Make the most of your trip to the glorious Goldie with our guide for what do in Broadbeach and surrounds.
South of Surfers Paradise and its glitter strip and north of the laid-back suburbs of Mermaid Beach and Burleigh Heads, Broadbeach offers the best of both worlds.
Find home base
At the heart of ‘Broadie’, with the wide sweep of beach on one side and canals to the other, The Star makes one luxurious base for your next visit to this beautiful coastal city. Between cocktails and dinner beside the rooftop pool at Nineteen at The Star, Sunday sessions at the Garden Kitchen & Bar and your pick of Chinese, Italian and Japanese fine dining, it would take a week to fully appreciate all that the Gold Coast’s premier entertainment precinct has to offer (and that’s even before you discover Azure Spa and the poolside cabanas). But if you decide to roam, the Goldie is waiting just outside your suite.
Hit the beach
If you went to the Gold Coast and didn’t hit the beach, were you even there? On the Pacific Ocean side of Broadbeach, Kurrawa is a picture-perfect stretch of golden sand and clean-breaking waves that is loved by local surfers but inexplicably manages to sneak under many tourist radars. Stretch out on the sands, jump in on a social session with the local beach volleyball club or try your skills at the Gold Coast’s unofficial sport with a lesson from Go Ride a Wave – the popular surf school operates right off the sands of Broadbeach and offers daily private classes.
Shop it up
Home to no less than three distinct shopping precincts, Broadbeach is the Gold Coast’s preferred shopping destination. And the crown jewel is Pacific Fair. With a multi-million-dollar renovation under its belt and more than 400 stores spread around a bright, airy complex, Pacific Fair has become one of the largest retail centres in Australia, with enough luxury brands to make your accountant break into a cold sweat. Gucci, Givenchy, Hermes, Christian Louboutin – the gangs all here – along with Australian designers and cult stores like Sephora. If you’re feeling like a makeover, book in with the dedicated personal shopping department.
Work it out
The sun rises early on the Gold Coast, so make the most of it and join the city’s beautiful people for an open-air workout. Harnessing 300-odd days of sunshine each year, the City of Gold Coast’s Active and Healthy program supports dozens of free or low-cost yoga classes, including weekly classes in Kurrawa Park on Saturdays – just BYO towel.
To get the heart rate a little higher, the parks lining the Broadbeach foreshore are popular for an early-morning jog or cycle. Make a day of it with Beach Bikes, which drops its well-serviced cycles direct to you and collects them once you’re all pedalled out.
Get creative
Think the Gold Coast is all about sun and surf? Well sure, it’s very good at those, but the city’s burgeoning creative scene proves there’s much more going on beneath the surface. Nowhere is this more apparent than at HOTA, the Home of the Arts, which is gearing up for its long-awaited reveal in April 2021. A 15-minute drive north of Broadbeach, the site already offers a cinema, outdoor amphitheatre and expansive parklands. Just south of Broadbeach in Mermaid Beach, 19 Karen is one of the Gold Coast’s best-kept secrets – a contemporary art gallery with six exhibition spaces and a curator with an eye for the next big thing in the art world.
Meet the locals
Before you drag yourself away from the Gold Coast, make time for some of its cutest and cuddliest locals with a jaunt further south to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. A 30-minute drive down the coast will bring you to this iconic wildlife centre, where you’ll encounter native critters including dingoes, koalas and wombats as well as the more exotic residents of the Lost Valley like red pandas, lemurs and iguanas. Best of all, you’ll be supporting the invaluable work of Currumbin Wildlife Hospital – a proud community partner of The Star Gold Coast.
All images courtesy of Tourism & Events Queensland, Destination Gold Coast and The Star Gold Coast.
