Things to do in Gold Coast

Nature · Central-southern coast

A world-class right-hand point break wrapping around a rainforest headland, with a beach, a walking track and the coast's best café strip behind it.

Local tip: Do the Oceanview walk around the headland at first light — it is twenty minutes, it is free, and the whale sightings between June and October are from the path rather than a boat. The break itself is for experienced surfers only; the beach north of it is where you actually swim, between the flags.

Nature · Currumbin Valley, 20 minutes inland from the beach

Fresh-water rock pools in a creek valley behind the coast, with rainforest, waterfalls and no development.

Local tip: Go on a weekday morning — the car park fills by nine on weekends and the parking enforcement is real. Ten minutes further up the valley the crowds vanish entirely. This is the standard local answer to a 34°C day when the surf is blown out.

Nature · Hinterland, 45 minutes south-west

A World Heritage remnant of ancient Gondwanan rainforest on a plateau, with Purling Brook Falls, the Natural Bridge and the glow worms inside it.

Local tip: The Natural Bridge glow worm colony is best on a moonless night, and you must not use a torch or a phone screen inside the cave — the light kills the display for everyone. Drive up in the afternoon, walk the falls circuit first, and let the temperature drop ten degrees on the way.

Landmark · Northern end of the beach strip

A long sand spit between the ocean and the Broadwater, with the Seaway walls, Doug Jennings Park and the last undeveloped stretch of the beachfront.

Local tip: The Seaway wall is where locals go to watch the surf on a big swell and where the sand back-passing pipeline pumps sand south to Surfers. Federation Walk Coastal Reserve behind it is the only piece of natural coastal bushland left on the strip and almost nobody uses it.

Food · Central coast, on the light rail corridor

A converted warehouse street-food market with live music, in the middle of the coast's best run of small bars, bakeries and restaurants.

Local tip: Marketta is the obvious answer and it is genuinely good, but the strip either side of it is the point — Nobby Beach and North Burleigh have the coast's densest concentration of places locals eat. It is also where the light rail extension changes the calculation on living without a car.

Landmark · Southern end, on the NSW border

Snapper Rocks, the Superbank, the Captain Cook Memorial on the state line, and two beach towns that are legally in different states and, for five months a year, different hours.

Local tip: Stand at Point Danger with one foot in each state — the border marker is right there — and note that between October and April your phone may change time as you walk. Rainbow Bay is the calmest swimming beach on the coast, and Greenmount hill at sunset is where locals go and tourists do not.