Thing to do
Miami Marketta
Laneway street food night market in Miami, open from 5pm Wednesday to Saturday, with food stalls, free live music, a gin bar and an adults-only lounge.
Year-round water park at Oxenford with racing slides, tube rides, the KABOOM! drop slide and a large splash zone and junior slides for young children.
Good to know
Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast is the big water park in the theme park area at Oxenford, on Entertainment Road on the northern Gold Coast. It operates year-round, closing only on Anzac Day and Christmas Day, and it is one of the most popular ways to spend a hot day on the coast with children or a group of friends. Its rides span everything from gentle splash areas to steep drops, and the park shares Entertainment Road with Warner Bros. Movie World.
For thrill seekers, KABOOM! is one of the newest rides, combining a 10-metre drop, a zero-gravity climb and a full 360-degree rotation at speeds of up to 41 kilometres an hour, and Zoom Zone has been promoted as a new thrill attraction too. Double Barrel is a 12-metre-high tube slide, Super Ripper offers two body slides from the same height, and Constrictor sends riders through a tunnel entry into a tube slide. The Super 8 Aqua Racer has multiple lanes over an 86-metre run, so groups can race each other to the bottom.
Younger children are well catered for. H2Oasis is a tropical splash zone covering 870 square metres, designed for little ones but with room for adults to join in, and the Wet'n'Wild Junior area has eight slides sized for children. That makes the park a good choice for families with mixed ages, where older children can head for the big slides while parents stay with toddlers.
Opening hours change with the seasons and are shorter on many weekdays outside the summer holidays, so check the park information page for the dates of your visit. Allow most of a day. Bring sunscreen, a hat and a towel, and plan to reapply sun protection regularly. The park is cashless, accepting card and digital payments only, and queue lines can close before the park itself does. Some rides may not run in bad weather or during maintenance, and the Theme Parks app shows maps and wait times.
Without a car, take the tram, a bus or the train to Helensvale station and change to the TX7 bus, which runs every 15 minutes in the morning; from Brisbane, take the train to Coomera and change to the TX7. Theme park transfers can also be booked with Con-x-ion. Guest Services can be reached by phone, and wheelchair reservations are handled by the Guest Services office.
Yes. It operates year-round and closes only on Anzac Day (25 April) and Christmas Day.
Entertainment Road, Oxenford, on the northern Gold Coast.
Yes. H2Oasis is an 870 square metre splash zone for little ones, and Wet'n'Wild Junior has eight slides for children.
A ride with a 10-metre drop, a zero-gravity climb and a 360-degree rotation, reaching up to 41 km/h.
No. The park is cashless and accepts card and digital payments only.
Travel to Helensvale station and take the TX7 bus. From Brisbane, take the train to Coomera and change to the TX7.
Yes. Hours vary by season and day, so check the park information page before you go.
Guest Services is on 07 5556 1610; booking enquiries go to 13 10 11.
Café
Bakery cafe in a restored Queenslander house in Burleigh Heads, known for wood-fired breads and pastries, doughnuts and coffee, open seven days from 6am.
Tour operator
Gold Coast jet boat operator since 2004, running 50-minute rides with high-speed spins and drifts and a sightseeing run along South Stradbroke Island.
Restaurant
Beachfront restaurant on Burleigh Beach serving pan-Asian sharing plates built on Australian produce, best known for its Moreton Bay bug roll.
Attraction
Observation deck on levels 77 and 78 of the Q1 tower in Surfers Paradise, with 360-degree views from the hinterland to the Pacific and an external…