[Quick 1 Minute Highlight Video in my previous post. Click here if you haven't seen it]
If you guys follow me on Instagram, you would know that I recently came back from another Australia trip this year. This time, I checked off Gold Coast and Brisbane off my Australia To-Go List.
I went with my buddy in crime, my best friend and my fiance (ha ha ha I haven't use that word around much - still prefer boyfriend because we are young and cheeky like that). Instead of going the conventional route of booking a hotel room or an Airbnb room, cheapo me decided we should get a campervan instead because
1. Transport will be covered
2. So will our accomodations
3. Yat already have his license
4. It is so much cheaper to rent a campervan than to rent a car and stay in a hotel room that we won't even be in most of the time
5. It's a good practice for Yat for his driving skills
6. It allows me to build trust in him lol because I'm putting my life in his hands
Yat was quite reluctant at first because he just passed his license in May this year and haven't been getting much driving time so his confidence was not all that high but when I showed him the figures for renting a car + booking rooms for our stay there next to the cost of getting a campervan, Yat was more than happy to pick the campervan life.
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F L I G H T S
I booked our flights via Scoot for a total of $799.82 for two pax return air tickets. We decided we don't need meals on board or the extra luggage so we were just going to go with a 7kg hand carry (yeah right 7kg). However, seeing how we are going on Scoot, I did not skimp out on the travel insurance because well, it's Scoot.
Here's a breakdown of the flight cost :
Flight : $681.82 or $340.91 per pax with tax
Travel Insurance : $78 or $39 per pax
Credit Card Processing Fee : $40 or $20 per pax
Total : $799.82 or $399.91 per pax all inclusive ✔️
Tip : Look out for Scoot's Take Off Tuesday deals on every Tuesday from 7am to 9am. I bought mine when it was $149 one way without tax. Just a few days ago, it was going at $119 one way without tax for travels up to 8/12/16. You'll definitely save up to $60 per pax compared to my price!
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A C C O M O D A T I O N & T R A N S P O R T
So if you read the huge chunk above, you will notice that we took campervan instead of renting a room and a car during our stay. For this, we rented through Jucy and our campervan is equipped with a burner stove, a cooler, a bed and a pump sink. We have almost everything we possibly need in that campervan and if any of you ever think of choosing the same option, we definitely encourage it!
We took the Jucy Crib and it cost us AUD$30 per day. So from Monday 17 October till Monday 24 October, it cost us AUD$240 in total just for the campervan. It is really cheap! Especially if you compare getting a room and a car to travel around. The average price for a decent room with at least a stove cost about AUD$100/night and a car rental is at AUD$15/day for the cheapest car!
Breakdown :
Campervan : $240 for 8 days or $30 per day
GPS : $64 or $8 per day (optional)
Camping Chairs : $16 or $8 per chair
Total : $320
Ps. We took the risk-taker choice, where we didn't take up any insurance for the car in event of any accident. But in order to do that, you need to lock $3000 with them and if anything happens, they will turn it into a transaction. If the vehicle is returned in original state, they will release the $3000 bond back within 5-7 working days.
They have two insurance choice so pick the one that suits your gut more. Hahaha. If you think something bad is gonna happen, get the full coverage for $30/day and it covers you if anything happen during the trip!
Note : Prices are all in AUD.
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I T I N E R A R Y
1️⃣ DAY ONE - MONDAY
TOUCHDOWN! We took the flight at 10pm on Sunday night and reached Gold Coast Airport at about 8am. It's about 7 hours plane ride and Australia is 2 hours earlier than Singapore (i.e if Singapore is 11am, it will be 1pm in Australia).
The first thing we did was to get a sim card each. I initially wanted to just get one sim card and we could use the other's personal hotspot but Yat was like, ahh nevermind let's get one each. It cost $30 each and have 3GB of data. Yat managed to finish up his data by the end of the trip at the airport and I still have 1GB of data left by the time we reach Gold Coast Airport to head home.
If you're just into Instagram and using of GPS and Whatsapp, it's a pretty safe bet that it can last you for more than 2 weeks. Yat finished his because he was streaming videos on Facebook. -.-
We called Jucy to request for a pick up at the airport and they reached in 15 minutes and we are at Jucy Rentals in 10 minutes or less!
Inspected the vehicle and get all that we need and we were on the road within 30 minutes! They were that efficient!
Our first destination was Main Beach Tourist Park. I didn't make any reservation before hand because we were not sure if we want to go YOLO and park anywhere or head to a campsite. We decided to pick a campsite for the first two days because Yat is still trying to get used to driving the van.
Main Beach Tourist Park is located about 6 minutes drive away from Surfers Paradise BUT because the Gold Coast 600 race was happening when we were there, some roads have been blocked and we had to make some detour.
It was a 30 minutes drive from Jucy Rental to Main Beach Tourist Park.
It cost about $92 for two nights and they have a two-nights minimum stay. So you're paying $46 per night to park your campervan, hook it up to the electrical and water socket and use their facilities which include a small pool, kitchen and really clean toilets.
Once we reached, we rested for awhile before making our way to Warners Bro Movie World which is about 20 minutes drive away.
We reached about 3pm and their theme park close at 5pm. We missed most shows but the rides were still open. It wasn't much of a queue because I think it was already quite late in the afternoon and most people would have already been on it. The most we waited was 20 minutes maximum for a ride. We walked around, took photos like a typical tourist and enjoyed the rides.
I know I sound like a douche, but I didn't really enjoy much there because their rides isn't all that exciting except for the Ben 10 ride.
3/5 stars for Warner Bros Movie World
We headed back to Main Beach Tourist Park after that and pretty much just try to settle in our campervan for the night.
2️⃣ DAY TWO - TUESDAY
DREAMWORLD! We woke up pretty early because of the sun! Slept with the sun roof open and it was enough to cool us during the night. The wind in Gold Coast at night feels like an air-conditioning unit, that's for sure. We had breakfast and it was our first meal cooked on our campervan stove!
We had buttermilk pancakes with bananas and maple syrup! All thanks to Yat and his kitchen skills.
By 10am, we were all showered and dressed up as we set drove off to Dreamworld as they open their gates at 10am. Initially wanted to be there by 10am but because we are very Melayu, so we were of course late by 30 minutes at the very least hehe.
We thought we would be done by 2pm so that we can head to Whitewater World next door but by the time we finished all the rides (especially the BIG9), it was already almost 4pm. We wanted to also make our way to Continental Halal Meat store that closes at 6pm so we had to choose between Meat store or Whitewater World and of course food wins. Food wins every time lol.
So we packed up, had our late lunch at Dreamworld and made our way to Continental Halal Meat Store. We bought marinated steaks and cheese sausage! Hurray! We no longer have to be vegetarian hahahahaha.
After which, we headed back to Main Beach Tourist Park to wash up and cook our steaks for dinner!
One thing I realized is that we slept pretty early when we are there. By 10 or the latest 11pm, we would be too exhausted and have the lights off and snoring activated.
ps. We heard about the fatalities that happened in Dreamworld the day after we got back from this trip and would like to express our deepest condolences to the affected families.
3️⃣ DAY THREE - WEDNESDAY
TIME TO CHECK OUT. Check out time was 10am and we were up by 8 for breakfast and shower.
Our first destination for the day was Jet Boating over at Surfers Jet that is located about 15 minutes away from Main Beach Tourist Park. The earliest timing they had for us was at 12 and since we had time to spare, we headed to Surfers Paradise for a quick dip! Yat had a go at the water while I just sat on their soft, white sand. I love the soft sand. It is definitely way different than what we have at East Coast Park or even Tanjong Beach at Sentosa.
We parked at Marriott Hotel and realized that it was cheaper to park at the hotel than the street of Surfers Paradise. 0-3hours parking at Marriott cost us only $2 while 1 hour parking at Surfers Paradise streets cost us $3.60. Per hour!
After Jet Boating, we headed to Springbrook National Park for the Purling Falls. But because we reached the place at 3.30pm, we were afraid we won't make it out of the forest before the sky turns dark. Generally, Australia gets dark really early and most of their roads are unlit so it gets pretty dangerous to drive at night.
We only managed to head to a few outlook points on the circuit.
Then the dark engulfs us and we found ourselves somewhere back in Coolangatta, parked at Queen Elizabeth Park Carpark. We spent the night in our campervan, overlooking the beach. Please do this at your own risk. It is not exactly legal to overnight at the carpark so we definitely went YOLO with our sleeping choices lol.
4️⃣ DAY FOUR - THURSDAY
RISE AND SHINE! We were up by 6 because we had an hour drive ahead of us. We were supposed to be at Skydive Byron Bay at 8.10 but we didn't realize that Skydive Byron Bay was located in New South Wales and that means they were 1 hour earlier than us! So our 8.10 was their 9.10 and the person on the line did not specify with us if they meant 8.10 NSW time or 8.10 QLD time. But we thought it was better to be safe than sorry so we chose to be there at 8.10 NSW time but still managed to be late and reach at 8.30 NSW time lol.
SKYDIVE!!! We finally braved through it and went for it! The feeling is indescribable and I can't really put into words the whole experience but one thing I would say is that YOU DEFINITELY NEED TO TRY THIS AT LEAST ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!
The free-falling feeling... goosebumps. Thinking about it just gives me goosebumps hahaha. Try it! Try it!
It cost us $766.95 in total. The jump itself was only $259 per pax. But I took the video and photo combo at $160 per pax while Yat took the photo package only at $104. They were having $10 off if you vote for them in this competition so we did it and got $20 off that we used to offset Yat's photo package so it was only $84 for Yat's photos!
We were really lucky because we got it at a really cheap price as they were having their October promotion. A friend of mine went there a few weeks earlier than us and paid $933.95 for the skydive with the photo and video package. We save almost $96 if Yat had taken the video package as well.
Always compare prices because I actually visited a few skydiving companies website before settling on one that fits our budget!
By the time we were done collecting our certs and photos and videos, it was already almost noon. We then decided to visit Byron Bay Lighthouse so we drove down for about 30 minutes. The carpark up at the lighthouse was full so we had to park somewhere on the lower part and climb all the way up for about 15 minutes on a very steep hill.
But it was worth it! The view from up there was spectacular!
We then looked down and saw there was steps leading down to a very beautiful place but it was definitely gonna be a very steep descend. Then we decided, what the heck right, let's do this. We went down the steps for about 15 minutes to reach this place.
AND HAD TO CLIMB UP AGAIN. The climb up was heartbreaking and also knee-breaking. Then I found out that running up the steps was so much easier than slowly climbing it up hahahaha. So I ran up. Trust me, it helps.
After the lighthouse, we visited Byron Bay Beach. The highlight of Byron Bay Beach is how I almost lose my GoPro again. I left it in the public toilet after changing hahahaha but after 10 minutes, I realized I am not holding on to it, I ran back to the toilet ONLY TO SEE IT GONE.
I was devastated. I didn't even manage to save the earlier pictures. It was Krabi 2015 all over again. I wanted to cry. My mood was gone...
Then this guy came up to us and ask if we were looking for a GoPro. OH MY GOD. MY SAVIOUR!!!
I am the queen of clumsiness.
I shouldn't be holding on to a GoPro.
GoPro hates me.
GoPro God hates me.
I'm never meant to have a GoPro.
But the day went well after that. I was a happy camper, smiling and laughing and grinning like a total idiot while Yat just manage to shake his head looking at my antics.
But I finally jump into the sea! The water was C-O-L-D! But the waves were good and mighty, though nothing compared to Surfers Paradise's waves.
After Byron Bay Beach, we headed to Burleigh Beach for a lepak session just overlooking the beach and set up our camping chair. Found out their beach have a shower cubicle so we took the opportunity to shower there too heheh.
At about 5pm, we set off to drive to Brisbane. We spent the night over at the outskirts of Brisbane, at Boxhead Park in Lota. That was definitely one of my scariest stay, because I was so scared of getting evicted from the parking space hahahaha.
We were parking in a residential area, even though it was overlooking a beach. The residents could pretty much just call the cops on us anytime but thankfully they did not! Hehe.
5️⃣ DAY FIVE - FRIDAY
Woke up to a playground view and clean public toilet, though without a shower. But it's okay. We try to make do with what we have. Brushed our teeth, wash our face and cleared our bowels are all that we need.
Made our way to Mount Gravatt Outlook and loving the view of Brisbane from the top.
We then drove to Archerfield Airport for our 20mins Coastal Scenic Flight with the view of Brisbane and spent an hour sleeping in the van because we were too early and had nowhere to go haha. This cost us $139 for two pax and it was a great experience for Yat because he gets to sit at the cockpit with the captain.
After the flight, we headed to have lunch back in Upper Mount Gravatt. We had lunch at Dominos after realizing most of the Halal eateries around the area open after 2pm due to Friday prayers.
Full and done with lunch, we headed to Brisbane CBD for our rock climbing session at Kangaroo Point. This was also one of the highlight of my trip! I thought we were only going to do one climb up (because it was really tiring) but we managed to climb up twice on varying difficulty!
The view from the top while you're hanging from your harness and letting go of your hands was breathtaking. It was about 6.45 in the evening by then and the sky was getting dark but the city of Brisbane was lighting up. It was calm and serene when you're at the top.
After rock climbing, we drove 20 minutes to the Eat Street Market that happens only on Fridays and Saturdays. It starts at 4pm and ends at 10pm, so you have plenty of time! We didn't have to wait very long for a carpark lot, so we were quite fortunate!
EAT STREET MARKET WAS THE BOMB!
I mean, you have to pay an entrance fee of $2.50 per person but it definitely beats Singapore's pasar malam hands down. The food there was incredible. There's cronuts, donuts, ice cream, milk shake and evey other desserts you can possibly think of. But my favourite is definitely Locomades' Cinnamon Balls Sundae!!!
If you are not in Brisbane, you can also get them at Surfers Paradise in Gold Coast! They have a store there too! Highly recommended!
Also, if you're driving or thinking of catching a movie the old school way, you can check out their Eat Street Drive In Movies! It's $11 per pax for this and covers your fee for Eat Street Market too!
You can check out about Eat Street Market here : https://www.eatstreetmarkets.com/
After all that food coma, we set our GPS to Noosa Head National Park. It was about an hour drive away but it was really dark after we got off from the highway. I was scared so I didn't even look up and focused on the map hahahaa.
We spent the night at Noosa Beach's carpark. I was too tired so I zonked out first while Yat did his hippie thing and sat on the beach, in the cold night, looking at the sea.
6️⃣ DAY SIX - SATURDAY
We got up about 5 in the morning because we heard a loud knock on the door. We quickly opened the door in our groggy state and came face to face with a police officer telling us that we were not allowed to overnight here. It was supposed to be a fine but he let us go this time (THANK GOD!).
We quickly drove out of the lot and found another parking space where we parked for awhile to go get our morning business done. Then, we went around searchung for another carpark nearer to the National Park and walked 15 minutes to the entrance of Noosa National Park.
From the entrance to the Fairy Pool, it took us about 30 minutes or so to get there. I wore my shoes because I don't really fancy wearing slippers when I have to walk on uneven pavement (read : sand, rocks and everything else) but Yat said he was comfortable with the slippers he had on so it is definitely up to you guys level of comfort.
Once we reached the Fairy Pool point, we had to climb down the rocks to get to the Fairy Pool. This is where it gets tricky. You need to be careful because if not you might hit your shin, knees or your face on the rock if you miss a step.
You have to be extra careful when you are going in to the water because the rocks gets very slippery! So be extra, extra careful!
After about an hour there enjoying the view and swimming in it, we decided to head back because we can only park our vehicle for a maximum of 3 hours. If we were caught parking for more than 3 hours, we could be fine and we don't need that.
Walked back and I felt like I already burned 600 calories just going up and down because for every 10 minutes you walk, you burn about 100 calories and we were climbing up and going down hills! Under the sun! But hey, I'm not complaining because their cool breeze makes me want to do just about anything under their sun. Lol.
After cleaning up in the public toilet located near their carpark, we drove for about 7 minutes to get to this really wonderful place for lunch.
It's called Maisie's Seafood and Steakhouse and they are located at 247 Gympie Terrace, Noosaville QLD 4566, Australia.
We ordered the Turkish Bread with 3 dipping sauce for starters AND I LOVE IT. I love bread but this bread is really soft and out of the 3 dipping sauce, we only really enjoyed one of them. It was the orange one in the picture and we forgot what it was called but if you are ever there, you should get this too. For yourself. Don't share it. Really. It's only about $12(?) for this plate so it is okay to splurge on yourself sometimes.
That is not even the best part yet!
We ordered a whole lobster with Mornay sauce. Mornay is a creamy cheese sauce and our first bite into it was heavenly. Yat was doing that eye rolling, orgasmic eye thingy when he had his first bite hahahahahahaha. This was our first time eating lobsters, but it is safe to say that we are hooked. What is crab when lobster is the bomb right?
And for that plate, it was only $49! If you get the half lobster, it will cost you like $36 so you might as well add another $13 to get the other half. Hahaha.
After being in lobster heaven for approximately 30 minutes, we made our way to Gardner Falls for our waterfall fix.
It is not half as great as Kota Tinggi but they had the Tarzan swing that Yat seems to enjoy flying from. I am too chicken for that because I cannot swim so yeah.
Actually, I think I can swim. I just can't seem to float. Hmph.
After spending about an hour there, we head back on the road and proceed to Glass House Mountains.
The plan was to hike up because a friend of Yat mentioned it was only 2 hours hike up and down but because it was already going to 3 and again, I do not want to get stuck in forest when it is getting dark, we decided to just drive up to the lookout point.
And that, we didn't regret.
The view was incredible. We can see a lot of other mountains from the top of Glass House Mountain. This is definitely one of the place I would suggest you to go if you have the time!
When we are done breathing in the view, we made our way back to Brisbane CBD area for Wheel of Brisbane.
Wheel of Brisbane is located on the Southbank. It is a small ferris wheel when you compare it to Singapore Flyer and it is only a 12-minutes ride, BUT YOU GET THE WHOLE CABIN TO YOURSELF! You don't have to share it with... you know... noisy China tourists who would lie down on the bench or talk to loud you can't even hear yourself think.
The actual price for it was $19 per adult but I got it via Groupon.au for $21 for two pax! Hehe.
By the time we were done with the Wheel of Brisbane, we were so hungry so we went searching for food. There's a row of shops about 5 minutes walk away from Wheel of Brisbane that sell Halal food like kebabs, pizza and pasta!
Also, did I mention how we parked at Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre and how their 0-2 hours parking charges is $18?
$18 FOR TWO HOURS PARKING ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????
But anyway, I only saw that when we went through the entry so there was no turning back so yup.
After filling up our stomachs to the brim, we drove to Victoria Park Parking Lot for the night. The plan was to only get a short rest before heading down to Gold Coast, but with all the food and the day we had, we decided to sleep there for the night. It was raining so we didn't have the sunroof open, BUT IT WAS COLD IN THE CAMPER. It's like an aircon was switched on and we slept like a baby through the night.
7️⃣ DAY SEVEN - SUNDAY
We woke up about 6.30 in the morning, with a light drizzle and cold wind. No breakfast because it was too cold for us to function so we just switch to driving and navigator mode and set off to Harbour Town Outlet Shopping Centre which is about an hour drive away.
We reached about 8 plus and the stores open at 10 so we had cereals for breakfast and Yat had a short nap while waiting for the clock to turn 10.
We walked around for a bit when the stores open and I guess because we were already too broke to spend on anything, we pretty much just window shop. Our only takeaway from Harbour Town was a happy stomach filled with burgers and fries from Kofteburger. It is Halal so you can imagine our jizz faces when we bite into our beef burgers hahahaha. It was so goooooood!
After Harbour Town, we head over to Wet and Wild where the parking looked a little unoccupied. Not surprised since it was raining in the morning and I can fully bet that it was gonna be cold water everywhere in that theme park.
We took almost every ride and spent about 2 hours in there because there was hardly any queue at all. The most we waited was like 3 minutes? Though I must warn you, the steps to all those rides require you to be fit lol. I almost died going up all those steps, carrying (partly) the big buoy. That was absolutely un-fun.
After wet and wild, we cleaned up at the park and then head straight to Sea World where we reached at 3.30 and the park closes at 5 so most of the animal shows were over haha.
You have to admit though, their SEA World is quite impressive. They have a handful of rides like roller coaster and water log that you kind of feel the entrance fee was worth it.
We did not get to see much of the animals but it was okay. I get to see a big penguin up and personal! Unlike the one I get to see in Melbourne over at Phillip Island, this one was bigger AND I GET TO SEE IT UP CLOSE OMGOSH.
We had our last Fish and Chips overlooking Surfers Paradise Beach for $5 for quite a fair share.
At night, we camped outside Jucy Rentals over at Coolangatta so that we didn't have to drive back there in the morning before heading to the airport.
8️⃣ DAY EIGHT - MONDAY
TIME TO GO HOME. Meh. Our flight got delayed for more than 2 hours because it is Scoot (duh) but it wasn't enough hours delayed for us to claim insurance (it has to be more than 6 hours delayed to be eligible like who made this rule right? Like you caused me inconvenience, I had nothing to eat in the airport, I was starving, I could have died but do you care? No. You only care about yourself.)
And we are back in sunny Singapore by 5 and not enjoying the sun as much. Sobs.
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A C T I V I T I E S
Just for a quick recap, here is a list of activities we did when we were there and the prices for two pax!
Skydive : A$766.95 (Skydive Byron Bay)
Movie World + Sea World + Wet & Wild : A$160 (Groupon Australia)
Jet Boating : A$68 (Groupon Australia)
Dreamworld : S$60 (we bought the tickets from a Carousell user hehe)
Coastal Scenic Flight : A$139 (Groupon Australia)
Rock Climbing + Abseiling : A$76 (Groupon Australia)
Wheel of Brisbane : A$21 (Groupon Australia)
Total spent on activities : A$1290.95 so it was about S$1380.
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E X P E N S E S
Flights : $799.82
Visa : $43
Campervan : $343
Campsite : $98.44
Petrol : $175
Activities : $1380
We spent about $2835 for two pax if you exclude the food and shopping that we did in there. When we said shop, it means souvenirs because we did not really have space for anything else in our hand carry bag. This trip was definitely worth it!
My skin is burnt beyond recognition (haha drama) and my back still hurts from sleeping on that hard bed and sitting from long hours, but I would do it all over again.
