I begin by saying how much I enjoyed Gold Coast.
It's a super relaxing and laidback place that totally makes you feel at ease the moment you step onto GC grounds. Plus, the weather now is superb - Chilly winds with warm sunshine. There were many other great factors that contributed to the wonderful stay I had at GC, and I'll share them over the next few posts. If you're planning on a short trip to GC as well, this series might serve as a useful guide for you as well, especially if you endeavour to go on a budget trip like I wanted to. =)
Having said that though, my kids and mother-in-law went for the trip as well, so the trip was not budget backpacker-style. But we didn't spend a lot, that's for sure. Everyone had a jolly good time, and we definitely think it's too short a trip! We need to go back again another time! =P
Our flight to GC was on Scoot, our newest airline in town, and it was a travel-by-night flight. Jayne managed to sleep through the whole flight, but she woke up several times throughout the night kicking her legs at me!Joey slept all the way till 2am and became very awake after that. Thankfully she kept herself entertained until we landed at 5am, S'pore time. It was a comfortable flight and the plane was much bigger than other budget airlines I've taken before.
Gold Coast is 2 hours ahead of Singapore, so we landed at 7am GC time. The temperatures should be a cool 12-15 degrees celsius when we landed, and it was super nice. The air smelled clean and fresh, and very invigorating. It was such a big contrast from humid and hot Singapore!
We had planned not to rent a car despite repeated persuasions by friends who insisted that one HAS to self-drive in Australia no matter what. Hubby is the only one who can drive in our family and he hates driving on vacations, so we decided that we would take the public buses everywhere we went. Turned out to be such a great decision because we saved a lot on travelling expenses and the kids love taking buses anyway! GC local bus routes are well-covered by Surfside, and you can opt to purchase their Freedom or Gold Passes, available for 3,5,7 or 10 days' unlimited travels with some including trips to the theme parks. As we didn't feel that we would travel so much, we opted to purchase the Go card, which works like our EZLink card and go by a top-up system. The most convenient thing about the card is that you can also top-up your card on the buses! Singapore should seriously install this feature on our buses too. Kids below 5 years old travel for free, and kids 5-12 years old are charged kids' fares.
This is the map we relied heavily upon to get to all the places we visited! You can download it from the Surfside website (for your pre-trip planning), or grab a brochure at the airport. There are several places of intersections where different buses meet, and those are the places you can change buses to get to your desired destination. Before we left for Gold Coast, I highlighted my copy of the bus map, all the places we planned to visit, and it helped a lot. Of course, taking buses meant we spent more time on traveling. If you self-drive, you probably can save some time, but you need to be good at map-reading of course.
We waited for our bus from the airport to our apartment, which was a mere 5 minutes' drive away. The bus stop was right in front of our apartment at Palm Beach, so happy! =D
There's something about skies in other countries - They always look so blue and clear.
Bus-taking in GC is a totally different experience from bus-taking in Singapore. The weather's cool and comfortable, and you usually don't need to wait for more than 10 minutes. There is also a bus schedule at every bus stop so you know exactly what time each bus is arriving (They are super duper on time). Plus, the buses are mostly pretty empty, and very clean. Throughout our stay in GC, we never once had to stand on the buses because there was no seat.
See what I mean? Empty bus.
The only problem with arriving early in the morning was that the accommodation is usually not ready for check-in, as the typical check-in time is 2pm. So we dropped our luggages at our apartment (Royal Palm Resort), and went for breakfast nearby. The kind lady at the reception told us that the room would likely be ready before 12pm! She also directed us to a nearby cafe - Dune Cafe, that had a playground for kids. It was one lovely cafe where we had our first meal in Gold Coast! It was such a lovely cafe I have to show you!! (Expensive though. We spent AUD$50 just for breakfast =P)
Enjoying the sights along the way to the cafe. Very, very clean country!
Love how happy my kids look. =D
I really like how laid back and relaxing this cafe is. It's semi-alfresco, so it's comfortable with the cold wind blowing. I wonder how is it like during summers though - I don't see any fans installed in this cafe.
There was also an area for kids at the outer patio of the cafe, with colouring pencils for them to doodle. Just in front of the cafe is the beautiful beach.
Fresh muffins and all the pretty-looking sandwiches.
My mother-in-law ordered one of the chocolate chips & cinnamon muffin - Pretty huge and not cheap at AUD$4.50.
I ordered a kids' breakfast of bacons, eggs and toast, and it was BIG and super yummy.
The girls had pancakes (thick & fluffy OMG) with ice-cream.
Papa Isaiah had ham & cheese panini sandwich.
After a yummy breakfast, we took the girls across the green grass patch to the playground!
So pretty really. What a view to have breakfast to, don't you think? =)
The playground looked like fun! The awesomest thing was that no matter how hard Joey played, she sweated not a single drop of sweat. Haha! Way too awesome I say!
Wine barrels as swings. Coolness.
While the girls busied themselves at the playground, I was just enjoying the cool breeze, warm sun and the sound of the sea waves. I can so get used to a life like this. Seriously, every vacation should be so! I've enough of rushing from place to place on a holiday! Slowing down is so much more relaxing for the mind and soul.
More travelogues coming up... :)
