Gold Coast Holidays

So you’ve got a cheap flight, and sorted out your accommodation at a discount, what do you do once you are here, to ensure you don’t blow 12 months spending money. 

Naturally, you should start with the Gold Coast beaches.  In fact, you can spend your whole holiday on our beach, and not spend a cent more than you would back at home.  And for such a holiday you’d probably return home fit, happy, tanned and relaxed.  If you don’t mind spending just a few dollars, at a reasonable rate you can hire a surfboard off us that suits your ability, and turn your holiday into a surf trip. 

Research the suburb you are in before you go.  The Gold Coast calendar is packed with free entertainment, from music festivals, to local markets, sporting events and fine food carnivals.  Most of these events show off the talent of the local producers and artists, so they are definately worth checking out.

If you have access to a car, try the hinterland.  The tamborine and lamington mountains are close and packed with wineries, retreats and natural wonders.  They are definately worth a day trip.

I hope that gives you some ideas.  You can definately do the Gold Coast this year, even if money is a bit tighter

Another costly holiday expense is accommodation.  And as luxurious accommodation on the Gold Coast is becoming more the norm than the exception, finding cheap accomodation options is getting more difficult.  That being said, you still have many alternatives you can look at which can dramatically reduce your cost of holiday accommodation.  Here are some ideas for you

• Loyalty Programs - Many hotel chains and booking services have loyalty programs where patronage will be rewarded by discounts on future accommodation.  HotelClub.com has one which we are particularly impressed with.  You can use the rewards earned in this program with any of the hotels they take bookings for.  Now is a good time to use those points to help fund a cheap holiday.  Or if you are not a member, join up today so your holidays today contribute to future holidays.
• Hotel Comparison Services - Use a comparison services to get the best holiday deal, by comparing the rates and current discounts from all the hotels in the area.  With our partners Howzat, we have put such a search engin on our Hotel Reservations page.  Now is the best time to use such services, as the hotels are desperately trying to win your business, and out pricing the competition is one of their ways they are doing this.
• Accommodation Alternatives - You don’t have to stay in a hotel.  On the Gold Coast we have Inns, Backpackers Hostels, Caravan Parks and camping grounds.  There are many cheaper alternatives to 5 star hotels. 

So the point is, you do not have to make your next Gold Coast holiday, all or nothing.  You can tone down some parts of it to ensure you still have your annual break.  And there are so many alternatives to “5 star” on the Gold Coast, that accommodation is a great place where you can cut expense without cutting the quality of your stay.

Flights are often one of the most expensive elements of your holiday.  So when money gets tighter, flights are always a good place to start when cutting costs.  Here are some quick fire ways you can reduce your airline costs, while still enjoying holidays when you need them

• Use an Airline Reservation Comparison Service.  We have set up one on our site for your convenience: You can Find The Cheapest Airfare with little or no hassle by getting such comparison services to do the work for you
• Use loyalty programs to maximum advantage.  There are so many frequent flyer and credit card reward programs out there, that you can use previous holidays and even your day by day living habits, to completely fund your flights.  All you will have to pay is the tax component of your flights, saving you 80 - 90% of the expense
• Use only discount airlines.  Sign up to their email newsletters and keep an eye out for their special deals.  They have them all the time, I get emails every week.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they seem to be in the middle of a discount war.  You can use this to your advantage by just keeping an eye on the special deals they offer.

When planning your holiday, its important to think ahead.  Most people pay 40% more than they have to because in not planning ahead, they fail to take advantage of the every day deals that are available.  So start thinking and looking for airline deals, at least 9 months in advance, using the 3 tips I have given you above.

Well, the surf is definately down this week.  Its less than a foot.  The good thing about this though is that its given me an extra hour a day to think about the information I am going to add to the site this month.  Given rising interest rates, petrol prices, rents etc, I have the perfect topic.

What I thought I’d do this month is put together some information about making a Gold Coast holiday CHEAP.  How do you get here and have a ball on a budget.  I’ll look at accommodation, flights, surfboard rentals (of coarse) and other attractions.  So stay tuned.

My girlfriend recently took me, her mother and ther sister to the Australian Outback Spectacular theatre restaurant. This to my mind, is undoubtebtedly the best show the Gold Coast has to offer, in the theatre restaurant type of venue.

I wrote a quick review of the evening at the following link: Gold Coast Attractions: Australian Outback Spectacular

One of the things we really like doing at Gold Coast Surfboards, is visiting the array of tourist attractions on the Gold Coast and reviewing them based on our experiences.  That way, you can plan your next trip a bit easier, based on real life experiences up here.  Recently I took my parents to a place one of my clients raved about, Tropical Fruit World.  I must admit, I was a bit dubious about this excursion, which is why I took my parents and not my mates.  But I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with the day, it was well worth the trip to Duranbah on the Goldy’s south.  Here is our review: Gold Coast Attractions - Tropical Fruit World

Hey all, just a quick post this time to let you know we have put together an information page for backpackers, travelling through Australia’s Gold Coast.  It covers where to get your backpacker “activities” type of info, where to find accommodation, and of course, how to get your surfboard.  (Ie, hire a surfboard from us!)  Here is the page for Gold Coast Backpackers

May 2008, I was lucky enough to be gifted a free night tour through the Currumbing Wildlife Sanctuary.  It was a pretty amazing experience, one which I recommend to all Gold Coast holiday makers, and locals for that matter.  Its just not that often we are lucky enough to see Australia’s nocturnal creatures this close, and this close to their natural habitats.  So if you get the chance, try to get along to the Sanctuary’s Wildnight Adventure

I wrote a review of the evening, which you can read about here: Gold Coast Attractions: Currumbin Wildnight Adventure

Its funny, running a surfboard hire company, and enjoying the best Australia has to offer the surfing world, I often forget just how diverse and special Australia’s Gold Coast really is.  But this last weekend was one of those rare ones when I was reminded what a beuatiful life we have up here, and just how much we have to offer to the millions of holidaying visitors we are lucky to host each year.

As a bit of background to my re-awakening weekend, my partner and I are recently pregnant with our first baby.  This baby, a blessing though it definitally is for us, was not 100% planned and therefore our preparations for “family” were a little behind where we would ideally have liked them.  That being the case, we have really dug in over the last 2 - 3 months, working our butts off to pay off credit cards and buy baby stuff, so we will be ready when our pride and joy arrives in September.  As such, we have not really gotten out much recently, we’ve turned a bit hermitic.

This weekend was a long weekend for us Queenslanders though.  We had the Monday free, an extra day without work.  So on the friday night, we had some friends fly up from Sydney and take us out for a night on the town.  Given our lack of society recently, it was nothing short of awesome.  We started by having dinner at one of the restaurants along the classy strip that is Broadbeach, having a truly delicious meal, before heading in and enjoying the Gold Coast night life at Surfers Paradise.  We’d almost forgotten just how fun the night life on the Goldy really is.

After sleeping late on the Saturday, my partner and I packed ourselves into our car and drove as little as 1 hour to have a weekend away from the beach, and explore the beautiful Gold Coast hinterland.  This mountainous area really is sensationl, hosting some amazing wineries (which I enjoyed much more than my pregnant wife :-)), some superbly relaxing retreats (which she enjoyed more than me) and the perfect balance of peace and serenity to ensure we came back home fully recharged and ready to face the daily grind again.  Spending a couple of days exploring the Gold Coast’s hinterland is a must if you are planning to visit us.  You will really start to get a feel for the diversity Queensland’s Gold Coast has to offer, if you include this on your holiday agenda.

And then on the Monday, we took a circuitous trip home, stopping for a spot of lunch on the way back which also gave us the opportunity to enjoy a few hours of fishing.  We were casting out into one of the Gold Coast’s estuaries from the banks, near the river mouth and the ocean.  And as we were enjoying this peaceful couple of hours (despite catching nothing!) I couldn’t help but reflect what a fishing paradise we had on our doorstep also.  I could see a sting of surf fishermen less than 500m away, casting out into the ocean from the beach.  At times I watched the little dingys bobbing through the estuaries, finding their little secret spots.  All the while, the deep sea fishing charters where returning from their half day outings, hunting their game fish in the oceans.  What more variety could a fisherman want?

On the way home I could not help but smile and be greatful for the life we have here.  All of the above are just part of our normal daily lives on the Gold Coast, the natural wonders we have to offer and share with you, our welcome visitors.  All of this, and that is even before we start to sell you on our ”special tourist attractions” such as the Gold Coasts themeparks.  Its little wonder you keep coming back.  :-)

So next time you visit, I really hope you get the chance to leave the luxury of the cocktail bar, or the hotel swimming pool, or even the beach and explore our home a little more.  You certainly never will regret it.

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New Gold Coast Surfboards merchandise is released for its customers.

We have added rashies, ladies t-shirts and golfers polo shirts to our growing range of stylish surf fashion accessories.  Visit our accessories page at the following link to view our entire range of accessories: Surf Accessories.  To buy yourself a Gold Coast Surfboards rashie, click through here: Surf Rashies. To suss out our women’s t-shirts, this is your link: Gold Coast Surfboards T-Shirts. And our new polo shirts are here: GCS Golf Shirts

We hope you like our new gear.  We certainly think they all look great!