The Gold Coast’s best hotels and resorts for different budgets

Once only known for its high-rise accommodation, there’s now a lot more to a Gold Coast stay than a 30-storey-high apartment room. There’s everything now including retro-style motels that celebrate the Gold Coast’s golden era, family resorts right on the sand and retreats set near the World Heritage listed national parks of the Gold Coast’s hinterland.

The Vistas

The Vistas provide immersion into the forest of the hinterland.

Perfect for: Couples who prefer the mountains
Built within over 100 hectares of rainforest in Tamborine Mountain – an hour’s drive west of the Gold Coast – the Vistas offer a whole different take on the Gold Coast. Built within adventure playground Thunderbird Park (which features Australia’s largest zipline), the Vistas offer a much more chilled-out way to appreciate the rainforest. Each suite (of 20) features a shower open to the sky so you can feel closer to the forest. With their natural materials and soft earthy tones, the emphasis is all about connecting with nature. French doors lead on to private balconies with private teppanyaki cooking facilities. Outside you’ll have easy access to nature-inspired activities on-site including bushwalking, swimming in rock pools, family-friendly adventures and a restaurant.
639 Tamborine Mountain Road, Tamborine Mountains. Phone: [phone]. See cedarcreeklodges.com.au/vistas. From $369 a night.

The Langham Gold Coast

Perfect for: Couples and families who like style with convenience
It might’ve cost $1.4 billion to build, but what impresses most about The Langham Gold Coast is it’s a five-minute walk from tourist hotspot, Surfers Paradise, but feels like it’s on its own private beach in the middle of nowhere. Built 30 metres from the beach, every room looks out either across the ocean or the Coast’s mountainous hinterland. There’s a 20-metre pool with lagoon-style sandy beaches and transplanted palm trees if you prefer to skip the waves. There’s highly rated Cantonese restaurant T’Ang Court, although ground-floor eatery Akoya makes you feel like you’re dining right in the dunes.
38 Old Burleigh Road, 469 Surfers Paradise. Phone: [phone]. See langhamhotels.com. From $550 a night.

The Pink Hotel

Perfect for: Solo travellers and couples who love yesteryear
This is the place that made retro motels the hot new thing of the 2020s in Queensland. A magnet for every teenager on Instagram, it’s been just as popular with older couples feeling nostalgic. Set just metres from Coolangatta’s Greenmount Beach, The Pink Hotel was once a dour 1950s motel before the facelift. Now there’s a rooftop with a trendy bar where guests sit on sun-loungers listening to DJs. Each room is individually decorated, with record players and bright, garish furnishings and neon-lit scribes of poetry on the walls. Look for the secret lounge bar through the janitor’s closet.
171 Griffith Street, Coolangatta. Phone: [phone]. See thepinkhotelcoolangatta.com. From $181 a night.

The Mysa Motel

The Mysa Motel is a fabulous blast from the past.

Perfect for: Couples and solo travellers who rate retro
While it’s right on the Gold Coast Highway, there’s a real charm about this place that makes you forgive the traffic noise. For starters, Palm Beach – one of the Gold Coast’s best beaches – is only a 90-second walk across the highway. But it’s the motel itself that will keep you enthralled, for this is Palm Springs, circa 1950s. Each room has a unique layout with lavender, peach and carnation walls. And there’s a kidney-shaped magnesium pool surrounded by pink sun loungers out front. Despite its nod to the mid-20th century, everything in it is modern and fancy (think: silent fridges, enormous showers, chic welcome snacks).
1100 Gold Coast Highway, Palm Beach. Phone: [phone]. See themysamotel.com. From $220 a night.

Beechmont Estate

Perfect for: Couples seeking something other than a beach holiday
Don’t forget – the Gold Coast isn’t all beaches, you should see its hinterland, home to three World Heritage national parks and vastly lower temperatures that makes it well worth the trip. Drive 45-minutes west and stay beside Binna Burra National Park in a luxury pavilion built among the green rolling pastures of a wagyu cattle farm. There’s a fire inside for chilly evenings, but the property’s absolute highlight is a restaurant and bar area set in an enormous clubhouse where guests gather to toast the sunset across paddocks of kangaroos, cattle and horses.
422 Binna Burra Road. Phone: [phone]. See beechmontestate.com.au. From $480 a night.

JW Marriott Resort and Spa

Perfect for: Families and couples who like attractions on-site
JW Marriott Resort and Spa’s first Australian property is a place you need never leave on your holiday (though you’re only five minutes walk from the beach near Surfers Paradise). The tropical lagoon with white sand beaches and waterfalls is its piece de resistance. But don’t go thinking it’s tacky: nothing here reeks of that over-the-top Gold Coast bling you might remember from past decades. There’s a silver Airstream van serving lunch beside the beach, there’s stylish slow-moving, enormous rattan fans in the lobby, there’s a market garden outside, multiple dining options and activities like jet skiing and paddleboarding on a canal behind the resort.
158 Ferny Ave, Surfers Paradise. Phone: [phone]. See marriott.com. From $280 a night.

Rydges Gold Coast Airport

Perfect for: Couples and single travellers who like to break the mould
Why would anyone going to the Gold Coast for a holiday want to stay in an airport hotel? Usually booked for functionality over pleasure, Rydges Gold Coast Airport Hotel breaks the mould. Located 56 steps from arrivals, you’re also only a five-minute walk from one of the Gold Coast’s quietest – but prettiest – beaches, Bilinga. But the real star here is the hotel’s rooftop bar, The Salty Fox, a magnet for locals who like to be seen. Take the lift to the seventh floor where you’ll find an indoor/outdoor pool and live music at a bar offering views across the sea, the tarmac and the hinterland.
Lot 5 Terminal Drive, Bilinga. Phone: [phone]. See rydges.com. From $235 a night.

Cheshire Cat Motel

The Cheshire Cat Motel provides a retro style-motel on the southern Gold Coast.

Perfect for: Couples, family and solo travellers who rate retro
Continuing on the Gold Coast’s penchant for creating our hippest retro motels, the Cheshire Cat Motel follows what the Pink Motel started. Each of its seven rooms is designed with individual touches – with one being a two-bedroom bungalow – so it’s just as ideal for retro-minded families as couples. Think Palm Springs post-Elvis era meets 1970s Australiana. Soaring palm trees and cacti dominate the property set just 100 metres or so from one of the Coast’s best beaches, Palm Beach. It’s also where you’ll find some of the Gold Coast’s best new cafes, bars and restaurants – all just a walk from your front door. The beach is just around the corner, but the terracotta brick plunge pool set among burnt orange, cream and sage can serve as an entree.
1005 Gold Coast Highway, Palm Beach. See cheshirecatmotel.com. From $300 a night.

QT Gold Coast

Perfect for: Couples and singles who crave subtle style
Located in the heart of the Gold Coast’s glitziest town, Surfers Paradise, QT Gold Coast still manages to offer a quiet retreat into the region’s yesteryear. There’s nearly 300 rooms, but this place feels intimate and nostalgic: there’s home-made lemonade served in bottles on arrival, a VW Kombi by the front door, old wooden surfboards from the ’50s and vintage bikes available. Rooms offer either ocean, mountain or river views and there’s a market-place style restaurant, a Japanese restaurant, the chic Sting Ray Lounge and a swim-up bar at an outdoor pool.
7 Staghorn Avenue, Surfers Paradise. Phone: [phone]. See qthotels.com/gold-coast. From $299 a night.

Paradise Resort

Perfect for: Families out for fun
Paradise Resort is the only family resort in Australia with its own waterpark, ice-rink and kids’ club all on the one site. There are daily activities and entertainment – so it’s like school holidays every day. The resort operates with a kids-first philosophy – so it’s the little things that make it, like bunks painted in bright colours, gaming consoles in rooms and an extra TV just for kids. You’d come just for the giant water playground. It has a lagoon pool, heated spa and two giant aqua play areas while the Z4K Water Park is three stories high. There’s also resort-style amenities for adults.
122 Ferny Avenue, Surfers Paradise. Phone: [phone]. See paradiseresort.com.au. From $249 a night.

The Villas

Stylish beachside living.

Perfect for: Families, solo travellers and couples who like a quiet beach holiday
It wasn’t so long ago that all decent luxury accommodation was located on the Gold Coast’s northern reaches – mostly around Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise. But the south is fast catching up, with the best new accommodation opening near the region’s southern perimeter. For evidence, we present The Villas, two separate villas set in quiet Bilinga (beside the airport). With their own plunge pools, everything within screams boutique accommodation; like a rendered spiral staircase leading to a bedroom loft, with bespoke furnishings set in blush, pearl white and soft olive. Just a 30-second walk from the Gold Coast’s widest strip of sand, and close to the seaside village of Kirra, this is the perfect base for a southern Gold Coast retreat.
173A Golden Four Drive, Bilinga. Phone: [phone]. See bilingabeachabodes.com.au. From $500 a night.