The Gold Coast, an hour's drive from Brisbane, is Australia's busiest holiday region with beautiful surf beaches and family theme parks, and considered Australia's equivalent of America's Miami Beach. Some 4 million visitors arrive each year to holiday along the Gold Coast's 70 km of coastline, which includes no less than 35 famously beautiful beaches. The Gold Coast is a surfer's Mecca. The southern beaches are the best and Kirra Point said to have one of the 10 best breaks in the world.

Shopping, restaurants, nightlife, family entertainment, high-rise hotels, golf, fishing, sailing, surfing and unbelievably good weather -around 300 days of sunshine per year - are the trademark features of what has become Australia's biggest and busiest holiday destination.

The Gold Coast theme parks have become, since the 1980s, one of the region's most popular attractions. Wet 'n'Wild Water World is Australia's largest aquatic park, Dreamworld has many rollercoaster rides and other attractions one can find in the Theme parks, SeaWorld is the largest marine park in the Southern Hemisphere, offering performances by dolphins, seals, sea-lions and penguins and Warner Bros Movie World offers visitors the chance to “meet” their favourite Hollywood characters and see the business of movie-making up close.

To the west within only 30 minutes beyond the bustling coastal strip lies the Gold Coast Hinterland. Here, superb natural landscape of tropical rainforests, unusual rock formations and cascading waterfalls offers visitors opportunities for bushwalking, camping and wildlife-watching.