With Queensland opening up, now is the perfect time for us to explore our beautiful state! There’s so much to see and do not only in Queensland, but in Australia too. I have been getting behind the “holiday here this year” movement and gone on a couple of local trips around South-East Queensland this year. I have already written about my trips to the Southern Gold Coast, Coolangatta and Tangalooma, but here’s one more to add to the list. Toowoomba is located an hour and a half’s drive from Brisbane and is a great country getaway! In this post, I will share how to spend four days in Toowoomba.
The best time of year to visit Toowoomba is during spring, as it is home to the Carnival of Flowers! This festival runs every year for two weeks in September but the flowers stick around for at least a couple of weeks after the festival ends. This itinerary is based on visiting immediately after the Carnival of Flowers.
Day 1: Arrive & start admiring flowers!
Leaving Brisbane at around 11:00am will get you into Toowoomba in time for lunch. If you can, check into your accommodation before heading out. We stayed at Oaks Toowoomba and while our room wasn’t ready until 2pm, we were able to park the car in their carpark. Parking in the town centre can be difficult, especially on weekends and during school holidays so I recommend doing this if it is an option for you.
For lunch, head to The Finch (or one of the other cafes) on Ruthven Street. A short walk from Oaks, this cafe has a great range of food so you’ll find something for everyone! I recommend the Karaage Chicken, but the portion sizes are quite large so it may be possible to share between two if you aren’t super hungry or don’t eat much.
Explore Laurel Bank Park
Take an hour or two in the afternoon to walk over to Laurel Bank Park. This is the main site for the Carnival of Flowers and is well worth the visit! Laurel Bank Park is home to the carnival’s display gardens, which match the Carnival’s theme for the year. These floral displays create a scene when viewed from above. A viewing platform is available to get a view from higher up, but you will only really get a decent view of the beds closest to the platform. The theme for 2020 was family time, so scenes of the beach, a home, pets and even a pianist playing piano were created entirely from flowers and plants.
Laurel Bank Park is also home to a number of other floral displays, including a scented garden, the wisteria walk and topiary hedge made into the shape of Thomas the Tank Engine. There are other topiary hedges around as well, including the fun chair pictured below! For the kids, there is also a fun playground and picnic and barbeque facilities.
Head to Margaret or Ruthven Streets for dinner
For dinner, I recommend you head to Margaret and Ruthven streets. There are a variety of restaurants in the area which are worth checking out. I recommend La Pizzaiola for pizzas, and Dee’s Vintage Thai (the fried rice and Singapore noodles are excellent). Kajoku Korean and Japanese Cuisine sounds excellent but we were not able to get in as it was fully booked. Be sure to book in advance if you want to visit this restaurant! Sofra Turkish Cuisine also appeared to be very popular.
Most restaurants seemed to be closed on Monday so choices were limited. Sadly, there were also a lot of places that were closed for good, presumably since the lockdown. For more options including chain restaurants such as Vapianos, you can head to Grand Central Shopping Centre.
Day 2: Parks galore!
Start your morning with breakfast at the Oak & Vine cafe downstairs (included in your stay) before heading out to explore more of Toowoomba’s beautiful parks! Today, you should check out Queens Park Botanic Gardens and the Japanese Gardens at the University of Southern Queensland.
Queens Park Botanic Gardens
The Botanic Gardens in Queens Park are also a main site for the Carnival of Flowers. Laurel Bank Park is more impressive in terms of displays, but the flower beds in Queens Park are still worth seeing. I particularly loved seeing all the lady bugs in amongst the daisies and the purple/pink themed flower beds. This is also a great place to have morning tea with plenty of picnic tables available.
Queens Park is only a short walk from Oaks and the centre of town, but the botanic gardens are on the opposite side of the park. As you walk through, make sure you take the time to admire the huge, old-growth trees. Keep an eye out for wildlife too! We were lucky enough to spot a pair of nesting Galahs.
Also on this side of town is the Cobb & Co museum, so be sure to check it out while you’re there to learn a bit more about Toowoomba’s history. At this time, bookings are essential to enter the museum due to COVID.
Japanese gardens
This park is a little different to the rest in that there aren’t heaps of flowers! However, the Japanese Garden is beautiful in other ways. Since visiting Japan and seeing real Japanese gardens in 2015, I haven’t been as impressed by the Australian versions. However, the Japanese Garden in Toowoomba is the most similar I have seen. It turns out this garden is Australia’s largest and most traditional Japanese stroll garden, though it is very young and it will still take many years before it is considered “complete”.
Complete with a lake, bridges, a mountain stream, 3 kilometres of paths and 230 different species of Japanese and Australian plants, this garden is really quite beautiful. There are even turtles living in the lake, which is something I noticed in Japan too! On the downside, it’s also home to both native and domestic ducks, bush turkeys and ibis (bin chickens)… So you can definitely tell it is still Australia! Overall, the Japanese Garden definitely lives up to its name ‘Ju Raku En’, which roughly translates to ‘enjoy peace and longevity in a public place’.
Toowoomba Street Art
Have a bit more time after exploring the gardens? Toowoomba is home to over 30 street art murals! If you visit the Information Centre, they will be able to provide you with a map dividing the city into three sections. The map isn’t exact, and it only shows a handful of black and white images of some of the murals, so that you can discover each artwork with no expectations. On more than one occasion, we walked around a corner and exclaimed “wow!” as we spotted a new mural. I have included a couple of my favourites below, but I’ll keep the rest a secret for you to explore yourself.
Day 3: Take a road trip to some smaller towns
Take a break from viewing gardens today and head off on a little mini road trip to the town of Crows Nest. Located 45 minutes north of Toowoomba, there’s plenty to do in the area. Visiting Crows Nest was a major blast from the past for me because I spent 5 weeks here on school camp nearly 10 years ago! It was crazy and quite nostalgic to see a few of the places I had visited back then.
Explore Crows Nest National Park
One of the main reasons we wanted to visit Crows Nest was to explore the National Park. The Southern Queensland region has a very unique environment with lots of rocky outcrops and other rock formations. Whilst you don’t get the huge boulders in Crows Nest like you do in Girraween National Park on the border, it’s still quite beautiful and impressive. We went to Crows Nest Falls Lookout via the Kauyoo Loop. This walk is 2.7 km return so you will need at least an hour, plus more if you want to explore. Unfortunately there hasn’t been much rain in the area lately so the falls and cascades were completely dry. But there were still a couple of nice pools. No luck on the wildlife front either, except for some Noisy Friarbirds which definitely lived up to their name and made a huge racket!
Crows Nest Town
Crows Nest is quite a small town, but it’s worth stopping in on your way back towards Toowoomba to have a look around. There are quite a few interesting shops and parks that you can visit. One of those is Crows Nest Soft Drinks, which is one of the oldest surviving “small town” manufacturers of soft drinks in Queensland. Whether you want to buy a few unique flavours to take home or just grab a cold one for the road, this is an interesting little place to stop.
If you’re wanting to explore more in the area, there are a number of towns in the region, such as Hampton and Ravensborne. Hampton is famous for its antique shops and cute cafes, so could be a great place to stop for morning or afternoon tea. Ravensbourne is home to Ravensbourne National Park, which features incredible views down off the range.
Spring Bluff Railway Station
For our final stop, we visited yet another site of the Carnival of Flowers. Spring Bluff Railway Station is a heritage listed site located along the train line from Ipswich to Toowoomba. It is also the most beautiful train station in South East Queensland and is famous for its gardens. Whilst it is no longer an active stop along the Ipswich-Toowoomba line, during the Carnival of Flowers you can visit either by driving or by catching a special train service.
I think this was one of my favourite sites for the Carnival of Flowers. It was just really cute with the old style train station and heaps of beautiful flowers and gardens! We even had a train coming past up the range as we were there, which was quite fun. If you have extra time to explore, Spring Bluff is surrounded by bushland and is home to a variety of wildlife. To experience this, there is a walking loop through the bushland above the station. I must admit, I took one look at the hill and decided to stick to the gardens! But to be fair, we had already been to Crows Nest National Park. For more information on Spring Bluff, head to their website.
Day 4: Picnic Point Park and home
Before you head home, there’s one more park you need to visit! Picnic Point Park is a little different to the others you have visited. It has flowers, but it is more famous for its views over the range. Whilst there is a lookout at the park itself, we decided to try the Pardalote Walk to get a different view. Unfortunately the last part of the trail was closed for construction when we visited, but there is supposed to be another lookout at the end. It was still nice, though, and we did get to see the view from some different angles.
Picnic Point is fairly close to the road back down the range so from here it’s time to head home! I hope you have enjoyed reading my guide to spending four days in Toowoomba! Perhaps it will inspire you to either visit this amazing city or explore your own local region. Need more inspiration for your Toowoomba trip? Check out my YouTube video below or by clicking here!
SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PAWPRINTS ON YOUTUBE
Did you know that you can subscribe to my blog newsletter? If you love travel and wildlife just like me, I recommend you sign up below! Each month, you’ll get a little update from me containing my latest blog posts, a wildlife fact feature and secret travel and blogging tips that I will share ONLY with my subscribers! You’ll also have access to my free resource library! Interested? Just enter your first name and email below! I’d absolutely love to have you.
One thought on “Toowoomba in four days: the best spring itinerary”