Our Family holiday to the Gold Coast
Our annual family holiday this year was to the Gold Coast. We decided to stay in Australia this time as traveling with 2 young children on a plane for 10 hours + just doesn't have the same ring to it as it once did... (not that traveling on a plane for that long ever sounds great, but it is certainly 1000 times easier than doing it with toddlers/threenagers). So a 45 minute trip on a plane sounded perfect.
We had 2 weeks away with a 20 month old and a 3.5 year old. Here are some of our tips/recommendations:
1. Buy the 4 park pass - it was great, so cheap as we only had to pay for 2 adults and 1 child and it meant that we could go for 1/2 days and get the littlest home for a nap and still had time for a swim in the afternoon/beach visit. There was plenty to do with the little ones at each park for the 4 hours we were there each day, and amazingly they both loved most of the shows including the Dolphin show at Seaworld.
2. Take a packed lunch. I bought a thermal bag before we left for our trip and packed my Sinchies Reusable pouches. Once we arrived at our hotel i made lots of sandwiches which i placed in the freezer then each morning quickly packed our bag for the day. This saved so much money and the kids were still eating healthy wholesome food instead of hot chips and nuggets everyday.
3. Turtle Beach Resort - great accommodation but would probably better suit older children - say 3 plus. Ours were a little to small to take advantage of the splash zone and the slides but they still had plenty of fun. Mermaid beach was great too, lots of great little restaurants, close to the beach and Pacific Fair.
4. Robina Town Centre - worth heading out there for dinner, lots of restaurants to choose from, cinema and play areas.
5. Tambourine Mountain - what a lovely place to explore, we went up and visited the glow worm caves and even had a little wine tasting + lunch. Only about 1 hour from the Gold Coast.
Was a great trip and we all had a ball... we hope some of our tips will help you out when choosing where to go for your next holiday!