10 Essential Gold Coast Experiences

1. Sip a beer on the deck of the Rainbow Bay Surf Lifesaving Club when the waves are spiralling away into the distance on the mile-long Superbank and the sun is setting over the hinterland.

2. Sit under a pandanus tree and contemplate the ocean from any of the headlands at Greenmount, Kirra or Burleigh, pondering how many generations have done this before you.

3. Walk around Purlingbrook Falls at Springbrook National Park, descending into the moist rainforest nook and pass behind the falls itself.

4. Gaze out from the appropriately titled “Best of all Lookouts” at Springbrook, over Mt Warning and northern NSW, and marvel at the nearby 4000-year-old Antarctic beech trees.

5. Have lunch at Oskars on the beach at Burleigh Heads and enjoy the freshest seafood in town while looking out over the board riders surfing the point and the surreal Surfers Paradise skyline floating on the horizon. Phone: (07) 5576 3722. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Web: oskars.com.au

6. Visit Witches Falls Cottages on Mt Tamborine for the ultimate romantic hinterland B&B experience and the sublime modern Japanese set-menu dinner. Phone: (07) 5545 4411. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Web: witchesfallscottages.com.au

7. Take a day trip or overnight visit to O’Reilly’s Rainforest Guesthouse and take the treetops walk on a suspension bridge through the forest canopy. Phone: Freecall 1800 688 722.

8. Take the express lift to the Q1 Tower observation deck and marvel at the 360 degrees views, see if you can spot Brisbane and the Byron Bay lighthouse as claimed and, on a clear day, even the back of your own head. Address: 77th floor, cnr Clifford St and Gold Coast Hwy, Surfers Paradise.

9. If you’ve never surfed, have a lesson from a former champion like Cheyne Horan or Michael “Munga” Barry and discover the magic of the glide. Horan: Freecall 1800 227 873 or Web: cheynehoran.com.au. Barry: (07) 5593 5661 or Web: godfathersoftheocean.com.

10. You can fight it all you like but you know sooner or later you’re going to have to give in to your inner child and visit a theme park to ride a rollercoaster or pat a dolphin (see sidebar “War of the Worlds”, page 50-53). As John Pastier wrote in The Architecture of Escapism: “We may sing the praises of opera and poetry, but when we vote with our feet we are far more likely to find ourselves standing in Disney World or Las Vegas, than in the Lincoln or Kennedy Centre.”