Gold Coast Budget Travel Guide prepares you for your holiday in Gold Coast, Queensland. This is an exciting travel destination and I hope that through this guide, you will have a great time there. All the tourist attractions of the Gold Coast are listed here, along with useful travel information to help you move about and explore.
About Gold Coast
The Gold Coast is the second biggest city in Queensland. This coastal city of 400,000 people is also the 6th biggest city in Australia and the biggest non-capital city. Surface Paradise, a suburb of Gold Coast with a skyline dominated by residential skyscrapers has become the very picture and icon of the city. It is often compared to Miami, Florida, as a destination for beach recreation and nightlife. Its economy relies heavily on tourism and film production.
The Gold Coast enjoys a subtropical climate. Temperature is fairly consistent year round. The hottest month is January, when the average high temperature reaches 28.5°C (83°F). The coolest month is July, when the termometer drops to an average low of 12°C (54°F). The amount of precipitation seems to follow the temperature. January is the wettest month, with precipitation of 169.1 mm (6.66 inches), while July the driest, with only 44.6 mm (1.76 inches).
Surfers Paradise began to see tourist development from the 1960's, as the first highrise apartment blocks were constructed. By the mid 1980's, the character of Surfers Paradise has become one of wall-to-wall skyscrapers.
The Gold Coast Airport (OOL), also called Coolangatta Airport, sits right on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. Many airlines in the Asia Pacific region flies here. Budget travelers can fly here by AirAsia - booking far ahead of departure date often result in very attractive low prices.
You can get out of the airport by taking the bus. Surfside Bus 765 goes to the Robina Train Station. From there, you can catch a train to Brisbane. Bus 702 goes to Southport every half an hour, while Bus 768 goes to Tweeds Head.
If you already have your hotel booked and know which hotel you are staying, you can arrange the Gold Coast Tourist Shuttle to transport you to your hotel in Gold Coast.
Budget Travel within Gold Coast
The main bus operator in the Gold Coast is Surfside Buslines. If you plan to travel a lot by the bus, get the Translink GoCard. This stored-value card can take up to A$200 in value. To use it, simply tap it gently on the sensor when boarding the bus and do that again as you alight. If you forgot to do it when you get off the bus, you will be charged a fixed amount of A$5.00.
You should also consider renting a car. Although more expensive than public transport, your own wheels will allow you to explore long distances faster.
Before booking a hotel room, make sure you are getting the lowest price for it. Different hotel booking websites offers the same room at different prices. If you stick with one site all the time, you could be paying more for the same room. Now why pay more?
The form below is a Research Engine. It doesn't take bookings. Instead it lets you find the hotel booking website that offers the room you want at the lowest price. You can see and compare what different sites are offering, and then click to choose the one with the best price. Do this, and you're guaranteed to save a whole lot of money on your room reservations!
Our Flight Checker helps travelers compare flights and get the lowest fare for their trips. If you're flying somewhere, use our Flight Checker to compare the rates from different airlines. To use it, enter where you will be flying from, where you will be flying to, your departure date and return date. Select the number of passengers, and then click search.
Our engine will return you a list of possible flights that you can take. You can compare the fare of different airlines for your trip. Click on your selected airline, and we transfer you to the airline website.
