Brisbane / Sunshine Coast with 10, 8 and 2 year old in Dec

[andif]

Just booked flights to Oz in Dec. Planning to fly into Sydney for 5 days, night in Blue Mountains, then onto Sunshine Coast for week or so before hitting relatives in Melbourne (not literally I hope!!)

Any recommendations for accomodation or activities with diverse age range gratefully received, but main focus is on Sunshine coast bit at the moment. Relatives have no kids so are not really on our wavelength - don't think our 2 year old will appreciate their suggestion of 'great places for fusion food'

Thought Noosa looked like a good place for a base, but want to know if Fraser Island worth the hassle - organised tour with 2 yr old not appealing and don't want to spend night really...Moreton island looks good for dolphin feeding, but is it over commercialised? Rainforest in Lamington park is also option on way to Coolangatta to fly to Melbourne. Just looks like so much to do but this won't be our only trip so don't want to try to do too much....

Also have big Fear of Flying so any stories of success with NLP or hynotherapy also gratefully received!!!

Bump!
Surely someone out there knows this area?!

Grew up on Sunshine Coast and go back for hols every year, so can offer some help here. Noosa is lovely, but v trendy and more of a couples market than family orientated. For family stuff, you probably couldn't do much better than Mooloolaba - which is kind of middle of the coast and easy to get to almost everywhere from. There are some great apartment buildings right on the beach, the beach is absolutely brilliant for kids (swing park also fronts the beach), and there's plenty of restaurants doing good "normal" food. Also right beside underwater world, which is fab. Have a google and see what you think. We have stayed at the Beachcomber units and found them great.

Also just wondered why you are going to Coolangatta to fly to Melbourne? There are really cheap deals direct to Melbourne from the Sunshine Coast airport. Gold Coast will be a four hour drive....?

we have stayed at these two places - unfortunately that is our summer holidays so can be very very busy and very very expensive - sunshine and gold coast.

here

large list

stayed here recently - loved it

Noosa can be very un child friendly - more trendy cafes etc.
Can do day trips to Fraser from the sunny coast.

Haven't been to Moreton Island.

Mooloolaba is fab as jan has said - more family oriented.

Gold Coast could be a 4 hour drive depending on how far up the sunny coast and down the gold coast you stay iyswim.

Can get very hot in December.

I am in brisbane btw.

oh oh dont forget to visit australia zoo the home of steve irwin whilst your at the sunshine coast kids will love it and bindi has her own shows too.

if your'e able to go down the gold coast kids will love all the theme parks there like dreamworld, wet n wild, movie world and sea world.

my 2 ds went swimming with the dolphins at seaworld absolutely loved it.

and i agree with jan mooloolabah is more family orientated...

Thanks for that - useful stuff...
Have to say hoping to avoid too many theme parks on gold coast though! Australia Zoo is a definite!
Reason for flying out of Coolangatta is that fancied Moreton Island, and place in Lamington National Park called O'Reillys Rainforest- thought would do these then Coolangatta would be nearer

Moreton Island I thought was the island of Brisbane accessible from Deception Bay in the north of Brisbane. My sister lives in Redcliffe next suburb over she faces Moreton Island.

Im not sure you could be right unless your thinking of Stradbroke Island which runs parallel to south Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

I c ur going to Lamington which is on the border. Yep makes sense.

Anyho Tangalooma is a nice spot for feeding the dolphins but I think its pretty touristy. We went there bout 10 years ago when it was pretty quiet and children got to hand feed the dolphins. I think today they pick a few tourist from the crowd to feed the dolphins while the rest stand on a jetty and watch.

We stayed at the Regency Hyatt at Sanctuary Cove in Brisbane. The hotel is stunning and there were playgrounds and a huge natural shelving swimming pool. Food was great with lots of kids options

moreton island is accessible from Brissy.

if I had to choose between moreton and fraser I would do fraser island.

that's all great - good to know re Fraser and Moreton comparison....still fancy Noosa - is it really that child unfriendly? If we don't bother with Moreton are there other places for the kids to get up close with dolphins? Is Lamington National Park worth the trip?
Sorry for all questions, but MN such a good place for brain-picking!

I was in noosa a month ago, we eneded up using it as a base to go further afield (rainbow beach, tincan bay,peregian,coolum beach etc) was great but theres only really the beach for kids to play on (my DD is 2) we travelled down east coast to sydney over 6 wks, i would reccomend:

• Wet and Wild (great for kids we just went for one morning so we could wear out DD ready for a 4 hr drive in the afternoon

• Steve Irwins Zoo, was totally fab

• coffs harbour - Pet Porpoise Pool, you can swim with Dolphins here in a controlled enviroment - we were bitterly disappointed as we were too late to book in and was on limited time schedule, so make sure you ring them in advance

• mooloolaba they have an underwater world great for kids (can swim with seals there i think?), the beach is lovely and they have a huge kids park right near the beach ....having said that we found in Oz that we were far away from a beach!

If you can have a few hours to yourself, Anna Bay (nr port stephens) have fab sand boarding and 4WD tours, this was the highlight for me and DH!

sorry i mistyped - I meant to say
"having said that we found in Oz that we were NEVER far away from a PARK! "

Greyriver - what did you think of Peregian as we have found a lovely place to rent there, but think sea may be a bit wild there...?

Hi Andif, to be honest we found the sea on most beaches down the East Coast to be quite rough, Noosa beach was better as the beach is in a wide bay shape iykwim, but the waves were still quite big. We hired a car for the duration of our trip down the East Coast and saw loads of beaches (was a good way to break up long journeys for DD) and they were all big waves and strong currents.

My sis was on Fraser island (literally just last wk) and loved it.

Think we now edging towards Noosa River area - better pools and less manic than Hastings St area, but still easy reach of restaurants calm beach etc. Easy trips to Fraser Island from there too....Thanks for help!

ooooh, meant to add, Manly Cove is FAB for little ones if you want to visit a beach whilst your in Sydney! Very calm waters and a nice and safe huge netted area to keep out sharks so you can swim in peace :O) have a fab time x

Fraser is brilliant!! Went with dp and dd (16 months then) in Sept and we had a great time. We went on an organised day trip with the Fraser Island Company from Hervey Bay. The tour guide was fab, really funny and informative and they didn't charge for dd and they let us take the car seat on the 4x4. Dd loved it, she swam down Eli Creek with her little armbands on and walked throught the rainforest and swam in a lake. I really couldn't recommend it enough! Hervey Bay is really nice, we stayed in a family backpacker's hostel, which was fun!! It has a lovely beach and you can go whale watching from there (we did that too)!

If you are in Brisbane remember to go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to cuddle a koala. That was great too!!

Have fun!

I live in Brisbane too so reasonably close to Sunshine Coast.

I agree with eidsvold - peak season in December so you will pay 3 times as much for accommodation.

Not sure what your budget is but Big 4 Tourist Parks are reasonably priced and have lots for children to do. On Sunshine Coast the Maroochy Palms Big 4 is nice and fairly central. It is across from Maroochy River and 5 mins drive to huge shopping centre Sunshine Plaza (def need a day there). It has Villas and cabins, camping etc. It has a kids club during hols and a swimming pool, playground, tennis court, mini golf etc etc. If your taste is not camping or lower end accomm - the luxury villas are lovely and are airconditioned etc.

My personal recommendation for Sunshine Coast would be day trip to Fraser Island, Australia Zoo, Montville in the hinterland (for mum), Eumundi Markets (for mum), Underwater World.

have fun.

Had almost forgotten i posted this so excited to see more posts - thanks for info, will read when more time... hollyandalice, did you think a day trip to Fraser Island was enough?

No, not really. If we did it again we would go with the same company, but do the 2 day camping safari. The day trip was great, but we didn't see everything and it was a bit rushed.