Gold Coast day trips: the most interesting places to visit

The Gold Coast is such a beautiful region of Queensland and is well-worth the visit. If you’re only here for a short time, I recommend making the most of our beautiful beaches, such as Coolangatta! But if you have a little more time, there are lots of interesting places to visit that are a little further afield. These are my favourite Gold Coast day trips, exploring the southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales regions.

Springbrook National Park, QLD

Springbrook National Park is located about 100 km south of Brisbane and is divided into four separate sections. There’s lots to see and do here, from admiring stunning waterfalls and incredible views back towards the coast, to learning about the ancient Gondwanan rainforest. I’ve written about the two most popular sections below: the Springbrook section and the Natural Bridge section. Both are easy day trips from the Gold Coast, being around 50 minutes drive from Surfer’s Paradise and 1 hour from Coolangatta.

Springbrook section

The Springbrook section of the National Park is the main section, and is home to heaps of incredible waterfalls of all shapes and sizes. You can find one of my favourite hikes in the South-East Queensland Region here: the Warrie Circuit. It’s pretty long (17km taking 5-6 hours) but you get to see SO many waterfalls! There’s also a secret side track to an outcropping called the pinnacle which is totally terrifying. You have to scramble up the rock but it’s a drop on each side… I’m never going hiking with rock climbers again! But it was a pretty nice view.

Natural Bridge section

For something completely unique, head to the Natural Bridge section of the National Park. There’s only one short walk here, but it’s well worth the drive. Natural Bridge is home to a waterfall that flows through a hole in the roof of a cave. It has got to be one of the most unique things I have ever seen! However, it’s not only beautiful during the day… Natural Bridge is also famous for its glowworms which you can see at night! You can get up really close to the glowworms and get some great pictures of their beautiful blue lights. Make sure you bring a torch to get down but turn it off or to red mode before you get close to the cave. Also remember to turn off the flash on your camera! Natural Bridge is home to other wildlife as well. If you’re lucky, you might even spot a platypus!

Lamington National Park, QLD

Lamington National Park is located about 1 hour from Surfers Paradise and just over an hour from Coolangatta and is a fantastic place to visit. It can be done in a day trip, though I’d recommend that if you have time you spend a night or two at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat instead. You can stay in the lodge itself or, if that’s a bit expensive for you, camping is also available. Alternatively, there is another lodge in the National Park: Binna Burra Lodge. I have never stayed here, but it is meant to be beautiful. Unfortunately Binna Burra Lodge burnt down in the 2019 bushfires, but they are set to reopen to visitors in September 2020. If you are planning a Gold Coast trip, a visit to Binna Burra would be a great way to support the community following the fires!

My other favourite hike in South-East Queensland starts from O’Reilly’s: the West Canungra Creek Hike. Again, it’s pretty long (13.9 km taking 5.5 hours) but it’s worth it. Towards the end just before you have to walk back up the hill, there’s a beautiful little waterfall with a swimming hole underneath. The walk also links up to the tree top walk at O’Reilly’s, which is a really nice (and free!) little walk through the trees. You can also climb up one big tree to a couple of viewing platforms. You can’t see loads from the top because it’s overgrown but it’s still cool!

Hiking isn’t the only thing to do at O’Reilly’s. They also have a free-flight raptor show and you can pay a small fee to feed the wild birds. The first and only time I stayed at O’Reilly’s was when I was scared of birds so I didn’t partake in the bird feeding and hated the raptor show… Now I’d give anything to go back and do them both!

Mt Tamborine, QLD

If you’re wanting to see some stunning waterfalls but aren’t up to doing a massive hike, Mt Tamborine is the place for you. I have included this in my post about Gold Coast day trips, as it’s located only around 45 minutes from Surfer’s Paradise, but it is also a doable day trip from Brisbane. Curtis Falls is particularly famous, and is only a short walk from the carpark. It’s also absolutely stunning after a bit of rain! The path can be very muddy, though, so make sure you wear some decent shoes. There’s also lots of cute shops and cafes in the town and a few more touristy activities. Years ago, my family and I went and did the Treetop walk and Thunderbird Park. It was a really nice day but it’s likely they’ve changed a lot since then. For more information on what you can do on Mt Tamborine, click here.

Kingscliff, NSW

Being near the border with New South Wales, it’s really easy to do some day trips across the border from the Gold Coast! There’s lots of beautiful beaches in this region, including a fair few famous headlands. More on that below.

Kingscliff is probably my favourite town on the Northern New South Wales coast. It’s got a really nice vibe (not as hippie as Byron Bay but more laid back than Coolangatta) and the beach is really beautiful. They’ve also done up the beachfront so there’s lots of places to sit and have a picnic. You can even play table tennis! If you walk to the end of the beach, there’s a creek you can swim in instead of the waves. Kingscliff Beach can be a bit rough so this is a good option if you’re not the strongest swimmer. There’s also a resident Osprey! I have a thing for raptors, I think they’re really cool, so I always go for a walk to see if I can spot him. One day he flew RIGHT over my head! So if you’re scared of birds, maybe not the best place to go…

If you drive about 10 minutes inland you can visit “Farm and Co”. This is a cute little farm where they sell lots of produce and since I went they’ve built a really nice-looking restaurant. The real reason I went, though, was to see the sunflowers! If you’re wanting to see sunflowers but don’t want to drive out west to the real farms (where you may or may not actually see them), this is the place to go. It’s really quiet and there’s nice views of Mt Warning behind. You can even pick your own sunflowers to take home! How cool!

Murwillumbah

If you’re wanting to head inland, Murwillumbah is the place to go. It’s such a cute town with lots of nice shops. I highly recommend you check out the gelato shop because they make the BEST gelato! Each time they make different flavours, depending on what local produce is available! I’ve tried lots of flavours but I think lime is my favourite… It tastes like a Splice ice cream (if any of you even know what that is)! You can also check out the gallery to see some really nice art and the markets on Wednesday morning are a great place to buy some local produce.

Cabarita Beach

If you want to have the best fish and chips in Northern New South Wales, this is the place. Cabarita Beach is home to “The Stunned Mullet” and they really do excellent food. While I was studying at Kingscliff and my cousin’s dog was doing puppy school, we had a tradition of getting fish and chips for dinner then driving down the coast a bit to Cabarita Headland. The headland is a really nice place for a picnic dinner! If you have time, it’s also really nice to do a walk up to the top of the headland. When I was there in winter, we saw dolphins!

Hastings Point

If you’re around in winter and don’t want to go on a whale watching trip, Hastings Point is the place to go. All you have to do is walk up to the headland and join the huge crowds of locals and tourists alike, and you’ll probably spot a whale or two! It’s a really nice community and they’ll happily point out any whales to you. The whales swim pretty far from the headland so bring binoculars or a camera with a big lense. The scenery is also stunning and if you walk down onto the beach there are some interesting rock pools. I actually went there for a high school field trip… What a blast from the past! There’s also a cute takeaway shop where they do good milkshakes and hot chips (fries for all you non-Australians).

Fingal Head

Another headland and another nice place to spend the afternoon! Except Fingal Head is a little different. Once you reach the end of the headland, you can see an old lighthouse and “Booniny Rock”. This is a formation just off the coast and is unique in that it’s made out of towers of rock! It’s called Booniny because this is the word for “echidna” in the local Aboriginal language. I can see why it gets the name – those towers of rock are kind of reminiscent of echidna spines…

There’s so much more to do on the Gold Coast!

Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list: there are heaps of great day trips you can do from the Gold Coast! Maybe the theme parks are more your thing, or you prefer to just spend your days wandering along the beach. For more things you can do on the Gold Coast, check out my post all about Coolangatta, or my locals guide to the Southern Gold Coast (coming soon).

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