Book Gold Coast theatre, tours & attraction tickets

Few Australian cities wear their purpose as openly as the Gold Coast. Strung along 57 kilometres of Queensland coastline south of Brisbane, it was built around pleasure, and it has never pretended otherwise. The beaches here, from Coolangatta in the south to Main Beach in the north, are among the most consistently swimmable in the country, backed by the Nerang River and its network of canals that give Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise their particular character: part resort town, part subtropical suburb, with the hinterland ranges of Lamington National Park visible on clear days from almost anywhere on the strip.

Surfers Paradise remains the city's commercial and cultural centre of gravity, its skyline a dense cluster of apartment towers that have made the Gold Coast one of the most photographed urban coastlines in the southern hemisphere. But the city extends well beyond that postcard image. Burleigh Heads, a few kilometres south, has developed a reputation for its headland national park, its surf break, and a dining and café culture that draws visitors who might otherwise overlook the broader region. Broadbeach sits closer to the convention precinct and the casino, while Coolangatta, at the New South Wales border, retains a quieter, more local atmosphere that long-time visitors tend to prefer.