“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard
The cheaper way to go to Gold Coast from Perth is to book a flight to Brisbane rather than book a flight directly to Gold Coast because this airport is very expensive. Rent a car and drive 42 kilometres from Brisbane CBD and you are in the coastal city in south eastern Queensland and largest concentration of themed attractions in the southern hemisphere. Originally known as the South Coast (because it was south of Brisbane) but in 1950 the moniker ‘Gold Coast’ due to bloated prices for real estate and other goods and services, plus 70 kilometres of uninterrupted coastline making it the most popular surf breaks in Australia where along the busiest stretch of the Gold Coast is Surfers Paradise beach. In the 1980s the area boomed as a leading tourist destination.
We stumble upon Coolangatta by not minding what hotel I’m booking. Our aim is to visit the theme parks, surfer’s paradise and the Harbour town factory outlet for the long weekend of September for the Queen’s Birthday. Coolangatta is the nearest suburb to Gold Coast airport and southern end of the Gold Coast but has some of the Coast’s prettiest beaches so efforts of long drive to Surfer’s paradise was not wasted.
Surfers Paradise in pictures would display skyscrapers attached with a beach, joined by a shopping and entertainment district of Cavill Avenue – named after James Cavill the founder Surfer’s Paradise. Gold Coast experiences a humid subtropical climate with warm, wet summers and cool, moist winters although it was spring and the climate is transitioning from winter into summer when we visited the place so there’s lots of people swimming in the beach. This region is very vibrant and alive from morning til night. This is where we purchased tickets for the theme parks, it is much cheaper to buy in tourists outlets here than buying at the gate.
Theme park tickets is about 80 bucks a pop with 2 entrances combo i.e. Dreamworld and Sea World or Warner Brothers Movie World and Wet n Wild Water World. We opted for Dreamworld and Movie World and ditched the water parks and it was fun but technically sometimes I cannot point out what stands out for the rest. I have been to Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong’s Disney Land (and Disney Sea only in Tokyo), Osaka, Singapore, and Los Angeles’ Universal Studios, Seoul’s Ever land – You see one and you see them all.
Dreamworld is 30 hectares of fun from the parking lot you will hear lots people screaming as the Giant Drop – free-fall from 38 storeys will greet you near the entrance inside the ride variations are ‘The Claw’ – 9 storey adrenalin rush! Enjoy Wiggles World, The Australian Wildlife Experience, Tiger Island, V8 Supercars Redine, Zombie Evolution – combat zone Alien vs. Predator vs. YOU and Flow Rider – surfing, skateboarding and body boarding. Warner Brothers Movie World is more like the superheroes theme parks there’s a hall of justice building here that I only saw in cartoons every Saturday morning when I was a kid called Saturday Fun Machine. The structure also reminded me of the story of Maritess and the Super Friends – an animation based on a stand comedy-up act of Rex Navarrete. Maritess is a story of young Filipina who hired by Wonder Woman to work as a maid in the Hall of Justice and relay accounts of how she tried to fit in with the super friends foretold her association with each of them or how Aqua Man loathe her when cooking fried fish for dinner. There’s a thrilling rollercoaster named Superman Escape and the adventure to the next dimension in the DreamWorks Shrek 4D Adventure and Looney Tunes Village. I enjoyed the theme parks but I think they should add more restaurants in both parks rather than serving fish and chips, pizza, donut, or Mexican all the time.
The Harbour Town Gold Coast is comparable to US outlets. Unlike the Harbour Town here in Perth there are more branded store like Tommy Hilfiger and that’s it! Esprit yeah a given but no CK or Coach, etc. mostly local brands but it is very cheap. Managed to purchase 10 bucks for a top that costs 39.99 in some shops here.
Ellehctur's Blog 