South East Queensland
Destinations
Every main destination in Queensland
Tours, attractions, caravan parks and local guides — all organised by place. Sam pulls these together from what our team's actually visited and what travellers tell us is worth the detour. Pick a destination to start planning.
38 matches
Featured
South East Queensland
Gold Coast
Surfers Paradise beaches, theme parks, the Hinterland rainforest and Byron-adjacent south coast breaks.
Gold Coast
Surfers Paradise
Surfers Paradise is the Gold Coast's headline strip — 4 km of patrolled beach between high-rise apartments and the Q1 SkyPoint deck, with a tram that drops you outside your hotel and the theme parks 20 minutes north.
South East Queensland
Sunshine Coast
Noosa, Mooloolaba, the Glass House Mountains and a laid-back beach-and-hinterland combo.
Sunshine Coast
Noosa
National park headland, Hastings St boutiques and the Everglades — the polished face of the Sunshine Coast.
Far North Queensland
Cairns
Tropical base camp for the Great Barrier Reef, Daintree Rainforest and the Atherton Tablelands.
Far North Queensland
Port Douglas
Boutique reef-and-rainforest town, Four Mile Beach and the most accessible corner of the Daintree.
Central Queensland
Whitsundays
74 islands, Whitehaven Beach, Hamilton and Hayman — the sailing capital of the Great Barrier Reef.
Wide Bay-Burnett
K'gari (Fraser Island)
World's largest sand island — 4WD beaches, Lake McKenzie, the Maheno wreck and dingo-country bushland.
Queensland coast
Great Barrier Reef
The world's largest coral reef system — dive, snorkel and sail across 2300 km of UNESCO-listed coastline.
All destinations
Cassowary Coast / Family Islands
Bedarra Island
Bedarra Island is a 100-hectare private-island rainforest retreat in the Family Islands group off Mission Beach, with a ten-villa adults-only resort, a fringing reef off the beach and access by helicopter from Cairns or boat from the Cassowary Coast.
Tropical North
Cairns Northern Beaches
Cairns Northern Beaches is the strip of family-friendly beach suburbs north of Cairns CBD — Machans, Holloways, Yorkeys Knob, Trinity, Kewarra, Clifton, Palm Cove and Ellis — linked by the Captain Cook Highway and the base for most family stays in Tropical North Queensland.
Whitsundays
Airlie Beach
Mainland launchpad for the Whitsundays — marina, lagoon and the jump-off for every reef and island trip.
Bundaberg / Coral Coast
Bargara
Bargara is the beach side of Bundaberg — patrolled town beach, a basalt-headland rock pool, and Mon Repos Conservation Park next door (the largest sea-turtle rookery on Australia's eastern mainland, with ranger-guided night tours Nov-Mar).
Gold Coast
Burleigh Heads
Burleigh Heads is the Gold Coast with the volume turned down — a low-rise village wrapped around a national-park headland, a world-class point break, the James Street eat strip and the family-safe Tallebudgera Creek mouth.
Daintree / Tropical North
Cape Tribulation
Cape Tribulation is where the Daintree Rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef — two World Heritage areas colliding at one beach, two hours north of Cairns via the Daintree River cable ferry. No grid power, no mobile signal, strict crocodile rules.
Gold Coast
Coolangatta
Coolangatta sits at the southern tip of the Gold Coast on the Queensland-New South Wales border — home to Snapper Rocks and the Quiksilver Pro, the Greenmount longboard wave, Point Danger lighthouse, and a surf-town beach culture five minutes from Gold Coast Airport.
Sunshine Coast
Coolum Beach
Coolum Beach sits between Maroochydore and Noosa on the Sunshine Coast — a low-key family town anchored by Mount Coolum (208 m basalt outcrop, one-hour return walk) and a patrolled surf beach with quiet coves at the southern Coolum Bays.
Capricornia / Southern GBR
Heron Island
Heron Island is a 16-hectare coral cay 80 km off Gladstone — a soft-luxury resort, a long-running University of Queensland research station, the Southern Great Barrier Reef under your feet, and sea-turtle nesting from November to March.
Wide Bay-Burnett
Hervey Bay
Whale-watching capital and the gateway to K'gari (Fraser Island).
Gold Coast
Main Beach
Main Beach is the quieter, slightly more upmarket Gold Coast suburb directly north of Surfers Paradise — patrolled beach, Tedder Avenue dining, Marina Mirage, Sea World on The Spit and the G:link tram outside the lobby.
Sunshine Coast
Maroochydore
Maroochydore is the practical heart of the Sunshine Coast — the de facto CBD at the mouth of the Maroochy River, with Sunshine Plaza, Cotton Tree Park, a patrolled main beach and Sunshine Coast Airport ten minutes north.
Cassowary Coast
Mission Beach
Mission Beach is a 14 km strip of four villages on far north Queensland's Cassowary Coast — home to the largest population of wild southern cassowaries in Australia, with Dunk Island offshore, beach-landing skydives over the reef, and rainforest meeting the Great Barrier Reef.
Sunshine Coast
Mooloolaba
Mooloolaba is the Sunshine Coast at its most likeable — a walkable beach village just south of Maroochydore with a patrolled north-facing beach, the SEA LIFE aquarium, the Wharf restaurant precinct and a quieter spit-and-lighthouse hinterland.
Cairns Northern Beaches
Palm Cove
Palm Cove is one of Tropical North Queensland's most relaxed beach villages — paperbark melaleucas right to the sand, a low-rise Esplanade of 5-star resorts and day-spas, 25 minutes north of Cairns and halfway to Port Douglas.
Gold Coast
Southport
Southport is the original Gold Coast CBD — low-rise Broadwater foreshore, Commonwealth Games aquatic centre, Magic Mountain water slides, Griffith University campus and the value-priced base for the rest of the strip.
Sunshine Coast Hinterland
Sunshine Coast Hinterland
The Sunshine Coast Hinterland is the volcanic mountain country inland from the beaches — Glass House Mountains, Maleny, Montville, Mapleton villages, Eumundi Markets, Mary Cairncross rainforest reserve and Australia Zoo at Beerwah.
Far North Queensland
Atherton Tablelands
High-country rainforest, waterfalls, crater lakes and boutique farm-gate food behind Cairns.
North Queensland
Townsville
Reef-and-garrison city, Magnetic Island wallabies, Castle Hill and the Museum of Tropical Queensland.
North Queensland
Magnetic Island
A 20-minute ferry from Townsville: koala-bushwalks, Horseshoe Bay and quiet national-park beaches.
Central Queensland
Mackay
Eungella rainforest platypus, Cape Hillsborough sunrise roos and the sugarcane-and-coal heart of CQ.
Central Queensland
Rockhampton
Beef capital, Capricorn Caves and the launchpad for Great Keppel Island.
Wide Bay-Burnett
Bundaberg
Rum, turtles at Mon Repos and the southern reef island gateway (Lady Elliot, Lady Musgrave).
South East Queensland
Gold Coast Hinterland
Rainforest walks, glow worms, Tamborine Mountain wineries and Lamington National Park.
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Outback
Outback Queensland
Winton dinosaur trail, Longreach Qantas founders museum, Birdsville, Mount Isa and the Stockman's Hall of Fame.
Central Queensland
Gladstone
Harbour city and stepping-stone to Heron Island and the southern Great Barrier Reef cays.
Wide Bay-Burnett
Rainbow Beach
Coloured sand cliffs, Double Island Point 4WD beach and the southern route to K'gari.
Moreton Bay
North Stradbroke Island
"Straddie" — Moreton Bay's big sand-island cousin: gorges, surf beaches and 20+ beach camping areas.