.

It was also pretty neat they have a basketball court. Here’s Žiga dunking like Luka Dončič 🙂

The hotel is otherwise renowned for its saltwater lagoon pool with many tropical fish so you can actually go snorkeling. 🙂 We didn’t do that but rather enjoyed the lagoon beach.

Wanna surf during your stop in Surfers Paradise?

Or not. Otherwise Surfers Paradise is quite the opposite of what the name suggests. There were not many surfers on the beach and surfing was even not allowed in some areas! Surfers Paradise is now much more renowned as one of the most visited places in Australia. It’s a large shopping area and a party town, so go for it if you like either one of those.

The main beach is long and wide but as opposed to other Aussie beaches we’ve seen, there are many people. Go for a morning walk, play catch and soak in the hot Australian sun.

Our stay at Surfers Paradise stay was short and laid back and we would be happy to come back and do it again 🙂