It’s not quite summer here yet in Australia but where I live, which is Brisbane in case you didn’t know, it might as well be. Temperatures recently have been hovering at around 28°C, the skies are blue and the best place to be at the weekend is the beach.
Brisbane doesn’t do beaches very well, so we like to drive an hour and a bit either north or south to the Sunshine Coast of the Gold Coast. This weekend just gone, we went away on our third ninja break, staying for one night in an Airbnb house in a suburb called Tugun.
It was a three-bedroom house, cost $224 for the night, had a balcony and it was just seven minutes walk from the beach…
The kids always enjoy a bit of beach time, under the watchful eye of Surf Life Saving, of course…
I can’t really tell you much about Tugun or the neighbouring suburbs of Currumbin or Palm Beach, simply because we pretty much spent all of our time on the beach.
Tugun has Coolangatta to the south…
And Surfers Paradise to the north…
But is definitely quieter than both of those suburbs on the Gold Coast.
Palm Beach Parklands
We have our own South Bank Parklands in Brisbane, Palm Beach has one of their own as well…
Paddle boarding
Well, we didn’t spend all our time on the beach, some of it passed by messing around on the river. To be more precise, the girls had a 1 hour paddle boarding session on Currumbin Creek for a bargain $10.
This really is what these short breaks are all about…
As our three young girls tucked into hot chips after splashing around on the creek, a softserve ice cream van pulled up behind us.
Mrs Bob asked him how long he intended to stay as the girls were ploughing through their chips as quickly as possible and wanted to finish them before he disappeared. He said “I will stay here for as long as you want me to.”
And he did, so hats off to him. Chips devoured, our girls went to get their treats…
When nightfall came though, it was time for a bit of microbrewery fun. On the Saturday we visited Balter, a brewery jointly owned by Mick Fanning, the Australian surfer who fought off a shark attack live on TV.
Then on the Sunday evening before returning back to Brisbane we popped into the Burleigh Brewery Co. for a small glass of their wonderful 28 Pale Ale.
It was fun all round, everyone had a great time. We are already planning our next ninja break.
Hi Bob please help i have been driving my self mad trying to work out where to move to.
We have been in Sydney for 11 years now[originally from essex uk] the time has come to move out due to affordability.
We have three children, 10,9 and 7 the eldest has one more year at school before high school so obviously finding a great school is very important.
My husband is a chef and i work in child care plus heaps of hospitality exsperience. We are planning on opening up our own business once we have found somewhere to settle, something foodie….
We have looked at Burleigh Heads, Tweed Heads, Currumbin but are also open to Brisbane, Bulimba, Seven Hills [ I do love the ocean tho]
I’m just going round in circles.
Basically we need an up and coming area for our future business plans, Schools are very important but I also Love to be part of a community and to socialise and make new friends.
If you or anyone else could help me out with this dilemma I would be eternally greatful.
Sarah X
How I wish I could help, but I suspect I’d just be going around the same circles you’ve already gone around without coming up with any solid answers.
Bulimba is quite expensive, but definitely a cafe culture kind of place, so a foodie business should do well. But then, forget the ocean, Brisbane doesn’t do beaches very well.
On the other hand, the Gold Coast does great beaches and is also a tourist destination, so a foodie establishment in the right place doing the right thing should do pretty good. Where though, if only I knew.
All I can suggest is that you skim through the comments that had been made on my pages about Brisbane and the Gold Coast as there is quite a bit of chatter about the various suburbs and what they are like to live in.
Nothing beats coming here for a couple weeks and having a good look around though, it’s the only real way to get a good feeling for a place. Good luck in your search, I hope you come up with somewhere that suits you all.