Surfers Paradise

Last weekend my roommates and some other study abroad students ventured to Surfers Paradise, one of the beaches on the Gold Coast. The Gold coast is a popular tourist location in Queensland, consisting of 35 beaches and evidently 300+ sunny days a year.

Surfers Paradise is the beach on the Coast that is visited by the most tourists, which is completely obvious the moment you arrive.

Surfers Paradise is about a 2 hour commute from our apartment. This consists of a bus, a train, another train, and another bus. We left our apartment early Saturday morning, stayed in a hostel Saturday night, and left the beach at about 3:00 Sunday evening. The area is made up of a beautiful sandy beach right next to an area with high-rises, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs. It is said to be comparable to Daytona Beach or Miami in the US.

We basically spent all say Saturday laying on the beach, and playing in the water. The beauty of the ocean was almost overwhelming when we first arrived. It has been so long since I have seen an ocean, sand, and so much sun that I was taken a bit by surprise.

The water is very warm (compared to what I am used to with Lake Michigan) and usually the salt bothers my skin and eyes but this time it did not so I was able to play in the water a bit. The waves were pretty big and there were some people surfing, but it seems as though there are much more popular places to surf on the Gold Coast (contradicting this beach’s name…) All of the local Australians that we spoke to throughout the weekend acted a bit ashamed of Surfers Paradise and said we need to go further south on the Coast to see a real Australian beach and real surfing. Looking back I can see where they are coming from- the area is screaming TOURISM, which gets exhausting even after just 2 days. The palm trees have flashing lights on them at night and there is a bar called Vegas... so the beach is the only relaxation you really get here.

Saturday night we paid to participate in a “Wicked Pub Crawl” which took us to 5 bars on the strip, gave us 1 drink at each bar, and also some food. This did not turn out to be the best night out I have had in Australia.

The drinks were pretty terrible and the music was too loud to think, let alone have a conversation. Most of the girls we were with did have a lot of fun but it was a bit too night-clubby for me. It wasn’t terrible, but I don’t think I need to experience the nightlife at Surfers Paradise again before I leave.

We woke up pretty early and spent the whole day Sunday on the beach, adding to our sunburn and marveling the beauty of the ocean some more. Surprisingly, the beach wasn’t too crowded all weekend, we were able to have our own space and didn’t feel overwhelmed by tourist until we actually got off of the beach near the restaurants and stuff. Basically the weekend was filled with laying, relaxing, and marveling at the beauty of the ocean. It’s very lucky that we are relatively close to the Gold Coast because people travel long distances to see this famous area.

It was definitely a good idea to pay for a hostel and stay the night since the commute was pretty rough. I hope to be able to go back to the Gold Coast but would like to spend time on one of the other beaches that the locals suggested to us. In the mean time, I need to go buy some more sunscreen.