2 Week reccie in Brisbane and the Gold Coast

[Guest hoffer]

So on the 2nd of June myself and my wife left the UK to start a couple of week reccie to Brisbane and the Gold Coast and here is what happened and our opinions. Hopefully this will help others.

Flights - Heathrow to Brisbane via Kuala Lumpur.

Flight to KL was unusually bad - We have done this flight every year for 7 years as my wife's family live there but for some reason knowing we had another flight made this one quite long winded.

Landed in Brisbane and got our hire car from Avis. The only thing we should have done was hired a sat nav as we got lost trying to find our hotel in the dark. Eventually we found our hotel (the Mantra in Southbank) at about 9.30PM through our bags in the room and went straight out to find something to eat and drink.

Everywhere near by was no longer serving food so settled for a couple of beers and a bag of crisps. OUCH it was expensive. $21 for two drinks and a bag of salt and vinegar.

Next morning we decided to go for a walk around to get our bearings. First impressions of the hotel were that its very convenient and a great base if exploring the city.

So we walked round south bank through the rainforest and crossed at the first bridge after the art museum and headed off into the CBD. From there we walked down to the botanical gardens and then went in search of China Town so my wife could see what the oriental super markets are like so my wife can get her food. Then got on the city cat back to Southbank which i have to say beats the Tube hands down.

Impressions of the first day are that Brisbane CBD is a lot smaller than I expected but this seemed to make everything so much more accesable and that it is very very clean. Was a little disappointed at how quiet China Town was but i expect that was the time of day we got there.

Next day we decided to look at some flats in south bank to decide if this area would work for us. Even though we liked the area paying $850 per week for a 3 bed flat above a restaurant didn't appeal to us so we started looking at widening our search area.

Over the next five days we looked around - Southbank and Kangaroo Point - of which we are not interested. Bulimba - which I really liked but my wife was not so keen. Manly which we both liked and eight mile plains and shalier park which were not really what we were after.

On a side not the Koala sanctuary near Daisy hill was great and definitely worth going to see. AND ITS FREE

Impressions of the area's we looked at were positive on a whole but completely against what we had in a minds that it would be like. In some ways it seemed very American with big sprawling suburbs with nothing near by apart from a central shopping mall. Have to admit to being a bit deflated at this point.

So we then headed down the pacific highway to the gold coast and on our way drove through, Helenseville, hope island, Monteray keys, and ended up in the crown plaza in surfers. Quite liked the look of Hope island so we made a note to get to some insepctions there. We then checked into our hotel and decided a walk along the beach to Surfers would be the way to truly start the gold coast part of our journey.

Note to anyone reading this - We didn't like surfers to built up and not what we expected at all. Although beer was cheaper than in Brisbane.

I will follow up with the rest of our reccie report if anyone is interested as I've just noted how long winded this post has got already ?

[Guest Guest26110]

Thanks for your report :-)

 

So on the 2nd of June myself and my wife left the UK to start a couple of week reccie to Brisbane and the Gold Coast and here is what happened and our opinions. Hopefully this will help others.

Flights - Heathrow to Brisbane via Kuala Lumpur.

Flight to KL was unusually bad - We have done this flight every year for 7 years as my wife's family live there but for some reason knowing we had another flight made this one quite long winded.

Landed in Brisbane and got our hire car from Avis. The only thing we should have done was hired a sat nav as we got lost trying to find our hotel in the dark. Eventually we found our hotel (the Mantra in Southbank) at about 9.30PM through our bags in the room and went straight out to find something to eat and drink.

Everywhere near by was no longer serving food so settled for a couple of beers and a bag of crisps. OUCH it was expensive. $21 for two drinks and a bag of salt and vinegar.

Next morning we decided to go for a walk around to get our bearings. First impressions of the hotel were that its very convenient and a great base if exploring the city.

So we walked round south bank through the rainforest and crossed at the first bridge after the art museum and headed off into the CBD. From there we walked down to the botanical gardens and then went in search of China Town so my wife could see what the oriental super markets are like so my wife can get her food. Then got on the city cat back to Southbank which i have to say beats the Tube hands down.

Impressions of the first day are that Brisbane CBD is a lot smaller than I expected but this seemed to make everything so much more accesable and that it is very very clean. Was a little disappointed at how quiet China Town was but i expect that was the time of day we got there.

Next day we decided to look at some flats in south bank to decide if this area would work for us. Even though we liked the area paying $850 per week for a 3 bed flat above a restaurant didn't appeal to us so we started looking at widening our search area.

Over the next five days we looked around - Southbank and Kangaroo Point - of which we are not interested. Bulimba - which I really liked but my wife was not so keen. Manly which we both liked and eight mile plains and shalier park which were not really what we were after.

On a side not the Koala sanctuary near Daisy hill was great and definitely worth going to see. AND ITS FREE

Impressions of the area's we looked at were positive on a whole but completely against what we had in a minds that it would be like. In some ways it seemed very American with big sprawling suburbs with nothing near by apart from a central shopping mall. Have to admit to being a bit deflated at this point.

So we then headed down the pacific highway to the gold coast and on our way drove through, Helenseville, hope island, Monteray keys, and ended up in the crown plaza in surfers. Quite liked the look of Hope island so we made a note to get to some insepctions there. We then checked into our hotel and decided a walk along the beach to Surfers would be the way to truly start the gold coast part of our journey.

Note to anyone reading this - We didn't like surfers to built up and not what we expected at all. Although beer was cheaper than in Brisbane.

I will follow up with the rest of our reccie report if anyone is interested as I've just noted how long winded this post has got already ?

[calNgary]

Great report,, dont get disheartened though, areas vary soooo much, just keeping looking and you will eventually come across one that 'just feels right'..

 

Cant wait for your next update when you have been out and about on the coast,lol...

 

Cal x

[tinaisrar]

looking forward to the next update x

[foo]

looking forward to the next update x

Ditto.

[Skippy1]

Well done. also looking forward to next report as we are looking at Brisbane also but more towards the Sunshine Coast side but all the info helps. Best of luck

[Davo1]

Looking forward to the next bit!

[wattsy1982]

Same here with Surfers, bit like a hot blackpool!

 

Check out Broadbeach...i would be surprised if you didnt like it, from what you have said it could be just the place.

 

We are moving to the gold coast in 6 weeks and are looking at the areas of Robina, Varsity Lakes, Mudgeeraba areas but we have 2 small children and those are more family areas.

 

Good luck!

[annagilda]

Look forward to the next update, thanks! :-)

[Robo234]

Ahh do please carry on was enjoying reading about your recci, interesting lol x

[Guest hoffer]

Ok sorry for the delay on the last instalment of this.

So the adventure continues with a 6 day Reccie of the Gold Coast.

So it turned out that staying at the Crown Plaza was great due to its location and easy access to the Gold Coast Highway.

Spent a lot of time driving around trying to get used to the area's and eating the great selection of Asian Food in and around Broadbeach.

So In the time we were there we looked at the following area's

Surfers - See my feedback above on that

Broadbeach - Liked the food options but again too built up for us. Although I did fancy being nosey and looking at the apartments in the Oracle building but at $1200 for a apartment a little rich for my tastes

Hope Island - Really liked it here but its very easy to increase your budget

Sanctuary Cove - My favourite place in Gold Coast so far - Just do not think we can afford anything there.

Paradise point - Just didn't do it for us and not sure why

Southport- They are building a massive outdoor swimming area right on the water which looks like it will be great but again just not the area for us

Mermaid Waters - Had high Hopes for this area but the houses we saw just did not do it for us.

Mermaid Beach - Really liked this area but to get a pool and a 4 bed house your talking a lot of money a week.

Overall opinions are that although OZ was not what we were expecting i think with the right attitude we can definitely carve a life out here.

For anyone who is thinking of doing a Reccie DO IT!!!!! the experience in itself although not what we expected has confirmed that we need to give it a good try. It has also helped us understand the sort of area's we could live in and that its going to be hard work. I like to think that by doing this Reccie we have been able to make an informed decision ourselves rather than get second hand information and then kind of guess.

The only issue we have now is I accepted the job offer yesterday so now need to work on a budget so that we can decide what we will spend a week on rent as its very easy to up the budget constantly.

Oh on a side note I want to take up Kayaking again but everyone i spoke to just looked at me as if i was crazy then started scaring me about bull sharks in the rivers.

[Guest The Ropey HOFF]

Great updates buddy and congratulations on the job. We did our reccie to Brisbane for 5 weeks, we stayed in an apartment over looking the beach at Paradise beach and ....... It was definitely paradise to me, I bloody loved it.