Surfers Paradise
I have not been to Surfers Paradise before and its all that and more! 25/2/16 – 3/3/16
(T) Having travelled Aussies east coast in 2008, Surfers Paradise was one place i had not been to. Maybe the look of the numerous skyscrapers put me off before but this place is great. Loads to do, bars, restaurants and shops and a great beach. Which unfortunately we didn’t go on due to day trips and then Cyclone Winston making its presence felt in windy rainy days so the beach was closed.
No matter, i had my birthday on the Friday and we went to the Dracula’s dinner and show, what a great night. We had vip tickets so got in early and had nibbles and champagne, then a ride on the ghost train then into the main theatre. Live band and show including acrobatics, singing and comedy – and a lot of cocktails!
We went to MovieWorld which i was a bit disappointed with, we had a few rides but overall i expected to see more shows from movies. I chickened out on one ride and glad i did as Roy said it was a bit hairy! We also went to SeaWorld which was brilliant, up close to Penguins, Rays and seals, huge tanks with sharks and gorgeous marine fish, well worth the visit.
The town is great for shopping but we did have to post a parcel home as we have way too much stuff! Its easy to get around with trams and buses, tho we did travel free on the trams for a couple of days until we realised we had to buy a ticket prior to actually getting on!
We stayed at Chateau Beach Resort, a high raised apart/hotel on the Esplanade, right in front of the beach. The room was fairly spacious with everything you need, including a 4 burner hob, so we were able to cook our own A La Cart style. What we didn’t realise is that these units are not serviced, which was why the place is so reasonably inexpensive. However the view from the 17th floor was fantastic. It was very close to all the bars and nightclubs, and being so high we were not disturbed by folk when they were kicked out of the clubs.
On each corner there are “touts” giving away free scratch cards. And yes Roy got caught up several times with these, as they were also giving away very cheap tickets for all the shows, day trips theme parks etc. However we passed several “tout” stands which were for the night club drinking tours. We never got accosted by any of these though! Funny that we must have looked the right age for buying into timeshares but not going on a pub crawl!!!!!
Surfers Paradise for those who have never been here before is a fab, fun place to be. Its quite fast pace, means your on the go all the time, and one day mingles into the next without you knowing about it. The place was packed every night, however the drinks and food were reasonably priced, and it was easy as to get around on the public transport system.